[Dungeon Fantasy] Setting Conversion: The Epic of Aerth

[LoneWolf23k]

So, a while ago I got the pdf for Dangerous Journeys: the Epic of Aerth, a setting originally created by Gary Gygax, not for D&D, but for his own proprietary gameline, Dangerous Journeys. I've grown to love the book, although I certainly have no intention to learn yet another fantasy game system (and from what I've seen, it's a bit more esoteric then I'm comfortable with).

But I think Aerth would be a great setting to convert to GURPS, and especially of great use for a Dungeon Fantasy campaign. It presupposes an alternate Earth divided into an Outer World, an Underground and an Inner Aerth, as well as being in constant contact with a parallel world of magic called Phaeree (pronounced Fairie), from which magical creatures and races hail.

Outer Aerth is an amalgam of Medieval, Renaissance and 17th century cultures and technology, only with added magic. And Monotheism has never arisen, and instead the world's people worship the various historical pantheons of their region: celtic, olympian, aesir, babylonian, etc. And "Lost Continents" such as Atlantis, Lemuria and Lyonesse never sank below the waves, and continue to exist.

Now, admittedly I have issues with the original book; there's no details on the actual pantheons (I assume would've been left to an unprinted book, as the line ended quickly), the gazeteer of nations does spend a lot paragraph space discussing trade resources more then adventure hooks, and the less said about some of the sadly outdated terminology like "oriental", the better.

But in spite of it all, I feel there's a lot of potential in using Aerth as a setting for a Dungeon/Clockpunk fantasy campaign, where adventurers of various playable races, some Aerth-born, others from Phaeree, fight rampaging monsters together for coin and glory.

I intend to use this thread as a depository of various conversion ideas that strike me as I work on and off with this project.

[Kesendeja]

I loved the setting when it came out, was less of a fan of the system. I'm looking forward to seeing your work.

[AOTA]

It will be fun to see what you do. I also think it is a fun world.

[RyanW]

I don't know the setting, but the synopsis looks like normal geography written by someone with atrocious spelling.

[Rupert]

That series of books is one that I regret selling. Not because the system was great (it wasn't), but because the setting, both described and implied, was fun.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by RyanW

I don't know the setting, but the synopsis looks like normal geography written by someone with atrocious spelling.

Note that Gygax had a thing with weird spellings of "Earth."

Oerth, Aerth, and so on.

[Evil Roy Slade]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Note that Gygax had a thing with weird spellings of "Earth."

Oerth, Aerth, and so on.

I think when the canonical GURPS Fantasy setting is Yrth, we're in no place here to decide the kettle is black.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Evil Roy Slade

I think when the canonical GURPS Fantasy setting is Yrth, we're in no place here to decide the kettle is black.

It's a common trope of SF of a certain age.

In the Witches of Karres which was written in the 60s all of the humans scattered across the galaxy had orignally come from a long lost world known as "Yarthe".

In Zelazny's Lord of Light (approx. the same time of writing) I believe the lost home world may have been "Erath".

Think I've seen "Urth" too though I don't know where.

My last big Fantasy game was set on a world known as "D'y'r't" but that's a more elaborate sort of linguistic mutation.

I could probably go on.

[namada]

As for the setting of Aerth, it's more of less nothing but a cobbling of fantasized pseudo-Greek-Nation, plus fantasized pseudo-Egyptian-nation, plus countless other fantasized pseudo-historical-nations.

I've done this with the historical GURPS supplements for 3E, which is why I love those books so much. They allow realistic/historical games (not really my thing), legendary games (fantasized pseudo-historical), and mythic games (high-powered, high-action, fantasy games) - all by adding one little book to the basic set.

These things desperately need a 4E update and rebranding to make that much clearer. They're so often called "historical" settings, but they're much, much more than that.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

. . . all of the humans scattered across the galaxy had orignally come from a long lost world known as "Yarthe".

I am so going to borrow that for a pirate world.

(But while we're swapping world names: For my first D&D campaign world way back when, I chose . . . Arda. Swiped 100% from Tolkien, with nary an apology. I could have at least had the decency to make it "Yrda" or "Oerda" or something. : )