What would you want an old-school PA Fantasy setting to look like?  That is, a setting that is basically a fantasy world, but one that implies strongly that its thousands of years after a technologically advanced society destroyed itself in some kind of catastrophic even (be it a war, plague, or some other disaster).

What would you want it to be? How much sci-fi? How much P-A? How much sci-fi?

Would you want it to be semi-realistic, gonzo, sword & sorcery?

Would you want magic to be magic, or for it to be either implied or explicitly a remnant of ultra-high tech (maybe nanites or some other kind of super-science)?

RPGPundit

Tékumel is a good template. People know that the ancients had great and mysterious knowledge, powers and weapons, which are lost to time, and don't really make a big deal of telling this apart from magic.

For my D&D game, I want the world to resemble a bog-standard fantasy milieu on the surface, but as characters get to explore the deepest and oldest levels of the megadungeon, the SF elements become more obvious.

Sine Nominae's Other Dust covers it pretty well for me.

My current RMSS campaign runs along those lines.  It's two hundred years after the collapse of the empires of men.  The gods decreed that no human would bear a child for forty years and civilization collapsed.  Now as the trolls look to the return of the great darkness and the high elves return to the world on ships sailing out of the northern lights new empires and kingdoms are rising to strive for dominion.

Right now the PCs are dealing with the Hellspike: a dungeon / fortress conjured up right in the heart of the only human realm to survive the dearth intact.  If they can't stop the demonic incursion and banish the Hellspike, fiendish legions will destroy the best hope of resisting the armies of the trolls when they march to war and all the lands will lie open to the forces of darkness.

And yes, I'd let them fail and yes I'd let them die trying.

I thought for D&D, that is the default?

I like the way the Shannara books handled it, or I did when I was younger. The Almost all technological artifacts in the area are gone, and what's left are humans and creatures re-emerging from before the technological age ever arose. Magic is magic, but there are some unpleasant high tech things on other continents. The post apocalypse stuff would be very much in the background.

Other than that, its all good, a well handled milieu is always a pleasure, but not elves with machine guns.

Quote from: The Traveller;589160what's left are humans and creatures re-emerging from before the technological age ever arose.

Not quite. The Elves are from the time before Technology, Men from the technological era, all the other species (Gnomes, Dwarves, and Trolls) were once Men and became what they are in the aftermath of the Apocalypse. Some creatures were made by the Apocalypse, others arose in its aftermath (Skull Bearers), others it's not so clear.

(I only know this because I'm rereading The Sword of Shannara right now.)

Yeah, its been a few years. I think the Demons in the Wishstones book were also pre-tech.

A lot of people don't know that Judges Guild's Wilderlands of High Fantasy is a setting that is a fantasy world set thousands of years after a technologically advanced society destroyed itself. The elements were in the original if you looked but it is more obvious in the boxed set.

Note I never used this part of the wilderlands in the Majestic Wilderlands.

Quote from: Settembrini;589137I thought for D&D, that is the default?

I wrote a piece for the Escapist called "D&D Is The Apocalypse" so I'd agree. In the comments Ken St. Andre says:

QuoteI never thought about it before, but Tunnels and Trolla has the same kind of apocalyptic underlining, and not just one, but multiple apocalypses.  For T & T it was the Wizards War, a battle that lasted thousands of years, reshaped the face of the planet, wiped out some races and brought new ones to the world. And that was followed by The War of Liberation which brought the Death Goddess to poweer in Khazan and subjugated the Good Kindreds to the Monster Kindreds in that corner of Trollworld. And then comes the Interstellar War when Khazan is destroyed by Zweetz and his spider-alien allies in 1333 A.K. And after that comes the Magic Pulse that slays all wizards and magical creatures and sets up the superhero world of Power Trip. Apocalypse after apocalypse after apocalypse. It seems like we can't do without world-destroying catastrophes in Heroic Fantasy.

which is made of awesome. Go Zweetz go!

Hmmm... I love this sort of setting and could go any number of ways on it.

I'm a fan of Ralph Bakhi's Wizards, in which magic returns to the world after a nuclear apocalypse but in which science clings to life in places.

On the other hand, I've always loved gonzo post-apocalyptic settings like Gamma World in which mutations and technology from before the apocalypse take the place of magic spells and magic items, respectively.

I'm not a huge fan of settings that are so post-apocalypse that they appear to be fantasy settings, but with some kind of hypertech rationale. I'd rather just go with an actual fantasy setting.

Right now, I'm really liking the looks of Swords of Cydoria for a swords-and-sorcery take on a post-apocalypse setting.

Quote from: RPGPundit;589100What would you want an old-school PA Fantasy setting to look like?  That is, a setting that is basically a fantasy world, but one that implies strongly that its thousands of years after a technologically advanced society destroyed itself in some kind of catastrophic even (be it a war, plague, or some other disaster).

What would you want it to be? How much sci-fi? How much P-A? How much sci-fi?

Would you want it to be semi-realistic, gonzo, sword & sorcery?

Would you want magic to be magic, or for it to be either implied or explicitly a remnant of ultra-high tech (maybe nanites or some other kind of super-science)?

RPGPundit

I'm running one right now -- it's got swords and battle-axes, and so-on and while there's no "magic" the technology level of the ancient artifacts is, let's say "sufficiently advanced." The society is vaguely victorian and there are things like radios and trains, but from a tactical standpoint, it's pretty much fantasy standard.

It's pretty gonzo. I have a write up in the Design subforum.

One of the things that I like about gonzo, is that it's not constrained by what would be "realistic." Instead of "a wizard did it" I can say "the mad computer did it" and justify just about anything I feel like putting in.

Cheers,
-E.

Quote from: Settembrini;589137I thought for D&D, that is the default?

Yeah, I'm in agreement that post-apocalypse has always been part of D&D's implied setting, to a lesser or greater degree.

Quote from: The Butcher;589121For my D&D game, I want the world to resemble a bog-standard fantasy milieu on the surface, but as characters get to explore the deepest and oldest levels of the megadungeon, the SF elements become more obvious.

Quote from: -E.;589221One of the things that I like about gonzo, is that it's not constrained by what would be "realistic." Instead of "a wizard did it" I can say "the mad computer did it" and justify just about anything I feel like putting in.

This.  "Show, don't tell" is key here, I think.  Don't explain the "weirdness" to the players, the characters wouldn't know anyway, it just is.

Besides, sword & ray gun heroes fighting humanoids in a blasted landscape with a ringed planet visible in the sky is an image too awesome to not have in your camapign at least once.

I knew this when I was five, and I still do.

Quote from: Panzerkraken;589124Sine Nominae's Other Dust covers it pretty well for me.

This just came in the mail yesterday!  I'm totally using it as a sourcebook for my RIFTS campaign

I would do something similar to this book:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_Road_(novel)

Magic would be more low key (my tastes) My justification for it would be that a few of the Black CIA programs similar to MKultra, remote viewing and thier research into mental phenonena combined with drugs, and various super soldier programs actually started to pay off!

But then the plauge hit...

So no fireballs or magic missles but some remote viewing, healing, telekenisis, limited mind reading etc. This class of people would be terribly limited however.

A big deal in my Ideal campaign world would also be who finds and controls old pre-plauge government archives/military bunkers. Are they myth? are they real?

I would only have the tech marginally more advanced than ours is now. Say  we made a breakthrough in some form of clean energy right before the plauge.

Quote from: Panzerkraken;589124Sine Nominae's Other Dust covers it pretty well for me.

Could not have said it better myself. It is by far my favourite PA game. I love me some Mutant Future, but Other Dust just hits all the buttons right on and plays so smooth. It is by far one of my favourite products I have purchased (both a hardcover and a softcover version for my table).