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My last post discussed a few vague ideas for game mechanics, this time I thought I’d go a bit more onto the setting itself. In an ideal world the mechanics would be easy enough to adapt to any setting but I would like a ‘default’ setting of sorts and so we’ll take a look at that.

Setting

Rule One

The theme will trump real life. In real life a guy with a gun may be able to shoot and kill a guy with a sword from a distance and the guy with the sword won’t have a chance. According to the Rule of Cool however the guy with the sword should be able to fight back on relatively equal footing (at least).

In real life perhaps it is technically impossible to leap from the crows nest of a ship and use a dagger to ride the sail safely down to the deck – however that seems like a perfectly suitable course of action for heroes!

Time Period and Technology

The primary time period/technology level of the campaign setting will roughly equate to the Cavalier Years. Thus firearms will exist but there will still also be an abundance of swords and other melee weapons.

Different cultures will of course have variances in their technological level and thematic changes but if any nation was too advanced or too primitive then they would quickly conquer or be conquered (unless of course there are some other factors in play?).

Geography

It is not something that often comes up in role playing games, but when it does the world is normally either flat (like Discworld or Glorantha) or round (like the real world). One of my earliest ideas for this setting -before I had even formalised it into a setting of any kind- was to have a Dyson Sphere type world. It’s probably not entirely original, they certainly exist in literature and it’s not like I’m familiar with every role playing game in existence so I would be shocked if it hadn’t be done before.

Oddly enough the idea came to me while playing Rogue Trader (for those who don’t know Rogue Trade is a science fiction game in which you play the command crew of a huge city sized ship in a war torn future). The game was interesting, though space combat was a little tedious, but mainly the idea of the party being a ‘crew’ and having a vessel with which to explore an infinite universe was quite appealing.

Imagining this in a fantasy setting the equivalent is obviously a ship travelling the oceans; alas there is only so much exploring you can do before you’ve travelled to every island and continent. In a typical Dyson Sphere you have a surface area equal to over 500,000,000 times the surface area of earth – for all intents and purposes that gives an infinite amount of space to explore.

Nations

With an infinitely large world there are potentially an infinite number of nations. That’s a little impractical however and I think it makes more sense to have a known world which consists of a number of established nations. Of course there can always be other unknown nations existing beyond the known world, mentioned only in rumour if at all.

These extra unknown nations could be detailed in a Games Masters’ Book or other supplements and of course there is plenty of room for a Games Master to develop their own nations and continents.

Religion

Certainly within the known world I would like there to be a single powerful religion with perhaps smaller cults and  nation specific religions. The easiest example would be the real world, particularly the 1500s onwards, where Christianity spans most of the known world but there still remain small groups of other religions – even better the Church has different factions within it that hold the same overall beliefs but take different approaches towards it.

Beyond the boundaries of the known world (boundaries? what boundaries? find out next post) there may of course be further religions and different beliefs and as the world is explored the interaction of the prime religion with these new heathen beliefs could be very interesting.

Organisations

Organisations and groups are a key part of any setting and ideally, much like religion they should be able to span across the borders of nations (in fact the different factions within the big religion could be viewed as organisations in their own right). Things like like academic bodies who share science and research for the benefit of all mankind as well as groups of knights who follow a common code of honour and protect the weak and helpless could both both be known groups that act across borders.

Secret societies are also something I want in my setting, whether they are an international gentlemen’s club who provide hospitality to their members across the world or fanatical followers of the old ways who seek to overthrow the established religious order. These organisations hidden from the public provide an interesting opportunity for some players knowing more than others. What if for example one PC is a member of an organisation that know without a doubt that the head of the church is actually a puppet controlled by an evil mastermind – he can’t just go and blurt it out to his religiously minded companions, they may think him mad or they may tell the wrong people, but it would certainly change his interactions with the church.

And of course a third type of organisation exists as well, those that are publicly known but have secrets within or an agenda known only to more senior members. Charitable groups that are secretly trying to take over the world anyone?