Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Wohoon, in less than 10 words

Thundarr the Barbarian, with backgrounds drawn by Salvador Dali.

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There are a lot of great settings being cooked up at the moment: Thool, Athanor, The Valley of Blue Snails, Yoon-Suin, Cinder. If you're working on one, I'd love to hear a summary in 25 words or less (And please post a link if you've got someplace online where you go on and on about it!).

30 comments:

noisms said...

Well you've already provided the link, but here's my 25 words:

Yoon-suin is a land of which molluscs and other invertebrates dominate. A malaise afflicts all vertebrates who live there. It is like real world Bengal and Tibet, except not.

noisms said...

Okay, a few more than 25.

letsdamage said...

All right, here's a quick breakdown of my homebrew setting, Freed Lands, which will use the BRP ruleset if I ever finish it:

Basically, take a sorta-medieval fantasy setting, come up with sorta-scientifically legitimate reasons for there to be multiple sapient races running around, then haunt it with ancient, inscrutable spirit beings that will grant power... for a price. Finally, strand the players in a backwater land torn by religious strife, plague, famine, warfare, and feudal intrigue, and let them try to carve out a kingdom.

Or, the 14-word version:

A Song of Ice and Fire meets West of Eden, animated by Hayao Miyazaki.

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

My summary of my Dark Ages setting in 20 words:
Post-apocalypse world where civilization has retreated to survive. Some may find glory and gold in that which was lost.

Chris said...

Vaults of Nagoh: Greek heroes and Babylonian alchemists hunt lost treasures in a world of magic gone mad.

18 words.

Jeff Rients said...

I think I can do mine in four:

Extra lava and robots.

Superhero Necromancer said...

25 words? Hm. Ok, I’m getting ready to develop my “Rainy City” D&D setting on my blog:

It’s the end of the world. It never stops raining. The wizards are hidden in rotting townhouses with their last spells. Don't trust anyone.

Joshua Macy said...

Elves & Espers

D&D in the retro-future World of Tomorrow!

Max said...

Noisms: Shangri Lophotrochozoa!

blizack: I don't know from Ice & Fire, Eden, nor Miyazaki, but I agree that spirit beings should never be scrutable.

Chgowiz: I hope to make it down there for a session or two this summer!

Chris: I take my eye off you for a second and you start posting like crazy. Added to my feeds!

Rients: Show off! ;D

Superhero Necromancer: Very evocative. Maybe it's your online handle, but I envisioned that as an opening splash page with inset panels for the narration.

jamused: Oh great, now I'm envisioning E & E in black & white like a 50s instructional film. Do you affect a warm and paternal yet subtly patronizing tone when you DM?

Thanks to all!

Kent said...

Demons strangle Florence, Devils abuse Papal State, Sparta furious with Athens, while English Wizards fret over the unrealities of the only Dungeon in the world.

Michael S/Chgowiz said...

Jeff forgot one thing - chickens. And gonad smashing. Scorpadillos!

thekelvingreen said...

Urban adventures, hot, dusty, African?, bandits, more bandits, elves are not to be trusted, someone finds a handgun, time-travelling vampires, moon, secret invasion, Gonchongs!

Badmike said...

1000 years After the Cataclysm. A drowned world full of islands. Beneath the waves and mountains, ancient ruins and danger from a pre-Cataclysmic culture...

Cas said...

Thordan: Post-apocalyptic city torn between politically compromised humans, cultists who want to destroy the sun, a persecuted elven underclass, and Undercity merchants trading in cannibalism.

Doug Easterly said...

Wow. Such an illustrious list for Athanor to be included in! Athanor in 25 word or less: Weird science fantasy on a dying planet that has forgotten its past (with dinosaurs and the occasional ray gun.) 19 words? Good enough.

ChattyDM said...

A sentient Dungeon of Chaos is fighting a city being built inside itself!

http://chattydm.net/tag/megadungeon/

Max said...

Kent: This sounds like the sort of complex intrigue that's well outside my strengths but that I admire the hell out of.

kelvingreen: Time-travelling vampires would fit in well on Wohoon, where the scourge of undeath is caused by chronomantical aberrations. Is this for Call of Cthulhu or a fantasy world?

Badmike: Island worlds are great -- each can be its own weird mini-world if you choose.

Cas: Aren't all politics compromise, and all compromises political ;D? Is this for D&D? Sounds it'd be a cool Shadowrun setting too.

Doug: No need for modesty -- Athanor really fries my bacon.

ChattyDM: The Living Dungeon fits nicely with Philotomy's idea of the dungeon as mythic underworld, I think.

Long time ago I wrote down a few ideas for a campaign set entirely underground. It's mostly me in surreal rambling mode (again), but maybe you'll find something useful.

Again, thanks all for stopping by!

Anonymous said...

Carcosa in exactly 25 words:

A bleak world of weird science-fantasy, in which warriors with laser-rifles battle blasphemous human-sacrificing sorcerers who conjure, bind, and command Cthulhoid entities.

link: http://carcosa-geoffrey.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Forbidden City Sandbox: An ancient cursed city of demonic snakemen and mongrel humans in a jungle filled with savage tribesmen, giant apes, and dinosaurs.

Will be using Swords & Wizardry White Box. Just setting up but will have regular updates here.

Rachel Ghoul said...

Not very original, but here's what I got.

Men and the friends they make millenia hence explore the world after the return of the fairies, magic, and monsters. Not always serious.

BlUsKrEEm said...

Allele;

In an utopia of magic and genetic engineering a mysterious glow causes mutations wherever it settles. No hunger, no disease, no metallurgy. Enchanted Tentacle +1.

P_Armstrong said...

Northern Marches - Meat and potatoes but with the rich, thick gravy that is the players running all over it. Oh yeah and a megadungeon.

thekelvingreen said...

Is this for Call of Cthulhu or a fantasy world?
My Call of Cthulhu games are much more sensible! This would be a fantasy game, which I'd probably run using Labyrinth Lord. I have an urge to explore a world that's part Bakshi's Wizards, part King's Dark Tower, with a dash of Mad Max 3 and a little bit of Lankhmar. The elves ran the previous empire, which fell thousands of years ago, leaving them as near-feral barbarians eager to regain power, and the vampires are what the current human civilisation becomes, once it has grown, gone through a golden age, and fallen into decline. They've run out of resources, and their world is dying, so they're coming back to steal ours, paradox be damned.

Jeff_Grubb said...

Man will live on mountaintops. Men will sail the clouds.

Unknown said...

Ne'erdowells in a Dark Age plundering the wealthy remnants of an evil empire. There may be ogres.


Concise if not terribly original.

Robo said...

There are no elves -- except one, and you're not him. Bullywugs, Aztecs, and Mon Calamari. Giants devolved into dwarves. Factions like Planescape. St. Cuthbert.

Adam Thornton said...

My current Microlite74 game is easy.

Big Dungeon. Mad Archmage. C'mon, you know this one.

My ongoing 3.5E "Nine Hills Dairy" is tougher.

Corporatism battles collectivism in this pun-and-pop-culture-infested deconstruction of Gygaxian Alignment and the Great Wheel. Of cheese.

Twenty words. That'll do.

Adam Thornton said...

Here are the settings, so far, in "Nine Hills". I think it's going to be longer than 25 words, though. As you might imagine, it's been a fun planehopping campaign:

Saltmarsh. Greyhawk. Hamlet of Village. Undermountain. Temple of Elemental Evil Redux. Apocalypse Cow. Sigil. The Tomb Of Whores (don't even ask). The Cheese Plane. The Haunted Amusement Park. The Executive Washroom. New Jersey.

Max said...

Geoffrey: A cheerful romp! Do your players ever show up and wanna switch to Toon for a week ;) ? Remind me to write up some lake monsters.

Lord Kilgore: That is my Ray Harryhausen fever dream you just described. Rad.

Rach's reflections: Not Always Serious is good advice!

BlUsKrEEm: What system? I mean, you had me at 'Enchanted Tentacle +1' but is this SF, horror, science fantasy...?

P_Armstrong: Mmmm, gravy. Your players will roux the day, eh?

Jeff_Grubb: Hey, Jeff Grubb visits my blog, makes gnomic proclamation. I kid; I'm curious to learn more!

James V: Who needs originality when there might be ogres? 'Course I first read that as orgies...

Robo: Bullywugs? Aztecs? Calamari? I dunno if that's how you make ceviche, but I'll take it with an order of fried plantain. Hope to see more of this on your blog.

Adam Thornton: Nine Hills Dairy! *snerk* Does it all end in Goudadammerung?

And thanks once again to everyone for commenting!

Patrick Mallah said...

25 words for Kosranon:

Humans are fractured into survivalist tribes, brutally twisted by magical radiation, hunted by necromancer dwarves, and rebuilding from the scavenged ruins of an ancient world.