An Iconic World For DCG?

[mister frau blucher]

Hey, all,

When I first came on board DCG in late 2005/early 2006 (can't quite remember), there was a map of a land that one of the adventures had been set in. In writing my own adventure, I took an area and created the cultures on it, which became the city-state of Redpoint on the Stormspeake Peninsula. I was hoping, in those days, that all of us writing for DCG would take a part of that world and make it our own, with the adventures sometimes crossing over. That never happened, for a variety of reasons, but mostly nobody ever showed interest in the rest of the map.

That was disappointing to me, as many companies have their own, in-house iconic world. TSR has had many, starting with Blackmoor and Greyhawk and then going forward through Faerun and Darksun and a host of others. Chaosium and Runequest had Glorantha. Tunnels and Trolls had Trollworld. Paizo developed their own world, the lands of the Inner Sea. The Dungeon Crawl Classics guys did their own world, originally in a big boxed set. You get the idea.

In our renewed push for our company this year, we are having some discussions about an iconic world for Dark City Games. This would be for all fantasy adventures moving forward; possibly to retro-actively include some or all of our previously published fantasy adventures. If it was a fairly straightforward, "vanilla" fantasy world, that would not be an issue at all.

But I am not thinking standard. I am thinking a dying earth, with inspiration from Jack Vance and Clark Ashton Smith and Gene Wolfe and M. John Harrison and Leigh Brackett's Skaith. A world where the sun is a red smear at the end of its days, and the last nations and cultures on the ancient planet either try to survive or party or submit as time burns away.

We are in very preliminary planning stages, and this may not even come to pass. It would be kinda radical.

Anyway this is our thinking right now; we'd still be interested in doing an iconic world, even if it is not a dying earth-style setting. That would be unique and memorable, but maybe not everyone would think so.

So, what do you guys think? Any interest in having a DCG iconic planet developed? Is dying earth a cool concept for it, or would you rather it be more generic? No wrong answers here! If you care, let us know!

Bret

[Narmer]

Yes, I think it would be great if DCG developed it's own world. It's nice to have a cohesive setting for adventures. Personally, I would like something rather unique like a dying earth or something else non-generic.

[taeblewalker]

That would be great. But I hope you'll still be interested in the fantasy adventures I'm currently working on anyway.

[mister frau blucher]

Jan 11, 2021 21:54:36 GMT -5 taeblewalker said:

That would be great. But I hope you'll still be interested in the fantasy adventures I'm currently working on anyway.

Absolutely, Nick! We'll see how the timing works out, but keep on writing!

[tcarter]

I think it would be cool, especially if I'm running adventures solo.

[aceofspades]

I think it would be interesting to have a cohesive world. In my mind I'm thinking more classic, however. Rather than dying world, what about a "threatened" world? Obviously in the the classics such as Tolkien and so many others the world is threatened by an evil overlord type. That may not necessarily be the case. What about something more like a convergence of planets, asteroid that changes the gravitational pull effecting the climate and/or geography (like Thundar), possibly something that could be exacerbated by certain cults and magic? Or maybe its something less sinister like a planet that causes "threadfall" as in Dragon Riders? I guess that sort of fits the dying planet type of genre, but I feel like if evil forces can effect or accelerate the death of the planet then the forces of good should be able to push it in the other direction.

Just some thoughts. I like the idea of something a little different.

Sincerely,

Bill

[mister frau blucher]

Hey, Bill,

Welcome to the boards!

Interesting input! The "threatened" aspect might lead to more of a High Fantasy feel, than a swords & sorcery kind of feel. Not that that is bad at all, I love both Tolkien and Howard. It would be interesting to have a major threat in the background (or foreground) of our adventures. Everything is still in the idea stage, and not sure where we are going with this, yet, so I appreciate the thoughts! Gives us something else to consider.

Bret

[Julianus Petronius Merenda]

I too like the idea of a "threatened world" background for (at least) future fantasy adventures. I feel it is better than a "doomed world" premise. A "threatened world" offers the hope of survival rather than "we're all dead we just don't know it yet".
I still have the world map that you offered way back when. And I also the like the idea of different authors taking a piece of it and writing their own adventures for that piece.

JPM

[mister frau blucher]

Jan 26, 2021 15:52:58 GMT -5 Julianus Petronius Merenda said:

I too like the idea of a "threatened world" background for (at least) future fantasy adventures. I feel it is better than a "doomed world" premise. A "threatened world" offers the hope of survival rather than "we're all dead we just don't know it yet".
I still have the world map that you offered way back when. And I also the like the idea of different authors taking a piece of it and writing their own adventures for that piece.

JPM

Hey, JPM,

Good to see you again! Been a while.

That old world map was introduced by someone who used to work with us. I had hoped we would all take a piece and develop it, but alas, that idea never happened.

I have been thinking about the Threatened World aspect. I wonder if the concept is really sustainable?

With the Dying Earth, yeah it is supposedly inevitable, but not necessarily in the characters' lifetimes. It is an aspect that is always there, to a varying degree, and it defines the world, but does not have to dominate and define the storylines of the adventures.

With the Threatened World, would it be satisfying for players to never resolve the main problem? Whether a Dark Lord-type or a natural (or supernatural) threat, I think it would have to be resolved at some point; otherwise the players' actions are not very meaningful in this context. And when you do resolve it - where do you go from there? The core concept of the world is gone.

This is just thinking critically about the concept. No decisions are made as of yet, and concepts are still vague. Further responses - from -anyone - will be much appreciated!

Bret

[aceofspades]

Hi Bret,

Maybe once the threat is gone, the world is dying! The best of both worlds...

Seriously though with a concept like that the world seems threatened for some time and the players and powers of the world effect the fate or change the time frame thinking they've saved it, but alll along maybe it was inevitable...the world is dying. Or something else could always come along and threaten the world again. Think of the endless, glorious opportunities! Look how long James Bond has kept going.

- Bill

[Lord Inar]

Well, let's get started!

I found this fun website where they had a world-building questionnaire, so I dumped it into a Google Docs spreadsheet here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1awa8QswHcxyJMHVRR7CHT45BGLoi91TUqgpMvyX8wUc/edit?usp=sharing
The link to the original is the first line of the sheet.

Have at it, but I request that if you enter something precede it with [your user name here] so we can manage the chaos.
There are WAAAAY more questions than are needed, but it is at least nice to think about these things.

Hi Bret, you see I do come back occasionally!

[aceofspades]

Feb 11, 2021 14:48:50 GMT -5 Lord Inar said:

Well, let's get started!

I found this fun website where they had a world-building questionnaire, so I dumped it into a Google Docs spreadsheet here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1awa8QswHcxyJMHVRR7CHT45BGLoi91TUqgpMvyX8wUc/edit?usp=sharing
The link to the original is the first line of the sheet.

Have at it, but I request that if you enter something precede it with [your user name here] so we can manage the chaos.
There are WAAAAY more questions than are needed, but it is at least nice to think about these things.

Hi Bret, you see I do come back occasionally!

Hi Lord Inar,

I took a look and started putting some thoughts into that spreadsheet. Should be a fund excersize to make something up!

-ace

[Lord Inar]

Thanks Ace!

I’ve added a little myself with some of the official world info

[darkpumpkin]

Funny, I thought DCG already had an iconic world...I've had the map of Tyrin saved on my hard drive for years. In practice, it was all about Redpoint and the Stormspeak Peninsula but that was fine. I liked the mini gazetteer that came with, I think, Fire in the Streets.

[mister frau blucher]

Feb 11, 2021 14:48:50 GMT -5 Lord Inar said:

Well, let's get started!

I found this fun website where they had a world-building questionnaire, so I dumped it into a Google Docs spreadsheet here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1awa8QswHcxyJMHVRR7CHT45BGLoi91TUqgpMvyX8wUc/edit?usp=sharing
The link to the original is the first line of the sheet.

Have at it, but I request that if you enter something precede it with [your user name here] so we can manage the chaos.
There are WAAAAY more questions than are needed, but it is at least nice to think about these things.

Hi Bret, you see I do come back occasionally!

Hey, Marc,

Sorry I have not replied before this, been having some problems with Proboards on my end.

This is pretty cool, very extensive! I'm going to drop some ideas there in the next few days...