Graustarky and Ruritanianism

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Mid-Twentieth-Century political satire seems less promising as an RPG genre than late Victorian romantic adventure.

I'm kind of fond of Neal Stephenson's Qwghlm, though.

A curious offshoot of the type of thing you're describing is Oz and other Baumian magical kingdoms. They seem to have elaborate court hierarchies that don't do much of anything, and in Oz's case, an army that does even less, especially since its only private got promoted to captain-general.

Bill Stoddard

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by whswhs

A curious offshoot of the type of thing you're describing is Oz and other Baumian magical kingdoms. They seem to have elaborate court hierarchies that don't do much of anything, and in Oz's case, an army that does even less, especially since its only private got promoted to captain-general.

Yes, that sort of thing is clearly related to the satiritical and comic Graustarks of which Grand Fenwick is a late example. I'm really more interested in gaming the original Ruritanian romance: high adventure in fictitious countries in late-Victorian to Edwardian romance. Cinematic stuff, but not fantasy.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Yes, that sort of thing is clearly related to the satiritical and comic Graustarks of which Grand Fenwick is a late example. I'm really more interested in gaming the original Ruritanian romance: high adventure in fictitious countries in late-Victorian to Edwardian romance. Cinematic stuff, but not fantasy.

Are you going to include Kipling's Kafiristan? Asian, but very much that sort of place, I think.

Bill Stoddard

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Yes, that sort of thing is clearly related to the satiritical and comic Graustarks of which Grand Fenwick is a late example. I'm really more interested in gaming the original Ruritanian romance: high adventure in fictitious countries in late-Victorian to Edwardian romance. Cinematic stuff, but not fantasy.

Evallonia from John Buchan's Dickson McCunn trilogy is a good example, then. In the first two books Evallonian expatriates and agents come to Scotland, but in the third, The House of the Four Winds, we get to see a lot of Evallonia.

Another Buchan book, The Courts of the Morning features South American country Olifa, and unless I'm confusing it with another book, there's a lovely map of the country.

Margery Allingham's Campion book Sweet Danger involves politics centered around Averna, a tiny European principality, but most of the action is in England.

All of these are from the Pulp Era, so they're a bit after the Edwardian period, but there's no lack of swashbuckling.


Hans

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Are you going to include Kipling's Kafiristan? Asian, but very much that sort of place, I think.

Most fiction set in the colonies doesn't concern itself too much with realistic native states. If the story needs a native king or princess or tribal chief, it has one, regardless of how the people in that part of the world are *actually* organized.

Small islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific seem particularly flexible thanks to the ability to make the full range from stone age natives to fairly modern nations inhabited solely by Europeans look sort of plausible.

[dcarson]

You can find maps for some at The Imaginary Atlas. It has Poictesme and Oz and lots of links to other sites of imaginary maps.