The race of man straggled half-dead into the world of Kethyk-Vara ahead of a vast catastrophe – one of its own making.
Man had come from another world, one whose name he never mentions, for his sorrow is too deep. He came from a world where wizardry and sorcery had reached pinnacles undreamed of. Magicians could push planets from their orbits, or collapse stars with the might of their spells. The wizards of that universe-now-unnamed ruled a realm not numbered in cities or even planets but galaxies.
Man had even developed power so great that he had altered some of his own race into subraces. Sadly, into strong men who would serve him and fight his wars, and strange men adapted to the myriad worlds of that now-unnamed universe.
As ever with humanity, man eventually turned this terrible power upon himself. The War of the Powers raged unabated for thousands of years, with worlds and suns snuffed out like dust in its wake, until one final spell of terrible power precipitated the final entropy of that universe completely.
But humanity is hardy, and was not destroyed altogether. Here and there, pockets of mankind, aided by the incredible sorcerous knowledge of that universe-now-unnamed, survived, and fled to other planes of existence. So it was that mankind came to the harsh world of Kethyk-Vara, a mere fifty thousand or so strong, from an empire where quadrillions had walked the stars. So he came, and founded a fledgling kinjgdom for himself.
But man was not alone in this strange realm of purple deserts and scarlet vegetation, of terrible volcanic mountains and sentient swamps. Other races lived here already. Races with their own science and wizardry. Races themselves tough and aggressive, who saw no need for an additional competitor.
Knomes lived in the volcanic mountains, and the lava flows beneath the surface of the world. Hard creatures of stone and fire, each as strong as twenty men. Mykons inhabited the dark marshes. These were creatures of slime and fungus, with a collective intelligence and a desired to devour the living flesh of all other beings. The nomadic Troks inhabited the plains. These were creatures half man and half insect, nomads by nature, who became the closest thing to allies that mankind would know in this strange world, often fighting as mercenaries under his banners.
Amongst all of these intelligences were other terrible inhabitants of Kethyk-Vara. Mighty saurians hundreds of feet high, huge spider and insect-like creatures of ravenous dispositions.
And there were strange, primordial gods of limited sentience but undeniable power here as well; gods who's primitive battles scattered fragments of their own essences -like droplets of divine blood- across the battlefields of this hostile world. These glowing, jewel-like fragments could be gathered together by those with the knowledge to do so, to forge into artifacts of great magical might.
But the most frightening thing that these new travelers discovered in their soon-to-be-adopted world were the ruins. There were ancient cities and castles here, long since deserted, and with no trace of their prior inhabitants remaining. But what was terrifying about these ruins was that they seemed so commonplace to the refugees of that universe-now-unnamed. For from their architecture and other usages, it was obvious that they had once been made by other men, or creatures very like unto men, at least. Creatures or men who had, somehow, ceased to exist upon Kethyk-Vara.
So did man come into a hostile new world, fleeing the universe his own foolishness had destroyed. It was a world that he must make his own, and master completely, or surely perish in the attempt.
***
Now, what's so special about this new fantasy campaign of mine that I feel it necessary to publish a synopsis on TMP? Everybody here has played in a hundred fantasy creations. What's so unique about this one?
Only the way I went about creating it.
I haven't done any high fantasy roleplaying for a long time, and I had gotten rid of most of my old fantasy collection. I decided to create a new campaign, but to do it based on the minis I already had, rather than to go on a shopping spree.
So, I took a look through my collection.
What I came up with that might be appropriate to the genre were about forty human fighters, rangers, wizards and sorcerers. Many of them looked like noble types, which gave me the idea that this campaign might involve a few noble humans ruling over a larger non-human population. I have some painted Risk LOTR red orcs (good for 15mm hordes of some type, and this campaign will be 15mm BTW). I decided these would be the mercenary half insect Troks. (They really don't look like orcs to me). I also had a few ogres and hobgoblin types, but painted with tan/flesh colored skin, so they will serve in this universe as human sub-types, rather than other races.
I also had the crystal creatures and the fungus creatures from the Nexus Ops game, painted up. These gave me some ideas for two other indigenous races of my new world (the Knomes and Mykons). Since a good fantasy campaign requires lots of sword fodder, these races are mankind's implacable enemies.
I have lots of plastic lizards, bugs, snakes etc., that I use for VSF gaming. Giant critters being a staple of Conanesque fiction, they have a great place here.
Lastly, for models, I had some nice, rather scary looking animals, very well sculpted and very oversize for 15mm: A huge black widow spider, a cobra, a wolf and a gorilla. I decided that these would be the primitive gods of Kethyk-Vara. Beings of great might but which would exist on the level of animals of prey. These primitive gods could not really be worshipped in any meaningful sense, but could be influenced with sacrifices and the proper rituals, to grant power to manipulating priests and wizards.
For terrain, I had a great, mottled purple sheet that I picked up at a JoAnne Fabrics, which I decided would be the overall color of the terrain on this strange planet, and some weird red aquarium plants that could serve as the trees of Kethyk Vara.
One conundrum, however, was what to do about the standard dungeon crawl that was so much a feature of FRPGs. How could these take place if the world was exceedingly primitive and mankind was a newcomer? Also, what would I do with the cardboard dungeons that I had collected over the years?
Here I decided on a slightly hokey answer. The new human inhabitants would find that men (or beings very man-like) had been here before, and left ruined cities and castles behind them. But these beings were no more. What had become of them will be a major mystery of the campaign.
The whole point was that I started with the minis, terrain, etc., I had available and used these things as idea generators to create the campaign, rather than starting with the campaign, and buying what I needed.
So far, I am fairly impressed with the results. It will make for an interesting campaign, that will not simply be a repeat of "elves frolicking in the woods, dwarves toiling in the mountains, orcs raiding from the hills." Of course, it will require some players interested in trying something new and different, and finding them might be difficult, but I'm willing to make the attempt.
Anyway, while there may be nothing really great about my new fantasy universe, I think the process of creating it was worth sharing.
Regards
is getting a lot of mileage from repurposed pre-painted fantasy figs.
