Real World Inspirations for Fantasy Locales

M

MoonHunter

Game Guru
Joined
Aug 8, 2018
Messages
1,239
Reaction score
2,977
0ab6fc9854bf5ecfa61fe2f990f5f8e3.jpg
 
Telok

Telok

The eggnog is one third rum.
Joined
Jun 20, 2022
Messages
667
Reaction score
1,666
Apologies that I didn't save where the high rise came from. The other is a fancy lens setup all-sky photo off the NASA app, but it makes a nice pic.

I'd imagine them both being Paranoia spoofs but that's just me. The high rise as a luxury resort with an insane director catering to a building full of lunatic ultra rich bored tech startup CEOs and the pcs as menial robots wired to follow Asimov's three laws. The planetoid as a tiny green forest moon where the PCs are some ewok like species trying to survive and deal with this weird over-mind spirit that maybe sort of inhabits everything, makes pretty much no sense talking through various stoned shamans who keep vying for power, and directly controls only weather & lightning strikes.
 

Attachments

  • z94bcTSl.jpg
    z94bcTSl.jpg
    73.4 KB · Views: 5
  • Barsa-LikealittleMars1024.jpg
    Barsa-LikealittleMars1024.jpg
    972.8 KB · Views: 5
AsenRG

AsenRG

#FuckWotC #PlayNonDnDGames
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
13,864
Reaction score
16,921
"The medieval fortress Kokalyanski Urvich is located on the right steep bank of the river Iskar. It has been of great importance in the defense of Sofia over the centuries. In the area you can find several monasteries, which together with the fortress form the Urvich fortress-monastery complex."
54901cc4572db.jpg

BTW, the word "Urvich" is derived by "Urva", meaning "precipice, steep place".

Chris Brady said:
If there's one thing we can 'blame' Tolkien for doing to Fantasy Gaming, it's that. Almost every other game not based on Middle Earth has nothing even remotely like it, save for everything is pastoral, medieval English in scenery.
Click to expand...
Sorry, man, but you can't blame JRRT for that. He had the dark halls of Moria, and more.
His imitators, however, are another matter altogether - I consider them the only ones to be worse than REH's imitators. And if you know anything about my opinion on REH's imitators*, you'd know this is a slur.



*Which generally starts with "Conan written by anyone but REH isn't the same character, just one with an accidentally similar name" and then actually gets going.
 
C

Chris Brady

Legendary Member
Joined
May 3, 2019
Messages
3,045
Reaction score
3,288
AsenRG said:
"The medieval fortress Kokalyanski Urvich is located on the right steep bank of the river Iskar. It has been of great importance in the defense of Sofia over the centuries. In the area you can find several monasteries, which together with the fortress form the Urvich fortress-monastery complex."
54901cc4572db.jpg

BTW, the word "Urvich" is derived by "Urva", meaning "precipice, steep place".


Sorry, man, but you can't blame JRRT for that. He had the dark halls of Moria, and more.
His imitators, however, are another matter altogether - I consider them the only ones to be worse than REH's imitators. And if you know anything about my opinion on REH's imitators*, you'd know this is a slur.



*Which generally starts with "Conan written by anyone but REH isn't the same character, just one with an accidentally similar name" and then actually gets going.
Click to expand...
Two points. That's what I meant with JRRT, it's his imitators that are in gaming, most of us in the West have read his books and those of us who have made fantasy settings (Including myself I sadly admit) whether 'official' or not have fallen into copying him. D&D 4e tried to be more fantastical, with it's 'Earth Motes', floating chunks of land with orbits around certain spots. Runequest is pretty pastoral and tame. It's like the fantasy genre only goes wild with the races, rather than everything.

Second point: I am NOT a fan of the Conan Pastiche writers either. Not one of them that I have EVER read seems to be able to get him right. It's not like Conan is complex either which utterly baffles me.
 
AsenRG

AsenRG

#FuckWotC #PlayNonDnDGames
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
13,864
Reaction score
16,921
Chris Brady said:
Two points. That's what I meant with JRRT, it's his imitators that are in gaming, most of us in the West have read his books and those of us who have made fantasy settings (Including myself I sadly admit) whether 'official' or not have fallen into copying him. D&D 4e tried to be more fantastical, with it's 'Earth Motes', floating chunks of land with orbits around certain spots. Runequest is pretty pastoral and tame. It's like the fantasy genre only goes wild with the races, rather than everything.
Click to expand...
Well, you could at least say "the races and the pantheon"...or Thed might want to have a word with you. (I advise you to say "no" to the offer of conversation...:devil:)
Chris Brady said:
Second point: I am NOT a fan of the Conan Pastiche writers either. Not one of them that I have EVER read seems to be able to get him right. It's not like Conan is complex either which utterly baffles me.
Click to expand...
Oh, but REH's Conan is pretty complex as characters go, it's sophistication that he lacks:grin:!
 
C

Chris Brady

Legendary Member
Joined
May 3, 2019
Messages
3,045
Reaction score
3,288
AsenRG said:
Well, you could at least say "the races and the pantheon"...or Thed might want to have a word with you. (I advise you to say "no" to the offer of conversation...:devil:)
Click to expand...
Tolkien's 'pantheon' is pretty much Christianity, most other Fantasy games tend to the Grecian.
AsenRG said:
Oh, but REH's Conan is pretty complex as characters go, it's sophistication that he lacks:grin:!
Click to expand...
I would disagree, his motives are simple, his goal direct. That's what makes him appealing, he knows what he wants and doesn't hesitate. He's also protective of women, in a rough sort of way. He's not overly conflicted or philosophical.
 
ffilz

ffilz

Legendary Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2018
Messages
2,661
Reaction score
4,853
Last edited:
ffilz

ffilz

Legendary Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2018
Messages
2,661
Reaction score
4,853
I added location captions to the first set of pictures
 
A

Agemegos

Legendary Member
Joined
May 15, 2021
Messages
1,109
Reaction score
3,512
Chris Brady said:
Two points. That's what I meant with JRRT, it's his imitators that are in gaming, most of us in the West have read his books and those of us who have made fantasy settings (Including myself I sadly admit) whether 'official' or not have fallen into copying him.
Click to expand...

In my view the two biggest traps in imitating Tolkien are (1) writing too much history and cosmogony and (2) relying too much on having enemy or evil races. After a couple of false starts I designed my successful fantasy setting with no cosmogony, only eight years of history with 68 years of sketchy past, and used it for adventures inspired more by Alexandre Dumas pere than JRRT. That is, adventures were personal-scale conflicts within society.

The setting was a large tropical archipelago of jungle-clad and coral-fringed islands like the Phillipines or the Malay Archipelago, the local racial type was similar to the Austronesians, and the culture and politics were made of borrowings from mediaeval Japan, Indonesia before Islam, ancient India, classical Greece, and Restoration England. There were no orcs.

It suited me.
 
AsenRG

AsenRG

#FuckWotC #PlayNonDnDGames
Joined
Apr 28, 2018
Messages
13,864
Reaction score
16,921
Chris Brady said:
Tolkien's 'pantheon' is pretty much Christianity, most other Fantasy games tend to the Grecian.
Click to expand...
Well, Glorantha isn't like most games, then:thumbsup:.

Chris Brady said:
I would disagree, his motives are simple, his goal direct. That's what makes him appealing, he knows what he wants and doesn't hesitate. He's also protective of women, in a rough sort of way. He's not overly conflicted or philosophical.
Click to expand...
I said a complex character, not a conflicted or overly philosophical one:grin:!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Cthulhu Mythos - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
Top