There was some interesting G+ discussion on a post by FM Geist (who everyone should follow, by the way) on the topic of lore and how it can be presented in RPGs. I'm guilty as charged when it comes to building up large amounts of lore that my players never interact with and has no bearing on the game, often with entirely superfluous writing. It's something I've been trying to change because, in the words of Kevin Malone, "why waste time say lot word when few word do trick"?
There was a particular point made by David Shugars that the lore for a game's premise should fit in the opening crawl of a Star Wars film, which sounds like a great exercise to try and distil the essence and tone of a campaign setting down to the meat. On average there are 80 words in a Star Wars opening text crawl, so that's my limit for this exercise.
Without further ado, here are a few setting ideas I've had in my head distilled down to the basics along with the premise for my Egradus campaign.
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| Credit, Amir Zand |
1. Egradus
The Ugishi Sultanate and Kothen Imperium lie in ruins, destroyed in the final cataclysmic paroxysms of brutal warfare. Ancient weapons and magics litter the land, but civilisation has emerged once more from the chaotic aftermath of the conflict and the Long Night is over.
Buried beneath the war’s detritus lie mysteries of even older powers and their secrets are coveted by the petty kings and gods of the reborn world. Opportunity and danger await in equal measure.
Word Count: 77
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| Credit, Amit Naik |
2. Broken Heaven
The Divine is dead, slain by His treacherous children - the Chosen. The City of Heaven is blackened and corrupted by mortal touch, and foul beasts and magics, the product of the Divine's dying curse, wreak havoc. The surviving Chosen slumber in their cursed palaces and warp the world around them with semi-divine fever dreams.
The Godstear Comet marks the sky once more, and the Chosen will awaken. The petty kings and trifling sorcerers of mortals will be powerless before them.
Word Count: 80
The Godstear Comet marks the sky once more, and the Chosen will awaken. The petty kings and trifling sorcerers of mortals will be powerless before them.
Word Count: 80
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| Credit, Amir Zand |
3. The Night's Dark Sea
The Solemnis took flight to the stars 200 years ago. Designed to transport a self-sustaining population to a new world, she held the combined knowledge and the most advanced technology of her homeworld.
Many of Solemnis' systems have failed irreparably over time, including navigation. No communications have been received from the homeworld in over a century, and the original crew are long dead. Their descendants debate on the fate of the vessel, and conflict is about to flare.
Word Count: 78
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| Credit, Amir Zand |
4. In the Shadow's Wake
The immortal sorceress known as the Tyrant won her bloody war of conquest generations ago, crushing all who opposed her. The Empire has enjoyed prosperity since her final victory, but the Tyrant has secluded herself in the Iron Citadel in recent years. Bureaucrats and warlords are making their opening moves in the power vacuum, opposed by the Tyrant's loyalists, and rumours abound of a resurgent rebel movement that claims to have a means of slaying the Tyrant herself.
Word Count: 78
I like the idea of these, but it doesn't feel as good as some of your other posts -
ReplyDeleteThe thing with the star Wars posts is that they were never really interested in History, they told you what was going on NOW, and the events that immdietly preceded the opening scenes. They didn't bother with big lore explanations.
So for example your 4th one could be re written as-
'The Innsurection against the Emperess has begun. The Free peoples of the Western Plains defeated the Tyrants' Armies at the Battle of Islehock, and so have lit the spark of rebellion throughout the Empire.
But the Warlords and Burecrats of the Empire now gather a new army of the dead, one not seen since the Tyrant first took power over 200 hundred years ago.
Their only fear is that the Staff of the Blue Wizard, thought lost for generations, is now rumoured to have been found in an ancient tomb in the deep cold of Far North...'
Including a macguffin is also a great idea imo!
Any history in an opening crawl should have immediate relevance to the audience and/or players. The Ep IV crawl doesn't say much more than "It is a period of civil war" and then just gives names and stakes to the handful of things we'll be seeing in the next scene, e.g. the death star plans, Princess Leia and her starship, and the empire's sinister agents.
DeleteMy biggest difficulty as a GM is getting my players invested in a fantasy realm that I just made up for kicks, and having them actually care about it and want to interact with it. If you can leap the barrier to entry with something like the Ep. IV crawl, that becomes much easier for everyone.
The [Kingdom of Goodsborough] has finally achieved peace after a period of civil war and violent insurrection. For the first time in decades, trade ships and military galleons sail the perilous dark oceans to establish contact with long-lost colonies.
ReplyDeleteResponding to a cryptic letter of distress, the brigantine Radiance sets sail for the distant port of [StartTown] carrying a small retinue of unorthodox yet loyal Queen's Inquisitors...
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After decades of peaceful isolation, the eyes of the [human sphere] alight on the far-flung star system of Voronin, and its trinity of inhabitable planets. Titanic marvels of engineering sprout from the dust like weeds, Faraday cages and lead panels to protect the corporate researchers from Voronin's radioactive kiss.
Across the [Human Sphere], the brave, foolish, heroic or desperate flock to this new frontier, hiring pilots daring enough to fly without instrumentation and seeking work or riches in the mines, megastructures and blighted deserts...
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I actually ran the first one for a couple sessions, but never quite ran the 2nd one beyond character creation. I should probably actually use my blog for something and give them a proper write-up, hey?