A More Realistic Middle Earth

Listening to the History of the Germans podcast in episodes about the struggle for power between the Papacy and the Hofenstaufen Holy Roman Emperors, when reading a bit of a MERP supplement started me thinking about righting a post about a grittier, more realistic Middle Earth. Then I discovered I already sort of had written a post like that, back in 2020...

If we take The Silmarillion as Elvish mythology (which it is) promoting a slanted point of view, then most of the doings in Middle Earth are a proxy conflict between two super-powers: Sauron and his minions and the Valar and the Elves. We needn't assume either side is particularly good, In fact, we know the Valar unleashed a devastating weapon of mass destruction against their former allies in Numenor just for getting too cozy with Sauron.

In the modern era, Sauron's forces have been engaged in a protracted occupation of  Eriador. Through the action of the Mordor proxy Angmar, the Western kingdoms of Man were shattered, much of the population fled south, but fanatical bands, the Rangers, structured around the heir to throne of Arnor and Gondor, and supported by the Elves, continued to fight an insurgency against Mordor's Orcish forces and her allies.

Sauron has been a distant and not terribly effective leader for some time. He has been unable to consolidate Angmar's victory over Arnor (a victory that saw Angmar destroyed in the process) and unable to wipe out the remaining Elvish enclaves and human insurgents.

You get the idea. Shorn of much of its epic fantasy trappings, Middle Earth becomes a grittier place, where Men, Orcs, and local Elves, are all dealing with the aftermath of a terrible war wrought by super-powers that they perhaps only have the smallest of stakes in but yet are forced to take most of the risk.

Seems like an interesting place to adventure. It's certainly place where you can get a more interesting mix of adventurers and adventures, perhaps.

They Came From Beyond the Grave!

This weekend, in the spirit of Halloween, I plan to run a one shot (well, probably two shot before it's over with) of the Onyx Path game They Came From Beyond the Grave! It's part of their series of They Came From games, each made to sort of emulate some cinematic genre from 50s to monster movies, to Italian Sword and Sandals pictures, to (in this case) 60-70s horror films of the Hammer, Amicus, or AIP variety.

All these games use the Storypath system which is basically a descendant of the old White Wolf d10 dice pool system, but lighter and with some mildly narrative mechanics, like Rewrites which players can use to change the results of bad rolls or get a bit of narrative control. One of the things Rewrites can be spent on (though this is an optional rule) are Cinematic Powers which imbue the game world with the elements of the low budget films it's emulating. For instance, there's Dangerous Liaison wherein a player can pay for an awkwardly inserted scene (utterly free of danger!) to romance an NPC.

Players have other, less game-reality bending extras to employ like Tropes, Trademarks, and Quips that lend bonuses in specific situations. In fact, if I have any criticism, it's that the system is perhaps a little overstuffed with options for an otherwise "at the light end of rules medium" game.

Anyway, I plan to run to run Cthulhu Dreadfuls Presents #1 - Kiss of Blood, which is a very Hammer Horror flavored scenario. It seems easy enough to adapt.

Weird Revisited: Middle-Earth in Blacklight

I've been thinking about this sort of material again, recently. The original version of this post appeared in 2021...

It's well known that hippies were into Tolkien's work. Some of its themes appealed to them, certainly, but like with Lee and Ditko's Dr. Strange comics, there was also the idea that the works might somehow be drug-influenced. The author, it was assumed, might be taking the same trip as them. This was, of course, a false belief, but it was one that existed.

I this appreciation of Tolkien filtered through 60s countercultural and mixed with the prevalent cultural representations of fairytale fantasy led to a subgenre or aesthetic movement within fantasy, most prevalent in the late 70s and early 80s, before D&D derived fantasy came to ascendancy. While this subgenre likely finds expression in literature and even music to a degree, I think it is most recognizable and definable in visual media. It's evident in works like Bakshi's film Wizards and the Marvel comic Weirdworld (both in 1977), and in the Wizard World sequences (starting in 1979) of Mike Grell's Warlord. Elfquest (1978) shows the influence to a degree. Bodē's Cheech Wizard (1966) and Wally Wood's Wizard King (introduced 1968 but significantly presented in 1978) are either the oldest examples or its direct progenitors.

Essentially, the subgenre eschews the serious world-building of LotR for a more drug-influenced riff on The Hobbit, often with greater use of anachronism, camp, and sexiness, and often with a degree of psychedelia. Beyond the Tolkien influence, these works tend to share a number of common features:  a "traditional" visualization of elves and dwarfs as "little people," arising in folklore and classic illustration, but coming more directly from Disney animation and the fairytale comics of Walt Kelly; the influence of Denslow's Oz illustrations or the design aesthetic of The Wizard of Oz (1939); absurdism and humor borrowed from underground comics and Warner Brothers cartoons; unreal landscapes and visually alien settings informed by Sword & Sorcery and science fiction comics rather than historical or mythic sources of Tolkien.

Given they were contemporaries, D&D shows some in influence from these sources, primarily in its early art and occasionally humorous tone. But as a game that arose from wargaming there was always a thread of verisimilitude or equipment fixation that runs counter to this freewheeling psychedelic adventure vibe. Also, the violent, heroic narratives tended to have less room for the silly or less competent characters of psychedelic fantasy works.

When In Inaust

Gray, misty Inaust on Whulggan Sound is a place few choose to visit except on the most important of errands. If by some strange fortune you should find yourself in that city, here are several ways to pass the time:

• Enjoy a meal of grilled slug skewers with fermented fish sauce. We recommend the establishment Respa's Hearth as a superior venue for the dish. If your finances allow for such luxuries, the salt-cured glount roe makes a sublime antipasto. The glount roe trade can be cutthroat, and sabotage of a competitor or attempting to gain an advantage by substitution of roe of less desirable fish can occur. The glount themselves are edible, though it is considered lower class fare.
• Marvel at the spectacle and clamor of the mating combats of the morhuk on several sandbanks and islets.  The bellicose and lustful creatures pose a risk to navigation at such times, but the local nobility view them as totemic and forbid their harm under serious penalty. The fishers and boat operators are less favorably disposed toward the creatures and sometimes hire groups of ruffians to hunt the beasts with clubs under cover of night. 

• Acquire a coat, cape, or hat of fur and be the talk of the town in more Southron climes as you cut a figure of exotic, rustic fashion. Be sure to consult your furrier (we recommend Omer Zwirn & Sons) regarding the current status of sumptuary ordinance. The upper classes reserve some pelts for their own use, and the most prized varieties change frequently.

For those who arrive in Inaust in a state of embarrassment regarding their finances, we offer the following means of acquiring funds which are somewhat unique to the region:

• Compete in a birling contest. There are gambling establishment in the coarser areas of town where the woodsman's diversion of trying to stay standing upon a free-floating log while pushing an opponent from theirs. Entrants are paid a sum for competing and may win larger purses for performance. Would-be competitors are urged make every effort to discern the parameters of the any contest they may participate in, as some entrepreneurial-minded hosts have enhanced their offerings by pitting traditional contestants against wild beasts.
• Find employment as a boatman. No extensive knowledge of sea or maritime lore is necessary to serve as a cranksman or treadman on one of the many paddle wheel boats that ply the Sound. Stamina is the only prerequisite, though you would do well to pay the modest dues for membership in the Propellers Union, lest you face a beating and dunking from those toiling with you.

Way Up North

Art by Vsevolod Ivanov

While I was vacationing in Alaska a couple of weeks ago, I got though idea for a campaign inspired by the Klondike and other Alaskan gold rushes. To give something for fantasy rpg PCs to do besides turn prospector (though they could do that) I figure the forbidding northern wilderness would have once been part of a prehistoric empire whose great works and lost wonders have been buried.

To complicate matters and make for some interesting factions, there would be a current empire filling the "haughty Elvish jerk" niche that claim suzerainty over the region but spend most of their time fighting a rebellious faction of their own people. There would also be a more technologically primitive native people (maybe Neolithic dwarves or something) who naturally resent the invaders from afar.

Setting Ideas I'll Probably Never Run, but Still Think About

I've posted a lot of setting riffs on this blog over the years and others on various social media platforms. Most of these are just ideas. All of them I think would be cool, but some definitely speak to me as something I would want to run more than others.

Here are a few that I have definitely considered running but for various reasons have never got around to and honestly, probably never will.

Talislanta: Planet of Adventure: Using Talislanta's world as a Planetary Romance setting for the players would be crashed space travelers.

Wuxia-fied Fantasy: Not in way of the old OA, more creating a secondary world with a number of wuxia traits. For added fun (or madness!), I'd like to use a fairly heavily modified version of MERPs Middle-Earth as the setting.

Solar Wars: Star Wars set in our Solar System, either pulpy or more hard sci-fi. Actually, it's a toss up between which I'd want to run more: Solar Wars or Solar Trek.

Cold War Planescape: A bit like a combination of Planescape, White Wolf's Mage, and some John Le Carre novel, with an appropriate dosage of William S. Burroughs.

Spelljammer by way of Flash Gordon: Spelljammer that feels a bit more like early sci-fi or Sword & Planet fiction.

Clerics and Druids

A little bit more about a couple of types of spellcasters in the Elden Urd setting Elden Urd setting I have been working on.

Clerics wield the power of the gods, the form of magic brought forth by Aion Demiurgos when he created the Cosmos. How clerics came to possess this power is one of several mysteries contemplated and debated by theologians of their faith. As instruments of the church, they preform rituals, mediate with the spirits, cast out demons, return ghosts and undead to rest, tend the sick and wounded, and always strive to make human kin virtuous of admission to the Higher Heavens where the gods reside.

The also tend to wear distinct headgear as part of their vestments.

Druids are the priests of the titans who remained neutral in the War and did not forsaken the world: primarily Earth Mother and the tripartite Moon. They are also the prophets of the great spirits to human kin. 

Druidic cults mostly found in the wild places and rural hinterlands. Their association with the titans of old put them at odds with the Church of the clerics and their tendency to resist modernizing authorities has made them enemies of the Draconic Empire.

Notes on the Common Kin

 Here are some notes on the standard D&Dish races (focused on the "how our [x] are different," as you do) for a world I've been blogging about recently, a world which I'm now calling Elden Urd (inspired by Tad Williams' Osten Ard in his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy).

Dwarves

Warrior mercenary companies, distilled spirits, artisans in metal and gems. They mostly dwell above ground though not entirely. The dwarven throne has been empty for ages; they are ruled by a republic.

Elves

Descendants of fey trapped in the Cosmos when it was made. To this day they care little for the gods. Extremely long lived and slow to reproduce so they are a dwindling people.

Gnomes

Preservers of some of the knowledge of the Age of Wizard-Kings. Artificers and makers of mechanisms.

Halflings

The people of the plains and meadows, sometimes called "grass runners." Some are settled in sod house villages, work farms and tend flocks, others are itinerant traders and entertainers. 

Tieflings

Descendants of Fiends, the fallen Titans. They sometimes face prejudice from the common folk, but among the sorts of people that consort with adventurers their ancestry hardly merits notice.

The Age of the Wizard-Kings

During the Titan War, the gods empowered human worshippers to serve their cause, and in response, so did some of the titans. The techniques they taught mortals are still employed by adventurers today. When the war was won, some of these champions were able to seize scraps of knowledge and fragments technology from salvaged weapons of the gods and from plundered titan strongholds, even from the outer precincts of Heaven itself. 

One wily titan, eager for revenge against the traitorous gods, gave mortals the secret of the paths of Immortality--a means to make themselves near equal to the gods. When the gods shut the gates of the Overworld, barring mortals from Heaven, their former champions began seeking their own apotheosis. What wouldn't be shared, they reasoned, they would take.

Connecting with the pillars that supported the cosmos--the so-called Spheres of Matter, Energy, Thought, and Time--mortals began to walk the paths to Immortality. In the process, they discovered more secrets of the Cosmos's creators. They developed technology that allowed them to conquer the world and usher in an age of advancement and wonder with flying cities, automata, and sagacious, living libraries. It was also an age of excess and violence with strange monsters crawling from the subterranean laboratories and towering war machines wielding eldritch weapons to lay waste to cities. This time was known as the Age of High Magic or the Age of the Wizard-Kings.

The end of the Age came when internecine fighting had weakened the Wizard-Kings such that they could not defend against a succession of threats: the forces of Chaos launching sorties into the Cosmos, and irruptions of the Underworld caused by the Lich Lords, and continued subversion by the fiends from Hell. In the end, a coup by chromatic dragons toppled the most powerful surviving Wizard-Kings.

The remnants of their power remain, though. In the ruins of sky cities or in the depths of the dungeons they built adventurers still encounter they creations, technology and servitors. Perhaps somewhere the secrets of Immortality await the lucky delver?

The Undying Kings of the Underworld

In the aftermath of the Titan War, with the withdrawal of the gods left from the world, humans were able to seize divine knowledge and tools as spoils of war. This theft would reverberate even far, even to the gloomy halls of the Underworld. 

There were the recently arrived souls of great mages and heroes, fallen in the war either fighting for the titans or the gods. These personalities burning with power and rage at the perceived injustice of the universe, resisted the pull of dissolution. Their souls would not enter the cycle of reincarnation. Without the Unseen Lord, God of the Underworld, to quell their rebellion, they ransacked the cities and forests of the lands of the dead to find a way out. Their frenzy cracked the Underworld itself, and they found themselves on the event horizon of the Negative Energy Plane. 

They stared into the abyss and the abyss stared back. And then, perhaps, something within it spoke. The great mages and heroes discovered a way for their intellects to live beyond death, and even to be returned to their physical bodies. To power these miracles, they would need to build receptacles to house the negative energy. The only accommodation necessary to utilize this new and seemingly endless replacement for their life force was a small one. They would just have to give up their souls.

These nine (so it is believed) Undying Kings, or Lich Lords as they are sometimes called, became the new rulers of the Underworld. When that was accomplished, they sought to extend their reach to the world of the living. They sent tendrils of Underworld rising up, and the swirling mists formed cysts of the land of the dead, the Shadowfells. From these bridgeheads, the lich lords raised armies of undead, led by mighty warriors, called Death Knights.

Their conquest of the world of the living isn't driven merely by a desire for territory. Their goad is the Negative Energy Plane, and its hunger for unmaking and entropy. Their own fates are tied to its eternal appetite, so it's needs are their necessity. The self-centered nature of the Lich Lords has hampered their cooperation, and that combined with the weakening of the Shadowfells in daylight hours has slowed their advancement, but the Undying Kings are not hurried as time is something they have in abundance.

This is part of this setting.

The Houses of the Dragons

The home provinces of the Draconic Empire are ruled by noble houses with a chromatic dragon progenitor. While not all nobles are sorcerers, few without magical aptitude ascend to real power. Those most often undergo the Ritual of Rebirth to be transformed into Dragonborn, a privilege accorded to the draconic-blooded sorcerers as well. 

The great dragons seldom involve themselves in mere human politics; they are mostly content to rest in their lairs and receive what tribute is brought to them--though occasionally they may roam the countryside and take it from the common folk directly. Only the most senior members of the Houses consult with them, and even for that elite, it is a fearful summons to receive.

These are the eleven Great Houses currently. Two houses are in immediate contention for the throne as they are descended from the Empress herself:

• House Argaman: A conservative house in control of the much of the Spine mountains. They field an elite corps of Dragonborn trooped who where a personal guard to the Empress Pyrekhis.
• House Vyssinis: Less martial than many others, Vyssinis controls the fertile lands of the central islands. The wine of their vineyards is prized.  They are stereotyped as politicians, sometimes schemers, rather than fighters.

A third red House is descended from the Empress' slain consort, Angrazar:

• House Porphyrion: Nakedly ambitious, this House both plays to the people and touts its accomplishments on the field of battle. Its formal connections with the other houses are fewer than its Red rivals and it is seen as an upstart.

The other houses, descended from other chromatic dragons, are not directly in contention for the throne, but may support or hinder the three that are:

• The Houses whose progenitor is the green dragon, Esmaragd, 
•     House Harilak: Mystics known for their might at magic and divination. They seek stability within the Empire.
•     House Gwyrth: Holders of rich timberlands and farms. They are ever on the lookout for an opening to advance their own fortunes.
• The House whose progenitor is the black dragon, Mordax,
•     House Melacanthus: Genteel schemers whose swamplands provide the ingredients for the infamous black lotus poisons employed by their assassins.
•     House Karas: Merchants and smugglers, certainly, pirates, possibly, their lands are in the eastern marshes. They care little for who sits on the throne, so long as their operations are not disrupted.
• The houses whose progenitor is the white dragon, Isaz,
•     House Valko: Known for its remote holdings in the northern forests and its powerful sisterhood of sorceresses known as the Snow Witches.
•     House Brimir: Descendants of a tribe of barbarian reavers that worshipped the white wyrm, they hold fortresses along the Northern coast.
• The Houses whose progenitor is the blue dragon, Azarakh,
•     House Lazuran: A House in the arid southern regions with a strong martial heritage. They are scrupulous to appearances and fastidious about honor. They have no favorite among the Red Houses.
•     House Takilt: Strong in the magical arts. They are inclined to house Argaman because of a fondness of tradition.

There are persistent rumors of a hidden twelfth house, Typhon, who are adherents and priests of the Cult of Tiamat and work for her return. If such a group exists, its members live in secret among the other nobles and even common folk.

Preparing for a New Campaign

I think my group will finish up our current campaign in the Land of Azurth this year, and though with months to go some plenty of time to change my mind, I'm in the mood for something different. With a semi-new edition of D&D arriving around that time and other, similar options available (Shadow of the Weird Wizard, 13th Age--possibly with a 2nd edition) it will be a good time to do it, too. My prerequisites are that the system be close enough to D&D so as not to cause undue angst for my players who don't always appreciate new systems and so I have an easy time finding/adapting published material. My experience running at a regular clip for 10 years now is that I need to use premade material a lot to keep it going.

Right now, I'm thinking about expanding on the world introduced in my recent "Draconic Empire" post. Inspired by my recent consumption of some anime with the Japanese version of "generic D&D fantasy" I think that's what it will be with influence from the two settings of various editions of the Sword World rpg and Uresia, as well as hints of more console game-inspired settings like BREAK!!, Fabula Ultima, Exalted, and Icon (though more "standard D&D" than any of those). I also want to utilize as much official D&D "lore" and character options as possible to keep it familiar, though they may be given a slight twist.

Additionally, I'd like to try to capture the passage of time better, something like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, so I think I'll try to use the Fellowship and Journey rules from One Ring (or it's 5e adaptation).

The Draconic Empire

To its foes, the Draconic Empire is perhaps the greatest threat to the peace. Rapacious and destructive as the chromatic dragons that founded it, it will enslave the free peoples of the world, burning what it cannot hold, either wittingly or unwittingly enacting the vengeance of the chromatic dragon's mother, the elder god, Tiamat. 

In the minds of most of the empires people, the liturgies of its priesthoods and the assurances of its diplomats, the Draconic Empire is the best hope for order and safety in a world beset by Chaos from without and enemies from within. If the Empire's hand must be firm, they contend, it is only because the stakes are so high.

What is not in dispute is that the Empire is the largest and mightiest state in the world. It was born from the rebellion against the Wizard-Kings and their allies whose sins in their pursuit of Immortality led the gods to withdraw their favor, leaving the world to its fate. After a period of war and unrest, a red dragon, mighty and cunning as any of her kind but more ambitious by far, seized a throne for herself and declared her empire. Many other chromatic dragons bowed to her, as did their kin and faithful minions, the hybrid Dragonborn. The Empress and her closest dragon supporters interbred with humans, creating sorcerous bloodlines, the Great Houses, who administer the Empire to this day.

The dread, red Empress has not been seen in some time. Officially, she has gone into seclusion to better focus her efforts on some great endeavor or another, but there are rumors that she simply disappeared and no one knows whither or why.

Descent in the Outer Dark

When Janus stopped being just an orbital mechanics curiosity and became a genuine anomaly by broadcasting a signal, a flurry of probes was quickly launched, and Earth waited for the report. Janus was revealed not to be a moon at all. It was an alien artifact. 

It took some time to find out what sort of artifact. Even now, none of the experts are completely sure. Its creators and purpose remain obscure. What humanity learned was there was reward inside: the strange but sometimes useful artifacts of an unimaginably advanced civilization. And then there was something else. Death. It comes in hundreds of ways, at the hands of bizarre traps or random environmental shifts, but also at the hands of murderous alien beings or animals that reside inside the structure.

The Company runs the station serving Janus. Security is provided by a multinational group, but it was expedient to let a corporation run the actual operations. Plausible deniability. Contractors recruited from the desperate masses of a climate stressed and economically depressed Earth sign up to be minimally trained, fitted into battered, armored environmental suites and sent into the alien labyrinth inside, hoping to steal crumbs from the table of strange gods and get out of their realm alive. The statistics aren't good, but the stories of the few that survive to retire rich keep the volunteers coming.

The War for Earth

Thinking about Armageddon 2419 A.D. (Nowlan's 1928 novel that introduced the world to the character later known as Buck Rogers) while listening to the audiobook of the first novel in The Expanse series, I think it would be cool to run a rpg campaign in a sort of updated version of Nowlan's world. Of course, TSR helpfully already updated that world in Buck Rogers XXVc in the late 80s, so that's a resource, but I think I would tweak things in a slightly different direction.

The basic idea is the same, though. Civilization on Earth is pushed to the brink in the 22nd century by climate change and the political and social upheaval that follows it. Eventually war breaks up, and the Western world essentially collapses.

While all this was going down Silicon Valley and other wealthy futurist types had been developing their exit strategy by pushing space colonization through private companies to orbit, the Moon, Mars, and Venus. The forward-thinking government of China gets in on these efforts, and eventually a hybrid, corporate culture emerges on Mars.

So we fast forward a bit to a time where Mars has colonies established in Earth-Luna Lagrange points and is the colonial power seeking to rebuild (and exploit) the backward Earth. Martian colonial types and the Earthers that get with the program live in arcologies (like the Plexmalls of American Flagg!), but outside of those it's all warlords, mutants, and dangerous left-over bio- and cyber-weaponry from any number of wars.

There are also rebels out there. Earthers, sure, but also bioroid and cyber beings trying to escape exploitation by the rapacious Corporation of Mars. The Earth independence forces have secret bases in orbit and if not friends, at least allies on other worlds who would like to check Martian power--through proxies, naturally.

Anyway, beyond the influences mentioned about, others might be film/tv like Andor and Rogue One, Blakes 7, The Creator, Elysium, and games like Transhuman Space and Jovian Chronicles.

Spelljammer Revolution

There is no place in the Solar System that doesn't feel the hand of the Elvish Empire. They view themselves are benevolent civilizers, but the peoples of the Outer System view things differently. 

In amid the myriad, tiny worlds of the Asteroid Belt and on the moons of the gas giants, the fires of revolution are being feed by the heavy-handed tactics of the Imperial Navy and the rhetoric of propagandists. Soon, they may burn across the whole crystal sphere.

Take the basic "inners vs. outers" setup of The Expanse and combine it with Spelljammer, and give it a late 18th, early 19th Century gloss, and well, see what happens from there.

A Sci-Fi Setting Idea

My recent readings in science fiction and musings on Star Frontiers have given me an idea for a science fiction setting combining some thoughts I've had stemming from both.

The basic idea involves a future Earth controlled by benevolent AI that is something those presented in the novelization to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Stross' Accelerando and a little like Watts' Blindsight. Most people are enmeshed in digital simulations to various degrees and have little, direct human contact. They're content to let the AIs run things. More individualistic, conservative elements of human society, still interested in physical experiences and challenges, have moved to the outer Solar System.

When a wormhole gateway left by a previous intelligent culture is discovered in the Solar System, the AI guides of the human race see the perfect way to channel the more erratic humans of the outer system: they open up the Frontier.

Exactly where in the galaxy (or perhaps the universe) the Frontier is located is unclear, but it's far from Sol. In a relatively small area of space compared to Sol's local environment, it has a number of human habitable worlds--and a few technologically advanced alien species.

Megacorporations are allowed to guide settlement of the region. Both the settlers and the AI on Earth ironically agree that a new society replicating the one on Earth shouldn't be created on the Frontier. To this end, technology is limited and controlled, policed by the Institute. This gives the Frontier a somewhat retro, "cassette futurism"-tinged vibe.

Eventually, the Frontier develops away from corporate rule, but after the unexplained collapse of the wormwhole back to Sol, there is war, and then an economic depression that paves the way for a corporate bailout and a re-establishment of central government via a "special-purpose district." The megacorporations promise to re-establish full representative democratic rule in time for the bicentennial celebration of human arrival on the Frontier. 

An Alternate Star Wars

 

As the Republic spread throughout the galaxy, encompassing over a million worlds, the GREAT SENATE grew to such overwhelming proportions that it no longer responded to the needs of its citizens. After a series of assassinations and elaborately rigged elections, the Great Senate became secretly controlled by the Power and Transport guilds. When the Jedi discovered the conspiracy and attempted to purge the Senate, they were denounced as traitors. Several Jedi allowed themselves to be tried and executed, but most of them fled into the Outland systems and tried to tell people of the conspiracy. But the elders chose to remain behind, and the Great Senate diverted them by creating civil disorder. The Senate secretly instigated race wars, and aided anti-government terrorists. They slowed down the system of justice, which caused the crime rate to rise to the point where a totally controlled and oppressive police state was welcomed by the systems. The Empire was born. 

- Adventures of the Starkiller (2nd Draft), George Lucas 

Reading Christopher Ruocchio's Sun Eater series and having the internet offer me trailers for Rebel Moon and Andor Season 2, I've been thinking about space opera, and had a Star Wars (or maybe it would be better for Star Wars-inspired) idea. Readers of this blog are aware that I'm a fan of the pulp aspects of Star Wars, but in recent years my favorite SW media has been the stuff with a grittier, more realistic take like Rogue One, Andor, or some episodes of Tales of the Jedi. 

This sort of thing isn't really new. It shows up in earlier drafts of Lucas' Star Wars script:and of course, political maneuvers and the fate of the Republic are at the heart of the prequel trilogy. But it could be emphasized more and handled better.

The idea, in brief: Take the political maneuvering, grittiness, and shades of gray of these latter-day Star Wars works but strip the mythos back to the earliest stages, maybe taking inspiration from the best of everything that came after.

The jedi would still be fairly central to the whole thing, but as a sort of Lensmen or Green Lantern Corps adhering to a philosophy generally based around nonaction and stillness, they are ill-equipped to deal with a failing, corrupt Republic. This leads to fracturing and internal conflict. The separatists have a point, but separatism is also a way for megacorporations and commercial concerns to gain power and freedom from governmental restraint.

I suppose Palpatine is still a Sith lord, but if the conflict were ever just with him, the problem could be solved. The real danger is the systematic issues for which the Empire is a seductive solution.

A couple of things I would change that aren't essential to the premise, but I might as well change them while I'm changing stuff. The Clone Wars are a series of conficts fought with clones, but that's not why they are called that. Rather, the ethical issue raised by the clones' existence and the appearance of government cover-up are the "straw that breaks the tauntauns back" for many. The clones' conscription is an act of desperation on the part of the Republic. Or cynical maneuvering by a Sith Lord.

While I'm at it, I would certainly ignore things that definitively position droids as sophont or sentient beings such as Jabba's use of torture and the ridiculous droid bar from Mandalorian. I think the possibility that droids are fully sophont should exist--and the people of the Republic are generally blind to it--but they shouldn't be treating them as if they already know they are.

As an aside, I think the origins of droids and clones can easily point to the Republic being a purposely limited technological region not unlike the Empire in Dune or in the Sun Eater series. Canon sort of supports this by the droid foundries of Genosis or the Kamino clone facilities as being on the periphery of galactic civilization. I would suspect must of the high tech industry is on the Rim where the restrictions of the Republic are weaker.

Oz and the Dying Earth

Driving over the Thanksgiving holiday my family listened to the audiobook of The Patchwork Girl of Oz, and I was struck by how similar Baum's Oz stories are and some of Vance's work, particularly the Dying Earth related material. Some of it, of course, would be resemblances shared with other works of fantasy, but I think there is much more homology of Baum with Vance than say Howard, Smith, or Martin.

I've mentioned before the list of the elements of Vance's Dying Earth stories as outlined in Pelgrane Press' Dying Earth rpg:

• Odd Customs
• Crafty Swindles
• Heated Protests and Presumptuous Claims
• Casual Cruelty
• Weird Magic
• Strange Vistas
• Ruined Wonders
• Exotic Food
• Foppish Apparel

Some of those I think are present in Baum's Oz books, but there are others that have analogs. These are the ones that I think are most prominent:

Odd Customs. In the Dying Earth this relegated to cultural practices. In Oz, the people themselves may be odd not unlike the mythological peoples seem in Medieval or ancient travel tales. Still, the central aspect of using a culture taken to the absurd as an object of satire is present.

Weird Magic. This is all over the place in Oz, with many of the protagonists being products of it. The powder of life made by the Crooked Magician or the "Square Meal Tablets" certainly count.

Strange Vistas. Exploration is as important part of Oz as the Dying Earth. The weird underground world of the vegetable Mangaboos lit by glowing glass orbs in the sky would count, as would the the Land of Naught where the wooden gargoyles dwell.

Ruined Wonders. Oz doesn't have many ruins, but they do have Hidden Wonders, like the city of the China Dolls or the radium decorated city of the subterranean Horners.

Foppish Apparel. It isn't emphasized as much in the text, but it goes through in the illustration...

The other elements are less present in Oz, but Heated Protests/Presumptuous Claims has its analog in humorous exchanges and bickering. Oz isn't as cruel a place as the Dying earth--it shows up in children's stories after all--but it isn't without cruelty. It's a cruelty of the fairytale sort really where axes enchanted by witches might chop off a woodsman's limbs and an evil queen might desire a little girl's head enough to have it cut off.

There are other similarities not really accounted for here. Outlandish, unnatural monsters haunt the wilderness in both (and in both they are often capable of speech). Habitations are separated by wilderness and isolated cultures seem to exist along well-travelled roads. For the most part the societies of both settings seem fairly static (Oz a bit less so than the Dying Earth), in contrast to epic fantasies where world-changing events are part of the narrative. Overall, I think these could be summed up is that both settings seem perhaps descended from fairy stories, Oz more directly, and the Dying Earth through the fantasies of Smith, Cabell, and (maybe) Dunsany.

Weird Revisited: Alternate Worldcrawl

The original version of this post appeared in 2015...

One of the complaints against the standard D&D Planes is that, while conceptually interesting perhaps, its hard to know what to do with them as adventuring sites. One solution would be to borrow a page from science fiction and comic books and replace them with a mutliverse of alternate worlds. These would be easy to use for adventuring purposes and could put an additional genre spin on the proceedings. Here are a few examples:

Anti-World: An alignment reversed version of the campaign setting. Perhaps humanoids are in ascendance and human and demihumans are marauding killers living underground.

Dark Sun World: In this world, the setting underwent a magical cataclysm in the past and is now a desert  beneath a dying sun.

Lycanthropia: The world is cloaked in eternal night and lycanthrope has spread to most of the population.

Modern World: This version has a technology level equal to our own (or at least the 1970s) and the PCs have counterparts who play adventurers in some sort of game.

Spelljammer World: A crashed spacecraft led to a magictech revolution and space colonization.

Western World: Try a little sixguns and sorcery and replace standard setting trappings with something more like the Old West.