Alternate Settings I'd Like To Run

Here's some links to alternate setting ideas I'd like to run as RPGs, but may never get around to.

• Scion Babies
• Multi-Platform Warriors
• Galadriel's Middle Earth

Galadriel's Middle Earth

We start the campaign by watching the first 2/3rds of Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring. When Frodo offers the ring to Galadriel, we pause while she's in "Terrible As The Dawn" mode.

I hand out character sheets of all the non-hobbits in the fellowship. The PCs barely escape, Galadriel kicks Sauron's ass, and sets up the Fascist Dark Elf State.

The PCs are tasked with tracking down Gandalf and Sariman and uniting Humanity and Orcs against the Goth Elf army.

Ultimately, while this could be a lot of fun, it has issues. First, I'd have to do a lot of research to do it right, and I have no faith in my ability to finish the Silmarillion. Secondly, I've never really cared for the rules systems of any of the Lord of the Rings RPGs that I've read. Just too much work all around.

Multi-Platform The Warriors

Have you seen the movie The Warriors?
It's an old 70's film about a New York street gang trying to get back to Coney Island while all the other gangs in NYC hunt them. It's got some really trippy gangs - like the Baseball All-Stars. For a while I considered just stealing the plot for Cyberpunk 2020 and it's various posergangs.

Then I realized, it'd be cooler if each gang were represented by a different RPG system. There'd be a CP2020 gang for sure, plus a Vampire gang, a gang of Spanners, some Pendragon knights, 40k Orks, a D&D party, etc. Eventually a gang shows up without any connecting theme, and hopefully the players intuit that it's the GURPS gang.

This would make a good GwenCon one-shot, too, so there's hope I may run it this fall or next.

I'm not sure exactly what system the PCs should be from. One option would be Amber, using hoodlum junior versions of the Elder Amberites trying to get home without their trumps. Problem is the lack of randomness to that system - I'm unsure if it's a good idea to run a fairly combat-and-chase-scene intensive one-shot in such an abstract system. I suppose they could use Amber mechanics when defending, and the enemies mechanics when attacking, or vice-versa. That would shake things up a bit.

Alternately, PCs could be the colorful (and full-color) Everway sample characters.

Scion Babies

I'm considering running this for GwenCon this year. The idea is a blending of Scion and the cartoon show Muppet Babies. PCs would be Muppets with Divine Parentage - or the Muppets imagine themselves as Scions, I'm not sure which.

Kermit is the Scion of Thor - though that'd be a reference to the old Muppet News Flash logo on Sesame Street.
Miss Piggy is the Scion of Aphrodite.
Gonzo is probably the Scion of Eris or Loki.

I've had the concept in mind (on the back burner) for almost 6 months, but have yet to work out any further details.

Twisted Expectations

It should be fairly obvious reading over this gaming blog that I'm a big fan of Alternative Settings that are at once familiar, yet also twist the player's expectations around to keep them off-balance.

• I've done a variety of alternate Ambers, mostly taking place at somepoint in the midst of the first 5 novels, and then diverting drastically. I've never done "Brand won" but I have cast Brand as a good guy a few times, vs Random and/or Eric and/or Bleys and Fiona as the villains. I've dragged reincarnation into the setting once or twice, and based entire plotlines on how abusive Oberon was when the "elders" were children.

• Using a similar trick to that I've done repeatedly in Amber, I once ran a Star Wars campaign set in the week before Episode IV. I few sessions in, Princess Leia told the PCs the tale of how when ObiWan died, Luke raged and turned to the dark side. Yavin blew up the next session, and Han Solo went off to settle his debt with Jabba. The PCs were left to shoulder the Alliance's burdens themselves, while the evil Skywalker's hunted them.

• I transformed an Amber campaign into an Everway campaign when the PCs failed to stop the villain and a reality storm swept across the cosmos. All the PCs died, and only one NPC from the old game remained in the new universe.

  
  

• I bisociate on all cylinders in my current Scion campaign, so the PCs have a hard time knowing which history is real. They just spent two sessions fighting Angels and Ghosts (Celtic, Greek, Turkish and Parisian) on an island that was a self-contradicting blend of Trojan Myth and Grail Legend.

• Stretching back a few decades, I recall a late-80s Elfquest campaign where I ran an alternate divergent tale of Cutter's quest. I guess this was the first occurance of the trick I'd later use in Amber - start "in media res" in the middle of (or shortly before) an existing story, and then make dramatic changes to the plot as the story goes on.

• Hearts of Darkness, my multi-year LARP, was a clearly "alternate history" game. We started in 1850, in a Camarilla-less version of Vampire: The Masquerade that purposefully twisted all the "secrets" of the V:TM setting. Giovanni/Cappodocians, werewolves, and Salubri/Baali were three areas that I took great pleasure in distorting. Every couple of months we'd jump the story ahead by 10 years, and Albuquerque grew to rival New York. Eventually, PC activity led to the repudiation of The Masquerade and the open revelation of the supernatural to mortals.

• Montaigne-based 7th Sea with heavy reincarnative plot-threads and some departures involving The Bargainers, the Sidhe, and the Syrneth.
  

The list goes on. I really like taking the familiar and corrupting the details.

Everway Realm Index - Alphabetical

Below is an alphabetical index of all the Everway Realms that Sarah and I made for our old campaign. Each Realm has a post on this blog, corresponding to the page about that location that we gave to the players in our campaign. In addition, some Realms have multiple pages, either GM secrets, or additional player hand-outs. Every player got a big binder with 30+ pages of info. These Realms were used for the background of PCs and NPCs, plus plenty of clues were hidden in the binders as well - some hidden too well. It'd be fair to say the campaign was a tad bit overproduced, but it was fun.

• Amber - the Everway campaign was a follow-up to an Amber campaign where the PCs failed to prevent the universe from being rewritten.
• Bamboo City
• Beauteous Sea
• Bess's Nut
  
• Boundless. Originally a vacation paradise, but by the time the PCs got there, it had been overrun by zombies.
• BrewerBarrow was documented for the players. They never got the full disclosure on the magic beer, the ghosts, or what inspired it.
• CornDale and HamLeg: Corndale is the Realm. Ham Leg's Gate is a village within it. GM Full Disclosure files included The Unicorn Craze and minor villains.
• Crone Crater
• Earth Maze
• Enduring Fall
• Flashfire and a tiny bit of extra info that wasn't on the player's handout.
• Fossil is being reborn due to the efforts of King Incontrovertible. You can also read about his subjects, both mundane and notable.
  
• Frostbridge is a Realm inhabited by Giants, such as a spoiled princess named Valkyrie's Pride. There is likely to be war between Frostbridge and Fossil.
  
• Grand Pelt is a Realm. One of the villages within is Foamy Falls.
• Legs of Ra
• Moon's Trial is where the campaigns plotline originated.
• Night's Adornment is a very fashionable and noteworthy place. So are the inhabitants. If that's not enough info, you can also read more about them here. We prepped a few random encounters as well, and did some brainstorming for the names of Extras.
  
• Opal, Westcliff, and Golems: Opal is the Realm. The capitol city, Above, has been totally co-opted by the Opaline Center for Golemic Studies. They, of course, make Golems. Beneath the city and school is Westcliff.
• Pasture Days
• Pure Heart
• Red Sky
• Restriction
• Rustheart
• Slidemount
• The Empire of the Stag & Sovna: The Empire has expanded recently, including swallowing up the Olive Isles. Here's some villainous NPCs stats to go with it.
• The Seeking

Special bonuses: Two Realms we never made. Add to that this partial realm that never made it into the campaign: Pleasure In Communion. Lastly, here's a Formatting Example to help you understand the other entries - though I bet you can figure them out yourself.

Realm Form

Just for fun, here's the blank template Sarah and I built our Everway Realms from:

Name of Location (City, Realm or Sphere)

A brief overview of what the concept behind the world is.

Usurper Force: It’s Name
Normal: Dominant Effect
Inverted: Opposite Effect

People: A description of the people inhabiting this location, their outlook and society. If they have unusual laws or customs, mention it here or in a paragraph of it’s own.

Economy: The money, manufactured goods, and valued items that can be found here. If they place value in things you might not expect, mention it here.

Military: Explain the threats, conflicts, defenses and military objectives of the realm

Ecology: The geography, climate, flora & fauna of the Realm is listed here. Only detail the pertinent parts, don’t sweat the small stuff.

Rose: Roses of some sort grow on every sphere, sign of the god’s hand in creation.

Prominent NPCs or well-known Institutions: If there’s a person, place or thing you want the PCs to have heard of, here’s the place to describe it.

Gates & Bordering Realms: Describe what one has to do to get here, and what destinations you can continue on to from here. A rough number of Gates in the place would be nice, plus anything unusual about them and the significant places they lead to.

Pleasure-In-Communion (City-Realm)

This is a half-written Everway Realm. It never appeared in the hand-outs, as I was never quite happy with it.

Pleasure-In-Communion (City-Realm)

Several generations ago, the city of Pleasure-In-Communion was known simply as Communion, and it has long been the sight of numerous temples and a busy marketplace. A series of naturally-occurring hot-springs and powerful local spirits caused the place to be a center for mystical retreat, and a convergence of Gates to many worlds did cause it to grow into a popular tourist attraction for Spherewalkers. Over the years, however, the intersection of commerce and religion has lead to something of a fall from greatness.

Usurper Force: The Anointing
Normal: Worshipful Caress
Inverted: Distracted by Finery

People: Pleasure-In-Communion draws visitors from many Realms and Spheres, and so is a great melting pot. The culture is as a rule very open, liberal and accepting, but the surroundings can bring out either the best or worst of those who dwell here. There is also a small number of visitors who arrive each year merely to protest against the decadence of this society.

Economy: Little is manufactured here, but there are many luxury imports and a thriving black market. Healing, pampering, blessings and massage can be purchased at many locations in the city, and form the backbone of this service-based economy.

Military:

Ecology:

Rose:

Temples & Bathhouses: The main avenue of the city is lined with Temples, Bathhouses, Bordellos, Drug Dens and places that could qualify for two or more of those titles. Several different cults have sprung up, most devoted to sexuality or some notion of sensory experience. Holy prostitutes offer to provide you communion with the Gods.

Bathing In The Element: At least 1 bathhouse in Pleasure-In-Communion uses not hot-springs or man-made baths, but bound Water Elementals. The experience of immersion in such a being is said to be otherworldly in the least.

Amber (Myth)

This was part of the binder full of hand-outs given to the players in my old Everway campaign. A few nods to Amberway can be noted in the text below.

Amber (Myth)

“In olden days, on the distant shores of Amber...”

Is there anyone in all the spheres who doesn’t know that phrase? It seems at least half of all fairy-tales start that way. Most are about a young lad who should have known better, or a beautiful princess in great peril. Sometimes it’s about both, and they meet, are crowned King & Queen, fall tragically in love, are tricked into the woods by their evil stepmother, battle against horrible inhuman tyrants, and/or learn they were twins separated at birth, though not necessarily in that order. One thing you can be sure of is that every tale that starts this way is sure to have a self-righteous moral. Indeed, most tales of Amber are gushy, sappy melodramas, with villains unbelievable and heroines too true. But if you are in need of a familiar, comfortable way to get a story started, you could do a lot worse than “In olden days, on the distant shores of Amber...”

Though the Realm of Amber is most assuredly merely a fairytale, bards, poets and dramatists alike all agree upon the Usurper Force. It’s a stylistic convention that is only very rarely deviated from, and it adds greatly to the verisimilitude of this entirely ubiquitous fairy-tale city.
Usurper Force: The Royal Family
Normal: Unbreakable Solidarity
Inverted: Over-Protective Elitism

Tales you’ve no doubt heard about Amber, and particularly the way it was in Olden Days include...

1. Amber was the first city ever. In these tales typically some silly significance is granted to the city: Perhaps it was founded by the Gods or the first Spherewalker, maybe it’s where Coyote revealed to man the art of sorcery and was chained to a rock as punishment, sometimes all the buildings are made of gingerbread or gold, and in a few tales all the citizenry are Spherewalkers or incredibly strong.

2. The king of Amber is often named Walker First-Born. Sometimes a tale will revolve around a young man discovering that he was merely adopted by the old couple or pack of wolves that raised him, then he’ll learn his true name, defeat a preposterous villain, and raise to the title of King of Amber. Sometimes, First Born is indeed the first person ever born, or the first to receive the God’s gift of speech or the Fortune Deck. Other times he’s just called Walker, and it is said he built all the Gates between worlds. In some tales he marries the first woman ever born, and sometimes he lives a vow of chastity and servitude protecting a marvelous unicorn.

3. Horrible monsters and mustached villains love to besiege Amber. They always fail, though. Every Amber story has a happy ending, usually involving a wedding, a naming, a great battle, or the finding of the true heir. Again, sometimes the bards overdo it and try to work in all 4 to final chapter of a single tale.

4. Near to Amber is a city that is almost exactly like it except magical in some way elemental. You’ve heard tales of Underwater Amber, Volcanic Amber, Forested Amber, Amber-On-The-Moon, Ghost Amber, etc. Often it’s like a mirror or reflection - everything being backwards from the way it is in Amber. In all these stories, the Reflected Amber is in some fundamental way inferior to Amber, but still holds a secret that Walker First-Born or one of his younger siblings has to go investigate.

5. The Royal Family of Amber is huge. Their family tree is convoluted, and includes numerous political marriages, which our hero & heroine often escape from via some clever trick or demonstration of awe-invoking purity. All the Royals are powerful, many to a degree that is unbelievable. They might run around a Sphere in a day, or save a sinking ship by drinking the ocean, outrageous claims like that are to be expected.

6. No one you have ever known has ever been to Amber. Maybe someone they used to know was there once, but it was so beautiful they decided to relocate for good. Only a fool would ever leave Amber on purpose. Why else do you think all those Ogres and wicked stepmothers try to conquer it? It’s the best city you’ve ever imagined.

Redsky (Sphere)

This Everway Realm was inspired by a particular location/chapter in Nine Princes In Amber. Since the Everway game was a follow-up to an Amber campaign where Eric won and rewrote the universe, this place was specifically tweaked by the victor to prevent a reborn Bleys/Blaze from mustering troops here.

Redsky (Sphere)

The most notable fact about this harsh desert world is that the sky is nearly always the colors of sunset - the world’s most common name is derived from that fact. Everything’s a little off-kilter here, no doubt a result of the magical influence of the unnaturally colored sky.

Usurper Force: The Burning Sky
Normal: Enduring The Unnatural
Inverted: Succumbing To Unexpected Elements

People: Those who live here are, by and large, not human. They are a unique breed of elf, tall and thin, with skin the color of their sky. They are hairless, have sharply pointed ears and slightly pointy heads, and too many digits to their spindly fingers. They dress in bright silks, and carry scimitars with greatly exaggerated curves. They are desert dwellers so they travel light and keep few possessions, living off the harshest of lands. They like to sing while they work or fight, mostly religious songs about the battle between Gods and the foul Pretender.

Economy: Redsky has few appreciable exports. Silks mostly, and some exotic curved swords. The land is not resource-rich, so they have little to trade with, but are constantly in need. More than once in history the Elves of Redsky have raided out into other Spheres to take what they could not make in their own world, but it has always met with disaster.

Military: The Elves of Redsky are skilled swordsmen, but they all employ an exotic school of fighting adapted to the wide open spaces of their homeland. This extremely mobile style is terribly disadvantaged when hemmed in to small spaces - if they don’t have room for exaggerated defensive movements, they are likely to go down fast. The overly curved swords deliver ferocious wounds but are difficult to parry with effectively.
They have a navy as well, composed of enormous catamaran-style ships with very wide decks.

Pretender: The religion of the Elves of Redsky tells of a great evil known as Pretender. Pretender is charismatic, cunning, and seemingly noble - it is easy to like him even when you have better reasons to fear him. He can appear as an elf or a human, the later of which is believed to be his true form. As a human he is often known as Lightning Lie the Burning Sky Demon. Pretender’s chief purpose in existing is to fool and betray those of weak mind or pretentious aspirations. Sometimes he claims to be a God, in other generations he is just a warrior. He has the ability to walk the Spheres without using Gates. With such power, he seeks to tempt the elves into making war on other worlds. He leads them far away from home, promising conquest and paradise. Then he rains down Lightning upon them and delights in their destruction.

Ecology: The entire Sphere is made of mountains, desert and ocean. There are no forests, jungles or swamps. The sunlight burns fiercely. Strange plants and animals grow in such a harsh climate. Several breeds of cactus grow, some of them not merely spiny but also toxic. The local humming birds drink blood as well as nectar, and have been known to attack elves and humans. Tribes of coin-sized purple scorpions build hills not unlike ants in other realms. Several species of large-jawed or spined grubs spin durable silk in unusual colors.

Bird-Eating Rose: This desert flower looks like a very thorny but otherwise normal rose. It’s flower oozes a sweet-smelling sap that attracts scorpions, silk worms, hummingbirds, and foolish spherewalkers alike. The sap however is a strong glue. Any potential sap harvesters become quickly stuck to the flower, which senses their struggle and releases a digestive enzyme. A single flower can trap a hummingbird, kill it after a few hours and digest it completely in a day or two. Humans are generally safe as long as they don’t charge through or jump into such a rosebush.

Gates: There are multiple gates leading out of Redsky, all are small enough that travel through them must be done in single-file. The Gates are scattered through-out the desert. They open up into Boundless, SlideMount, and the Empire of the Stag & Sovna.