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Old 10-02-2022, 07:32 AM   #121
YankeeGamer
 
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Default Post apocalypse standard fantasy world

I originally sketched this out for the Forgotten Realms (In second edition, when characters like Elmister and Alustriel walked the earth.) It can work with any fantasy game.

A lot of fantasy worlds have a huge underdark, with enormous caverns, underground oceans, etc. Somehow, the surface oceans don’t flood them—probably some divine protection added into other things.

But, the ongoing war between elves and drow, and between dwarves and deep dwarves, combined with a surge of illithid problems, resulted in a change to that.

One group of heroes was faced with the consequences of this war again and again, and gradually grew more and more willing to adapt extreme measures. In particular, three great Drow cities and the primary Ilithid nation were the targets. It was a welcome bonus that a few other dark communities were in the expected flood zone. The Deep Gnome communities and a few others were categorized as “acceptable losses.”

It took a century, but they broke the protections against flooding—and at the same time, shattered the barriers between the greatest ocean and the underdark in several places, including the great inner sea.

The results were more than the association had expected. Fault lines they had triggered broke with more violence than they’d dreamed of, and the oceans poured into the underdark, accompanied by earthquakes and volcanoes. Cities below were wiped out, miles wide sinkholes opened up above ground. The great Inner Sea was reduced to a few small lakes separated by miles of exposed sea bottom, and a massive sinkhole.

The association DID accomplish their desired results—the Drow are all but extinct, Mind Flayers likewise. Essentially, the entire western underdark has been destroyed. And there are connections between various regions—and every so often, another one gives way, and more of the underdark is opened to flooding.

Even underground seas were all but depopulated of everything smaller than microbes, as the pressure change crushed almost everything.

Now, decades later, the old inner sea bottom has collapsed into the sinkhole, and in one place, is over 10 MILES deep. (Not an error; it’s the deepest known sea in the world, since it flooded into two subterranean seas) Its sea level is much lower than it used to be, only a little higher than the ocean.

This is geologically unstable, and the shore is bound to collapse soon.

Here and there enclaves survived by one means or other—usually mighty magics. Some of them have continued to survive, but others fell as, for example, Drow and Deep Gnomes that had combined their power to survive, fell back to fighting.

The surface is a MESS! Sea Levels have dropped a few hundred feet, devastating portside economies. In some places, the earthquakes created Tsunamis, wiping out coastal communities. Even now, decades after the crash, massive shifts are causing more earthquakes throughout the continent. Places that see earthquakes are seeing them more often, and more severely, and there’s a few regions that have not seen earthquakes in living (elvin) memory until the event, are now major quake and volcano zones.

There was a year without a summer the first year after the Event, and have been a couple more of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
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Old 10-02-2022, 03:45 PM   #122
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Default Re: Post apocalypse standard fantasy world

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Originally Posted by YankeeGamer View Post
I originally sketched this out for the Forgotten Realms (In second edition, when characters like Elmister and Alustriel walked the earth.) It can work with any fantasy game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
You've posted this elsewhere? I'm sure I've read this before and been properly horrified by the consequences.
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Old 10-02-2022, 07:59 PM   #123
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Default Re: Post apocalypse standard fantasy world

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You've posted this elsewhere? I'm sure I've read this before and been properly horrified by the consequences.
Probably. It seemed like a good change on the standard fantasy campaign, while still keeping the trappings everyine was used to. I never did use it. (The group I played with would accept different campaign settings, but only so long as it was a D&D type setting...elves, orcs, and all the trimmings.

One good variant would be for PC's to know that someone's planning this, and try to STOP it.
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Old 10-05-2022, 03:38 PM   #124
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Default Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

Days of the Red Sun

Long ago the seas were filled with water. Salt water, but unlike now, fish lived in it.

Fish, they had scales and breathed in the water. Many of them were good to eat. Nothing that could live in the seas now could be eaten.

They had fresh water too. Sometimes lakes of it, miles across. Much smaller than the seas.

It's true. And the sky was blue. Yes. And you could only see stars at night.

Okay don't believe me.


The world is a dry shell of itself. The sun is dying. Wizards have long since opened vast portals to lead the people to new worlds around other stars.

The PCs are scavengers. Picking over the bones of past civilizations and their treasures. Looking to make one last score then run away to the stars.

But the few remaining treasures have bitter guardians. Furious that they are forgotten and abandoned. Hungry for fresh blood and souls.

Basically, a sword and sorcery set up with elements of Steampunk and Planetary Romance.
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Old 10-08-2022, 05:17 PM   #125
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Default Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

I want a Promotion!

I got bored just haunting the old manor. The family and servants avoid the places I haunt at the times I haunt them. So there isn't any point to it anyway.

So I just go to the library and find books to read. What else is there to do?

Anyway I found a book on the faeries and it said that these Russian faeries, Rusalky, were only faeries half the year. The rest of the time they were ghosts!

I started looking up anything on ghosts or faeries in the library. It seems that some faeries start out as ghosts and other undead!

I don't know about you guys, but I think being a faery would be a vast improvement over being a ghost. I'm going to find someone who can either change me into a faery or tell me how it's done!


Basically, this is a fantasy quest story were the PCs are a group of Undead (with all the limitations thereof) looking to improve themselves by becoming faeries.

The setting can vary. But it needs to be a high enough tech level for books to be common and cheap.
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Old 10-10-2022, 03:28 PM   #126
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Default Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

It seemed like a good idea

Back in 1827 when Dame Amelia Fitzgibbins modified the portable hole charm it seemed so perfect. Extra rooms wherever they were needed.

Tiny apartments in the slums could comfortably accommodate multiple families. Middle class homes had more rooms than Buckingham Palace when it was first built.

Then Dame Fitzgibbins created her tunnel charms. A Duke with an estate in Scotland or Ireland could could connect it with his London townhouse via a few short halls for himself and the servants. One Parvenu Millionaire connected his townhouse in London with both his estate in Cornwall and his new estate in New Zealand.

By the 1890s the British Empire had outposts on Mars Venus and Mercury. London had suburbs on the Moon. London, Dublin, Edinburg, New York, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, Washington, Auckland, Melbourne, Montreal, Halifax, and Honolulu, were effectively one city.

Then about the year 1950 we discovered that these spells could deteriorate with age. Things got strange.


Basically, this is a Gaslight Fantasy Post-apocalyptic setting. Space makes no sense and time is beginning to break down as well. This is a Zauberpunk twist on 1950s London. Listen to the songs the Beatles wrote about their childhoods and the experience of childhood,Penny Lane , Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds , and most of all Strawberry Fields Forever . Then blend with the Alice books for a horror landscape/dreamscape.

For audiovisual inspiration look for the 1966 BBC Alice in Wonderland . Once you remove color and comedy costumes you'll be shocked how quickly Alice becomes horror.
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Old 10-11-2022, 02:53 PM   #127
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Default Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
It seemed like a good idea

Back in 1827 when Dame Amelia Fitzgibbins modified the portable hole charm it seemed so perfect. Extra rooms wherever they were needed.

Tiny apartments in the slums could comfortably accommodate multiple families. Middle class homes had more rooms than Buckingham Palace when it was first built.

Then Dame Fitzgibbins created her tunnel charms. A Duke with an estate in Scotland or Ireland could could connect it with his London townhouse via a few short halls for himself and the servants. One Parvenu Millionaire connected his townhouse in London with both his estate in Cornwall and his new estate in New Zealand.

By the 1890s the British Empire had outposts on Mars Venus and Mercury. London had suburbs on the Moon. London, Dublin, Edinburg, New York, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, Dan Francisco, Washington, Auckland, Melbourne, Montreal, Halifax, and Honolulu, were effectively one city.

Then about the year 1950 we discovered that these spells could deteriorate with age. Things got strange.


Basically, this is a Gaslight Fantasy Post-apocalyptic setting. Space makes no sense and time is beginning to break down as well. This is a Zauberpunk twist on 1950s London. Listen to the songs the Beatles wrote about their childhoods and the experience of childhood,Penny Lane , Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds , and most of all Strawberry Fields Forever . Then blend with the Alice books for a horror landscape/dreamscape.

For audiovisual inspiration look for the 1966 BBC Alice in Wonderland . Once you remove color and comedy costumes you'll be shocked how quickly Alice becomes horror.
That inspires a modification. Dame Amelia Fitzgibbins (who is a female version of Digory Kirk's uncle with her messing with stuff she shouldn't) left behind in her will the opening spell a magical doorway. This doorway leads to a Gormenghast like endless three dimensional maze of tunnels filled with strange creatures. It is a dungeon between the worlds or it is a world of it's own? Do the other portals lead to other worlds? And who is in charge anyway?
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Old 10-11-2022, 04:12 PM   #128
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Default Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

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Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
That inspires a modification. Dame Amelia Fitzgibbins (who is a female version of Digory Kirk's uncle with her messing with stuff she shouldn't) left behind in her will the opening spell a magical doorway. This doorway leads to a Gormenghast endless three dimensional maze of tunnels filled with strange creatures. It is a dungeon between the worlds or it is a world of it's own? Do the other portals lead to other worlds? And who is in charge anyway?
From post-modern to traditional dungeon fantasy with Moorcock bells and whistles. Interesting ploy
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Old 10-12-2022, 05:53 PM   #129
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Default Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
From post-modern to traditional dungeon fantasy with Moorcock bells and whistles. Interesting ploy
Thank you.
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Old 10-12-2022, 06:11 PM   #130
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Default Re: New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

It is the Russian Civil War, if you wish to dignify it by such an orderly term as "war". Mad Baron Ungern really has made a deal with an evil spirit (ok maybe he did, he was stupid and evil enough to try, but if so he was scammed). He is planning to take over the world and for all you know he will succeed. He has an amulet that gives him his power and will take it away if destroyed.

The PCs are in a city full of refugees including Reds who got caught in the wrong place, Jews for whom all of the Russian Empire has always been the wrong place and who know the Mad Baron will take his time in killing them, peasants who are starving same as always. They are guarded by unpaid Chinese soldiery who would desert except that there is no where to run and some of them do feel protective toward civilians who are in a worse plight then they. There is also a British Consul keeping a very stiff upper lip guarded by tough Indians, either a squad of dignified Sikhs or perpetually adolescent Gurkhas who are always amiable except when they are not (ok I am running stereotypes a bit). In either case they everyone knows they are doomed to die and the only desire is to make it unpleasant for the Mad Baron's Minions.

Somehow word gets out of the magic amulet. It is the PCs job, of course, to sneak out into the enemy camp and destroy it. If they get caught they will die in a horrible way, no doubt after a gloating speech telling the Evil Plan because the real Mad Baron was just stupid enough to do that instead of shooting his captives.
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