As we all know it's a fantasy cliche for a world to have tens to hundreds of thousands of recorded history. Am I the only one or are there others who enjoy adventures through untrodden lands where there is no previous settlement alive or dead prevailing? Exploring new lands in a new world where not much is really known. Am I really one who yearns for the fantasy of exploring a world that has just recently been born?
Minecraft!
I've always wondered how such would really be done as a role playing game.
A new world results in there being no ruins to explore. No enemies well established to raid.
Wandering monsters and lot's of 'em.
I've always wondered how such would really be done as a role playing game.
A new world results in there being no ruins to explore. No enemies well established to raid.
You take an active roll in constructing and mantianing (read: defending) the structures that will eventually become ruins to be explored if you fail to protect them from whatever wants your newly constructed structure.
Sorry for my post above- very early in the morning.
What I meant by that statement was how the computer game Minecraft just dumps you into a randomly-generated and completely empty world which you can do with as you wish. A two easy ways you could handle this concept in the PF setting are Create Demiplane and Interplanetary Teleport. With Create Demiplane, you essentially have a new, albeit small, blank world to explore and shape. to get the same effect out of interplanetary teleport, just have your players get in a teleport 'accident' and end up on a deserted planet.
It has crossed my mind to do a high-level campaign that makes excessive use of interplanetary teleport in order to create a D'ni-esque feel. But I have a rather irrational love of that setting. A whole race of people whose basic purpose is scientific exploration has a lot of appeal to me (though obviously they weren't without their failings).
I've always wondered how such would really be done as a role playing game.
A new world results in there being no ruins to explore. No enemies well established to raid.
Well, not unless you "cheated" and had the ruins/enemies/etc be remnants of the old world/universe that was just destroyed to make the new one.
Well, not unless you "cheated" and had the ruins/enemies/etc be remnants of the old world/universe that was just destroyed to make the new one.I've always wondered how such would really be done as a role playing game.
A new world results in there being no ruins to explore. No enemies well established to raid.
It's not quite a new world then, is it?
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I've always wondered how such would really be done as a role playing game.
A new world results in there being no ruins to explore. No enemies well established to raid.
Been there...done that. Mile long Spelljamming Slave barge is attacked by Raiders on the way into Imperial Space when it is forced into the atmosphere of an off limits world. After the Crash the various slaves and slavers must come together to establish a colony on what is a Jungle Planet.
because two halves of the ship are separated and impact in the Jungle miles apart - two factions and two colonies and a Mountain Range in between.NORN: Its a world without gods.
OK so that implies:
No Cthuggan things beyond stars have visited/ research colonies established.
No old /dead dragons or else they would have lairs.
The lack of visitation by outsiders of various stripes Demons, devils, Geniekind, etc) making out-posts, supply stops, harvesting points in their own muilti-planar machinations.
Most likely no underground dwellers in charge of keeping "things which should not be" entombed. Or so far down that no way exists to interact with them.
No non-Cthuggan intelligent abberations have been here where are their ruins cites otherwise. Or they have been plucked and plopped here as recently as everyone else.
Magical beasts possibly exist they don't have to be made by some caster, god, etc experimenting.
Most likely no Common and quite possibly no written language at all which certainly leads to... No preexisting wizardry schools formalized religions. May mean magic is limited to sorcerers bards oracles witches and maybe druids.
For most humanoids this means less than stone age weapons/ tools other wise they would have to "magically" know how to smelt/ forge metals which generally requires a more sedentary set up than say indigenous peoples nomadic lifestyles and even those nomadic cultures leave traces artwork impacts o the land that may last well beyond their tribe. Magically be able create understand the 6 simple machines as well as various complex ones based off of them to construct what will become the ruins others find. I mean the Lascaux Cave paintings and artifacts WAY predate Egypt and other Golden Crescent cultures.
Seems like a lot of work and you pretty much AXE a lot of interesting/ classic fantasy elements so it could be on the boring side for your players. But maybe removing a lot of those tropes could be a good thing as it gives you more room to develop your own.
Dragonsong,
You're correct on most of the counts. I started the game at about creation+200 years, and the main technology level was bronze age. There were no ancient ruins, although the humans managed to make a lot of not so ancient ones. I've done the math on how fast humans can multiply in a surplus of carrying capacity if you assume basically no infant or childbirth mortality, so wars over what would be called lebensraum are actually pretty common.
The first spellcaster that cropped up was a PC rogue who became the first wizard after around 25 years of game time (by which time he was about a 3rd level rogue---I think he'll ultimately try to go the arcane trickster route). There's a fighter player who is aiming at becoming a priest, but he didn't go at it quite as hardcore as the rogue did, so he'll probably not manage the necessary discoveries until at least 5th level. The rogue's player aimed feats and traits both towards his objective as well as his attribute allocation and skill point allocation, the fighter's player only gave a more ordinary effort.The setting is in fact a Pre-Apocalpytic one, as opposed to the normal Post-Apocalyptic setting. Sometime between year 1000 and 1500 or so, the Creator will seriously 'thin the herd'. I haven't decided the mechanism yet but it'll basically be the Great Flood in its effects.
I like the idea of pre-apocalyptic/ world in a jar concepts and I think they can be well done but, and you obviously have done so, require a lot of prep-work.