The Campaign Builder's Guild

Thanks, Space Hoers, i see it the same way you do. Although i still want to apologize to Humabout...my last post was also kind of needlessly provokative. And that does not help anyone.

I know it is almost thread necromancy as the thread was dormant for a while. I hope you guys and gals don't mind.

And thanks i will check out the tvtropes link you posted.
If anyone wants to add to this thread, feel free to do so. I will be reading more regularly again.

@sparkletwist - Ah, good to know my "radar" was not totally off ^^ Oh and i hope you'll find that map. I'm a sucker for maps. Btw, do you have a pdf (or any other file form) of the collected work somewhere? It would be nice to have your setting in one place and local :)

Ok, in the same spirit as your post seems to be: What about Science FICTION did you not get? What you describe is a subgenre called Hard SF, where there is indeed some effort made to "explain" things scientifically sound...but most often then not, it's still just "make crap up" (as most authors are not scientists and the stuff they write about can not even be explained by any greater degree by real scientists) ... so by your definition, 99.95% of all literature labeled Sci Fi would be "just fantasy".

I'm sorry if my first reply seemed offensive to you. But if the only thing you want to do in here is nitpick about the term, then please don't.

@ Space Hoers - I know what you're saying. And i agree in general. The problem at the moment is, that i have no clear vision yet. I have some opinions (obviously  :D ) and some stylistic ideas/preferances...but i haven't settle on anything definite yet. So this thread IS helpful, just in case it comes across as me shooting down all opinions and examples in here. I am just responding to some with my thoughts...i am not trying to discount anyone's opinion.
So in other words - please keep ideas, recommendations etc flowing :)

@ Steerpike - Thanks again for providing visual inspiration, i appreciate it. I am a very visual guy.

@ sparkletwist - I really like the hindu/india kind of flavor of your setting. It reminds me a lot of Exalted in it's basic idea-structure and the Prana (=Essence) fueled powers etc. . Are there any maps for the different worlds and continents?

@ Steerpike - Thanks for the pics, it's appreciated. I guess i will have to look into WH40K a bit. It's a bit too gothic for me i guess  :D But it has nice stuff, artwise. Warmachine is the tabletop side of Ironkingdoms...i liked the rpg world. But as you said, it's more steampunky than what i imagine for science fantasy.

I guess the real problem is with definitions...everybody understands something different when he reads science fantasy. For me it's the mixing of Sci Fi with Fantasy. There is no need to take the science too literal. I don't want an scientific explanation for everything in my fantasy. I just want the ...for lack of a better word...outfit to be technologically inspired looking, if that makes sense.

Anyway, moving on...

@ Humabout - I don't agree that SW is fantasy. For me, the whole force and jedi/sith thing is fantasy, yes, but the rest of the franchise is very much Sci Fi. It's all technics and engeneering, oil and screws and stuff...very much technological development to a higher degree than in our world. Is it explained into detail? No, certainly not, but that is not necessary. If that is your criteria for sci fi, that all has to be explained logically, there is almost no setting that qualifies.
In a sci fantasy setting of my definition, everything "technological" is not so much a feat of engeneering but of occult/magic/alchemy. So it might all look like it is a machine or engine that is run by our real-world laws, but the inner workings are different as the fuel is mystical energy and stuff and not oil or gasoline (maybe there could be liquid mana or something so that you have kind of a "combustion fluid" to work with...might even be cool ^^ ).
Not sure if it's clearer now. As i said, not that much interested in hard Science...only in the veneer of technology. I guess the most often used term for what i am trying to explain is Magi-Tech.

@ Love of Awesome - Hehe..cool *high five* ;)
I guess you are right, my intended version is your point 3. It's also how i internally explained to me the stuff seen in Thor. Magi-Tech. I am not well read in the marvel universe, if there are comics that explain this stuff in more detail, i'd be interested. As a side note, your point 2 can also be interesting. Your example of FMA is something i could work with as well. So thanks for reminding me.

@ sparkletwist - This looks real cool! Thanks! I will read it. Is there a development thread for it?

I guess you go the opposite side, then. I want to fantasy-ize technology, you seem to technologize fantasy. Mechanically, if we're speaking rpg language, there is not much difference in the end but on a meta-level and in it's philosophical foundings there is a big difference, imo.

Some rpgs i know who have a magi-tech side (aka fantasy with "technology") are Exalted and Anima beyond Fantasy. I like both of them but sometimes i want to tinker myself ;)
Ruleswise i want to be as far away from PF and the D20 side of things as i can be. I'm not a big fan of linear systems anyway. I'm thinking more of FATE, Cortex + Heroic, or, if i want to go more traditional, something like Storyteller or maybe R&K used in 7th Sea/L5R.

Anyway, before i can even think about mechanics, i have to settle on the style and also on the world(s) i want to portray. And this is where i could still use some inspiration. As i said, think Thor Movies (especially all the Asgard stuff) and maybe also some form of Final Fantasy-ish flavour and similar games. I also quite like the fantasy side of Star Wars. The whole Jedi/Sith stuff is very cool and the visualization of some of the old tempels and costumes of those knightly orders are very much to my liking.

Anyway, as i said, any pointers would be helpful...and they can also be purely visual (as in pictures or links to pics on deviant-art or pinterest etc. ).

Thanks again.

Hey All,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes (Mods, feel free to relocate this thread if it is in the wrong sub-forum) ...

Lately, i have my head filled with ideas for a Science Fantasy game. Problem is, this is all still very vague in my head and somehow i have problems putting notes to e-paper.
I have some basic ideas: i want the look to be mostly fantasy with some dashing of science and when i say science i mainly mean magi-tech and "technology" in form of magically powered stuff. My big visional inspiration is, i guess, the parts of the marvel cinematic universe (i'm too much a newb in the marvel comic department) that look very fantasy-ish. For example Thor's Asgard but also some portions of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie (i loved that the blue-skinned bady had a Hammer as a weapon and not a lasergun or some such).

Do you guys/gals have any pointers where i could go for inspiration? Are there any cool science fantasy settings out there that lean more on the fantasy side of things (for example i count Star Wars as Science Fantasy as well but imo, it leans more to the Science side of things)?
Maybe science fiction settings that have a fantastic feel to it (vs. hard science feel) could also help me get a clearer vision. Any pointers are appreciated.

If you have pictures that could inspire such a setting, please post or link to it as well. I'm a very visual person  :wink:

I am considering having stuff like powered armor, flying ships (that are maybe even capable of interstellar flight *), huge sprawling cities, living artifical creatures and so on.

* i am picturing the setting as a couple of inhabited planets at the moment...maybe even in different solar systems. Not sure how the travel through space will go, maybe it is through portals or "wormholes" or maybe even "normal" spacetravel (FTL, Slipstream, Hyperspace, whatever you want to call it).

Thanks for any and all help.

Sounds not bad, Vorro. Now if only you could exchange the d20 for 3d6 and we would be golden ;) (the 3d6 have the same mean-result of 10.5 like the d20 but produce a bell-curve instead of a linear distribution...that means your characters perform much more...realistically).

Looking forward to more of your world and/or system-discussions (if you want to).

A big problem were the tons of feats and the classes, so if you got rid of those, that's a big step. I wouldn't call it a d20 game anymore like that ;)
The other big thing was the linear distribution you get with a 1dX die-system. It's just too swingy and "unnatural"...it does not model processes well.

I guess if you have dumped classes, you also will have to work the skills differently, yes? That's another thing that bugged me with dnd 3e and 3.5... fighters were just bad at skills (the only thing they were good at was...well...fighting) and others, like thieves, were "the king" of skills...just wasn't my kind of thing. Also, miniatures-focused combat...ugh (that was even worse in 4e).

As Vorro already knows, i'm a big fan of his maps. And what i have read so far of the setting seems to be awesome as well.
The only thing that makes me unhappy is hearing that the rpg-system will be based off of the 3.5 OGL. As a theoretical customer of the Elyden RPG setting, this would turn me away from it immediately.

I'm a big fan of Jonathan Roberts' maps. He did the maps for the Song of Ice an Fire map book and also the maps for the Midgard Campaign Setting.

Hi everyone,

As fellow rpg players, i am sure you also salivate over gorgeous maps of worlds and regions. I could not play in a world that has no map ;)

So, what are the best/most gorgeous maps you've seen? Be it from this place here, or from around the internet or even your own maps you can show us.
Let us collect them in this thread here. And please, only world- and/or regional-maps. No city- or dungeon-maps for this thread.

I'll start with a map by a member of the Cartographers Guild whose maps always grab my attention:

Artist: Chanimur aka Diamond from the CG



If you're a map-addict like me, visit his deviant-art portfolio, you'll not regret it!

Are you rewritting everything? Because i remember there already was an Amalga project before this one.
The new map is a lot cooler then the old one ;)

Btw, is this still a setting especially tailored for the DnD 4e rulesset? (I think you said that about the last iteration of Amalga)

Wow, a lot of stuff! Unfortunately, all the maps are gone :( Any chance for a re-up of the worldmap?

Quote from: Ghostman

I keep on changing my mind about the lay of the land in the global scope, so this one's kind of a major thorn in my side. Hopefully I'll get some updated regional maps done though.

You know, i'd be totally interested to see all these changes, the development of your global-scale view. For me, that is very interesting. But then i am a total geography and map-geek :D
And maybe, just maybe, this "laying out of your geographical thoughts", so to speak, could help you removing that thorn.
So if you feel like it (maybe in a different thread?), show us the different, developing, world-maps.

Quote from: Kindling
I may never have said this before, so let me say it now: This setting is excellent in a multitude of ways.

That it is indeed. It would be awesome to have a collected version in pdf or something to read at ones leisure.
Oh and the seven ages are very inspiring.

The only thing that is still missing is the world-map and detailed regional maps for it ;) Come on, Ghostman, you know you want to work on those :D