I've bit off more than I can chew...and it tastes funny.
After getting my new group familiar with PFRPG through the Crypt of the Everflame arc - with nice, goodly champions - they asked if we could vary from setting to setting between campaigns. Absolutely. Did they have anything in mind? *ten minutes of verbal chaos* So I had them list movies, tv serials, games, and published settings that they'd like to try; I said I would blend an idea from each of them into a new setting.
Player1 - Fallout 3 & NV, "Batman" (not the movie or game title, just Batman), Cowboy Bebop
Player2 - Ravenloft, House MD, Dark Shadows, Frankenstein (1994)
Player3 doesn't care, but I told her to make the list by picking settings she would like to run a character through.
Player3 - Lexx, Re-Animator (all films)
None are picky about the time period (Dark Ages, modern, post-apocalyptic, future) as long as it's not Victorian-esque. Any ideas are welcome, I just can't decide how to go about this.
I've bit off more than I can chew...and it tastes funny.
After getting my new group familiar with PFRPG through the Crypt of the Everflame arc - with nice, goodly champions - they asked if we could vary from setting to setting between campaigns. Absolutely. Did they have anything in mind? *ten minutes of verbal chaos* So I had them list movies, tv serials, games, and published settings that they'd like to try; I said I would blend an idea from each of them into a new setting.
Player1 - Fallout 3 & NV, "Batman" (not the movie or game title, just Batman), Cowboy Bebop
Player2 - Ravenloft, House MD, Dark Shadows, Frankenstein (1994)
Player3 doesn't care, but I told her to make the list by picking settings she would like to run a character through.
Player3 - Lexx, Re-Animator (all films)None are picky about the time period (Dark Ages, modern, post-apocalyptic, future) as long as it's not Victorian-esque. Any ideas are welcome, I just can't decide how to go about this.
Heroic Fantasy Age Post Necromantic Magical Apocalypse (Player 1 Fallout 3, Player 2 Ravenloft, Player 3 Reanimator), with the heroes trying to survive in a world where society broke down after the destruction of civilization following a bad summoning that unleashed evil magic.
Magic items and such must be scavenged or traded for (Fallout) there are regions controlled by supernatural warlords (Ravenloft) and there are lots of walking dead due to experiments by local artificers to bring back the magic of the old days (Reanimator).
But thats just off the top of my head.
Player1 - Fallout 3 & NV, "Batman" (not the movie or game title, just Batman), Cowboy Bebop
Player2 - Ravenloft, House MD, Dark Shadows, Frankenstein (1994)
Player3 doesn't care, but I told her to make the list by picking settings she would like to run a character through.
Player3 - Lexx, Re-Animator (all films)
Doesn't look that hard to me. :)
First off: Ravenloft, Frankenstein, and Re-animator are basically all twists on the same idea. They want a dark world overrun by nigh-unstopable undead, but they don't want it to be a natural phenomenon. They want it to be the Fault of Man.
Batman and House are both "the worlds greatest detectives" in their fields, and tend to have a pretty somber view of the world. The players want dark investigators, and based on the re-animator and frankenstein references, the idea of playing a somber investigator trying to discover the cause behind the plague of undead and maybe even a cure seems pretty in line with this.
Cowboy Bebop and Lexx are both ensemble shows based around travel and adventure, later leaving behind the location, probably never to return to it. In Dramatic Lexicon we call this a Pirate Story (ship, ragtag crew, "islands" where adventures happen, ect). This tells me that they want travel to be a big part of the story. they want site based adventure, but they want the sites to change with fair frequency.
Dark Shadows, Ravenloft and Batman are all about their internal style, which is heavily gothic, but they do not want victorian style, so that tells me that they simply like the brooding atmosphere. The fallout choice lends itself to a post-technological world, so that's critical.
So, imagine then a world where the industrial revolution took place but focused on medical technology instead of goods production. Maybe the world has a severe issue with health and disease for some reason. A mostly blocked out sun would cause this. (a meteor strike, overactive weather, or volcanic activity could do this, as could a planet that stopped rotating.) That gives you both the Shadow World style of Ravenloft and batman, but also the reason for mad doctors to come up with ways of artificially extending or manipulating life.
So Industrial age happens in a world of shadows, giving rise to some kind of medical boom, that offers a brief golden age before exploding with apocalyptic horror. The monsters quickly wash over the world overrunning everything and forcing the few survivors onto ships for thier own safety. Now you've got your pirate-y island hopping adventure style.
The characters are a combination of scientists and warriors trying desperately to find out what happened, cure it and rescue survivors. They also have to worry about running out of things like food, coal, bullets, medical supplies, ect. Getting those things could be a big part of the game.
Enemies include: the re-animated dead in various types, other desperate survivors/raiders, disease, and whatever crazed doctors have come up with as a means of protecting themselves and their own research.
Basically this feels to me like Pirates of Dark Water meets Lovecraft and Resident Evil.
So there you go. Feel free to bounce ideas off me. This is fun.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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So, imagine then a world where the industrial revolution took place but focused on medical technology instead of goods production. Maybe the world has a severe issue with health and disease for some reason. A mostly blocked out sun would cause this. (a meteor strike, overactive weather, or volcanic activity could do this, as could a planet that stopped rotating.) That gives you both the Shadow World style of Ravenloft and batman, but also the reason for mad doctors to come up with ways of artificially extending or manipulating life.
So Industrial age happens in a world of shadows, giving rise to some kind of medical boom, that offers a brief golden age before exploding with apocalyptic horror. The monsters quickly wash over the world overrunning everything and forcing the few survivors onto ships for thier own safety. Now you've got your pirate-y island hopping adventure style.
The characters are a combination of scientists and warriors trying desperately to find out what happened, cure it and rescue survivors. They also have to worry about running out of things like food, coal, bullets, medical supplies, ect. Getting those things could be a big part of the game.
Enemies include: the re-animated dead in various types, other desperate survivors/raiders, disease, and whatever crazed doctors have come up with as a means of protecting themselves and their own research.
Pure Awesome, I don't think I could resist adding in some kind of Repo twist...
After chatting with the players some more, it seems they're looking for something ranging from WWII to maybe Star Trek (tech-wise).
@Doomed Hero - how would this reality effect firearms and military concerns?
After chatting with the players some more, it seems they're looking for something ranging from WWII to maybe Star Trek (tech-wise).
@Doomed Hero - how would this reality effect firearms and military concerns?
You're going to have to clarify a bit.
They're wanting a setting in which tech levels range from WWII to Star Trek? In the same setting? or are these just two different options?
If I were doing it I'd have the 1920's level tech be the "standard" tech level and have the future tech be some kind of relic left behind by a previous super advanced culture or something. (Everything from the Forerunners in Halo, to the Ancients in Stargate, to the Elderglass in the Lamora books falls into this trope. there's a lot to go on)
You just make it almost un-usable and beyond any kind of current ability to reproduce or reverse engineer. Nearly indistinguishable from magic.
Turn UMD into Tech Intuition or something, and play it up as the Big Mystery of the campaign.
Fighting over the ancient technologies would likely be a big part of the world's politics.
If we're mixing it wither the post-apocalyptic setting discussed earlier, then it becomes another potential resource for the survivors to squabble over, and a great additional "what the hell is going on" piece to the puzzle.
@Doomed Hero - The WWII - Star Trek was a range they gave me; basically circa 1940s and onwards. I'm getting a post-apocalyptic vibe from all of them so this is what I have so far (thanks to everyone's input).
(Constant, regardless of period)
- Magic has a presence, but the ability to manipulate it is fairly uncommon. Compare this to the average Joe's perception of martial arts; sure he's heard about it and may have even seen it performed on TV, but he's never had any real experiences concerning it. The only magic items available are relics (rare), but the knowledge of their creation can be uncovered given time.
- There is no Positive or Negative energy plane; either energy exists within living or undead creatures, respectively. Neither can be manipulated, so no channeling abilities. The exception to this is Command Undead, but this is now a telepathic ability. Positive energy cannot be focused into a healing spell, so the use of magic has never overshadowed the once-booming medical industry. Negative energy, on the other hand, can be "collected" and "shared" by an undead caster (also available to those with negative energy affinity). Negative energy is only one of the three types of energy that animates undead creatures.
- No alignment. Outsiders are rare enough to be handled case-by-case. Taint, radiation, and several major diseases are the major threats to a character's humanity; taint being the least fatal.
- Leftover medical tech is miraculous (by current standards); ease-of-use and portability renders the technology currency as well.
- Only human, once-human and human-variant races.
So basically inhabitants of the world pre-fall could rely on magic for just about everything *except* things related to health?
If so, I really like this as a concept and I'd take it further.
Where do the limits of magic lie, and why? Can it simply not effect humans in any intrinsic way? You could make someone stronger (bulls strength) via telekinetic field, but you couldn't actually augment their muscle mass.
If you go with it, coming up with a "why" or at least a set of commonly known properties would be good (kind of like the way we understand the properties of gravity, but don't actually know why it exists)
This has further reaching effects. healing magic is, in essence, either creating new flesh or speeding up a body's natural restoration abilities. If either or both aren't possible in your world there are a few other logical conclusions we can draw-
No Polymorph/Wildshape/magical shapeshifters (Physically changing a living form is beyond the scope of magic. This clears up an entire school of problem spells IMO)
No Enervation (property of negative energy)
No Restoration (sub-set of healing magic)
No Cure/Cause wounds spells (obviously)
These changes really make the game a lot more survival-horror in feel. If they get hurt thier only choices are to use one of thier rare medical tech gizmos or heal naturally. Attribute Damage becomes really scary without restoration.
In regards to controlling undead, if you're making it telepathic, that means some crazy bastard is creating a mental connection with some kind of hunger crazed undead monstrosity. That sounds like a great opportunity for role play and some kind of sanity-loss mechanic. (The whole setting seems like the kind a sanity mechanic would be good for)
People trying to mix medtech and magic might be the original cause of the apocalypse in the first place. If so, don't tell your players. They will inevitably try it themselves. Make sure that any time magic is mixed with flesh-altering or revitalizing technology, something horrible happens. (Mummy rot, lycanthropy, mutation, vampirism, cancer, etc)
Man, now I want to play in this game.
@Doomed Hero - Yeah, they could rely on magic, but they didn't. I'm seeing this reality as a parallel to our own, albeit with actual magic possible; subject to the same fears our own reality would respond with. Let's use an example:
Man uses levitate spell to skip escalator line in mall.
If it happened in the real world... -
Cell phones would fly out grabbing footage of the act, people would call 911 (no reasonable idea why, but I know they would), ghost-hunting groups would canvas the mall looking for ectoplasm and "cold areas", and so on...
But if it happened in this setting... -
People would look in amazement, but no sense of mass panic would accumulate. Some would shout insults, complain about why they didn't have to wait in line, call such trivial magic wasteful, etc. Some would have phones out grabbing video; something to show friends.
As far as certain spells go:
- no spells from the Healing subschool
- polymorph spells are very dangerous and always entail lasting effects
- transmutation spells that effect the body taint (generally minor) the recipient...and sometimes the caster as well. Spells like spider climb would effect gravity fields rather than giving the subject an arachnid grip.
- Spells concerning alignment don't exist.
- Necromantic spells using negative energy can only be cast by an undead caster or a caster with negative-energy affinity.
Now concerning the cause of the end of civilization:
Despite many, many medical triumphs, diseases continued to develop and adapt to modern preventive measures. These superviruses/superdiseases continued to spread and entire industries were built around disease control. Synthetic agriculture became the accepted way to feed nations.
The downside of this was in the nature of the food; synthetic alternatives simply could not replicate the nutrition gained by natural food sources. Vitamin/supplementary industries began flooding the market with flavored solutions to the nutrition issue.
Eventually one major company (or at least its project director) suffering from bad press and poor processing decided to sabotage their competitors.
The rival company spiked their competitors shipments with various toxins; long term deception failed and the company's executives faced prison sentences (the proceedings never finalized). Regardless, the economic attacks were widespread and the contaminants enjoyed the same virility as this world's superviruses. After continual mutations and propagation, most of the world's synthetic facilities were sullied and began to sequentially shut down. Despite full restoration efforts, the lack of immediate and cheap food supplies left the world in the grip of famine.
This is all I've got for now, but things are shaping up faster than expected.
...and the contaminants enjoyed the same virility as this world's superviruses...
Umm... I think that should be "virulence", otherwise it gives an...interesting (=rather amusing) mental image. ^^
Love how this setting is shaping up, by the way. :D
(Lotsa great ideas!)
All the best with your game.
-- C.
...and the contaminants enjoyed the same virility as this world's superviruses...Umm... I think that should be "virulence", otherwise it gives an...interesting (=rather amusing) mental image. ^^
Love how this setting is shaping up, by the way. :D
(Lotsa great ideas!)
All the best with your game.-- C.
Virility is used as intended; in this case implying rapid and effective reproduction. The choice of words was to add a perverse spin to an oft overused term.
Virulence: "Infection moves fast and is very difficult to stop."
Virility: "Infection moves fast and then falls asleep and never calls you again."
I guess that's the difference between the flu and chicken pox...
Are you still working off of the "world with less/no sunlight" idea?
If so, that could be a really good reason for synthetic food and very poor immune systems.
Are you still working off of the "world with less/no sunlight" idea?
If so, that could be a really good reason for synthetic food and very poor immune systems.
Yeah, after some debate I've decided that this world's atmosphere is thicker than Earth's. This means overcast skies 99% of the time, London-tiered fog at dusk, and near-zero visibility at night. Thanks to the atmosphere, airborne infections enjoy a longer lifespan.
Also, this world lacks the same tectonic shifting that occurs on Earth. This allows for major subterranean construction and most metro-area buildings generally have anywhere from three to six levels underneath; some sport subway platforms (albeit with guarded entrances). This just came to me as I was writing.
Also, this world lacks the same tectonic shifting that occurs on Earth. This allows for major subterranean construction and most metro-area buildings generally have anywhere from three to six levels underneath; some sport subway platforms (albeit with guarded entrances). This just came to me as I was writing.
That's awesome. I've always felt that some place like Vegas or Tokyo, where there's basically an entire interconnected underground city beneath the topside one would be a great setting for a survival horror scenario.
Well the players rolled up pariah scavengers and got themselves captured within an hour. The characters managed to escape and murder their captors, emerging scathed, violated, and (Player1) disfigured. They barely finished off a "ghoul" (think Fallout, basically a fast zombie with aberration type) mob and Player3's character ate something she shouldn't have. They're really enjoying the setting (probably more than a sane person should, but who cares). Thanks for the responses.
Glad to help! Sounds like a great start. Happy gaming.