New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea. The old gods have fallen, but the new gods aren't especially nasty. In fact they mean to give some of the old gods new chances.

Pick the God you'd like to play, Thor, Hermes, Bubastis, Brigid, Thoth, Mannanan Mac Lir, whomever is a deity out of a job. They are now Saints in the new order and sent to distant worlds to aide in the survival of Space Colonies!

It's a wild mix of Planetary Romance, Space Opera, Golden Age Sci Fi, and Social Western. The "Old Gods" have suitable powers and skills that follow their myths and archetypes. The Empire back home, basically Byzantium backed by Saints and Angels sends a small but useful amount of help.

So Mythic Superheroes in space fighting pulpy aliens worlds and actually Byzantine politics back home.

[Astromancer]

Has anyone done anything with Ken Hite's magnificent Azoth-7? It's a truly wonderous and highly original Alchemical Sci Fi/fantasy setting. Has he or anyone else developed it?

[Astromancer]

The Ars Magica kickstarters (they're launching a definitive edition) has me thinking of historical fantasy. Start with a seemingly "normal" Medieval Europe circa 1180AD (the PCs might want to get rare Greek texts from Byzantinum before it's sacked). Then simply (for an odd value of "simple") introduce the Order of Hermes. It can be the one from Ars Magica, the one from Mage: the Ascension (the second is derived from the first but they aren't the same), or your very own version of the Order of Hermes. The Catholic Church was far more flexible and open than most people think. It's the nobility that would be the problem.

Basically, this is a political game with plenty of glamor and fun.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Has anyone done anything with Ken Hite's magnificent Azoth-7? It's a truly wonderous and highly original Alchemical Sci Fi/fantasy setting. Has he or anyone else developed it?

Not according to the gurps wiki, which is usually good at cataloging infinite worlds.

I'll admit this world always struck me as incomprehensible. I don't know what these angels are like how they are controlled, or what the alchemy can do besides turn "everything" into gold, which is actually not terribly useful for much after everyone has gotten used to "Gold is now plentiful"

[Astromancer]

Azoth-7 is drawn both from 18th century Robinsones, classic space opera, Blake's mythos, and European (especially alchemical cabala) occultism. It is truly unique. Hite needs to develop this one further.

[Michael Cule]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The Ars Magica kickstarters (they're launching a definitive edition) has me thinking of historical fantasy. Start with a seemingly "normal" Medieval Europe circa 1180AD (the PCs might want to get rare Greek texts from Byzantinum before it's sacked). Then simply (for an odd value of "simple") introduce the Order of Hermes. It can be the one from Ars Magica, the one from Mage: the Ascension (the second is derived from the first but they aren't the same), or your very own version of the Order of Hermes. The Catholic Church was far more flexible and open than most people think. It's the nobility that would be the problem.

Basically, this is a political game with plenty of glamor and fun.

How do you mean 'introduce'?

As in "they've always been there and the Church just got hold of copies of Bonisagus' works'

Or as in "the Church has this wonderful material to work with but someone is going to have to come up with a modus vivendi for all those Gifted people".

I did something like the latter with a game set in Restoration England after Isaac Newton did something unwise with the structure of the universe. Such games are intensely political, ethical and philosophical. Be warned that this is a specialised taste and you should make sure that either all of your players are as interested in that as you are or that you are providing enough other material to keep the ones who aren't interested.

I ran it with my regular group and it was fun while it lasted but it crashed hard against one player's extreme fedupness.

[Astromancer]

Perhaps just introduce the OoH to the awareness of the PCs. If people become aware of things they didn't know about (the changes in astronomy in the late 16th early 17th century would be an example) how they see the world transforms. Giving the Roman Church an awareness of magic and some of its complications and practitioners would change the politics of Europe in general and the Church in particular.

[Ramidel]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

Or as in "the Church has this wonderful material to work with but someone is going to have to come up with a modus vivendi for all those Gifted people".

I mean, this sounds like a campaign I might go for. Mages have "always been a thing", but now there's a bunch of very smart people in places like Bologna who are developing a theory of magic (including a proto-scientific revolution) in 1180 based on the works of Bonisagus, Michael Psellos, Hildegard of Bingen et al. How are they going to handle this power?

Of course, one of the key reasons that the Order of Hermes is the way it is is because the Gifted have a -3 to reaction rolls. If that's a factor, it'll indicate one route, while court wizards are more likely if the Gift isn't an automatic hate stick.

[Astromancer]

A three order game in the Ars Magica setting might be interesting. The Order of Hermes you know.

The Order of Saint Nicolas is a group of clergy folk, who are Mages and Hedge Wizards, trying to turn the Order of Hermes into a Christian Monastic Order. They might settle for partnership and making sure the Church both has its own Mages and means to tap the resources of the Order of Hermes.

The third Order is the Order of Augustus. They are also learned mages, who, if less powerful and flexible than Hermetic Mages, are powerful in several areas. Whereas the Order of Hermes wants to be left alone and the Order of Saint Nicholas wants to serve the church and the people of Christendom, the Order of Augustus wants to rule the world. Openly would be preferred, but power however you get it.

The back and forth infighting could be gaming.

Note: You might want the add in the Norse/Baltic mages et al, the people who the Hermetics call the Order of Wotan. Although the political structure that crowd uses is wildly different.

[Astromancer]

Wizards as superheroes seems like a fun thing. Around 1940 you could run into Doctor Occult, Doctor Fate, the Spector, Zatara, Merlin (no relation), Johnny Thunder and his Thunderbolt, Phantasmo, Fantoma, Green Lama, Green Lantern, the Black Widow, and Starlight the Superwizard! That's a very incomplete list.

Picture building Supers with the Super Normal rules but add in Ritual Aptitude and Ritual Adept and also IQ+2 in Ritual Magic. Two fisted Mages in a Hard Boiled setting.

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