I am going to pitch you four ideas for role-playing games, and you can tell me your opinion on any one of them, and whether or not you would join them.
1. An Enlightenment Period Lovecraftian Horror Dungeon-Crawler, or "Down the Rabbit Hole". It's early 18th century Britain, and a vagrant-turned-obscenely rich merchant in Venice returns to his ancestral home in the marshes of Western England, to reclaim his forgotten birthright, a dilapidated and abandoned castle, the Exham Priory, sitting on a high cliff overlooking the quaint hamlet of Anchester. His ancestors had been stripped of their nobility and fled the country to Italy, where he was raised as a child. He bought his title back, as well as his lands, and planned to rebuild, encouraged by his wife. The crown had refused to aid the proprietor, preferring instead to ignore the up-jumped nobleman. For that task of clearing the woods of wild things, the coastline of pirates, the woods of bandits and exploring the ruins themselves, the proprietor, Harold La-Poer, will reward you generously.
The deserted countryside is not as it seems, and soon the reason for its sparsely settled villages is revealed. The excavations beneath the old castle, once the destructive obsession of the proprietor's ancestor that brought down the wrath of god - and the king, on them, had revealed something of great age and savage nature. Unnatural and unearthly discoveries bound at every corner turned and hallway strenuously walked down towards the dark abyss below, where there is no end in sight. Cultists settled in the countryside, wildlife had morphed hideously into disgusting abominations and down below the depths of the sea of Ireland are creatures exiled from Atlantis for their strange ways and cruel brutality. Much worse is waiting in the ruins of the castle, but none had been brave enough to venture down below.
The rag-tag group of mercenaries will form expeditions, first exploring and mapping these infested territories, and then proceeding to clearing them of abominations. They will face both trials of strength and of the mind, since the horrors they will witness could easily snap the sanity of a weak mind. As you fight more of the monsters your resolve against the unholy and unnatural grows, and you may seek to venture forth to the unspeakable emptiness below the castle itself, and investigate the nature of the excavations there, which lead to all of the madness surrounding the castle.
Inspired by Lovecraft short stories like "the rats in the walls", and the recent game "Darkest Dungeon".
2. Viking Colonization of North America Survival Fantasy, or "A Toast for Vinland". It's 10th century Scandinavia, and war is upon the homeland yet again. A Usurper, Harold the Red, challenged the authority of King Harold the Blue. The two drag dukes and kings to a gruesome and bloody war, which to this day had lasted for over six years. Six years of neglected fields, not plowed or sowed. Six years of Men dying, writing new sagas and singing them at the great halls. Six years of boys taking their father's place, younger by every season. The war whips desperation at survivors who are fed up with the fight, and flee the homelands to settle in Iceland. However, the island, gripped by famine brought on by new settlers and bad weather turns them away. In desperation, the group of refugees go west, to find the fabled Greenland. They missed the land altogether, dragged off-course by a week-long storm - perhaps out of good fortune - and reached a new and unexplored land. They named it Vinland, after the ample grapes growing in the land, which make for excellent wine. They named their settlement "Stormly", as it was the first shelter they had from the week-long terrible storm.
The settlers were quick to celebrate - the land was, unlike Iceland before it, not empty. Natives came to greet the refugees-turned-settlers, and offered to trade with them. There was little the two parties could speak with, but words weren't needed for a greeting of peace. The exchange was most successful, with the natives taking a liking to red cloth brought by the Vikings, using it as a headdress. It did not end as pleasantly as it began, when a bull brought by the settlers lost its temper and charged at the natives. The next day, the natives came in force, attacking the settlement and killing women and children. A decision was made unanimously, and much of the ships were hastily broken down to create a palisade around the settlement. The village became a reality overnight, with the ships needed to return home mostly dismantled. The natives were called 'Red-Bands' (or just 'Reds') ever since, for the red cloth head-bands they continued to wear in their raids on the village.
The future holds new and frightening discoveries. Giant, fifteen-foot tall, hairy beasts with fearsome claws roamed at the horizon, picking apart trees for nourishment. Tales of massive armored turtle-like creatures, deadly cats larger than a horse, Furry and fearsome unicorns, massive elephants with great tusks - a few of the deadly creatures that ruled this new land. Different tribesmen, riding strange short horses and stranger beasts with a hump on their back came to graze around the settlement, as if inspecting the new arrivals.
It is a world the Gods had not abandoned yet. A spit in the face of God and his son, Jesus. A world of old times, from even before the making of man, populated by few exiles from the herd - but mostly by great and monstrous beasts, and never before seen strange races unlike man. An affront to God, they were the Beast-men, Trolls, Elves, Frost Giants, Chaotic abominations, Dwarfs, Wolf-men and Dragonkin... The survival rate for the settlement had plummeted to below zero even before the settlers set foot on land. It was only a matter of time...
Inspired by the games "King of Dragon Pass" and "The Banner Saga".
3. UN Expedition into Alternate Dimension Medieval Fantasy World, or "Through the Looking Glass".
January, 1st, 2023. A portal opens two kilometers away from Guangzhou, China. What comes out of it is a mystery, but the ensuing disaster is the cause of millions of deaths and a disaster in China. Intelligence Agencies find little information about the incident, and most of it is deemed garbage. Reports of men in full plate armor murdering civilians, Female wizards in skimpy outfits bringing down lightning from the sky at tanks, Giants smashing cars and men with ease, and even more absurd nonsense abound. The gate disappeared soon after it appeared, and reportedly all extra-terrestrial creatures were dealt with.
February, 27th, 2023. A portal opens two kilometers away from Moscow, and an invasion force, thought to be several times the size of the one that supposedly attacked China, attacked Russia's capital. This time, the news of the incident spread faster than could be possibly contained, and the general public of the world was met with a stunning realization - we were not alone, and they are trying to kill us. Russia, albeit not officially, requests assistance from anyone who could help - and even though the only ones to send a sizable force was China, the attack was repelled, though with heavy losses. This event was thought to be the first contact, when world leaders were made aware of the threat of a portal to another dimension opening anywhere and allowing sword-wielding psychopaths to murder innocents.
A UN initiative was brought into place, fiercely encouraged by Russia and supported by all of the great powers, to create a specialized strike force, able to act anywhere in the globe to stop the otherworldly creatures from causing another disaster like Moscow. Thousands of soldiers of many nations, supported by tanks, artillery and fighter jets greeted the new invading force three hours after they appeared, which had landed at a clearing right outside Istanbul, in November 21th, 2023. The invading force, which was similar in size, though different in appearance, to the one that attacked Moscow, was quickly overwhelmed and obliterated. However, this did not end the military action. The victory prompted a specialized division of the strike force - supported by an array of experts in their fields, ranging from physics to botany - to step over to the other side of the portal and bring the fight to the invaders.
Henceforth, the specialized division was tasked with creating a foothold in the region, studying the new land, finding a way to establish direct and constant contact with earth and serve as the landing site of earth's revenge against this new world. The multi-national force of soldiers would defend the facility, explore the surroundings and engage with the locals, taking care to bring back samples for the research lab to explore, new materials for the factory to take advantage of, and ultimately create a permanent portal between the two worlds.
A simple objective is bound to go awry, especially when the invasion of earth stems from a conflict brewing inside the other world, a similar Chinese secret force lands in the region with their own agenda, other forces within earth seek to colonize and convert the natives, and a local prophesy of magic and dragons unfolds.
Inspired by the game "X-Com" and the anime "Gate"
4. Great Boer Trek in Space, or "The Great Trek". It is the year 163 of the new count (the number of Pandora years since it was first colonized, abbreviated as PC - Pandora's Count), the new planet of Pandora, and many are moving up north to find freedom and a new home. For decades the unclaimed planet had been colonized by independent groups from all across the Colonial Union, seeking a place away from the so-called tyranny of the Union in the empty planet. They settled in a region dubbed "The Cape", at the edge of a large continent, so they would potentially have room to grow and the sea at their backs. Pandora was deemed 'unfit' by the authorities, citing the mutations humans suffer, caused by the native fauna and flora. Second-generation settlers are born with completely blue eyes, white hair and pale skin - which isn't so bad, but for three-fourths of children born there, their skin became translucent, until it was paper-thin. Such a mutation lowered the survival rate of children down to less than twenty-five percent, an unaccepted figure to the colonization office of the CU (Colonial Union). However, this did not stop the most freedom-loving and mostly xenophobic colonists from living in Pandora anyway.
The colonization of Pandora wasn't outright banned until 96 of the new count, when new information revealed by a third official expedition to the planet brought a sentient species into the attention of the CU. Unbeknownst to the CU, the colonists, nicknamed "Aryans" (for their blue eyes, white hair and pale skins), were trading with the natives - but mostly exploiting them as slave-labor in their farms and mines, fueling the first industry of the planet. The colonizers were warned against such actions, but they ignored the CU altogether. A vaccine to the hideous phenomenon in Pandora was discovered shortly before its invasion by the CU, which had already set its sights on the planet. It was only in 136 PC that a CU military force landed on the planet, claimed it as a preservation, and punished many of former colonists. They banned the local practice of 'Blue Service', what they called the natives and their status as slaves.
The natives, a race of blue-skinned bipedal mammals was roughly similar to humans but not too much. The "Blues" stood at around nine feet, possessed a long tail, pointy ears and all wore their hair in long braids, so long it seemed they never cut their hair. Their relationship with the colonists was tenuous at best, but they were kept in check by the Aryans. Their holy places were kept hostage, and pilgrimage was only allowed to those who served the Aryan people. Even after the invasion of the CU the situation hadn't changed - the new arrivals were organizing the colony, and required much labor themselves, which was why they overlooked the exploitation of the natives. The CU introduced the vaccine to the Aryans, a step which caused a mind-boggling population boom within just one generation.
The new Aryans, emboldened by the considerable swelling of their ranks, demanded more concessions from the CU, which had relatively little control over the cape. The situation soon changed when a rare radioactive mineral, crucial for fueling interstellar travel, was discovered in newly colonized region north of the cape. Many Aryans moved there, and a massive migration to Pandora began, with each entrepreneur looking to make a fortune off the discovery. The CU disposed of their former corrupt colonial administration, cracked down hard on the Aryans and their practice of "Blue Service" and caused what many had called "The Great Trek". Tens of thousands of Aryans moved up north from the center of the Cape to unexplored territories inhabited by stranger and more violent tribes of Blues.
This is their story of adventure, exploration, exploitation and war.
inspired by the historical occurrences of "The Great Boer Trek" in South Africa, and South Africa's history in general. Some inspiration from the "Old Man's War" series (and from the movie "Avatar").
I welcome all criticism, and I'll answer any questions. Please tell me about any ideas or doubts you may have. Thank you for reading this far.
1. An Enlightenment Period Lovecraftian Horror Dungeon-Crawler, or "Down the Rabbit Hole". It's early 18th century Britain, and a vagrant-turned-obscenely rich merchant in Venice returns to his ancestral home in the marshes of Western England, to reclaim his forgotten birthright, a dilapidated and abandoned castle, the Exham Priory, sitting on a high cliff overlooking the quaint hamlet of Anchester. His ancestors had been stripped of their nobility and fled the country to Italy, where he was raised as a child. He bought his title back, as well as his lands, and planned to rebuild, encouraged by his wife. The crown had refused to aid the proprietor, preferring instead to ignore the up-jumped nobleman. For that task of clearing the woods of wild things, the coastline of pirates, the woods of bandits and exploring the ruins themselves, the proprietor, Harold La-Poer, will reward you generously.
The deserted countryside is not as it seems, and soon the reason for its sparsely settled villages is revealed. The excavations beneath the old castle, once the destructive obsession of the proprietor's ancestor that brought down the wrath of god - and the king, on them, had revealed something of great age and savage nature. Unnatural and unearthly discoveries bound at every corner turned and hallway strenuously walked down towards the dark abyss below, where there is no end in sight. Cultists settled in the countryside, wildlife had morphed hideously into disgusting abominations and down below the depths of the sea of Ireland are creatures exiled from Atlantis for their strange ways and cruel brutality. Much worse is waiting in the ruins of the castle, but none had been brave enough to venture down below.
The rag-tag group of mercenaries will form expeditions, first exploring and mapping these infested territories, and then proceeding to clearing them of abominations. They will face both trials of strength and of the mind, since the horrors they will witness could easily snap the sanity of a weak mind. As you fight more of the monsters your resolve against the unholy and unnatural grows, and you may seek to venture forth to the unspeakable emptiness below the castle itself, and investigate the nature of the excavations there, which lead to all of the madness surrounding the castle.
Inspired by Lovecraft short stories like "the rats in the walls", and the recent game "Darkest Dungeon".
2. Viking Colonization of North America Survival Fantasy, or "A Toast for Vinland". It's 10th century Scandinavia, and war is upon the homeland yet again. A Usurper, Harold the Red, challenged the authority of King Harold the Blue. The two drag dukes and kings to a gruesome and bloody war, which to this day had lasted for over six years. Six years of neglected fields, not plowed or sowed. Six years of Men dying, writing new sagas and singing them at the great halls. Six years of boys taking their father's place, younger by every season. The war whips desperation at survivors who are fed up with the fight, and flee the homelands to settle in Iceland. However, the island, gripped by famine brought on by new settlers and bad weather turns them away. In desperation, the group of refugees go west, to find the fabled Greenland. They missed the land altogether, dragged off-course by a week-long storm - perhaps out of good fortune - and reached a new and unexplored land. They named it Vinland, after the ample grapes growing in the land, which make for excellent wine. They named their settlement "Stormly", as it was the first shelter they had from the week-long terrible storm.
The settlers were quick to celebrate - the land was, unlike Iceland before it, not empty. Natives came to greet the refugees-turned-settlers, and offered to trade with them. There was little the two parties could speak with, but words weren't needed for a greeting of peace. The exchange was most successful, with the natives taking a liking to red cloth brought by the Vikings, using it as a headdress. It did not end as pleasantly as it began, when a bull brought by the settlers lost its temper and charged at the natives. The next day, the natives came in force, attacking the settlement and killing women and children. A decision was made unanimously, and much of the ships were hastily broken down to create a palisade around the settlement. The village became a reality overnight, with the ships needed to return home mostly dismantled. The natives were called 'Red-Bands' (or just 'Reds') ever since, for the red cloth head-bands they continued to wear in their raids on the village.
The future holds new and frightening discoveries. Giant, fifteen-foot tall, hairy beasts with fearsome claws roamed at the horizon, picking apart trees for nourishment. Tales of massive armored turtle-like creatures, deadly cats larger than a horse, Furry and fearsome unicorns, massive elephants with great tusks - a few of the deadly creatures that ruled this new land. Different tribesmen, riding strange short horses and stranger beasts with a hump on their back came to graze around the settlement, as if inspecting the new arrivals.
It is a world the Gods had not abandoned yet. A spit in the face of God and his son, Jesus. A world of old times, from even before the making of man, populated by few exiles from the herd - but mostly by great and monstrous beasts, and never before seen strange races unlike man. An affront to God, they were the Beast-men, Trolls, Elves, Frost Giants, Chaotic abominations, Dwarfs, Wolf-men and Dragonkin... The survival rate for the settlement had plummeted to below zero even before the settlers set foot on land. It was only a matter of time...
Inspired by the games "King of Dragon Pass" and "The Banner Saga".
3. UN Expedition into Alternate Dimension Medieval Fantasy World, or "Through the Looking Glass".
January, 1st, 2023. A portal opens two kilometers away from Guangzhou, China. What comes out of it is a mystery, but the ensuing disaster is the cause of millions of deaths and a disaster in China. Intelligence Agencies find little information about the incident, and most of it is deemed garbage. Reports of men in full plate armor murdering civilians, Female wizards in skimpy outfits bringing down lightning from the sky at tanks, Giants smashing cars and men with ease, and even more absurd nonsense abound. The gate disappeared soon after it appeared, and reportedly all extra-terrestrial creatures were dealt with.
February, 27th, 2023. A portal opens two kilometers away from Moscow, and an invasion force, thought to be several times the size of the one that supposedly attacked China, attacked Russia's capital. This time, the news of the incident spread faster than could be possibly contained, and the general public of the world was met with a stunning realization - we were not alone, and they are trying to kill us. Russia, albeit not officially, requests assistance from anyone who could help - and even though the only ones to send a sizable force was China, the attack was repelled, though with heavy losses. This event was thought to be the first contact, when world leaders were made aware of the threat of a portal to another dimension opening anywhere and allowing sword-wielding psychopaths to murder innocents.
A UN initiative was brought into place, fiercely encouraged by Russia and supported by all of the great powers, to create a specialized strike force, able to act anywhere in the globe to stop the otherworldly creatures from causing another disaster like Moscow. Thousands of soldiers of many nations, supported by tanks, artillery and fighter jets greeted the new invading force three hours after they appeared, which had landed at a clearing right outside Istanbul, in November 21th, 2023. The invading force, which was similar in size, though different in appearance, to the one that attacked Moscow, was quickly overwhelmed and obliterated. However, this did not end the military action. The victory prompted a specialized division of the strike force - supported by an array of experts in their fields, ranging from physics to botany - to step over to the other side of the portal and bring the fight to the invaders.
Henceforth, the specialized division was tasked with creating a foothold in the region, studying the new land, finding a way to establish direct and constant contact with earth and serve as the landing site of earth's revenge against this new world. The multi-national force of soldiers would defend the facility, explore the surroundings and engage with the locals, taking care to bring back samples for the research lab to explore, new materials for the factory to take advantage of, and ultimately create a permanent portal between the two worlds.
A simple objective is bound to go awry, especially when the invasion of earth stems from a conflict brewing inside the other world, a similar Chinese secret force lands in the region with their own agenda, other forces within earth seek to colonize and convert the natives, and a local prophesy of magic and dragons unfolds.
Inspired by the game "X-Com" and the anime "Gate"
4. Great Boer Trek in Space, or "The Great Trek". It is the year 163 of the new count (the number of Pandora years since it was first colonized, abbreviated as PC - Pandora's Count), the new planet of Pandora, and many are moving up north to find freedom and a new home. For decades the unclaimed planet had been colonized by independent groups from all across the Colonial Union, seeking a place away from the so-called tyranny of the Union in the empty planet. They settled in a region dubbed "The Cape", at the edge of a large continent, so they would potentially have room to grow and the sea at their backs. Pandora was deemed 'unfit' by the authorities, citing the mutations humans suffer, caused by the native fauna and flora. Second-generation settlers are born with completely blue eyes, white hair and pale skin - which isn't so bad, but for three-fourths of children born there, their skin became translucent, until it was paper-thin. Such a mutation lowered the survival rate of children down to less than twenty-five percent, an unaccepted figure to the colonization office of the CU (Colonial Union). However, this did not stop the most freedom-loving and mostly xenophobic colonists from living in Pandora anyway.
The colonization of Pandora wasn't outright banned until 96 of the new count, when new information revealed by a third official expedition to the planet brought a sentient species into the attention of the CU. Unbeknownst to the CU, the colonists, nicknamed "Aryans" (for their blue eyes, white hair and pale skins), were trading with the natives - but mostly exploiting them as slave-labor in their farms and mines, fueling the first industry of the planet. The colonizers were warned against such actions, but they ignored the CU altogether. A vaccine to the hideous phenomenon in Pandora was discovered shortly before its invasion by the CU, which had already set its sights on the planet. It was only in 136 PC that a CU military force landed on the planet, claimed it as a preservation, and punished many of former colonists. They banned the local practice of 'Blue Service', what they called the natives and their status as slaves.
The natives, a race of blue-skinned bipedal mammals was roughly similar to humans but not too much. The "Blues" stood at around nine feet, possessed a long tail, pointy ears and all wore their hair in long braids, so long it seemed they never cut their hair. Their relationship with the colonists was tenuous at best, but they were kept in check by the Aryans. Their holy places were kept hostage, and pilgrimage was only allowed to those who served the Aryan people. Even after the invasion of the CU the situation hadn't changed - the new arrivals were organizing the colony, and required much labor themselves, which was why they overlooked the exploitation of the natives. The CU introduced the vaccine to the Aryans, a step which caused a mind-boggling population boom within just one generation.
The new Aryans, emboldened by the considerable swelling of their ranks, demanded more concessions from the CU, which had relatively little control over the cape. The situation soon changed when a rare radioactive mineral, crucial for fueling interstellar travel, was discovered in newly colonized region north of the cape. Many Aryans moved there, and a massive migration to Pandora began, with each entrepreneur looking to make a fortune off the discovery. The CU disposed of their former corrupt colonial administration, cracked down hard on the Aryans and their practice of "Blue Service" and caused what many had called "The Great Trek". Tens of thousands of Aryans moved up north from the center of the Cape to unexplored territories inhabited by stranger and more violent tribes of Blues.
This is their story of adventure, exploration, exploitation and war.
inspired by the historical occurrences of "The Great Boer Trek" in South Africa, and South Africa's history in general. Some inspiration from the "Old Man's War" series (and from the movie "Avatar").
I welcome all criticism, and I'll answer any questions. Please tell me about any ideas or doubts you may have. Thank you for reading this far.
