Yora
2019-03-04, 09:11 AM
Since I started working on my current setting, I've been pulled deeper and deeper into the world of classic space fantasy. Works that nominally claim to be science fiction, but in almost every way look like fantasy, swim like fantasy, and quack like fantasy. Barsoom, Dune, Zothique, Tekumel, and He-Man. (Does anyone know Albion?) Dark Sun dropped the pretense of being science fiction but fits perfectly in among them. And while part of a more conventional fantasy world, Morrowind fully embraces the same aesthetic.
I just love this stuff and would love to put as much of its style into my next campaign as I can. Sadly, it seems to have mostly fallen into obscurity at the end of the 90s after a wave of popularity, and it didn't have much presence in the RPGs of the last two decades. Dark Sun is fantastic, and it did a really great job of translating the style into D&D, but I think I might want to try something that isn't desert for a change. (I don't like sand. :smallamused:)
Taking He-Man aside for now, I think a general defining trait of this style is that it's starting reference point isn't medieval Europe but ancient Greece, Persia, and India. From this we get a society that is centered around city states and dependant on slaves, and priests and temples having a huge public presence. The other thing that feels important to me, though that might just be my personal perception, is that the worlds feel pretty desolate with more ruins than inhabited settlements, and that there is little sense of time. Actors come and go, but nothing really changes. There's no sense that the future will be different from the past and when you look back more than a human lifetime everything seems to blur together into a vague mush. If there was a dramatic upheaval that turnned the world into the desolate place that it is now, was it a hundred years ago or ten thousand? Could anybody tell the difference?
When slavery based city states come together with a feeling of stagnation and no prospects for the future, the two combine wonderfully into a general state of decadence. Ambition takes the form of taking something away from someone else, but barely anyone considers the idea of actually creating something new.
Stylistically I think it's pretty great. But how does that translate into exciting activities for play?
I guess looting all ruins and wasting the loot on ale and whores is always an option. But for settings that (should) have such rich flavor I think there should be much more to do. Any other ideas for plot hooks and typical elements to spice up the setting with?
I just love this stuff and would love to put as much of its style into my next campaign as I can. Sadly, it seems to have mostly fallen into obscurity at the end of the 90s after a wave of popularity, and it didn't have much presence in the RPGs of the last two decades. Dark Sun is fantastic, and it did a really great job of translating the style into D&D, but I think I might want to try something that isn't desert for a change. (I don't like sand. :smallamused:)
Taking He-Man aside for now, I think a general defining trait of this style is that it's starting reference point isn't medieval Europe but ancient Greece, Persia, and India. From this we get a society that is centered around city states and dependant on slaves, and priests and temples having a huge public presence. The other thing that feels important to me, though that might just be my personal perception, is that the worlds feel pretty desolate with more ruins than inhabited settlements, and that there is little sense of time. Actors come and go, but nothing really changes. There's no sense that the future will be different from the past and when you look back more than a human lifetime everything seems to blur together into a vague mush. If there was a dramatic upheaval that turnned the world into the desolate place that it is now, was it a hundred years ago or ten thousand? Could anybody tell the difference?
When slavery based city states come together with a feeling of stagnation and no prospects for the future, the two combine wonderfully into a general state of decadence. Ambition takes the form of taking something away from someone else, but barely anyone considers the idea of actually creating something new.
Stylistically I think it's pretty great. But how does that translate into exciting activities for play?
I guess looting all ruins and wasting the loot on ale and whores is always an option. But for settings that (should) have such rich flavor I think there should be much more to do. Any other ideas for plot hooks and typical elements to spice up the setting with?