New and Upcoming Settings

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sciborg2's picture
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New and Upcoming Settings

Shadowlands is a new setting doing a Kickstarter right now:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowlands/the-shadowlands-campaign...

"We are extremely excited to announce that legendary Ed Greenwood, the creator of The Forgotten Realms will join our Shadowlands kickstarter project! We told you that we wanted to bring back that old school Forgotten Realms campaign setting feel and there is no one better to do just that than the very person who wrote the book!"

Ed Greenwood joins Shadowlands Campaign Setting:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowlands/the-shadowlands-campaign...

Perhaps one of the more interesting things about the setting is the scifi elements that underpin arcane and divine magic as well as psionics:

"Imagine a fantasy gaming world as rigorously realistic as ours, replete with dark, gritty, manipulative personalities and cultures. Now add to that an enormous ancient world and "magic" that is more based on a hard sci-fi mashup than fantasy hand-waving.

Players interface with ancient technologies, navigate byzantine layers of intrigue and may just survive long enough to achieve the power of the Old Gods themselves."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

For what it's worth, all the badass fantasy+sci-fi mashup stuff is from a 2011 Kickstarter (a successful one, though from their website it's not clear they actually produced anything).

Though the current Kickstarter alludes to sci-fi elements, all the info on display seems to advertise a substantially more straightforward fantasy setting. Weird.

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I get the feeling they may be thinking of retooling some of the scifi aspects. I think one of the challenges is keeping the secret tech layer plausible:

Originally the idea was that gods are actually AIs...but why would an AI decide to oversee the portfolio of a nature god?

Spells come from AIs that alter probabilities to reshape reality...why would AI do this for humans mages waving their hands around while chanting?

Similarly, nanotech connecting all living minds making psionics plausibe...why would a civilization do this?

I admittedly like the idea of an advanced tech civilization being responsible for a great deal of the fantasy elements, but think it might work better if the technology was of a magic wielding race like the spellweavers.

eta: Even better would be the magitech civilization that invented the Doombringer.

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

sciborg2 wrote:
I get the feeling they may be thinking of retooling some of the scifi aspects. I think one of the challenges is keeping the secret tech layer plausible:

Originally the idea was that gods are actually AIs...but why would an AI decide to oversee the portfolio of a nature god?

Spells come from AIs that alter probabilities to reshape reality...why would AI do this for humans mages waving their hands around while chanting?

I'm perfectly happy to let AIs past a certain power and scope have their inscrutable motivations, though I think there could be totally interesting answers to both of the questions above. To the first, biology is a pretty phenomenal information processing system, and maybe those spellcasters waving their hands around are actually interfacing with some OS, Kinect style.

That said, I think I'd likewise be more on board with exotic magi-tech anyway. I suppose I'm not interested in the sci-fi aspects for their sci-fi-ness so much as for their relative weirdness. Which is why the "Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance" blurb felt kind of ehh.

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I thought about the OS interaction - but why would you then have material/verbal/somatic components?

Outside of the D&D system, magic actually has some rules ("like affects like", "a piece connects to the whole") that I don't think necessarily work under the AIs-doing-magic-for-you idea.

What I think a magi-tech civilization gives you is a bit more wiggle room, especially if you tie to the idea of information - like Warren Ellis once said, magic is the cheat codes to the universe.

I think you can still have AIs as gods, but make them overseers of various aspects of the world that essentially become gods over time. If the "bits" related to war are overseen by one AI, then since those "bits" would touch battles, soldiers, weapons it sorta makes sense in a pseudo-scientific way why that AI could become the god of war.

Similarly, information also helps explain the rules of magic. Like affects Like and Part connects to Whole work because in both cases the bits connect ->

Guano has "bits" that connect to gunpowder, whose "bits" connect to explosions and that's how you get to a fireball.

The "bits" of my hair connect to the rest of me, and that's how you get Part connects to Whole.

Of course, the reasoning for why this manipulation of "bits" needs magic to work the D&D way is still unclear...

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

I suppose I imagine that hyper-advanced AIs could totally traffic in ideas and metaphors and work to further their own ends in ways that would be thematically very recognizable to mortals.

I don't mean to make a case for this with any real conviction - I just think it's interesting to knock around. Have you read 'Archer's Goon'?

Quote:
What I think a magi-tech civilization gives you is a bit more wiggle room, especially if you tie to the idea of information - like Warren Ellis once said, magic is the cheat codes to the universe.

I love it. In fact, maybe it's a flip side or corollary of the Ellis metaphor that makes me feel ok about arbitrarily shooting down technology in fantasy settings: do enough magic and reality will end up with some dents, enough to degrade the constancy of basic physical laws. Not enough that a person would notice, but more than enough to turn that laser gun or computer into junk.

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

I kinda figure technology would rely on magic, Eberron style. It is also possible that the D&D Multiverse obeys fundamentally different laws that only seem to match ours.

The book Prospero Lost actually posits that our world only works the way it does because Propsero made alliances with the spirits of electricity and such. Without those bargains, no technology would work.

Mage: The Ascension had a similar idea, that the Technocracy shifted reality so that reason and the scientific method could actually yield results.

=-=-=

More new setting stuff ->

Shanna Germain on designing for Monte Cook's Numenera setting:

http://shannagermain2.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/why-i-love-building-the-n...

Transmissions from the Ninth World, a Numenera Podcast:

http://transmissionsninthworld.blogspot.com/

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Well, here's an actual Magitech Kicskstarter setting:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1860935013/thunderscape-the-world-of...

"Thunderscape: the World of Aden introduces readers to the battered but unbroken world of Aden, a world where knights and sorcerers fight shoulder to shoulder with mechamagical golems against the nightmarish hordes spawned by the Darkfall, a supernatural cataclysm of unknown origin. Ten years ago, the sun was suddenly and unexpectedly eclipsed by an unknown force. Although the darkness lasted only a short time, in those long moments of false night, horrors beyond imagining sprang from every shadow. Beasts long destroyed, terrors that had only ever been imagined, and things that no sane mind had ever contemplated all became suddenly, violently real, and Aden burned. The nocturnals, as these beasts became known, slaughtered countless thousands and put an untold number of villages and cities to the torch. In one instant, the world of Aden was plunged into chaos and anarchy. Having known only peace for more than a thousand years, the nations of Aden were ill-prepared for this ruthless onslaught, and it seemed that the world of the mortal races would perish without ever knowing the cause. But the people of Aden are hardier than that. The world was in the throes of an industrial revolution, with magic and technology being tied together into a strange arcane art known as mechamagic. With this, and with the many other strengths brought to bear by the nations of Aden, the world fights back against the Darkfall and the nocturnals."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Also, as long as I'm here, images from 13th Age:

http://aamcconnell.com/13th-age-gallery/

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

A bit out of date, but this update from Monte's Numenera Table Top Kickstarter has links to both the crunchy and fluffy aspects of his new setting:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1433901524/numenera-a-new-roleplayin...

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

a magilogical society based on hidden technology would likely have some sort of user access method to restrict, meter, and/or control access. if the demise of the original users or coders was foreseen, or even perceived quickly enough before said demise became endemic, then a default access system could have been enacted - indeed, may have existed prior without any special enactment need. the material, somatic, and verbal components could represent the symbolic access keys coded into the system for granting access rights. the destruction of the material components is represents those forms of access that are time delimited or single-sign-on.

the exact components may be based on a logic, or database structure completely alien to our forms of logic and association. the laws of similarity, opposition, and so forth which are commonly ascribed to 'real life magic' may have no basis for logic, association, or reason in the mentalities responsible for enacting the system in the first place.

furthermore, database corruption may have occurred over time, leading to oddball quirks, loopholes, and similar hackable points. discovery of backdoor passwords may constitute epic seeds and related levels of expression of power.

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Colin McComb Joins Shadowlands:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowlands/the-shadowlands-campaign...

"We're super excited to offer up a new Stretch Goal that we feel certain we'll achieve, hopefully on our way to the FATE and Atlas goals!

We're teaming up with gaming great Colin McComb who will join the Kickstarter to help us design the region known as Barzakh, the “Place that is No Place”!

Barzakh is a combination of alternate universes, different quantum states, dream realms and simulated realities. Barzakh takes its inspiration from films like Inception,The Thirteenth Floor, and Dark City; it will excite and delight fans familiar with (or fond of) the Planescape setting. Which is why we are so excited to have Colin on board!

Colin not only helped create the original Planescape material, including writing more than a half dozen books, he also worked on the original “Planescape: Torment” game and is currently working with inXile Entertainment on “Torment: Tides of Numenera”.

On of the things we love about having Colin join the team is that he will help bring back some of the feel of the importance of player choice, belief, and ideology and the way that this actually helps shape the gaming environment! This is exactly what Barzakh is supposed to be about. Created by the Ancients, Barzakh is the (partial) home of the gods of Sæmyyr, as well as other bizarre locations and inhabitants. It's a place where reality warps a little stranger and anything can happen through will and imagination!

Help us bring Colin on board and bring Barzakh to life!"

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Game Mastering Numenera:

http://www.montecookgames.com/game-mastering-numenera/

"...it’s the lengthy Running the Game section of Numenera that really helps someone understand how to use this ruleset the way it is designed to be used. In other words, how to assess the difficulty of actions, the capabilities of NPCs, and how to use these things and the other tools at hand to help facilitate the creation of a cool story.

It is, in a very real way, a guide to how I like to run game sessions. While I’ve written about running games extensively in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, in Dragon Magazine’s Dungeoncraft, in Kobold Quarterly’s Game Theories, and in dozens of other essays I’ve penned over the years, it’s Numenera that actually comes closest to revealing how I personally run games..."

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"This world is but one of untold many, a flux of chance caught between shadow and light. It is a world poised between great powers that shape and define all matter, one of many battlegrounds in an epic struggle between form and cacophony. This is the battle between the creators, shapers, and destroyers of worlds. Welcome to the Lords of Gossamer and Shadow!

Lords of Gossamer and Shadow is an original sourcebook and role-playing game using Erick Wujcik’s Amber Diceless Role-playing, licensed from Diceless by Design. It is a standalone product, but remains fully compatible with the existing rules system and can be readily used in new and existing campaigns."
-Lords of Gossamer and Shadow:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/937759598/lords-of-gossamer-and-shad...

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

New Shadowlands Website:

http://www.saemyyr.com/

"The Shadowlands is an intentional blend of fantasy and science fiction. It is a post-apocalyptic world so advanced that it appears magical. Part of the realism of the Shadowlands is to re-imagine a world where the possibilities of fantasy are in fact possible, a remembrance of futures past, and to provide a narrative way for players to engage that. Accordingly, it takes inspiration from a number of different sources. The far-future stories of Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, A Canticle for Leibowitz and the Culture series of Iain M. Banks provide the science fiction foundations of our setting, just as heady films like Inception, Cloud Atlas, and Equilibrium paint images of what it’s like to exist in a world where magic and psionics are fundamental and also controlled!

Finally, the classic Dungeons & Dragons settings of old like Planescape, Ravenloft and the original Dark Sun give a sense of the ways that beliefs, ideologies, motivations, and factional affiliation can affect and encourage great roleplaying!"

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13 Canes for 13th Age

http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=10974

"Wizard’s canes are known for being eccentric creations – canes that conceal long-stemmed pipes or are topped with miniature orreries or have perches for familiars. The non-magical canes of bravoes are more utilitarian than those of magic users, reinforced and weighted with lead pellets in hollow interiors to allow for quick jabs and heavy swings. Rogues sometimes use swords disguised as canes, with the hollow shaft of the cane ‘scabbard’ doubling up as a blowpipe. Certain high ranking clerics carry canes as a mark of their office. Even bards sometimes carry canes that function as flutes or fold into pan-pipes.

Canes are more impressive than a wand, yet not as unwieldy as a staff. Magic canes are the implement of choice for many fashionable wizards, as well as being useful to warriors who want something more stylish and socially acceptable than a shield. Mundane canes are often just fancy looking sticks used to cosh ne’er do wells. Magical canes do not like being used as clubs at all, they think themselves to be above their non-magical brethren. If repeatedly mistreated in this way may take control of their owner’s legs and walk them into a ditch or gorse bush...."

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"Necropunk is a game and setting that offers a look into what it means to be human. It will be, in the strictest sense, a roleplaying game set in a fantastic future where science has become indistinguishable from magic and necromancy is the flavor of the day."

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Looks like the Numnera Sneak Peaks change, with old ones gone until the book gets published in August?

Well here are two of them:

1) Yenth

Yenth is a town located in the Steadfast, within a kingdom called Malevich. It has a population of 14,000, and it’s a trade city because it sits on a unique border. Yenth is built around a numenera complex from aeons past that houses a large extradimensional portal. Explorers and scholars reactivated the portal thirteen years ago and discovered a parallel universe on the other side—a world very different from the Ninth World, yet similar in certain ways. Weird landscapes and odd flora and fauna fill the land on the other side of the gate, but humans can survive there. In fact, it’s home to small cloisters of humans—or creatures so akin to humans that they’re mostly indistinguishable. However, their motivations and outlook are alien; even when the difficult language barriers are overcome, it’s hard for Ninth Worlders to truly understand them. Still, the people of Yenth have established trade with the ultraterrestrials and call their world “New Yenth.” The ultraterrestrials desire odd things—plants, animals, and substances fairly common in the Ninth World. In trade, they offer unique devices. Most of them seem to offer little value other than as oddities.

The portal to New Yenth is difficult and complicated to use, and as far as anyone understands, it can be opened only from this side. But some people still fear that ultraterrestrials have infiltrated Yenth, posing as Ninth World humans for a mysterious purpose. Others believe that the ultraterrestrials are the descendants of long-lost travelers and explorers from Earth who now just want to come home.

Whether or not the rumors of large-scale infiltration are true, at least one person from the other side hides amid the humans of Yenth. The ultraterrestrial Nariiv secretly dwells in the city, posing as the owner of a leatherworking shop. He is a refugee from the parallel universe, hunted by his own kind for crimes committed (or, as he claims, allegedly committed) in his own world. Nariiv is a skilled warrior and a master of various weapons and combat styles, many never before seen in the Ninth World.

2) Nihliesh

An ancient machine, likely once a mobile vehicle-city of some kind, lies half buried in the caked earth. More than two hundred years ago, nomads explored its interior and found—among other things—a pair of massive devices that they brought back to life. These resurrected mechanisms produce a thick, orange-brown fluid now called churn. Churn can be shaped and molded easily, and once dry, it’s harder than stone but fairly light. The nomads began to build atop the half-buried vehicle, raising curving towers, impossible spans, and shapely domes of churn painted in vibrant colors. They named their new city Nihliesh, after a word in their language meaning “tiers.”

Today Nihliesh has three tiers. The first and lowest is the machine itself, where workers maintain the churn-producing devices and shape the material as it comes out. The original buildings erected atop the machine compose the Second Tier. These haphazard, squat structures are so crowded together that when you’re within and among them, you’d swear that you were underground. Atop this tier are the elegant, artistic buildings that Nihliesh is best known for, with tall spires reaching high into the sky. Residents call it the Third Tier or the Upper Tier.

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13th Age: The New Tabletop Game From The Lead Designers Of 3rd And 4th Edition Dungeons And Dragons

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/05/20/13th-age-review-the-exce...

"This is an especially interesting game both in terms of its mechanics and its creators.

Tweet was the lead designer of 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons. Heinsoo was the lead designer of 4th Edition D&D.

The two men also happen to be close friends and have played tabletop games together for years. They’ve also played obviously important roles in the development of D&D over the past decade and a half.

13th Age represents the game these two designers wanted to play—the game they sit down to play at their own table rather than a game designed by a corporation. (Both Tweet and Heinsoo have quite a lot to say about this in the below video interview, actually."

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http://www.saemyyr.com/designer-diary-the-riven-crown-woloestra/

"This is the first of what I hope will be a series of articles, discussing my thoughts on some part of the Shadowlands Campaign Setting, so that you can see what’s going into the process. Today, I want to talk about Wolœstra, a land bitterly divided by the long, bloody decades of an endless war of succession."

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Rob Heinsoo: Five 13th Age Progressions

http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=11316

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Low Life (new version I guess)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1359565526/low-life-the-rise-of-the-...

"Spork and Sorcery adventure in a shattered world inhabited by the descendants of cockroaches, worms, snack cakes, and stranded aliens. Discover the arcane secrets of hocus pokery, dementalism, smellcasting, and contanimation. Battle hideous beasts risen from the rubble of ancient civilizations. Enjoy a light lunch at the Primordial Soup Kitchen....

This brand new version of the classic Low Life game features all new full-color art, new writing, new magic, tons of new Edges, Powers, Hindrances, and skills, new locales, new adventures, new monsters, a new layout, and new everything else. The original book isn't obsolete, it's just almost sold out and I feel my skills as a writer and illustrator (as well as my vision for the world of Mutha Oith) have improved and expanded since it was released."

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Pre-Order 13th Age From Your Retailer: You Get The PDF, They Get a Discount

http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=11650

If you’ve been waiting to order 13th Age because you want to support your local game store, your long and honorable vigil is over!

You can pre-order 13th Age at your favorite game shop now, and get the finished PDF from us that same day. Your retailer also gets a discount if they pre-order copies, so you’re doing them a double favor.

Here’s how to order 13th Age from your retailer and get the PDF now:

If you retailer is a member of the Bits and Mortar program, place a pre-order with them and they’ll give you a code to download the PDF.

If your retailer is not a Bits and Mortar store, email a scanned image or a legible photo of your receipt to Cat Tobin at [REDACTED], and we’ll send you a link to the PDF.

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Mix vampires and espionage with tabletop RPG Night's Black Agents:

http://io9.com/5974636/mix-vampires-and-espionage-with-tabletop-rpg-nigh...

"As night falls on Belgrade, you and your team of special agents go on high alert. You've got the gadgetry of Bond and the competence of Bourne, but this is a shadowy international conspiracy you're up against: drug lords, corporate masterminds, bought politicians, crooked Interpol agents, and vampires. The bad kind. This is the world of tabletop RPG Night's Black Agents.

In Night's Black Agents, the players take on the roles of secret agents working to uncover an insidious worldwide conspiracy that's controlled by evil vampires. It's filled with innovative features that help create a unique gaming experience and make it relatively easy for the game master to create an elaborate global vampire conspiracy without spending endless hours on preparation."

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HEX MMO Trading Card Game

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/hex-mmo-trading-card-game

http://hextcg.com/story/history/

"A massive crystalline meteor hit Entrath near its northern terrestrial pole. It struck with such force that it traveled through the core of the planet...After exiting the opposite end of the planet, gravity captured the meteor...

What seemed at first to be a potentially world-ending calamity actually became the defining moment of Entrath’s future existence. When the meteor hit, most of its outer core shattered into countless gems that were scattered throughout the surface and underworld of Entrath...

...Unlike the rare and secretive practitioners of wild or blood magic, nearly anyone could extract potent sorcery from the Hexing Gems with study and practice."

"Amidst the great necropolis where the humans kept their fallen heroes in carefully constructed stone vaults, the Hexing Gems somehow caused the dead to awaken. The risen corpses, who called themselves the necrotic, were the first sentient race on Entrath created by Hex, and their existence and motivations remain mysterious. Fresh necrotic were “awakened” by socketing diamond Hexing Gems in the eye sockets of dead humans, who would arise with no memory of their former lives and an entirely new sentience....."

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A Conversation with Monte Cook About Numenera, PDF Publications, and More

http://agamemag.com/archives/1800

BYAG: Is this strictly human, or does it contain fantasy races?

MC: The basic game, you start out as a human. But, even in the basic game you start to ask, ‘what is a human?’ There are so many different options in the game where you can have some type of genetic modification, or mutation, or something that has made you very, very different from what we think of as a human. They you can get into cybernetics and implants and stuff, but then, even beyond that, there is a more expanded optional set of rules of character creation where you can start to tinker with things and you can have the option of playing something that is not native to Earth, but is now on Earth. They’re still not elves and dwarves. Bu there are even more options.

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In depth 13th Age review, might be worth taking a look at:

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15892.phtml

As I understand it the PDF isn't coming out on its own until September?

-Sci

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Primeval Thule

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/809579963/primeval-thule

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Numenera for Educators:

http://www.montecookgames.com/numenera-for-educators/

"As promised, Monte Cook Games, LLC, will donate up to 300 copies of Numenera to educators or librarians.

• To be eligible for this donation, the recipient must be a teacher or librarian. To the best of our ability, we will verify that each requestor is a teacher or librarian

• This offer is valid worldwide. The only cost to the recipients will be the cost of packaging and sending the book to them.

• Interested teachers and librarians must simply complete an online form."

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More Than a Map:

http://www.montecookgames.com/more-than-a-map/

"...The Ninth World is a very, very old place. But its people are a relatively young civilization. So there is a heady mix of old and new wherever the PCs go. And best of all, the feel for what is old and what is new are the inverse of the expected. That iron sword? That wooden wagon wheel? That grindstone? That’s all very new. That device of glass and synth (the Ninth World term for plastic)? That’s old.

The juxtaposition creates situations you don’t find elsewhere. Imagine, for example, a group of lumberjacks sawing down trees to bring back to town so that woodworkers can make tools and furniture. However, to get their lumber to town these fellows use hovering platforms to carry the felled trees back home quickly and easily..."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Ah missed this...but coincidentally that's the setting I'm coming here to post about:

Primeval Thule might be the Conan meets Cthulhu RPG the world needs

http://io9.com/primeval-thule-might-be-the-conan-meets-cthulhu-rpg-the-8...

"RPG veterans and Wizards of the Coast alumni Richard Baker, David Noonan and Stephen Schubert have teamed up to create Sasquatch Game Studio. Their first project? A multi-system campaign world called Primeval Thule that blends the sword & sorcery of Robert E. Howard with the cosmic horror of Lovecraft. This heady blend of pulp action and horror will be available for Dungeons & Dragons 4E, Pathfinder, Pelgrane Press' 13th Age, and the Call of Cthulhu RPG. If you order a pdf of any version (available now through their ongoing Kickstarter), you'll get pdfs of every version."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Numenera: Poster Maps of the Ninth World

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mapmaker/numenera-poster-maps-of-the...

"Last year, right here on Kickstarter, Monte Cook introduced us to his vision of the distant future, in a science fantasy RPG called Numenera! The spectacle and enigma of this setting is visible in the geography itself, and I was given the great honor of mapping this amazing world.

The game's corebook due out this summer will feature a poster map of the Ninth World setting designed for players of this incredible RPG. That map is everything you need to start exploring the mysteries of the Ninth World, but it had to fit within the book. With your help, we can bring you the maps of Numenera at an even more massive scale, with enhanced printing treatments, and on premium materials--with a level of detail reserved for the most dedicated Ninth World explorers!"

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I got the Numenera setting book yesterday. ($20 pdf from DriveThruRPG) It's essentially science fantasy, the idea being that characters are surrounded by technological wonders but most assume them to be magic items.

Initially impressions are favorable. I didn't even read the rules, just looked over the setting material. On an Earth that might be in our universe, there were 8 great civilizations that disappeared, collapsed, or were destroyed. No one really knows.

One billion years separates the new, Ninth World, from our present day.

A few things these civilizations did was have an intergalactic empire, alter the planet and the sun, traverse new dimensions, set up a satellite based data-web, and advance nanotechnology.

I'd say the setting's scifi is akin to the more fantastical aspects of Star Trek, along with comic book science. Psionics, dimensional rifts, rules of reality altered. It's not Hard SF, but I think this helps the setting rather than hurts it. The way the Monte describes it is that while most of the magic has a scientific basis, you could turn it around and say the tech foundations are rooted in magic.

For fans of the New Weird, comic book mutants, and Book of the New Sun - there's a lot of good stuff in there.

Might be awhile before I use the rules to play a game, but I think people looking for a new game should at least seek out playtest reviews. If anyone just collects settings like I do, I'd say it's worth reading.

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Shadows of Esteren - A Medieval Horror RPG

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1176616619/shadows-of-esteren-a-medi...

"A medieval roleplaying game somewhere between Ravenloft, Game of Thrones and Call of Cthulhu."

Music sample from setting soundtrack:

https://soundcloud.com/esteren

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Images from the Hex MMO setting:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/hex-mmo-trading-card-game

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Accursed ("....you secretly slipped Ravenloft some PCP"):

http://www.accursedrpg.com/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1231173913/accursed-rpg?ref=category

"A dark fantasy tabletop RPG setting for the Savage Worlds game system, where heroic monsters fight for redemption.

In a world of dark fantasy and perilous adventure, the forces of evil have triumphed. Those who remain uncorrupted by wickedness must rely upon monsters to fight against the darkness. Witches have ruled the land since the last battles of conquest, but their Grand Coven has been sundered, leaving behind remnants of a once-mighty army. The remnants of the horde include captured citizens of the conquered nations that fought as the Witches’ shock troops."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Dragon Kings:

http://www.dragonkingsproject.com/

"The benevolent Dragon Kings who once ruled over Khitus have inexplicably vanished, leaving once-powerful nations at the mercy of foul creatures unchecked. Cold Skins and Krikis grow numerous and bold. Desperate cities of the Old Countries struggle against savage marauders who stalk ever closer to their crumbling walls. Ancient wizard schools guard their tomes more jealously than ever, essential to their dark sorcerous bargains, while the followers of a mysterious prophet rekindle the magic-that-is-not-magic. The essential materials of life and civilization are being ruthlessly plundered by the mysterious Pretenders in their Black Fortress, leaving the southern lands, especially, in dire straits."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

The Strange, the next campaign setting from Monte Cook Games, using the Numenera mechanics: Main Site & Kickstarter.

It's a many-worlds setting and actually seems to recall this entry from the Parallel Multiverses thread, in that characters' qualities and abilities change across worlds. Pretty cool.

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atomicb wrote:
The Strange, the next campaign setting from Monte Cook Games, using the Numenera mechanics: Main Site & Kickstarter.

It's a many-worlds setting and actually seems to recall this entry from the Parallel Multiverses thread, in that characters' qualities and abilities change across worlds. Pretty cool.

This is really cool, thanks for the heads up!

I like the conjecture in the KS comments that Earth itself is just another recursion of a Prime.

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Amethyst:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1894400580/amethyst-fantasy-and-tech...

"Earth is torn between the order of science and the chaos of fantasy. The realm of magic has invaded our world, forcing man into the last few bastions of technology. These two worlds cannot mix. Will you embrace the wonder of legends and myths or accept the reality of refrigerators and washing machines?

For 500 years the planet was locked in stalemate, but no more. The Stones of Amethyst have risen. When brought together, they could decide the future of the planet, cast off the remaining shred of technology, or close off the world of magic forever. Choose your path and commit to the quest. Monsters will hunt you; machines will track you. No gods will help you; no prophecies will choose you. The fate of the world rests with you."

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Unwritten, a Myst based RPG using FATE:

http://www.unwrittenrpg.com/

"What many of our most brilliant physicists have long suspected is, in fact, true: beyond our universe, there are limitless others in mind-boggling variety. But humanity had never realized that the secret to those worlds was beneath its feet. For ten millennia, the D’ni lived in great caverns, ignoring the savages on the surface. Using their linking books, they built an empire that spanned dimensions. Its glory was ended abruptly a few centuries ago, and their city has stood empty. Until now.

Small groups of humanity have discovered the secret of the Deep City. Some have come to explore, and others have come to exploit. Some have been called to D’ni by a feeling they can’t describe, and try to make it their home. Others look out to the Ages, the universes suddenly open to them, and see opportunity and hope. And there are those among the Ages who are not happy that D’ni has begun to breathe again.

The D’ni civilization is no more. But the ending has not been written."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

The Strange is funded a few times over - circa $418K with an original goal of $60K.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1433901524/the-strange-a-tabletop-rp...

Here's some pics:

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Lots of cool Naga ideas and images in the new 13th Age Bestiary preview:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=967

"One of the nagas’ biggest mysteries is their creation. Some legends about the pursuit of magic offer the naga as a cautionary tale. It’s often accepted that too much time spent consulting ancient tomes eventually warps the body as well
as the mind. The pursuit of knowledge can lead to breaking off relationships, changes to mind and body, and hoarding magical items. So perhaps nagas were created from obsessives who wore their magical items while they slept and spellcasters who never let enchantments end naturally. Of course, nagas
spit on such notions. . . .

Other versions of their origins suggest nagas choose to shed their original bodies. The humanoid form can only conduct so much power into spells. The naga form is able to absorb, store, and release much more arcane energy. Nagas are known to be
powerful ritual casters. Compared to the things nagas can do with enough time and energy, the effects of humanoid spellcasters are mere tricks of the light and illusions to fool children. The naga know where the true power lies and are willing to sacrifice
anything to achieve that power.

If they are not the result of a curse or the drive for knowledge, how are they born? There is no evidence of nests to reflect their serpentine heritage. Nagas seem ageless. “Naga eggs” sold as spell components by unscrupulous market dealers
always turn out to be the eggs of other supernatural creatures marked up for the rubes. Nagas killed in battle disappear in a flash of energy. Are they reborn? Is there a limited amount of nagas in the world? Perhaps the icons know the answer to this
question but haven’t told anyone..."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

Red Aegis:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vorpalgames/red-aegis-roleplaying-game

"In addition to familiar tropes you'd expect from playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons®, RED AEGIS is also infused with millennia-spanning tactical strategy, inspired by games like Sid Meier's Civilization® and X-COM®.

The story of a RED AEGIS campaign is revealed over ten gaming sessions, where you command successive generations of heroes from the world’s ancient past to the far future.

In RED AEGIS all heroes die. Whether on the field of battle or of old age, your character will eventually die. At the start of each game session you play a new character, a descendant of your starting character’s bloodline.

In RED AEGIS your character abilities are not tied to the individual hero you are playing. Rather, your skills and powers are inherited from and infused with your bloodline, passed from one generation to the next."

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Re: New and Upcoming Settings

TimeWatch RPG:

http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13628

"The world has changed. Again.

China wasn’t supposed to colonize 15th century North America, right? And yet you find yourself being attacked by eunuch swordsmen in what should be San Francisco. Some time traveler told the Golden Fleet about the Pacific oceanic gyre that would lead them to a rich new land. Someone you’ll have to stop.

Welcome to TimeWatch."

~~~~

"In TimeWatch, paradox is handled through an ability called Chronal Stability, which takes the place of Stability in other GUMSHOE games. Cause paradox and you lose chronal stability; lose enough chronal stability and you become unanchored in time. This allows fun flexibility when solving missions; you can time travel forward to check the work of historians fifty years hence to figure out what happened in this timeline, or even have your future self leave you a cryptic note about what happens, but doing so risks chronal instability. You can plan your investigation accordingly, solving conundrums while keeping paradox to a minimum. Whether you’re dealing with a rogue time traveler who gave Hitler nuclear weapons, or mongols who sacked and burned all of western Europe, you may want the extra help.

The biggest change between TimeWatch and other GUMSHOE games are stitches (as in “a stitch in time”), an action point mechanic that rewards fun play and allows players to decide for themselves when to refresh their ability pools. If you find yourself getting nervous about how many Shooting points to spend because you can’t predict when they’ll come back, you’ll want to give stitches a try."

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http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jameswallis/alas-vegas-an-rpg-of-bad...

"ALAS VEGAS is an RPG miniseries about amnesia, sin, horror and gambling, by 'the godfather of indie-game design'.

Ocean's Eleven directed by David Lynch. Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas by way of Dante's Inferno. The Hangover meets The Prisoner. A new style of RPG by James Wallis, named by Robin D. Laws as 'the godfather of indie-game design', with art from this year's winner of the World Fantasy Award, John Coulthart."

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2075308648/on-the-backs-of-gods-a-p...

This is a kickstarter, obviously.

Welcome to On the Backs of Gods, a brand new Pen and Paper RPG set in an incredibly unique world. A world not only filled with humans, elves, dwarves, and talking bears, (more on that later) but also with gigantic, monstrous creatures both dangerous and helpful. The civilized people of this world have found themselves incapable of living on the surface, amid legions of horrible monsters set on devouring them. They instead found refuge on the backs of even larger creatures, creatures the size of cities and small countries. And so they built their cities there, and there is where adventures begin.

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It's all kickstarters now.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1395919461/against-the-dark-yogi-my...

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Mage20 Consensus and Belief:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/deluxe-mage-the-ascension...

"Imagine reality as a large body of water. You can splash around in it, channel it, swim in it, or drown in it. You can’t just turn it into confetti, though, no matter how hard you wish upon a star because that water was here long before you were and will be here long after you’re gone. That’s the reality behind capital-R Reality. It’s bigger than any mage, than any group of mages. We can work with it, but it is not, and never will be, our bitch.

Reality has rules, and those rules are decided by the Consensus: the collective power of belief across the world. The term began as a Technocratic buzzword, but plenty of other mages use it too. Consensual reality is essentially the established “baseline reality” for our Earth. It’s got a certain amount of give to it, but many laws are immutable. That which goes up must come down. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. An object at rest tends to stay at rest. That sort of thing. People don’t morph into petunias unless acted upon by some powerful force… and if they do, they don’t do so easily. To defy consensual reality is to invite Paradox to kick your ass."

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