Patience Is Not a Virtue I Possess - Gygax 75 Challenge Week 1

 

One of the basics of this challenge is "You are allowed one week, (no more, no less!) for each step." I had intended to adhere to this schedule however, I don't feel all the initial steps are equally weighted. I also feel like, for the sake of motivation, trying to do things all on pen & paper is a losing prospect, especially for somebody who is so incredibly ADHD, such as myself. 

The first couple of steps in the process are...

As somebody who has been gaming for decades, this is something I have to excess. In addition, in a digital age, is this really necessary? I mean, as cool as it is to have notebooks and journals, I feel like I would get lost between the formats and this project would die. 

So...CHECK!

Next we have...

This is worth doing but I already have a pitch for this setting, as the name of the blog may have already telegraphed. So then, what is my pitch?

Land of the Poison Wind is designed with the B/X or compatible retro-clones in mind. This also makes it easily workable for other old-school and OSR systems. I've been wanting to run a non-5E D&D game for a good while now. This setting may have a superficial resemblance to Gamma World but the major difference here is that it leans into the fantasy before the scifi even though it combines both.

• Techno-fantasy world. Technology is so advanced as to be perceived as magic by those who do not understand it (most of the current world). Clerics and magic-users are often engaging with ancient technologies and remnants of a previous age.
• Post apocalyptic. The world exists after a world-shattering war called "The Fall" against an ancient enemy which has left the world blasted, scarred, poisoned and toxic. It is populated by isolated remnants of pre-Fall cultures and monstrous inhabitants. 
• Dying light. The forces of law and order are dwindling in the world as the chaos of the world overwhelms what little remains of the past. Evil city-states, slavers, roving bands of raiders and scourging hordes are ever-present threats to the remaining enclaves of civilization that cling to the wonders of the past. The past is seen as divine and an age of enlightenment.
• All races and classes allowed. Settlements are made up of remnants from, the various pre-Fall folk. Very rarely are there communities of a single race. 
• Mad gods and unreliable magic. The gods have changed since The Fall and have only become more incoherent, random, and fickle. Magic, as it is understood seems to come and goes, sometimes a trickle while at other times a nearly uncontrollable torrent.
• Ancient machines. The magic of the world is really ancient machines and the gods are AIs. The people of the present don't realize that they have all lived, linked to these technologies since before The Fall. 
  

That should do... CHECK!

By now you should have a good sense of the sort of setting I am designing and the next step will fill in some of the blanks as to what all inspired this. While none of these are direct or literal sources for this setting, all inspire me to the sort of setting I want to run.

My list of inspirations is less literary and more pulled from other media types. I will try to annotate them as best I can but I do think the more important part is to list them. My list is relatively short, but that is mostly a byproduct of so much of it just coming from my imagination as well as less defined inspirations that are not complete works of their own. A picture here, a thought there, a scene glimpsed in a passing show. All of these are as much an inspiration to me as any fully developed book, comic, film or other media. 

• Adventure Time, Cartoon Network, created by Pendleton Ward. A weird world full of interesting characters, concepts and a blend of technology and magic. 

• Thundarr the Barbarian, Ruby Spears Productions, created by Steve Gerber, Joe Ruby, and Ken Spears. A treasure trove of ideas for this sort of setting. Wizards, robots, strange races and ancient machines all bump elbows and exchange blows in this setting. Absolutely a must for this sort of setting.

• Gamma World (1st-3rd ed.), TSR. A quintessential resource for a Dungeons & Dragons-like, post apocalyptic setting in the classic, mutants and monsters style and not the dystopian brand of post apocalypse we tend to get today.

• Hayao Miyazaki movies (various), Studio Ghibli. While mostly Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky some inspiration comes from Howl's Moving Castle. These films and their associated manga are full of the sort of techno-wizardry I hope to feature in this setting. Nausicaa definitely inspires a good lion share of the visual language I have in mind. Another note worthy anime series, while not connected to Miyazaki is Children of the Whales, a series featuring a future in which people live on techno-magical mobile islands that move through a silt sea.

• The artwork of Moebius. (late addition) His wasteland environments, isolated characters, settlement and wonderous technologies that seem to blur the line between science and magic are absolutely spot on for this setting. 

There is a lot more I could list but honestly so much of what inspires me is difficult to pin down. This brings us to the extra credit section.

I will be putting together a mood board. This will be in the form of a Pinterest gallery - HERE. I'll fill it in as I find images, so check back now and again.

So, that is all that is required to get the challenge going. I'll start week two next Sunday (6/12/22). Other posts may follow before then but this is is the official Week 1 post for my run through the Gygax 75 Challenge. 

-Eli