New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

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.

Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories. From which we get the Vancian magic and ioun stones from D&D. Both Gary Gygax and myself loved those stories.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

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

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.

Can the decaying tunnels also connect to their counterparts in parallel and divergent timelines? So multiple versions of people with differing histories could pop up? That could go to psychological horror quickly (especially when some poor bastard runs across his dead family, alive again ...).

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Can the decaying tunnels also connect to their counterparts in parallel and divergent timelines? So multiple versions of people with differing histories could pop up? That could go to psychological horror quickly (especially when some poor bastard runs across his dead family, alive again ...).

I love how your mental illnesses and mine mesh. In one of the two sources I'm stealing from, that kind of thing is part of the plot.

[Astromancer]

"All on a Summer's Day"

The Kingdom is held in a single day. Every day the people wake up is the same day. Michaelmas, the festival of the end of harvest. Before the autumn turns cold.Outside of the Kingdom, the Dark Lord reigns. No light of sun, moon, or star, has fallen on the land in a thousand years.

But the Dark Lord has made a mistake. His reign can be ended at certain points in time. We the Archmagi of the Stellar Council have removed this kingdom from Time itself. That we could raise champions to oppose the Dark Lord's tyranny.

You, the Wizard Knights of the Stellar Council must rescue the world from the grip of endless icy night.

Basically, the PCs are warrior mages raised up to fight a brutal Dark Lord. However, these Chivalric warrior wizards are facing an icebound cyberpunk dictatorship.

PCs ought to be 500 point characters that are formidable knight and mages with extra skills.

[Astromancer]

Thinking on it some more. The PCs probably need to be 750 point characters. This is an over the top setting. Cinematic rules would apply.

[Astromancer]

The New Warlords

It's these strange new beasts. They may eat grass but they are terrors on a battlefield.

The Chivalry, our foes call themselves. The name has something to do with the beasts they ride. As they don't walk, their warriors wear suits of steel which isn't easy to hack through. Worse, the beasts run so fast. If we can't counter these beasts, all our kingdoms will fall.


Basically, a Dark Lord saved his money and bought a clue. Searching through different worlds and realms the Dark Lord sought a practical advantage. He found horses.

The Dark Lord imported horses and many practical horse related technologies, like stirrups and horse collars. The knights of the Dark Realm aren't that impressive, yet. But they do have the opposition cowed.

The PCs are going to be sent on an interdimensional quest for horses, horse gear, and people with horse sense.

[lugaid]

This is an idea I've had for a while now, heavily inspired by a paragraph in GURPS Fantasy Folk:

It is an older age, shortly after the elves first awakened to behold the wonders of the world of nature. The decadent empires of the lizard people, the sinister fish folk, and the inscrutable insect people still reign over vast swaths of the world and their wars shake it to its foundations. The familiar beasts have not yet come to be and dinosaurs serve in their stead, while elven god-kings begin to reshape the land to make it more suited to the coming Sylvan Age. Something like if the Silmarillion were written by Robert E. Howard for publication with Games Workshop. Can the characters forge an alliance with the primordial, drowsing dragons? Negotiate an agreement with the reclusive, primeval tree herders? Unlock the unfathomably ancient secrets of lizard people sorcery or the horrifying magics of the fish folk? Will they awaken the other Sylvan races, and what does that mean, anyway?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by lugaid

This is an idea I've had for a while now, heavily inspired by a paragraph in GURPS Fantasy Folk:

It is an older age, shortly after the elves first awakened to behold the wonders of the world of nature. The decadent empires of the lizard people, the sinister fish folk, and the inscrutable insect people still reign over vast swaths of the world and their wars shake it to its foundations. The familiar beasts have not yet come to be and dinosaurs serve in their stead, while elven god-kings begin to reshape the land to make it more suited to the coming Sylvan Age. Something like if the Silmarillion were written by Robert E. Howard for publication with Games Workshop. Can the characters forge an alliance with the primordial, drowsing dragons? Negotiate an agreement with the reclusive, primeval tree herders? Unlock the unfathomably ancient secrets of lizard people sorcery or the horrifying magics of the fish folk? Will they awaken the other Sylvan races, and what does that mean, anyway?

Great actioner. I can see it as an eighties movie.

[lugaid]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Great actioner. I can see it as an eighties movie.

Oh, for sure. I definitely have things like Deathstalker (II mainly, the others aren't really worth the time), Sorceress, The Warrior and the Sorceress, and so on, maybe even Barbarian Queen, on my mind.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by lugaid

Oh, for sure. I definitely have things like Deathstalker (II mainly, the others aren't really worth the time), Sorceress, The Warrior and the Sorceress, and so on, maybe even Barbarian Queen, on my mind.

I'd play in this one. :)