The Campaign Builder's Guild

I've had this idea, amongst many, bouncing around in my head for a while. I could gush on and on, but I think a short list of the ideas will work better. I have no name so far, nor anything beyond the basic conception, which, not to be that guy, I think is pretty cool.

This setting would be a mash-up of several genres - a little Steampunk, a bit of Wild West, a bit of standard Fantasy, a bit of light Sci-Fi, and some Post-Apocalyptic. The premise, at it's most basic, is that the setting is composed of two areas (for lack of a better term), the Above and the Below.

The Above is the place where people live, kingdoms exist, things happen, etc. It is composed of the very peaks of the highest mountains and a handful of floating islands (often chained to a mountain, otherwise they would float away) and a giant "sea" of thick, ever-present clouds that separate it from the Below. The Above is almost always sunny, windy, dry, and cold. There are many cities of varying size built vertically upon the peaks of mountains and ridges the cut the clouds.

The Below, obviously, would be the world beneath the clouds. A perpetually dark wasteland created through some magical Armageddon X years in the past (1,000ish?).  It is a foul land dotted with ruins and monsters from the "Magical Age" or whatever.

The Above would have a vibe akin to Steampunk Dandyism in the cities turning more and more Wild West as one travels from these metropolitan hubs. Skyships of varying sizes and shapes allow people to move from place to place. And of course there are sky pirates riding giant birds.

However, as one gets close and finally into the Below, there are quite a few backwater hives that thrive upon the money made from exploring the Below and bringing back old treasures (enter PCs).

Like I said, it's not much to go on, but we all know that question from other people help to focus *hint hint*.

Tales of Symphonia* and Xam'd** are both pretty similar (setting wise) to The Above and you may want to check them out if you want to solidify some visuals for yourself.

As for The Below; it seems to be a bit more nebulous than The Above. Are you kinda thinking a medieval version of The Matrix's surface world? Just sprawling desolation and ruinous buildings / castles / cities?

*a video game about sky pirates in a steampunk setting in which magic is featured
**an anime that heavily features flying steampunk machines and some magic-ish stuff

Hm. Interesting idea. Have you seen this: http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,80853.html

Quote from: Light Dragon
Hm. Interesting idea. Have you seen this: http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,80853.html

Haha I had no idea! Too good of an idea to be true... I will definately have to read up on that though.

[edit]Looking at the date, I think I may have missed this because I was in rural Central America at the time.

It's all good :) I'm still interested to see where you go with your take on the idea.

Haha, well now and I'm going to have to think extra hard.

How's it coming along?

I can recommend checking out both Chris Wooding's retro-future sky pirate universe as seen in his book Retribution Falls as well as the wondrous (and free) one-shot RPG called Amber Diceless (EDIT: oups, meant Lady Blackbird, my mistake) which Luminous Crayon has previously advertised for here on the boards.

Sounds like a cool idea. Leetz. Love those sky land settings!