New Fantasy Setting Seeds.

[SRoach]

Your favorite teacher always told you that the library was full of "Little "Doors to Adventure".
Boy. You'd like to tell her just how right she was.
Yesterday, when you went to the library, you noticed that one odd door, the one that you always thought must be a fire escape because it's right in the middle of the stacks? It was standing open. So, being a bit nosy, you investigated.
Okay, to be fair, you were trying to impress your crush.
It led to Camelot, but not Mallory's Camelot, T.H. White's Camelot. You should know; you had a copy of "The Ill-Made Knight" in your hand when you went through.
Later, the two of you checked out the door while carrying a copy of "The Hound of the Baskerville's", and found yourselves in Victorian London. One of your friends caught you as you came back through. A friend who knows someone who they say can pick any lock, including the lock on this door that was until recently always shut.

Now, where will you explore? Who else will you bring with you?

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by SRoach

TL:DR (yet)
You're basically in Casablanca. On the moon.

Sure, sounds good. Considering the anarchocapitalist wizards (finally made it to da moon, huh?) are being foiled, it sounds like that's wizards on the other side. Which is a great seed to me. Fascist wannabe wizards, mages trying to restore the ecosystem, saints on holy crusade, sorcerers seeing themselves up as 'Benevolent' gods. And, of course, true patriots.

Perhaps one's power is tied to the certitude of one's belief. No, not politicians - even the most potent firebrand gets beaten down by compromise. It takes youth and naivety to be the one in a million true believer.

That's a lot of different mages wrecking havoc. Fossil fuel infrastructure is screwed, cars might not even work at all anymore, but magical energy suffices. Huge regions are abruptly overgrown with forests and ferocious beasts. Prisons burst open, nuclear weapons vanish, armories rust into slag. Probably every politician who's ever been in the news gets turned into a newt, pumpkin, scarecrow, or toad. Statist mages could help recover some of them.

If minds can be directly affected, some places become something between airstrip one and a Borg cube. Other places just see mass migration. I prefer the idea that magic can't directly affect the mind, leaving everyone to deal with the magical wonderland (and incipient mage war) more or less as themselves. Unless they get turned into a goblin.

[PTTG]

Had a thought: Syntactic magic, but every word is both a noun and a verb. "Velocitas" is both air and movement. "Defligratius," both fire and destruction. "Auqui" teaches both water and seeking.

Thus, each thing is tied to a particular thing which it is easy to do to it. It is easy for magic to move air, extinguish fire, or find water.

Combine that with some word pairs which are difficult to learn at the same time (perhaps because the spirits of each word refuse to cohabit in the same mind), and you get interesting oppositions. One cannot easily seek fire or destroy water.

To get the full spectrum of spell functions, I recommend allowing players to co-cast spells somehow. Your fire mage channels the pattern, your water mage channels the motion, and they together can find the lit fuse in time.

Not sure yet how the words best pair up. I'll think about it when I have time...

Nouns: Air, Animal, Body, Death, Earth, Fire, Food, Image, Light, Magic,
Mind, Plant, Sound, Water

Verbs: Communicate, Heal, Sense, Weaken, Strengthen, Move, Protect, Create, Control, Transform

[Astromancer]

When Papa was away at Sea and Mama in the Arbor

Goblins have stolen the baby. You (the PCs) the baby's sisters and brothers must go...outside, over there... Go to the Goblin lairs to rescue the baby.

Use the child rules and give each PCs something wonderful. In the original story I'm using Ida had her Wonder Horn. So each PC should have a wonder, and a Bang! Skill to use it. These wonders shouldn't be too defined, imagination is more important than detail.

Note, the PCs should be young children. School age children would know you can't just walk to Goblin Land. Kindergarteners wouldn't know that they couldn't just walk to Goblin Land, so they can do it.

Remember, this is an epic adventure, and the adventurers are just learning Mother Goose rhymes.

[SRoach]

Still TL:DR (I'm working htrough them slowly, I'm on page 16 when I was inspired to this idea.)

It was cruel, but necessary, that I was stolen away as a baby.
Since I was very little, I knew I would be sent away to save my village. My foster parents gave me and the others the best upbringing they could. They taught us the twin paths of war and medicine. They showed us how to find water and purify it. To tell what was edible, what was nutritious, and what was poisonous. When all else fails, they taught us magic.
Tomorrow, we return to the villages of our birth. War, and following behind it, Famine, stalk the people of our birth.

You are a Changeling. You, and the other members of your party, where stolen away as infants to train into saviors of your people. Now, the time has come for you to return to the people of your birth; to lead them against the conquering hordes that will soon reach them, and to help them heal in the immediate aftermath. Barring that, to find a new land to settle, away from the conquerers who would make slaves of them.
First, however, you must gain their trust.

[SRoach]

Yesterday. I can barely remember yesterday. Yesterday, I was an office drone. I kept in shape; some instinct wouldn't allow me to let my body run to fat as so many other cubicle dwellers do.
But now, now I can barely remember yesterday.
Instead, I remember another time. A time that must have been thousands of years in the past.
I can barely remember how to turn this thing, this computer on, but now, I remember how to carry and use a bronze sword. How to lace up greaves and caligae*.
And only just in time, too. For not only have I awoken, but so have the monsters I knew from before.


You are the reincarnation of a bronze-age warrior. A reawakening has struck society, and some small fraction have remembered old skills of battle and life in a TL1 society, but often at the expense of modern knowledge. You would be pitied, if the world weren't facing a whole reawakened bestiary of monsters that you, and those like you, are uniquely suited to battle.
The world has changed, back, into something it has forgotten it ever was. It's on your shoulders, and those like you, to face this ancient threat.

*Roman soldier sandals.

[SRoach]

The old world has died. In a moment, all technology more sophisticated than a water mill, or a medicinal tincture of a naturally growing plant, simply ceased working.
Thousands died in the first few minutes. Billions died over the next few weeks. Civil society collapsed. There are roughly half a billion people left in the world, and they're scattered, mostly on the fringes of the old cities, which they mine for raw material, usable tools, and lost knowledge.
But, there's always a but. One in twenty people are born with Magery.
Anyone with Magery can use technology "normally". Even if the power plant no longer exists.
This isn't a high enough percentage to have kept modern society marching along, but it is enough to make things interesting in the aftermath.
They're These modern-day items are more totems of themselves, however. Computers, when they are turned on, are conscious, guns fire without bullets, television is two-way, etc.

Oh, they people with Magery can use other magic, too, but they have to learn it. Picking up an old firearm and using it is fairly simple, although you do have to learn how to aim it. Learning Fireball, or Flame Jet, requires days of study, and you still need to learn how to aim it. Learning Light takes longer than just picking up an old flashlight, and turning it on.

Also, this only applies to OLD, SURVIVING, technology. No hand-making a gun, and expecting it to work, even if you did everything right, including the metallurgy and the chemistry of the propellant. It has to have been a real gun before the Change.

However, the Technological College is broken in this. As a starting assumption, just assume that when someone has the prereqs for any of the Energy spells, or Awaken Computer, they can go ahead and get anything that has those as prereqs, but not before, and that they don't count toward the 10 spells from 10 colleges rules for some of the tougher to enter Colleges.

[jason taylor]

I was in fact slightly disappointed that Colonial Gothic already spotted the idea. Nonetheless New France is a great setting. There are forests primeval, natives of various sorts with odd rituals and tales, haunted battlefields and massacre sites. A Catholic Church that can either be a Megalos style corrupt church or a Caithness style chivalrous romance Church. And plenty of merging between several different cultures. And a romantic feudal setting. And of course Voyageurs, Marines (different marines) and the rest. And of course constant war with Perfidious Albion seeking to deceive the people into schism and heresy (the English can be treated as worthy opponents or as Mordor if you want to have a little values dissonance). There is also conveniently New Orleans down where Vampires and Zombies regularly hang out.

There are a few stories available. Simone from Curse of the Judas Chalice will be hanging out at this time (she was one of my favorite characters). The Highlander doomed to die at Ticonderoga was another great story though from the "enemy" point of view. Other stuff including local folklore you have to check out, unfortunately Cyrus Macmillian's collection, from looking at the context, may not be dark enough for the setting (you really have to do justice to the forests primeval, etc).

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

"Echoes fade and Memories Die..."

What was this?

Long ago those were even and strong, they were a road for large wagons. They had an "engine" up front. It changed heat into movement using steam. Some of these "engines" are still around.

So an "in-jan" pulled a cart on iron ribbons?

An "engine" pulled a hundred carts at a time fast as a horse could run for hours.

That was big magic!

They didn't use magic at all.

Now you're lying.

More later I must run.

The magic system is cumbersome, but it's recent and an improvement on everybody figures it out for themselves. There are two main skills Ritual Magic AKA doing, and Thamutology AKA knowing. Spells require successful rolls in both of these Mental Very-Hard skills.

People without magery can learn and use these skills. They are limited to IQ-3. Thus an IQ 15 individual could learn these skills to 12, and no higher. People with Magery can learn these skills to IQ plus Magery. Thus an individual with IQ 12 and Magery 3 could learn these skills to 15, and no higher.

Each skill has maneuvers. In Ritual Magic the maneuvers are actions, create, control, destroy, change, perceive, communicate, etc. In Thaumatology the maneuvers tend to be things. Minds, spirits, fire, water, air, earth, plants, animals, ect. Maneuvers are always Hard. Maneuvers can be bought up to +1 of the skill by non-Mages and to +3 above skill by Mages. A non-Mage can only learn their IQ/3(rounded down) maneuvers of either skill. A Mage can learn up to IQ plus Magery maneuvers of either skill.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Each skill has maneuvers. In Ritual Magic the maneuvers are actions, create, control, destroy, change, perceive, communicate, etc. In Thaumatology the maneuvers tend to be things. Minds, spirits, fire, water, air, earth, plants, animals, etc. Maneuvers are always Hard.

Do you mean Techniques, in 4e?

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Maneuvers can be bought up to +1 of the skill by non-Mages and to +3 above skill by Mages. A non-Mage can only learn their IQ/3(rounded down) maneuvers of either skill. A Mage can learn up to IQ plus Magery maneuvers of either skill.

Sadly, "of either skill" is a bit ambiguous here. Do you mean N techniques for Ritual Magic and a separate N techniques for Thaumatology? Or N total techniques, distributed as the magician chooses between Ritual Magic and Thaumatology?