In Which I Rave About The Neverending Story

I've just finished reading Michael Ende's The Neverending Story and was flabbergasted by how good it is. How is it that nobody has ever stopped me, grabbed me by the lapels, and demanded to know why I haven't read it since I was a kid? It is the most psychologically interesting (Freud would have been proud of it), imaginative (it puts the derivative shite pumped out under the 'Young Adult' category nowadays to shame), and moving (it had me in tears at the end) childrens' book I have read....well, ever.

[Spoilers below]

What I was impressed most with about the story is just how subtly and carefully Ende challenges the reader's assumptions about what has come before, in a way that seems totally consistent and believable even when turning on a sixpence. For instance, there is so much going on, thematically, in the second half of the book that you don't realise, until the very end, that much of what has been going on can be explained by the fact that Bastian is grieving for his lost mother and is, basically, in need of love. Ende never says as much and Bastian barely even thinks about his parents during the course of the novel, but then suddenly in the final chapters he does, and the entire story changes its complection completely. Yet Ende makes this feel totally genuine - not a curve ball in the slightest. All of Bastian's actions make sense when seen through that lens. The book has a pattern of doing this, even in the smallest incidents - my favourite being the transformation of the achari into the shlamoofs, which is set up one way and then shifts in the reader's mind again and again as the story progresses.

The next most impressive thing about it is the refreshing lack of sentimentality in it. I absolutely loved the reunion scene between Atreyu and Bastian at the end. Ende resists all urges to sentimentalise the scene with hugs, requests for forgiveness, etc. Instead the two boys just look at each other. That's enough. All is forgiven, and neither needs to say it. Totally realistic, totally believable when it comes to how human beings actually behave. All of the book is like that. Not over dramatic, no Hollywoodisms.

And the third most impressive thing about it is just how much it makes you think. It's been a long, long time since I've read a book that has been such food for thought. As a result of reading it I've ruminated over the nature of the imagination, why fiction exists, what friendship is, what it means to grow up from a boy into a man, the nature of memories, the relationship betwen creativity and lying, you name it. I've also got a lot of vignettes which are really quite profound and which I'll be thinking over for a long time: why did Xayide's creations kill her - or did she kill herself? Was Bastian right to transform the achari? Was he right to give his mule what her heart desired? What is so tempting about The Nothing? What is the nature of Gmork?

It is a stunningly good book, and that rarest of rare things: a fantasy novel which I'm sure I'll go back to again and again. Read it.

5 Thoughts on a Cursory Glance through 5th Edition Rules

I am going to be running a 5th edition campaign soon. So I thought I'd better actually familiarise myself with the rules - that could come in handy. To this end, I abused the print facilities at work today to get my hands on copies of the free "Basic" versions of the rules, as well as a few bits and pieces from the SRD. (I think WotC are to be commended for doing this, from a long-term growth perspective.)

I am an extremely lazy person, and as I get older I have less and less patience to learn new systems. Luckily 5th edition is still recognisably D&D, and probably more recognisably D&D than 4th or 3rd edition were to me. That said, there are some big differences from what I'm used to (which I call BECMI, but is really just Red Box Basic, because I use none of the optional rules from the Master's set). Here's what I've noticed so far:

1) They made it really hard to die. I mean really hard. PCs in 5th edition come as close as dammit to having plot immunity. I'm not sure if it is harder to die in this version than it was in 4th or 3rd, but listen, in the games I am used to running, if your hp falls below 0 you are finished. This negative hit points and death saves business is going to take some getting used to.

2) Monster stats are mercifully brief in comparison to 3rd or 4th edition, but still seem long to me - you have to work out the ability scores of monsters and keep track of modifiers? I'm going to have to think up a way around that if possible.

3) They've made hit points extremely abstract in that they basically refresh on an hourly basis, especially once PCs have gained a couple of levels. I have no problem with that in theory but in practice I feel it may result in odd circumstances within the fiction (DM describes combat round: "The orc stabs you in the chest, almost killing you...." One hour later, after the fight and some rest: "You're fine now.")

4) The spell lists seem like they have been blandified a bit, or is it just me? There don't seem to be as many spells as in PHBs of yore, and those that are there seem less interesting. But maybe I am spoiled by the extensive combination of spells I'm used to, which draws from the Rules Cyclopedia, AD&D, and quite a lot of other 1st and 2nd edition source books.

5) Because this post feels picky and negative, a positive thing: in the early variants of D&D which I am used to playing and running, character start off with brutish, miserable and usually short lives. They are pretty pathetic and the early stages of a campaign are tough. I prefer things that way, on balance. But there is nothing wrong with a bit of variety, and 5th edition looks like it will be a nice change in that PCs will start off competent and capable. I am looking forward to something different in that regard, as well as the more tactical, war-gamey feel that combat seems to promise.

[Actual Play] Cruth Lowlands Campaign: Session 5 - Do not come between the growlfin and its mules

Session 5 of the Cruth Lowlands took place yesterday. I took the opportunity to mix in part of the old B1: In Search of the Unknown module, to mixed effect - more on that later.

PCs present:

• Luke, playing Andy, a 3rd level fighter
• Jason, playing Mixaham, a 1st level magic-user
• Dan, playing Diogenes, a 1st level fighter; then Evangelios, a 1st level fighter; then Brother Ambrose, a 1st level cleric

This session began with the PCs back in Riverfork, about to set off in search of the tower of the Three Faced Wizard. They needed his help to freeze or purify an underground lake containing "water demons", in order to satisfy the kobold kolony of The Worm's Mouth, who were keeping the ex-river pirate henchman Hector hostage. Who swallowed a spider to catch a fly, etc.

The Three Faced Wizard apparently lived three days to the North across very rough terrain. The party decided that it would probably be more trouble than it was worth to take their wagon, so they set off on foot: the party had now been whittled down by death and absence [Patrice, playing Dragosta, couldn't make it this week] to Andy and Mixaham, with the hireling Christina and two henchmen river pirates, Diogenes and Evangelios. A new player, Dan, took over Diogenes, who he quickly christened 'Diog'.

On the second day out, they came across a wagon some distance away, with camping equipment around it. After being challenged by whoever was inside the wagon, and threatened with crossbow fire, they executed a pretty effective raid, with Diogenes sprinting forward under cover of Andy's heavy crossbow, while Mixaham unleashed a darkness spell. This resulted in the capture of two prospectors, who seemed willing to give up their gold. Andy was in the mood to just take half of their treasure, but Diogenes slit their throats for 'banditry'. [I think Dan was taking the whole river pirate business seriously.] 

The party took the mules and wagon owned by the prospectors and continued on their way. But that night the scent of the mules attracted a griffon through a random encounter roll; since this was at night, I decided that the griffon was instead a 'growlfin' - a griffon but with an owl's fore-body instead of an eagle's. This resulted in quite a fight. The growlfin went for the mules, and killed them in short shrift. The party took the opportunity to do some serious damage to the monster while it was distracted - but then it killed Christina and badly savaged Andy. Diogenes then attempted to distract the beast from his friend but was likewise dispatched by the growlfin's beak. It was looking seriously bad for the party, and things got even worse the next round, when the growlfin unceremoniously slaughtered Evangelios. (Once Diogenes had died we decided Dan could 'be' Evangelios - he was killed instantly. I'm not sure Dan even had the chance to roll the dice. Good times.) 

This left the badly wounded Andy and Mixaham. We were staring a TPK down the barrel. But the growlfin was badly injured by Andy in the next round and I let Dan roll for its morale check to build suspense: he rolled badly (or well, depending on your perspective) and the beast decided enough was enough and fled. 

Andy and Mixaham were in no position to continue. Three of their comrades, plus their mules, were lying hither and thither amidst scattered blood and entrails. They spent that night in nervous fear of the growlfin returning, but the next morning came across an apparently friendly cleric, Brother Ambrose, who was tracking the growlfin in order to smite it as a demon. (What a coincidence!) He agreed to team up with Andy and Mixaham to get revenge on the creature. 

They rested for a day, during which they spotted a gold dragon flying far off in the distance. Hardly being in the mood for another entanglement with anything, they kept out of sight. The following day they headed off following the trail of blood left by the wounded growlfin. They tracked it to its nest, in a huge hollow cypress tree; Brother Ambrose managed to creep closer...and closer....and closer....throwing it chunks of meat, until he was close enough to 'smite' it in the head. With the beast dead, Mixaham proceeded to dissect it, as is his wont, in order to try to gain alchemical materials. He was now in possession of a growlfin's internal organs, with plenty of blood and bile too.

The party continued their journey and reached the tower of the Three Faced Wizard without incident. The tower of the Three Faced Wizard lies at the foot of high mountains. It is made entirely from silver. As the party approached, they began to hear a grinding, squelching sound underneath them that grew louder and louder; they subsequently learned that this was the work of giant earthworms whose noise prevents spell-casting in the area - except by the Three Faced Wizard, who is used to it. 

At the tower they were met by the Three Faced Wizard's three apprentices - a beautiful red-head, brunette, and blonde, known as the First, Second and Third. These apprentices agreed to let Mixaham have an audience with the wizard. After passing his baboon servants and giant lizard guards, the party reached the top of the tower and the Three Faced Wizard's solar. The wizard agreed to provide Mixaham and Andy with a potion that would freeze an underground lake, but he needed a captive "ice spirit" in order to do this. The party would need to go to a nearby glacier in order to try to get one, and the wizard gave Mixaham a magic ring in order to capture such a being. In return, he wanted any magical or interesting treasure the party came across inside the glacier. He also agreed to teleport the party to the kobolds' cave afterwards, in order to meet the one week deadline for freeing Hector, which would otherwise pass before they could get to him; in return they promised to give him a considerable amount of treasure. Mixaham was also able to ask for some alchemical training in return for handing over his accumulated wealth, some thousands of gp-worth of gems. 

The party set off for the glacier. Here they found a series of caves [DM's note: this is level 2 from the B1 module] and began to explore them in search of an 'ice spirit'. They didn't do this before the session ended, but they did manage to kill two ice zombies and a carrion crawler, and flee from an ochre jelly and some crab spiders. Brother Ambrose also almost died from a poison gas trap on a chest, but survived with 1 hp remaining.

A very enjoyable session, but I wasn't particularly happy with the way B1 worked in play - it was, I think, a little bit dull. I will have to spice it up a bit for next week. Dan almost managed the considerable feat of having three separate PCs die in a single session, but Brother Ambrose proved a bit luckier than Diogenes and Evangelios had been. The perils of wilderness travel as low-level characters in D&D was strongly in evidence here. 

A Year of Living Yoon-Suinly

About this time a year ago, Yoon-Suin was released. I thought it might be fun to do a sort of summary of what's gone on.

When I was in the later editing stages for the book, I came across this post by Epidiah Ravachol, breaking down his first year of producing his Worlds Without Master magazine. This seemed to be following the trend set by Vincent Baker and others among the story gamers towards being transparent about their sales.

I found that post by Epidiah very useful and interesting, as somebody working on a game of my own, so I thought I'd share a brief overview of sales so far and some of the lessons learned.

I sell Yoon-Suin through three outlets: OBS (drive thru RPG/RPG now), Payhip, and Lulu (for POD). Sales as of 31st Jan 2016 were as follows:

Lulu (print edition): 620 units
OBS: 369 units
Payhip: 153 units

I've sold a handful more since then. Initially the big surge was through Payhip. Now I hardly get any sales from them. I would say now, a year on, in the "long tail" for Yoon-Suin, 80% of sales are from Lulu, 19% are through OBS, and 1% are through Payhip.

What have I learned?

1) Print does better than PDF. I was initially surprised by this. I was expected about 2/3 of sales to be in PDF when in fact print outperforms digital, and seems to increase its dominance over time. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense: print is generally better than PDF - more useful and readable - and people recognise that.

2) Payhip is objectively better in many dimensions than OBS. You get the money straight away (its all automatic - sell a PDF, the money is in your Paypal account within seconds), they take care of VAT, and they take a tiny sliver for themselves (5%). There should be no competition. But...

3) OBS has a dominant position in the market among people buying RPG stuff, so you'd be a fool not to use them. I have never ever used a single link to the OBS page for Yoon-Suin, but I've still sold more than twice as many units that way as I have through Payhip. People just seem to prefer to buy through OBS. I hope the situation changes, but for the time being, you're better off making your stuff available through them to attract browsers and take advantage of the trust people have in it.

4) By the same token, though, since Payhip and other options are a bit more profitable, you'd be a fool to use OBS exclusively. Take the slight hit (65% share rather than 70%) as the cost of having the option to publish elsewhere.

5) Creating it was bloody hard work but worth it.

The Neverending Campaign and the Problem of Verisimilitude

What I always feel reticent about in a story game like In a Wicked Age or Blood & Honor or Fiasco or whatever is that I encounter a verisimilitude problem during the game. It's all very well to cede narrative control to different players, and it often results in interesting and enjoyable consequences, but I find it hard to engage with the world as a believable place if everything is contingent and can change at a moment's notice once control of what's happening shifts from one player to another. (Of course, you get a bit of this in any RPG, but it isn't the whole point of the game as it is in, say, Fiasco.)

For example, let's say it has been established that there is a town with a mayor. Okay. Then one of the players decides that the mayor is secretly an alien. Then once that's been established, one of the other players decides that the mayor is a secretly an alien and his wife is an alien hunter who does not know that her husband is an alien. That's the sort of dramatic consequence that you get in certain story games, and I like it, but it only really makes sense as the creation of a narrative, not an exploration of an actual real world. This makes it hard for me to take things seriously, as though they are not actually really happening but are just contingent, notional events subject to radical change at a moment's notice.

What's a way around that problem? Well, I am currently reading The Neverending Story. I read it once a very long time ago, I reckon when I was about 10 or 11, so I can remember very little about it (except the really vivid scene in which a band of flagellants throw themselves into the Nothing, which has always stuck in my mind). I'd always thought of it as being a kind of European version of The Lord of the Rings, but of course it isn't that at all. It's more of a kind of trippy extended metaphor for the imagination, and it's pretty brilliant stuff. (And nothing like the film, although I don't remember much about that either.)

As those of you familiar with the story will know, in the second half of the book Fantastica sort of creates itself out of the wishes of Bastian - it isn't fixed in place at all. Once Bastian has imagined something, it comes into effect and is completely real, but not until then. This gives him a level of control over things, although the world has a strange way of not quite conforming to what he really wants it to be and in a sense perverting it.

I like this - it's a very potent allegory for the human imagination - and I think it's a little bit like the way in which a story game works. You have a world that is slowly created by the players, each of whom has the power to give effect to his or her wishes. But those wishes get perverted and changed by the other players, or the GM, who also act on the world in unexpected ways. Like Bastian, each player has the power to actually affect the world purely through his or her imagination, but, also like Bastian, the world still has the capacity to be completely surprising.

I like this way of thinking about story games and it makes much more sense to me not to think of them as story games, but Neverending Story Games (if you will). In other words, people who make story games have inadvertently made the perfect tool for replicating the fictional world of The Neverending Story and settings like it. Forget all that hippy bollocks about shared narrative and protagonisation and whatnot. No, let's use story games for role playing in worlds in which the PCs, not the players, actually literally have the capacity to affect things with their wishes. Boris the 1st level fighter can actually create a dragon's treasure hoard by wishing it into existence, and Sarah the 2nd level mage can actually wish for the dragon to be absent. It's not Boris and Sarah's players who are doing it, but the actual characters within the fiction. Of course, the GM then gets the chance to say, yes, there may be a dragon's hoard, and the dragon may be absent, but he always leaves his treasure hoard coated with deadly poison when he goes away. (Even better: the PCs make wishes about the world. The GM makes tweaks in response but does not say them out loud - he just writes them on a concealed piece of card that he reveals at an appropriate moment: "Haha, the dragon's hoard is poisoned, fuckers!")

This seems the perfect approach for a campaign - or maybe an interlude in a campaign - which is set in a dream land or a place in which dream logic operates. The players get sucked into Limbo or Pandemonium or the Abyss. There, whatever they imagine gets made real... But the evil nature of the environment cannot easily be escaped...

On Quality, Whisky, Time, and Being a Connoisseur

Have a look at these videos:

This is somebody who cares deeply about whisky and wants it, more than anything else, to be good. Somebody who appreciates quality and does not care about being labelled as snobbish or elitist as a result - because life is glorious and important and must be made the most of. I like this. I like listening to somebody talk in a passionate and informed way about a topic. I happen to like whisky, but I think I would enjoy listening to these videos even if it was about a topic I knew nothing about - like, I dunno, dressage.

One of the big victories of the move towards DIY D&D is that it allows people to be connoisseurs of games. I don't mean that in a poncey or precious way. I simply mean that there is so much stuff being produced, written, and tried, and so much experience to draw from, that it is possible to discuss and think about games carefully and in detail in a way that was never possible before. To put it in a slightly poncey or precious way - it is now possible to savour them.

There is nothing wrong with savouring things. As Ralfy says at some point, there's a lot of pressure in life not to think. There are too many distractions and stresses and other things to do. But stopping to think about what you are doing, have done, and would like to do, is of crucial importance in really properly enjoying life. If you don't stop to think things over, you're living life like a fly - darting from one thing to another, pursuing sensations and experiences for the sake of them, and probably being almost as satisfied scoffing dog turd as a fine pate as a result. That's no good at all, and certainly not what we humans are here for. So here's to having a good wee dram of whisky, rum, armagnac or whatever's your poison, and thinking carefully and slowly about gaming materials that have been, gaming materials that you are creating, and games that have been played or are yet to be.

The Imagination is a Muscle

In a recent episode of Geek's Guide (which I thought was largely nonsense, but entertaining enough), the interviewee observed that the imagination is something that has to be exercised - imagining things is something you can get better at.

I agree with this. It got me thinking: if you have to exercise your imagination - if it's a muscle as much as your triceps or glutes - then why not do more formal imagination training? Here are my patented daily routines for becoming a better imaginer.

Imagination Maintenance

This is for use during busy periods, illness, or for beginner imaginers to get into the habit. Roll up as many D&D PCs as you can in five minutes (using 3d6 for stats, in order). Just do the dice rolls. Then spend 10 minutes coming up with a name, personality, class, and distinguishing feature for each one. Do six sets, with five minutes rest in between. Increase the number of sets as your speed and fitness improve. Allow yourself one day of rest a week.

Imagination Circuit Training

The key to proper circuit training is rotating through between 4 and 8 different exercises without resting in between. A standard routine might run as follows, with each 10 minutes for each set, repeated three times.

1. Imagine a new monster. Give it stats.
2. Imagine a new NPC wizard. Equip him with treasure and two assistants.
3. Draw the top level of a dungeon.
4. Pick four monsters at random from a bestiary of your choice and give them each a replacement ability for an existing one. 
5. Invent a new magic item.
6. Invent a new spell.

A more advanced routine could be as follows, allowing 15 minutes for each set and three repetitions, advancing to five as fitness increases.

1. Pick four monsters at random from a bestiary of your choice. Invent a society comprising those four monsters.
2. Create a mini-hex map of six hexes.
3. Create a random encounter table for a type of terrain.
4. Create a d30 table for a means of randomly determining something of your choice.
5. Think of a new PC race or class.

High Intensity Interval Imagination Training (HIIIT)

Alternate 40 seconds of high intensity imagining with 15-20 seconds of low intensity imagining and continue for as long as desired (not longer than 30 minutes and not less than 4 minutes). High intensity imagining consists of thinking of something entirely new (e.g. a new monster, map, NPC, etc.) Low intensity imagining involves tweaking something which already exists (e.g. altering a spell, class or monster). This is not advised for amateur imaginers or beginners, as it might lead to brain strain or more serious injuries. 

Clerics as Summoners of Angels

One of the main characteristics of There is Therefore a Strange Land is that it is set in a sort of pseudo-real world. If you are a cleric, you worship God. (Rules for Satan worshippers can wait for another day.) This means that you can't use magic, which would be blasphemous. That's something you need an angel for.

The angel will demand one of the following actions is performed in return for  a period of service of 3d6 days. During the period of service the angel obeys any command, except to kill itself.

Dice	Demand
1	Perform an unasked-for act of compassion during the course of the period of service
2	Give away at least 10% of personal wealth during the course of the period of service
3	Take a vow of silence for the duration of the period of service
4	Abstain from eating or drinking during daylight hours for the duration of the period of service (-2 to all rolls during daylight)
5	Smite an evildoer for no personal gain during the course of the period of service
6	Ask for forgiveness from somebody previously wronged at the end of the period of service (determined by the DM)

In addition, during the course of the period of service, the cleric may not disobey any of the Ten Commandments or order the angel to. If he or she does so, the angel will rebel and must be persuaded its continued service is for the Greater Good. The cleric's PC must come up with a plausible reason, and then roll on the following table, adding the reaction adjustment for the cleric.

Dice	Reaction
2-3	Angel rebels and attacks
4-6	Angel returns to heaven
7-9	Angel is indecisive (roll again in one round)
10-11	Angel remains in service but makes another demand
12+	Angel remains in service

A summoned angel has the following abilities, based on the level of the cleric.

1st level	1 HD, AC 6, #ATT 1, DMG By Weapon +1, 1st level cleric spell list (1d3 per day)
2nd level	2 HD, AC 6, #ATT 1, DMG By Weapon +2, 1st level cleric spell list (1d6 per day)
3rd level	3 HD, AC 5, #ATT 1, DMG By Weapon +3, 1st level cleric spell list (1d6 per day), 2nd level cleric spell list (1d3 per day, randomly determined)
4th level	4 HD, AC 5, ATT 2, DMG By Weapon +2, 1st level cleric spell list (1d6+3 per day), 2nd level cleric spell list (1d6 per day, randomly determined)
5th level	5 HD, AC 4, #ATT 2, DMG By Weapon +2, 1st level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 2nd level cleric spell list (1d6+3 per day), 3rd level cleric spell list (1d3 per day)
6th level	6 HD, AC 4, #ATT 2, DMG By Weapon +3, 1st level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 2nd level cleric spell list (1d6+3 per day), 3rd level cleric spell list (1d6 per day)
7th level	7 HD, AC 3, #ATT 2, DMG By Weapon +3, 1st level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 2nd level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 3rd level cleric spell list (2d6 per day)
8th level	8 HD, AC 3, #ATT 2, DMG By Weapon +4, 1st level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 2nd level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 3rd level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 4th level cleric spell list (1d3 per day)
9th level+	9 HD, AC 2, #ATT 3, DMG By Weapon +2, 1st level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 2nd level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 3rd level cleric spell list (2d6 per day), 4th level cleric spell list (1d6 per day)

*Angels can also levitate, see invisible, and polymorph self to pass for a normal human, all once per day at 1st level, three times per day at 4th level, and at will at 9th level+.

Angels have the following characteristics.

Dice	Appearance 1	Appearance 2	Weapon
1	Young boy	Shimmering and radiant	Mace
2	Young girl	Almost preternaturally nondescript	Spear
3	Adolescent boy	Very thin and delicate	Hammer
4	Adolescent girl	Very small	Sword
5	Adult male	Very tall	Trident
6	Adult female	Blue skinned	Short bow
7	Old man	Green skinned	Darts
8	Old woman	Very ugly	Mancatcher
9	Eagle headed	Fat and well-fed	Staff
10	Lion headed	Ever-smiling	Battle axe
11	Dog headed	Never-smiling	Two-handed sword
12	Cherubic	Very long-haired	Halberd

[Main thoughts: could be overpowered. Also, the characteristics table needs to be a d20 or d30 one.]

The Hatred of Heat

If you lived deep inside a glacier, far from the light of day and the warmth of the sun, you would hate heat. Its very existence would threaten your home, your habitat, your environment, your belongings, the resources on which you rely. Even the tiny flame of a torch, which could have no effect on the ancient ice down there, would symbolise the power which warmth has over cold. You would want it extinguished, stamped out. You would see its invasion into your home as an affront. And you would want to eject or kill any warm-blooded intruders from the surface who might bring the threat of heat into your frozen world.

This is the mentality of intelligent beings in the depths of a glacier dungeon.

A Big List of Forthcoming Projects

People on G+ (well, one person anyway) has been asking for an update on what I'm currently working on. Well, I'm very much like Jesus, in the sense that I operate on the basis of ASK, AND YE SHALL RECEIVE. So, here goes, in the order in which they are likely to be released.

1. The Peridot

This is my semi-regular zine. It includes adventure locations and maps, NPCs, monsters, spells and magic items for use in games, as well as an entire unique mini-setting in each issue. Some of its contents are Yoon-Suin related; most are not. It contains the occasional piece of fiction. It typically has more than 50, and less than 100, pages of content.

2. There is Therefore a Strange Land

This is a campaign setting, which was originally planned as a kind of OSR update of Planescape, but with the Regency elements to the fore. It was billed as The Magician's Nephew meets William Blake. It has evolved somewhat since then, and I have recently been giving it considerable thought. My idea now is that There is Therefore a Strange Land is a kind of Ur-Setting. The PCs begin in a miscellaneous European city. They might be dilettantes, scholars, satanists, priests, or alchemists. One of them inherits the study of a dead uncle or aunt who was clearly Up To Something. In this study is a portal, or portals, which lead to another World or Worlds - and these can be anything the DM desires (the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, the Abyss, Yoon-Suin, Vornheim, the Warhammer world - or absolutely anything else). There is Therefore a Strange Land is thus a collection of tools for creating the study, the city, the PCs, the other investigating powers in the city, and so forth - the idea being that the existence of the other Worlds is also known by others, who will want to buy whatever the PCs can bring back, kill them as rivals, and so on. Moreover, since it is assumed that the PCs may become rich and powerful as a result of their explorations, there are also mechanisms for establishing power structures within the city with which they can interact. Picture a group of scholars from Regency-era London going to Athas and bringing back a cannibal halfling to sell to the Prince of Brunswick, all the while trying to avoid being noticed by their rivals, thieves, or high society, and you'll have in mind the kind of game that There is Therefore a Strange Land is all about.

3. New Troy

This is a setting loosely based on combing the Matter of Britain with Norse legend, and is a kind of tribute to Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy. The setting is New Troy - drawing from the old English legend that the British Isles were settled by refugees from the fall of Troy. There is a hex-map made up of 1-mile hexes, but slippage can take place into the lands of Faerie and Muspelheim. Faerie is a place where time moves much more slowly than it does in New Troy, and is the home of mystical beings and faerie shees. I call it the "Mythic Otherworld". Muspelheim is a place where time moves more quickly, and is constantly divided between the rule of frost giants and fire giants. There are also all manner of Norse and Norse-influenced evil spirits down there. It is a traditional mega-dungeon. The trick is that Faerie, New Troy, and Muspelheim all mirror each other, a bit like 3D chess: they possess the same or similar geographies, and it is possible for events in one world to influence the others. So, for instance, the castle of Kinkernadon finds a replica in Faerie in exactly the same location - Tripsey Shee - and ditto in Muspelheim. If the Lord of Kinkernadon is assassinated, the faerie prince in Tripsey Shee may also come to a sticky end. And so on. This means that the PCs can attempt to attack enemies, conduct heists, and so forth, from world to world.

4. Moons of Jupiter Planetcrawl

I've written enough about this recently: see here.

5. Fixed World [Proper title TBC]

Ditto: see here.

6. A sub-folder I have in my RPG folder on my Desktop entitled Emishi Ezo Ainu Nara Period Setting.

This is an evolution of my old 'Queen Country' idea, which I had been toying with anyway, but which I might now decide to set in an ancient iteration of Kara-Tur's 'Wa'. The PCs take on the role of officials in the budding Japanese Empire, which is spreading its tendrils into the cold North. Here there are strange hairy people called the Emishi, who worship bears, and all manner of supernatural beings, sorceresses, witches, evil spirits, and God knows what else. The PCs get XP for exploration and discovery.