I have started yet another fantasy campaign setting, but I think this one will finally hit all my buttons.
All Sorts of Genres
What genres will hit my buttons? Swords & Sorcery! Swords & Sandals! Swords & Planets! Post-Apocalyptic! Science Fantasy! This campaign setting will have a little bit of everything in it.
I got the main idea for the setting from the story The Virgin of Valkarion, by Poul Anderson. The basic idea I got from the story was a city in a desert that used to be on an ocean coast, but the ocean receded, leaving it a shell of its former self.
Then, somehow the old Metagaming game Security Station came to my mind, too. Even as a teenager in the 80’s I loved the idea of a fantasy world after a nuclear war. I never got to play Gamma World, but that idea remained in mind.
I then started reading the Lunar Trilogy (The Moon Maid, The Moon Men and The Red Hawk) by Edgar Rice Burroughs. That gave me the idea for a race of large, ogre-like humanoids that are overlords for the local humans.
Finally, I’ve been trying to think of how to make a true Swords & Sorcery setting, one that really fits the ideas I have rattling around in my brain.
The resulting setting–what I am calling the “Sands of Sakhrat”–hits all of these themes. It takes place in an aging, decadent city-state that is located just south of what is now New Orleans, about 5,000 years after a nuclear war. The world has changed, with magic–and technology, if you can find it.
Magic is present in the world now, and is powered by extra dimensional beings that can now be summoned… or provide magical power. Sorcerers must pledge their souls to these "demons," who in turn provide magical power. The demons also function as the gods in the world now.
Technology will be present, too. Not too much–this is 5,000 years in the future. That is a lot of time for metals to break down and rust away. The best bet will be hidden "sealed vaults" that can be unearthed by explorers…
Many creatures will be a combination of a few mutations of current natural beasts, along with maybe some creatures that have spilled over from these other dimensions the demons come from. I’m still thinking that one through, too. The entire world will not be changed, but some things will.
I Love My Old Settings, But…
So why do I want to develop yet another setting? Well, the more I worked on and played in my other settings, the more I suspected there was just something missing. I’m still not sure what it was, but I knew something was off.
Then I read The Virgin of Valkarion. Something just clicked. Then I started reading The Red Hawk, and an idea started to crystalize. What if…
What if I made a Swords & Sorcery setting in this world? I don’t really want to do an ancient world setting, like an Atlantis, or Lemuria, or anything like that. But… what if I did something in the future?
What if this was a post-apocalyptic setting, long after a nuclear war? What if this was a world where the land had changed, allowing me to have a city that used to be by the ocean coast, but was now in a desert?
Now–now I can start layering in a lot of things that I wanted in a setting, but could not easily do in my other settings. Now I had a city in the desert. Now I could add in mutants from after a nuclear war. Now I could add in ancient science fiction technology. Now I could have a world that was different, but still a little familiar, below the surface. Now that is a setting I can dig my teeth into!
Where I’m and Where I’m Going
Good questions. I am almost through completing a Gygax ’75 Challenge for this new setting. After I’m done with that effort, I’m going to do some solo gaming in that world, using the solo journaling game Adventurer and working on some solo rules for Blades & Black Magic.
I will also be looking to take some ideas from the older settings and folding them into this one. Not everything will work, but I’m sure I have some work I can reuse. The challenge is resisting the urge to keep some ideas I still really like, but just won’t work in the setting of Sakhrat. We’ll see.
One more thing I also plan to do is focus on writing up the beasts and magic for this world. That will take some work, but it will be fun tailoring all of the common creatures and others that I come up with for this new world.
So stay tuned. I hope to get back to writing for Untold Realms, and will be keeping everyone up to date on how this is all going!
Marko ∞
