There are a few elements that are central to further development of the setting.
- The first PC sent to me, a barbarian exiled from his tribe for some heinous act he committed. He's not an evil man, but a man who did an evil thing. He's trying to atone, but in his mind it's never enough. He's not stupid, but he is uneducated. He's unaccustomed to the urban setting, and thinks most 'civilized' folk to be strange.
- The city where the action begins - we'll call it Steampunk City until someone comes up with a good name for it. I want to use it (and the PC above) to throw the players a curve ball. I want to turn the idyllic ruralism of most fantasy on its head, but this will be complicated by a desire to keep the urban settings suitably dark and gritty as well.
- Order vs. Chaos - I'm thinking the world will be composed of little pockets of civilization surrounded by lawless wilderness on all sides. Using this, I'll attempt to tell stories where good and evil are important, but ultimately they're sideshows to the struggle of order vs. chaos. I'd like to explore some of the character interactions you can achieve in that sort of setting, as opposed to a more traditional good guys vs. bad guys setting.
- The relationship between science and magic. Works of fantasy often oppose the two - I want to find something more interesting than that. My pal Dan mentioned a power station where a bound lightning elemental provides the juice. That sort of thing is exactly what I had in mind.
- The role of religion in an increasingly modern society. I want to start with a more Earth-standard version of the polytheistic pantheon, and explore how religion might grow and change (or decline and change) in a world that grows increasingly more reliant on magic and technology.
1) Definitely check out Eberron supplements for ideas to steal if you haven't already. It does a good job of that sort of mix of magic/technology that you are going for. Although I bet Dan already told you as much since he referenced the binding elementals to power technology thing.
ReplyDelete2) With themes like Order vs Chaos and Science mixing with Magic, I would propose making the city like an ideal of Boston's Beacon on a Hill. There is the upper class section which represents the order of law and the power of education, then the lower class section which represents the freedom of chaos and power of intuition. Magic and Science wouldn't be in strict competition but it is easy to see how when individuals have more free access to education that they are more prone to be scientific and wizardly as opposed to religious and superstitious. This sort of stark dichotomy would give a lot of story potential and opportunities to bring out the theme without being heavy handed about it.
3) If you wish to parallel the real world, then as science and education progress, religion takes a back seat or becomes less pronounced. This faces difficulties in a world where the gods are really real and take part in human affairs with observable miracles. The way to counter that would be to make gods... distant, and potentially not even existent. Clerical magic works based off of ritual and function. In the end it is tapping into the basic human potential and no different than wizardy. Gods and servants of gods, if they do exist, don't take part in mortal affairs, but their actions are attributed on a day to day basis to the way people's lives go. Much in real life, if a farmer prays to the Fertility Gods for a son, and has one then the gods are thanked. If he does not, then the gods do not wish it. An alternate idea could be that humanity is turning their backs on the /gods/ and the gods are flipping us the bird. Maybe we as a society are more interested in being in control of our own destinies, and with the power of understanding the world (through SCIENCE!) we don't need them anymore. After all, why sacrifice your life to a god for mysteeerious power that you are dependent on them for when you can do something just as good if not better by the sweat of your brow independently. There could even be a 'Church of Science/Technology' (not Scientology obviously because it would work) that gets clerical magick but doesn't worship a god.
-Stephen
See? I probably should have come at them in this order. Ah well. I seem to always do things backwards, why stop now?
ReplyDelete1) Yeah, Eberron has been mentioned and I'll probably mine it for mechanics, if not ideas. Possibly for inspiration too.
2)Funny you should mention this - an upcoming post will reveal a map by Dan (if I can figure out how to post a picture) showing Steampunk City as a tiered city planned similarly to what you suggest. It makes the class separation physical as well, which sort of drives home the difference between the "haves" and the "have-nots." There are a lot of reasons I like the tiered city idea, and you hit on a couple of them.
3) I want to parallel the real world insofar as it makes sense. KnowhutImean? Fantasy settings are certainly affected differently by their deities than even their most devoutly religious real world counterparts. I'm thinking I want to go with the option where large portions of the civilized races are beginning to turn away from religion, and explore how that affects a fantasy world. There are several options that are interesting though, so if you have a different or better idea, let me know.
2) Hah. Go me. And go you guys. I guess it's a good idea if everyone came up with it independently. Physical reflection of social class is definitely a must. Things just being... clean is a huge deal. It'd be fun to really play that up as a stark difference. I don't think we in today's modern age appreciate indoor plumbing and waste disposal as much as we should. As a guy who's job it is to handle crap, I'd think magical tech sewers in the rich sections would be hilarious. Like bags of devouring or gelatinous cubes tasked with waste disposal.
ReplyDeleteIn a DnD game the social contrasts could also take particular note when you can only buy/sell magic items in the 'nice' district, and some party members might not be welcome there depending strictly on physical appearance and reputation. Which does a great job of pounding that point home to the player mentality.
3) I know we discussed this, so I am going to toss it up here so other people can see it and look it over. The current running idea being that, as you say, mankind is turning it's back on the gods. The gods demand worship and servitude in ignorance, while science promises power through understanding and the freedom that comes with earning it on your own. I suggested some modification of the Ur-Priest prestige class or a Church of Science where it just becomes a clerical religion. The quote for the Scientists being, 'My god is physics, psychology, and calculus, not a serial rapist who throws lightning.' So especially in a world where Godly power is defined by belief in them, this could be a major threat to their status.
2) Funny, Dan and I were just talking about sewage earlier today. It might be a plot spoiler though, so I'll have to talk to you about that offline (or in some other medium online).
ReplyDelete3) I definitely want to explore the gods' relationship with the world as science waxes and religion wanes. Deities in fantasy settings come in so many different varieties, with some who are much more benevolent than their classical counterparts on Earth and some that are much less so. This might be the most challenging theme to capture, because I don't want to portray religion as ignorant or superstitious, or science as reasonable and right. I want there to be some gray area, as badly as I want that in any part of the game.
re: role of religion:
ReplyDeleteAs science rises, religion takes a backseat. OK, but no priest is going to take that sitting down, especially in a world that, unlike reality, can prove the existence of the divine through magic, etc. Besides, no religion wants to give up control of the masses. So, how to keep relevance?
Adopt the tools of your enemy. The Devil can quote scripture for his own purposes, right?
if science can bind a lightning elemental into a cage to siphon off electrical power, what's to stop religious officials from appealing to their deities for a being of their own, something to show the people that The Big Man still has power they never dreamed of? As I see it, this could go several ways:
- option 1. Religion devolves into little better than a sideshow. Healing tricks, shows of force (or just showy displays), that kind of thing. Think tent revivals of yesteryear, and add actual magic to them. Sure, they're cheesy, but people FLOCKED to them.
- option 2. Religion goes too far, imprisoning "angels", and God Gets Pissed™. Power is removed from the clergy, and they return to a cloistered life, trying to atone for their hubris. Religion becomes more scholarly, more introspective...and more popular, as people see what they've lost.
Hm. That's interesting, Frank. I knew this game would have to examine in what way the organized religions "fight back," and I'd been mulling it over for a while. Both of those are directions I'd not thought of. I particularly like your second option. I don't know how workable it will be - part of that of course depends on the characters, but I just might try that approach.
ReplyDeleteI like those ideas as well. Something about a fire and brimstone cleric has always appealed to me. I think you might be able to maintain both without religion being 'wrong' and science being 'right', and with neither being inherently superior. You can make Science represent Order and Religion represent Chaos to tie into the inherent theme of the game. Science is logic, process, and education. Religion is intuitive, flexible, and personal. So Science becomes the elitist thing for the rich people who /think/ it is superior and look down their noses at all the ignorant dumbases praying to gods for rain. While the clerics down in the trenches healing the lepers with their bare hands think don't need 8-12 years of schooling to cast Remove Disease like those stuck up 'doctors'. Neither is better or correct, but both sure as hell think they are.
ReplyDeleteIt could be cool to treat the Church of the Machine as a sort of divine wizard. Mechanically treat them as cleric but they have structured schooling as Steve mentioned, and instead of praying they review their manuals or some such.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I definitely dig that. I don't want it to just be another aspect of the classism conflict, or it will sort of overshadow the interesting religious plotline, but I think there's room for that idea in the campaign too. It will be another difficult balancing act, but if it's handled well it will definitely be worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteIf I may point out a parallel from the real world that might be interesting to include (I brought this up at a gaming session earlier in Indianapolis). The first scientists were not anti-religious. They were very religious. They saw science as an exploration of the hand of God on the world. It was only after conservative persecution and the corruption of the priestly class that their arose iconoclastic religious persecution. If you are going to create a lawful "science" theosophy, and a chaotic "pure religious" theosophy, then it might be good to represent that median stage, a neutral neutral ground.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dennis! See? This is why I knew I needed you in on this. I love this idea. I wasn't at all sold on the chaos/religion idea as going hand in hand at any rate. I think what we want are a lot of shades of gray, and I think every false dichotomy that we force will detract from those a bit. I think it is more interesting conceptually to have a center that other viewpoints stray from than to have two conflicting philosophies with no middle ground. Does that make any sense?
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