So, having volunteered to GM a new game for my gaming group (somebody had to, as the current GM is tired and wants a break), I polled them on what they'd be interested in playing. Fantasy was the top choice. Well, as I'm sick to death of D&D (I loved the hell out of it for many years, and it was my introduction to role-playing games, but that was forty years ago...) I thought about how I could do something different.
For one thing, we'll be playing Fantasy Hero. ("Are you a lawyer?" "No, I studied the Hero System rules instead....") For another, I had a brainstorm--and I'm going to use Ross's New World setting for my game. With lots of changes and additions to make it my own, of course, but still. The idea of a tabula rasa where I could set the parameters of what exists and what doesn't, and steer away from all the D&D-esque cliches that are so ingrained in many fantasy RPG players' minds was a godsend. So thanks, Ross!
Because of you, my PCs will be trying to colonize the New World instead of dungeon-delving. They'll be exploring Lemurian ruins, every one of which is at the center of some kind of Zone of Weirdness (think magical Chernobyls scattered across the east coast of America), to justify a variety of one-off monsters. Magical "Kudzu" that has completely engulfed all other life within miles, and is only restrained from covering the continent because it can only exist within a certain distance of one of the Lemurian ruins. Or the ruin where gigantism is a thing. Giant...everything exists in that area, but can't leave (though the PCs will stumble across the occasional dead giant critter that wandered too far and died. And the Night Folk, stolen from Niven's Ringworld--they're ghouls, and they exist in huge numbers; as long as the humanoid races don't bury or burn their dead, they're content to take the dead. If not, well, they're dangerous in a fight. Plus, if they're treated respectfully, they can tell you all kinds of things about the peoples and places in the campaign.
The more I've worked on this game, the more fun I'm having figuring out what I can throw into it. (Every Lemurian ruin will also have a grailstone (from Riverworld) at its center, though I haven't figured out what they do--did--in this world. But they're there.)
