Not The Intended Use: Wix Logo Maker for modern/cyberpunk games?

Ever come across something and end up using it for tabletop because its such a fitting tool? Now I am not sponsored by Wix or anything, this blog is too small for a sponsor and beside that its not YouTube. However here is what happened: the adblock bugged and I got an ad, which was Wix talking about their new logo maker for a company, using algorithm to help generate a logo. Now all this seem a bit soulless right? By the numbers, maybe? While the whole thing is paid, you can download a 'free sample' which should be enough for a Game Master to show to the players.

Well it turns out this is perfect if you want to add a fictional company in a modern or cyberpunk page. Here are some I generated for fun, using resources such as Corporation Generator from Seventh Sanctum and the Corporation Name Generator from the donjon.bin website.

Slay The Ascended: Full Premise

This is a rework, rewording and expansion of my Slay The Ascended! post which, hopefully, better outline the ideas and concepts since that original post was an old draft I one day decided to just overhaul a bit and finish just because it was the mood for the day, not knowing it would become one of my most viewed posts. The original ideas, outlined less formally, can be found in that post and its recommended to read it first.

The Time of Ending

On some fundamental level, Mankind always understood there would come a time where our species would end. It could be a species-wide fear of the inevitability of Death as every civilization out there, every culture, speak of the end of time: be it a permanent end or a great cataclysmic era which will usher in a new era. From the Mayan Calendar to the Book of Revelation to the cycles of the Kalpa to Ragnarok. On some level we always knew it was coming. Or maybe its just species-wide neurosis and fear of death and change or, perhaps, we knew that whatever great unknown would follow would cause is great distress and reveal to use new fears beyond our imagination.

Art by Mario Alberti.

The Ages turned. Around 2030, it just seemed humanity was falling apart: pandemics were in increase even after the somewhat hysterical (at times) response to the 2020 pandemic. The first superbugs arose in the following years and made a Chinese flu look like a complete joke. Entire species of animals and plants died in a mere year or two. Those were the easier times. As the world seemed on the verge of collapse, political and social tensions of all stripes just seemed to unravel at an ever escalating pace, with every continent erupting in either war and/or civil disorder and millions died. More died from the superbugs. The rest? It was merely the start of a new nightmare in a depleted world. The voices started. There were spikes in mental cases which many attributed to the decade of chaos but as time progress, it seemed as if some deeper madness was gripping humanity as mental breakdowns escalated and turned people into monsters: cannibalism, cults and the likes arose in this period which only fueled the chaos.

By 2040, the brief Age of Monsters had begun. Unexplained freak mutations had dramatically increased in the past decade but by the 2040 it had reached a boiling point as nature itself seemed to unravel in ways which past science could not explain. Cancerous growths of unexplained fleshy matter, parasitical worms with mind control and farm animals reverting to an almost primal state, such as chicken growing teeth and a taste for flesh. As mad dreams and visions kept increasing, the humans changed as well, only further driving humanity in a frenzy. Entire new religious branches were born then, only to fuel the fires of war, as entire population began accusing each others of devil worship or similar concepts. Others blamed the government mandate vaccines of the 2030 which had prove ineffective at best or dangerous at worst. It seemed humanity would never catch a break. The wheel of the Ages was turning. There was a new reality boiling on the surface of the world which seemed ever stretched. Night kept growing darker. Madness kept running deeper. Stars burnt out in the sky. Freak or still births peaked to three quarter of all births in a single year. It rained blood. Entire populations shuffled into the wilderness, naked and screaming the names of what could be alien gods. The end of days had come.

The Ascended

No one knows for sure when exactly the first of the Ascended arrived. Perhaps they had always been among us, even if this seems unlikely or, more likely, they are the byproduct of those times of ending when the ages of the world turned. When they appeared it didn't take long for people to take notice and, within days of their appearance, small towns and outpost had fully surrendered to their new master without a single weapon being fired. There was something so fundamentally perfect about the Ascended which, combined with their innate gifts, just made them natural leaders. Some were gurus and philosophers while others presented themselves more akin to warrior-gods who would help their faithful reclaim their lands from raving bands of lunatics or particularly dangerous bandits and traffickers. One by one, the various remaining pockets of human civilization bent the knee to their new masters, the new rulers of mankind and our species direct successors: the Ascended. Their reign had come.

Ascended Culture and their Thralls

Art by Anthony Jones

The Ascended are called that way because they are above and beyond the mere humanity they emerged from. They do not hide that they were once human, because much of their perfection is an improvement upon humanity. Ascended have a language of their own and their own word to describe themselves but this language cannot be spoken by human or even understood by our puny, primitive minds. They communicate in a language with concepts utterly beyond our understanding but beyond that little is truly understood of their emergent culture. Ascended see themselves as above and beyond human failings and the natural leaders of our species from here on out. They have emerged across all human cultures and all creeds and claim to be beyond and above petty distinctions of mankind, even if many speculate they must have their own cliques, philosophies and beliefs but we would not be able to understand them.

An Ascended is the master of any settlement, with the largest settlements on Earth hosting a population of Ascended in a certain hierarchy which vary depending on the local culture. Different Ascended groups, called either pantheons or cabals have different societal organization depending on the ruling Ascended's specific plans for humanity, as they organize mankind and tend to them much like in a way we would tend a garden. Some Ascended have created military-like places, ruled with an iron (but just?) fist, with a meritocratic system rewarding skill and loyalty for the human soldiers as to encourage them to see themselves as mankind's defenders. In other places, they create almost anarchist commune of pot-smoking pseudo hippies which encourage free love while in others they could create religious cults or even hyper traditionalist places with the goal of ensuring a steady breeding of new humans for generations to come. War between different pantheons and their thralls should be seen as non-existent, even if in reality it is more complex.

Those who serve the Ascended are wholly devoted to their new masters. After all, are they not perfect? All Ascended have an innate charisma and magnetism which borders on mind control and they are able to draw strong emotions from entire human populations. This is not pure mind domination, however: very few Ascended (if any) can truly order a human like a full puppet. Rather, they built their devotion through the years by engineering a culture where the Ascended are not only seen as infallible gods but also by ensuring people have a reason to believe it. Ascended-ran settlement are the most prosperous, stable and safe of all the world's remaining human cities. Any mutated monster in the area is slain in glorious combat by the local Ascended, their heads display on pike or their skins turned into coats and capes. The Ascended cultivate an image of heroism and godhood which help reinforce the belief system they have created. Slowly but surely, humanity has slowly changed and simply accepted that they must defer to the superior Ascended, much like how a child defer to their parent because their parent knows more. To be a second class citizen and chattel to the Ascended is a gift and a privilege, for who would not want to be loved by living Gods? Some are driven by love, by faith or even by lust as many Ascended have such a perfected physique and raw animal magnetism that entire crop of humans willingly surrender to become their sexual slaves and perhaps one day hope to help them birth Ascended children.

Ascended Biology

Art by Nyctoinc Illustrations

Each Ascended began its life as a mortal human and was transformed into another Ascended through infusion of genetic material. The process is dangerous and unstable as well as excruciatingly painful as well as utterly destructive to a human sense of self and identity. After days of agonizing with a body riddled with ever creeping cancerous, alien growth the flesh will slowly dissolve and the body will seemingly melt and then harden into a crystalline cocoon, at which point transformation into an Ascended can begin. Nothing of the original body remain unchanged and the individual is changed at a cellular or even molecular level. The trauma and confusion of Ascension leaves the individual original humanity behind no matter what. There are no 'friendly neighborhood Ascended' who secretly retain their old personalities. While they can retain their memory of past lives, most willingly discard them as their newly born body continues to mature.

Ascended appear, at least initially, as physically perfected humans even if this can somewhat vary. They are tall (most start at six feet and a half and can grow to eight feet tall), clean limbed and perfectly symmetrical. Some appear eternally youthful while others have a completely cosmetic age, appearing as well formed and well preserved older individuals: these tend to radiate more a sense of wisdom, kindness, paternal love or intellect. Yet even the 'old' looking Ascended have a supernatural, nay, unnatural beauty and perfect to them. Their skin tone and hair color can vary and can include all human permutations and even colors or traits which do not exist in humans, such as green hair, pure white skin or even blue skin. Their eyes tend to almost shine in the darkness, with some even having flat out glowing eyes. Some are elfin, with a thin and tall wispy beauties while others are brawny, with a perfectly sculpted physique no human could ever hope to match. Different strains of Ascended have different styles or even fashion to their biology, such as those who prefer a more divine or even almost 'demonic' appearance, with horns and fangs or even growing an extra pair of arms. One must keep in mind that the subtle mind warping of Ascended ensure that human thralls are not bothered: indeed, should a particularly popular Ascended decide to reorganize their biology on a whim, expect sycophants to self mutilate to emulate their master or mistress. To some extent, Ascended biology is just as much sculpted and engineered as it is part of their biology, as each represent an idealized form of perfection to their old human selves. Several Ascended are also hermaphrodites or, in some odd cases, utterly lacking in sexual organs if such was the perfect the individual desired.

This, however, is a lie.

Art by Marcus Siergiejew

The idealized human form of an Ascended is not their true form. Their 'godly' form is a coping mechanism of the newly reborn Ascended, as their real form is utterly alien and disgusting. While there is an eldritch, unnatural and alien mindset inside every Ascended they retain enough of their humanity for vanity. Indeed, such vanity is generally enhanced to an absurd degree. The true form of an Ascended is always unique and always alien and disgusting to look upon, with some even lacking a human form at all are nothing but a head and snapping, razor-tipped tentacles or stretched multi limbed bug-forms with ephemeral wings or floating piles of organs held aloft by gaseous excretion. The Ascended never show these forms to their followers and most, if not all, are unaware of them.

Ascended are eldritch monstrosities, with an unnatural physiology. They are by default stronger, faster and smarter than the average human and able to heal extremely quickly without any lasting consequences, even if healing larger wounds require consumption of human biomass. As one would expect given the thematic, the Ascended are vampiric creatures and they sustain themselves off of humans. Actual consumption of flesh and blood is rare, usually every few months and rather they live off the mental energies and devotion of their human thralls. Through a mixture of pheromones and psychic abilities, the Ascended inspire the blind devotion in humans they crave so much and in turn slowly feed the mental energy this generate as human minds are slowly warped and sucked of their sanity. The full abilities of the Ascended are unclear and it is likely even they are not aware of their full potential and limitations.

Despite their clear advantages, however, Ascended are not immortal (even if its likely they do not age). They are still flesh and blood, even if said flesh and blood can sometimes appear to bend the rules of reality a bit. When not surrounded by their entourage of thralls and servants, an Ascended can be cornered and killed with human weapons. Blowing their brains out and then setting the twitching remains on fire usually works, as does hacking or blowing them apart. According to their own propaganda they are true immortals but this is false: around the world, some have already been killed in gruesome manners. They are not Gods. They are creatures of flesh. They can be killed.

The 'Slay the Ascended!' Sandbox

Art by Lina Porras

A 'Slay the Ascended!' campaign is very well suited to a sandbox and a lot of it can overlap with typical fantasy setting sandbox, even if it is set in the near, post apocalyptic future. There are ruins to explore (the lost cities, full of mutations, madness or cults) and there are monsters roaming around, namely the remaining mutations from the Age of Monsters. The key difference, however, is that player characters plays the part of the 'Rogue Humans', which are these human populations which have either not submitted to the Ascended or composed of people who have slowly broken away from the brainwashing and fled their fellow thralls. The key locations in a Slay the Ascended campaign are the various settlements under Ascended control, which own the most resources be it food, water and/or guns. Functionally, this mean players are either going to be functionally bandits and raiders or they will be saboteur, spies and 'fifth columnist' inside the Ascended-ruled settlements.  The more characters attack Ascended stronghold the more they will be hunted. This can be a good chance to take down an Ascended for good, should they be goaded to attack themselves.

One issue they will need to deal with is that most of their enemies are humans too. A life freed from the Ascended is not an easy life nor is it a good life. It requires, more often than not, to kill and steal from fellow humans and to uproot their way of life and ruin their day. The world of 'Slay the Ascended' is a bleak place and doesn't shy away from the realities that a resistance group can be a particularly violent and dangerous group that often cause more harm than good. To oppose the Ascended may be morally right in terms of human freedom but it requires one to actively harm other humans which is a difficult moral choice to make. Rogue humans are seen, by the thralls, much in the same way we see dangerous fringe groups and/or insane preppers who amass guns in their bunkers for the 'coming race war' or similar concept. From the POV of a Thrall civilian, a 'Rogue Human' is a dangerous, narrow minded, bigoted and irrational unbeliever at the best of times and an absolute monster at worst. Even those few in the Thralls who know the Ascended brainwash (and sometimes eat them), the life of a Rogue Human seems dangerous or even destructive: after all, modern society of the 21st century generally required us to accept that sometimes, things are rather imperfect and that we sometimes work for bad people doing morally dubious things. To those folks, serving a flesh-eating alien man-god isn't really much different from their parents who worked for a soulless global mega corporation which exploited uncertain child labor laws in foreign countries while pretending to be virtuous. At the end of the day, its meet the new boss same as the old boss, right?

Who is really in the right here, anyway?

One difference, of course, is that the Ascended are not human. Not anymore. They are creatures of an alien origin, even if they were derived from human stock initially. Many 'Rogue Humans' are individuals afflicted by some odd form of 'madness' which fills them with a revulsion for the Ascended. Perhaps this is akin to a species-wide immune response to a parasite having entered the body of collective humanity. The same alien dreams which drove people mad in 2030 and onward are still there. There is an unspoken fear that the Ascended are but the first step toward...something? Slowly the Ascended are changing humanity society, creating these assemblages of human civilization toward a certain goal they themselves perhaps don't understand. They have only ruled for a few decades, after all. Whose to say their existence is not the mere first step toward a horrific transformation for humanity, as we are turned into food, cattle or who knows what else for alien powers. After all, where did the First Ascended come from? Who created them? And why?

You can feel it gnawing at your brain. The wheel of the ages hasn't finished turning. You know it in your gut: this is just the start. The parasites must be removed from humanity before its too late, before they consume us and make us into something else.

Five(ish) Games/Settings I need to play someday

Just a regular old filler post, with some thoughts on games and/or game settings I'd like to try some day but odds are will never get to change to experience as a player or Game Master.

1. Talislanta and Glorantha/Runequest

I'm putting these two together because of how similar they are: not so much as settings (granted you could easily argue they emerged from similar roots in Fantasy) but rather in terms of what they are as games. They're old games with oddball fantasy settings that have basically completely flown under the radar of modern fantasy gaming. Its the very opposite of mainstream and its boring-ass Forgotten Realms and Qel'Dorei or even Golarion (granted, that one has enough pulp love to have interesting elements).

2. Dark Sun

Another odd fantasy setting, this time one for Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun is another one of those bizarre settings which doesn't really register in the mainstream of fantasy in spite of having some top notch setting books for D&D 4e (which were arguably the best setting books of that era). What else can I say? I'd love to run it, its cool, its unique and its kind of horrific and depressing in the most metal of ways.

3. Battle Century G

What can I say with this one? I'm a mecha fan, even if it isn't a subject I've mentioned a whole lot on this blog, namely because there isn't much of an interest in the subject matter around the OSR and there's a clear lack of any good OSR-compatible mecha game. Closest that exist is the Mecha Hack, for the Black Hack. Anyway, Battle Century G is one of the few mecha games that seem to generally know what it is doing simply because the guy who worked on it was such a fan of the genre to begin with. The game is easy enough to mods in order to accomodate various style of mecha campaigns.

4. Star Trek Adventures

Now for something completely different: the still-in-publication current official RPG for the venerable (and much abused, sadly) Star Trek license. This one is as far removed thematically and mechanically from anything I've ever mentioned on this blog yet at the same time, having (almost completely, at least as of this post) binged through Deep Space Nine has made me want to run some Srar Trek stuff.

5. Maid RPG

....Because why not?

Worldbuilding Resources: Youtube Channels

Just figured I'd post some of the Youtube-related resources which have helped me flesh out things for games. Some of these are fairly obvious and well know, others maybe a little less so. Keep in mind quite a few of these include writing advice, which isn't quite relevant to Tabletop RPG but they are here on this list because they discuss matters of world building in some shape or form or because they include information on the how and why of reality. These are put in no particular order.

• Stoneworks World Building: General purpose world building and history.
• James Tullos: Worldbuilding and literary critiques. Good to see the glaring worldbuilding pitfalls before crashing right into them.
• Artifexan: Include not just world building and science fiction but also Conlang.
• Invicta: Lot of good historical information about the lives of ordinary people and how it worked.
• Kings and Generals: More historical matters.
• Terrible Writing Advice: A self explanatory name using sarcasm and self-deprecation to explain the do and don't.
• Isaac Arthur: In depth, but very approachable and easy to understand discussion of plausible hard science fiction concepts.
• Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell: More science-related videos.
• PBS Eon: Videos about prehistoric life and evolution. Good if you want ideas for plausible creatures to throw at the player which would still come off as strange, like a crocodile with hooves.
• Ben G Thomas: More videos about paleontology as well as some related to speculative biology.
• Trey The Explainer: Even more paleontology, anthropology as well as more odds and ends including discussions about mythology in relation to their history and development.

Godbound: Thoughts On A Scion Conversion, Part 2

Some more thoughts on a Scion conversion for Godbound. Still nothing mechanically complete, as that would require far too much work not to mention I do want to wait for the Second Edition to show up to see what good parts can be salvaged of said mess.

Mistakes Were Made

The last post I realized there are three Pantheons I forgot:

• The Yazata (The Persian Pantheon): These guys had their own expansion but somehow I forgot to mention them last time.
• The Inue (The Inuit Pantheon): A rather obscure Pantheon with nonetheless a large role when it come to expanding the lore of the Titans, as Ymir is/was an Aspect of their associated Titan.
• The Contentious 'Native American' Pantheon: Oooh boy. This is one which I recall the fanbase long argued over because of the debate if there should be a universal Pantheon for these incredibly varied cultures or if there should just be one representing a specific major cultural group. Right now I'm not 100% sure what I'd do if I ran Scion when it come to handling Native mythology. They do have Gods in the Overworld as any culture does to some extent. I'm just not enough of an expert to delineate how said Pantheon would be organized. It is a very complex subject matter and one I'd need to handle to the best of my ability if/when the time come.

And with that, the Pantheon roster is mostly complete, at least as far as some loose draft of all the major and minor players. Is it a list which cover every possible option? Hardly. But at some point one need to make the cut.

On The World Of Scion

A generally-agreed consensus when it came to Scion 1st edition was that it wasn't really a setting. Yes, you had rules for all the gods and monsters and you had an overall massive conflict of the Gods vs Titans (as well as Gods vs Gods and Titans vs Titans) but outside of the (very railroady) adventures there wasn't really much of a world. Scion books presented and front loaded a ton of information on how the various myths and legends existed in seemingly our modern world but never really gave much thought or explanation on how this was actually handled. There was this big, overwhelming sense that the setting at times lacked purpose, direction and most damning of all applicability. This was often the case with the White Wolf games but Scion in particular often left you wondering "What the flying fuck am I supposed to do with this game?". It is a very damning trait for a Tabletop RPG to leave a Game Master unable to figure out what the flying fuck do to with its world and characters.

My take on how the world of Scion would work is what I call World Plus. The world of Scion, and by that I mean the material and mortal world part of (which the Norse Gods call Midgard) is much like our early 21st Century Earth but bigger, cooler, louder and scarier. It is a world more akin to pulp and action movies at times, a world where the general malaise and banality of our dreary soul-sucking social media life has sucked away all meaning of human interactions. A world where there is still a place for larger than life people with great ambition rather than a world of petty mean girls and corporate bullies (even if such things would exist just as badly!). Cities are bigger, more vibrant and the rural areas are rugged and still retain that sense of being the frontier between civilization and the wilderness. Calling it an 'improved' version of our world is wrong, however: because when it reach the darkest and most cruel, uncaring parts it gets so much worse. Catastrophic 'natural' cataclysm can break apart countries and turn a once peaceful location to chaos just as much as it will spur epic deeds of self-sacrifice as people risk their lives to save those trapped in the debris. The roads, at night, become darker places and at the edges of the picket fence, where the woods still exist, monsters lurk in the shadows.

Ten, twenty or thirty years ago it could have been a better place than our world in some aspects but that reality is no more. There are primordial forces at work, forces embodying the ancient enemies of the Gods and mortals alike. As the Titans stir in their shattered prison, things are taking a turn for the worst. Some of the catastrophe were not forest fires nor flood nor earthquake but rather merely appeared to be these things: in truth something from the ancient world of myths and legend crawled up back to the mortal world and (hopefully) was defeated by one of the Scions, the offsprings of the Gods.

The way I see it, the world of Scion is a lot like the world of Marvel and DC: an apt comparison, given that superheroes are often compared to modern mythology when they just flat out aren't Gods from the get go. The slow reveal of the existence of the mythical in this larger-than-life world is comparable to the transformation undergone by the world of, say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When we are first introduced to it, in Iron Man it is basically a slightly-more-futuristic version of our own world circa 2008. However as more and more supernatural beings appear it begin to deviate more and more from our history and, eventually, even the very history we thought we knew is called into question as all these amazing things such as magicians and aliens were under our noses all this time. Of course, the main different here is that Scion wouldn't really delve into the scifi elements: there would be no super soldiers, no highly advanced power armors and no robots and aliens. However the idea remain the same: the gradual transformation of our modern world into one where the impossible become a known factor and where Gods walk the Earth.

Godbound: Thoughts On A Scion Conversion, Part 1

Fairly early in the blog's history, I wrote about using Scion as a basis for modern-day Godbound. These are a few thoughts and expansions on the ideas there. It is still not a full blown conversion document as that has yet to be something which is being worked on. These are more loose thoughts on a Scion 'remake' using Godbound, much like the previous Exalted material on this blog.

The Pantheons

A key and important feature of any Scion game is which Pantheon of divinities would be feature in the game itself as well as what options they offer to players when it come to creating their characters. Every Scion need some form of divine parentage (if going by the setting rules of 1st edition, anyway, as 2nd edition is a bit different).

The Aesir (The Norse Pantheon)

Introduced in the core book, the Norse pantheon is one which generally command quite the presence in the game. While not the most famous of the 'main' pantheon, it is the one of those which hold up a sizable portion of the core lore of Scion nonetheless alongside the Greek Pantheon. In Scion, their specific purview is called Jotunblut: it represent the fact that the Norse pantheon interbred with Giants and allow them to enhance their power and stature. Under the original Scion rules, it allowed to turn people and animals into giants but for the sake of Godbound rules I would count that as a miracle and use of Dominion. Rather, personally I'd take cues from John's Scion Resources and use it more for the 'buffing' of the Scion's physical might and stature. Jotunblut, with its theme of gigantism, would likely easily mechanically double as some Giant/Titan 'Concept Word' for vanilla Godbound which is neat. Lore-wise, there isn't much to change to the Aesir.

The Dodekatheon (The Greco-Roman Pantheon)

Easily the most famous of any of the old Pantheons of gods, the Greek Pantheon would be expanded to become the Greco-Roman Pantheon: meaning that aspect of the lore added/changed from the Greek sources by the romans would be considered part of their overall mythos. Their fame combined with being, for a sizable period of time the main pantheon of one of (if not the most) powerful civilizations of the ancient world combine with the sheer amount of demi-gods found in myths would very much make it one of the most prolific, potent and active pantheon...which would not necessarily make them the strongest however, as the Greek gods are easily the most dysfunctional family ever. Any advantage from their size and scope would be negated by how fucked up they are as people. Their Purview in Scion is Arete, which was the most boring-yet-efficient Purview as it provided passive bonus to everything. Rather, if I was to run Scion using Godbound I would loosely base it off the Peak Human Concept Word.

The Daeva (The Vedic Pantheon)

While the Greek Pantheon has fame and influence in human history through the impact of Rome on civilization as a whole, the Daeva are unique in that they've never really gone away and are still worshiped to this day by a very much active religion: Hinduism. Not only that, but through the influence of Hinduism on Buddhism and other faiths such as Jainism the Daeva would be a Pantheon with connections stretching all across Asia. While they were not a core book Pantheon in Scion, this would be something easily rectified and I firmly believe they should be considered one of the core Pantheon of any Scion game. Their legacy of creating demigods and divine avatar easily rival that of the Greeks. Their purview, Samsara, would likely be a reworked version of the Fate Word. As a whole the Daeva have a form of local power which no other Pantheon can ever hope to match in term of longevity and sustained worship.

The Tuatha Dé Danaan (The Celtic and Arthurian 'Pantheon')

On the surface, the Tuatha would not appear to be good material for being considered a 'major pantheon' Celtic mythology, after all, is obscure to most people and filled with characters whose name nobody knows how to read. However, the same Celtic myths which form the basis of their identity were also at the core of a much more famous modern mythology: Arthurian legends. Under this version, the Tuatha Dé Danaan would incorporate many elements of Arthurian mythology with the loose 'retcon' that many key figures were in fact Scion of the Celtic gods albeit those of a later era. This would be more similar to the earlier Arthurian portrayal where he was less of a medieval King and more of a pagan Dux Bellorum. The Tuatha, in Scion, had the purview Enech which is related to the concepts of Geasa. I'd argue this one is a type of Concept Word which would bestow powerful, often passive Gifts at the cost of them being permanently lost if a taboo is broken.

The Shen/Celestial Bureaucracy (The 'Chinese' Pantheon)

Oh boy, this is a weird one. The Chinese Pantheon is a complicated one: arguably 'Chinese Mythology' isn't quite as clearly defined as Greek or Norse, as it has incorporate many ideas and characters from different people and different religions crossed with a sizable body of folklore and popular culture. The previously-mentioned detail that the Daeva overlap with other Pantheon? This is one such example due to the influence of Buddhism. Generally-speaking to be a Scion of the Celestial Bureaucracy would mean the character is the offspring/creation of a Deity with a defined role in this system but it is very plausible for a character to be aligned/allied with the Shen and being the offspring of an Indian, Japanese or Korean deity or some figure of Buddhist mythologies. Conversely there are also Scion of Chinese descent who are member of other pantheons due to the spread of the Chinese diaspora: some of them are on good term with the Shen and might act as cross-Pantheon diplomat, such as a Chinese-American Greek scion while others might incur distrust from the Shen because they associate more with the ideals of their foreign divine ancestry. As the tension between China and the Western world slowly grows, who knows where this might lead?

The Orisha and The Loa (The 'West African Diaspora' Pantheon)

While it has roots in the ancient West African people, the Orisha-Loa pantheon is a cross-cultural one born of the African diaspora which resulted from the African slave trade. Much like the Chinese Pantheon (but for very different reasons) it incorporate quite a bit from other faiths. In the original Scion only the Loa were available, while John's Scion Resources presented the Orisha as their own Pantheon which tied into the Loa. Finally, Scion 2nd edition simply has their version of the Orisha be a default Pantheon. Personally I simply consider them an expanded pantheon much like the Greco-Romans combine Greek, Etruscan, Roman and more while the Shen and Daeva overlap with each others (and to a lesser extent the Japanese Pantheon) when it come to Buddhism. Taking cues from the JSR version and the core book Loa, the Orisha would have two potential purviews, which are Ori and Cheval: the first has power over one's destiny and the other allow the 'riding' of humans. How this would work in practice I'm not sure but it isn't beyond possibility for me to consider that some Pantheon have wider and more conflicting signature abilities.

Lesser Pantheon

'Lesser' here is...relative. These aren't necessarily weaker or smaller (or less important), merely pantheon with far less of a foothold in the modern world for a variety of reasons. In fact this isn't even related to my personal tastes as many of these are my absolute favorites its just they have smaller roles and there is generally not much to say about them than which isn't just 'they exist'. They simply have less of a grip upon the world and less active Scion.

• The Aliha (The Arabic Pantheon): Pre-Islamic gods of the Arab lands, the Aliha are almost a dead Pantheon which has faded nearly entirely from history. The fan-made supplement for them even flat out admit they are among the least known or understood of the pantheons of old.
• The Amatsukami (Japanese Pantheon): This one is an oddball among the lesser pantheon as it remain very strong within its own country, much like the Indian pantheon. The difference, however, is that the Japanese are an insular people. They assimilate ideas from others but rarely spread their own insular beliefs and myths to others. As a result, this is a strong pantheon with a strong local base but lacking in the reach of the Daeva and Shen which they are tied to.
• The Annuna (The Mesopotamian Pantheon): One of, if not the oldest Pantheon. While their lust for life may not have faded completely they remain very poorly known today, safe perhaps for their most famous Scion: Gilgamesh.
• The A'pu (The Incan Pantheon): Of the three Meso-American Pantheon they are the less-known but it is worth remembering that the Incan Empire was indeed once the mighty ruler of the Andes.
• The Atua (The Polynesian Pantheon): Much like the Greco-Roman and Shen they are a cross-cultural Pantheon.
• The Aztlanti (The Aztec Pantheon): The most war-like of the three Meso-American Pantheon and the strongest of the three if only because of their connection to the still-existing modern Mexican culture which has Christianize some elements of their pre-existing mythology.
• The Bogovi (The Slavic Pantheon): One of the more 'faded' of the European pantheons alongside the Nemetondevos.
• The Elohim (The Canaanite Pantheon): Almost as faded from history as the Aliha, unfortunately. Their founder (and Titan Avatar) El bear an uncomfortable resemblance to a 'certain someone'.
• The Kuh (The Mayan Pantheon): The Mayan Gods are the sometimes-allies, sometimes-rivals of the Aztec Gods.
• The Nemetondevos (The Gaul Pantheon): One of the more forgotten Pantheon of the older days of Europe.
• The Pesedjet (The Egyptian Pantheon): While iconic, the Egyptian gods are also quite misunderstood and not as well known compared to the Greco-Roman Gods. Like other Middle-Eastern Pantheons they've waned in power, albeit not as much as others. Such is the mark Ancient Egypt left on the world.
• The Tengri-Mongol Pantheon: Currently this one doesn't have a name, as it was not one someone else wrote about in the 1st edition days but rather one born of my own idea on what to add to and expand upon.

OSR Game Mashups: What would it be like?

A while back I wrote up a tiny table for shit and giggles, where two OSR-related games are mashed up. For fun I tried to flesh some of them out a little bit in trying to imagine what it might be like in term of setting and adventures:

• Flying Swordsmen + Stars Without Numbers: The Great Empire Under Heaven span all known space and maybe beyond. It is a large empire, where the rule of law, order and bureaucracy is supposedly adamant. However beneath this world of workers, peasants and magistrates is one of swordsmen, mercenaries, martial artists and demons. Basically, space Wuxia with maybe a dash of cyberpunk and transhumanism or space wuxia with space fantasy elements via the Codex of the Black Sun. Every single Wuxia cliche and tropes exist and is cranked to eleven but in a world of spaceships and super science flavored around Taoist and Buddhist principles.
• Godbound + Spears Of The Dawn: Depending how you play it, you could simply take the 'fantasy faux Africa' style of Spears (the same way D&D is implied to be 'fantasy faux Europe') and apply it to Godbound's own setting, meaning the Three Lands are actually a distant Realm to Arcem. More interestingly I would say one should play off the African fantasy and mythology aspect but crank it to epic levels using the Godbound rules in the setting of Spears rather than importing the setting of Spears into Godbound's own world.
• Flying Swordsmen + Mutant Future/Gamma World: Another Wuxia one, but rather than being set in ancient China or a future analogue it is set in a post-apocalyptic, mutation-ridden post-WW3 China. The lawless lands are a breeding ground for bandits but new martial art schools and sects are formed to compete and bring order. Like Fist of the North Star but in China with mutants.
• Mazes & Minotaurs (and Vikings & Valkyries) + Spears Of The Dawn: Ancient world massive crossover shenanigans where 'all myths are true': assemble an army of adventures from all the continents as you travel the world. Historically accuracy be damned.
• Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea + Carcosa: Your mighty-thewed barbarian and amazon huntress found this strange portal in the 'Caves of Zur Gartsar' and next thing you know you are on a faraway alien world. Could be a whole campaign or a single adventure side-trek.

OSR Games and Genres Mashups!

Just something quick, for fun! I will leave you to figure out how to make this work.

D8	Setting A	Setting B
1	Flying Swordsmen	Yoon-Suin: The Purple Land
2	Godbound	Hubris: A World of Visceral Adventure
3	Silent Legions	Mazes & Minotaurs
4	Stars Without Numbers	Spears of the Dawn
5	Gamma World/Mutant Future	Carcosa
6	Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea	Weird Adventures
7	Rather than rolling on both, roll A twice
8	Rather than rolling on both, roll B twice

Random World: Having some fun with a randomly-generated setting!

I'm sure it's been done too many times for me to bother searching who else did it but I've decided to take a randomly generated fantasy map and just make a short, bullet-point description of the setting. Why? Just for fun. And for the sake of flexing some creative muscles, I suppose. While this is going to be relatively system-neutral, I'll be going with the core assumptions of D&D-derived tabletop rpg. Beyond that anything goes.

The simple, bullet point style is inspired by Tritan Tanner's 'Condensing Ravenloft' series and the complete document can be found here.

This is the map, which has been randomly generated from here. I could have sworn I saw that generator somewhere else.

Rather than flesh an entire world in a single post, I've decided to start with a single region which would make a good starting area for player characters, with two major settlement with a strong connection to magic allow Magic-Users to have enough support to research new spells, find a mentor and help pawn off the various magic trinkets their party have found for the right price and not get ripped off (too much). Likewise, these cities are defended and provide a quick origin for Fighters who want to be part of some former group (city guards, maybe?) while the cities are full of greedy and cunning and corrupt individuals: the perfect breeding ground of Thieves.

Two cities with magic presence, a wasteland and implied orc-infested wilderness,

The Orcfen

Shadowmoor Swamp by Warren Mahy.

An expanse of swamp and forests and the breeding ground of Orcs, the horrible minion and children of antediluvian Witch-Trees. The Orcfen is an area of wilderness inaccessible to the civilized folks, dotted with the ruins of past and forgotten civilizations and the hideout of bandits, thieves and criminals who dwell at the very edge, either avoiding the orcs or striking deals with them.

• Wilderness of murky swamp and dark forests, full of monsters.
• Ruled by ancient Witch-trees, progenitor of Orcs and other horrors.
• Orcs are small, wiry (yet fierce and strong) monsters made of a mixture of flesh, mud and magic. They look like misshapen, waxy humans with skin which can be the color of mud or green/blue/sickly yellow. They have little to not individuality beyond their allegiance to their progenitor.
• A few orcs become truly sentient when they eat the flesh of powerful and strong-willed individual or of magic-users. These beings are a threat to Witch-Trees but some manage to coerce them to continue their service in exchange for greater privilege in their horde. A few are rebels and lead rebel band which are enemies of Witch-Trees but no friend to men.
• The terrain is difficult to navigate due to the thick underbrush, tangles of moving roots, fetid pools and more.
• Settlements come in three types: isolated swampfolks (Helpful/Neutral/Hostile), Bandit camps (Neutral/Hostile) and Orc dens (Always Hostile).

The Mystical City of Caldbrygg

Ravnica Forest by Yeong-Hao Han.

Last heir to a mostly-fallen culture of mighty warrior, kings and mages, the city of Caldbrygg is one of the last true bastions of civilization in the area around the Orcfen. Mighty walls and a network of rune-stones protect it from monsters as does it's knights, who ride giant birds. Caldbrygg is split in rulership between the ancient royal lines and the Mystics, which are a caste of Sorcerer-Priests who are privy to the last secrets of their forebears.

• Walled city, with ramparts of stone and giant trees with magical (albeit slowly failing) defenses.
• Tug-of-war of rulership between the Mystics and the royal line.
• The inner circle of Mystics are masters of the secret arts which maintain Caldbrygg's defenses. Other forms of magic are slightly more democratized among lesser guild, cabal and sects who can exchange information and knowledge...for a price.
• Has orders of armed nobles/knights who maintain the aerial defenses. A possible origin for a Fighting-Man is to be a lesser noble, too poor to afford to maintain a mount who goes on adventures to gain riches and status.
• There is a black market where people trade items acquired from the demons to the south. The Mystics have ensured the city guards are suitably bribed to keep these exchanges going.
• The main rival to Cryham.

Cryham, City of Spells

Crystal Street Market by Sandara Tang.

Where Caldbrygg tries to stick to tradition when it come to magic, Cryham is the complete opposite: in Cryham all are free to practice magic and learn of it's powers and gifts provided one has the resources. The city is a thriving market of goods, magical or otherwise, full of ambitious upstart competing with one another to acquire more power and prestige.

• Market city, where money, power and magic is all that matters.
• Magic is for all....provided you can afford it. The city is rife with magical barons with too much gold just as much as it has upstart magicians with big dreams, ambitions and maybe the talent to get the recognition and market share they desire.
• Slavery is legal in the sense you can sell yourself. Slave contracts usually are defined by the number of years one is selling themselves.
• A goldmine of opportunities not only for magicians but also warriors of all stripe who can work as sell swords and bodyguards. There's always stuff going on in regards to the jungle to the south anyway.
• Full of drugs and wild orgies.
• The main rival to Caldbrygg.

The Furnace Waste

Mirrodin Plain by Marc Tedin.

Separating Caldbrygg and Cryham is the Furnace Waste, which true to it's name is a really really scorching place and is the birthplace of many earth, fire and metal elementals upon the material plane. While the outside appears to be desert-like the core of the wasteland is increasingly more alien, with nothing but rock, glass, jutting metal and the sudden eruption of volcano which grow within years only to eventually simply collapse from the shift in elemental energies.

• Magical fire-and-rock wasteland.
• Alien place where the core is more like a metal and stone world.
• Full of elemental creatures, most of them hostile. A few of them can be tamed as beast of burden or war: it's always nice to have a giant metal beast that breathe fires in your army.
• Main sapient inhabitants are the Furnace Men, which are made of living metal and procreate by forging new bodies which are then infused with life. They can be helpful, neutral or hostile depending on the tribe.
• Frequently invaded for those looking for a newly sprouted metal seed, which grows into a metal-tree which produce renewal metallic ore. However more than a few cities have exploded from reckless attempt to grow one.

Godbound: Mixing Godbound with 'Modern D&D'

This is a more comprehensive and polished version of a scrapped post that went through many revision. With some sloppy copy paste from the various scrapped version.

Combining Godbound with 'Core D&D'

As an OSR game (well, a rather unorthodox one mind you), Godbound obviously has its roots in Dungeons & Dragons. While the default Godbound setting (both the implied setting and described realm of Arcem) is very good and unique without resorting to the tired fantasy cliché, these same cliche have a very strong place in the collective imagination of those involved with Tabletop Games and to a lesser extent, fantasy novels and videogames. It just would not be the same without elves, dwarves, dragons and wizards. We tend to call this High Fantasy.

Now let's be clear: Godbound very much is 'high fantasy'. What I'm talking about here is the style and ideas generally associated with the often (rightfully?) maligned 'modern D&D', which is to say the style and tone which has grown away from the more grim and bizarre days of OD&D into the absurdities of the Forgotten Realms (beside Ed Greenwood's weird sex life, that is!) into the over satured weirdness of D&D 3e to 5e, including Pathfinder. What I've come to realize is that these ideas aren't inherently bad: they just more often than not create implied (or not so implied) worlds which are ill-suited for low-level adventuring if one even tries to think about them.

But for divine-level heroes? Now that's another story. The more I look into the bizarre worlds created by the editions of D&D I am most familiar with the more I realize they seem suited for high-level play with characters more akin to fantasy superheroes than adventurers out for loot and glory In many ways, modern D&D seem like it want to create highly fantastical settings filled with countless sapient races, magical beings and divine-level entities and then somehow (when it remember it's roots, anyway!) expect us to just roll mortal characters in a world filled with reality-altering beings. No wonder the caster supremacy problem is so prevalent and endemic!

One could see this post as me trying to put through 'rehabilitation' the D&D I've grown up with by making it understand that what it wants to be is, on many fundamental, not being Dungeons & Dragons. In many ways, one could look at it being similar-ish to Exalted but with the years upon years of D&D lore, which generally tend to evolve to an increasing mishmash of whatever element of previous editions and/or settings were popular or liked by the writers.

The assumptions are:

• There is a staggering variety of sentient humanoids, almost more like Star Trek or Star Wars' myriad aliens than a fantasy world centered around humans and maybe a few races. And that's just taking into account the creatures which can be player characters!
• Likewise, the paths to power (read: classes) are immensely varied. You have all manner of unique ways to wield magic, train yourself or use the power of something else and possibly make it your own.
• There are other planes of existence which are physical places you can go to provided you have the magical means to get there and not die. Oh, right, forgot to mention: planes have a nasty habit of being a bit too literal, so the Plane of Fire is nothing but heat, flame and lava and the Plane of Negative Energy is a black hole of death. Which sort of suck.
• Related to plane and creatures: you have massive, sometimes even infinite outer planes filled with immortal beings which range from otherworldly spirits with their own goal and purpose to the far more boring 'they're all creatures which embody alignment X'.
• There is a ton of Gods and they tend to be rather thematic, even down to a list of domains.

Meanwhile, the assumptions/implied setting for Godbound are:

• The world is damaged/broken by some divine cataclysm.
• The universe has any number of pocket realms and other realities for heroes to adventure into provided they have the tools and means to explore them.
• There are formerly-mortal divinities with thematically-themed powers. These are expected to be the player characters, forming a pantheon.

Looking at strongly shared elements, we get:

• The worlds are full of weird, wonderful and horrific monsters, many which can utterly end any ordinary mortal it come across if malevolent.
• The technological and societal levels are bizarre and inconsistent: in many aspect the settings are oddly in line with 20th and 21st century but it has swords and castles. It's appellation of 'medieval' is a massive misnomer.
• There are a ton of ruins and potent magical artifacts scattered all over.
• Both settings have many science fiction and science fantasy elements once one dig below the surface of faux-medievalist. In many ways, this is much more Zardoz than Excalibur!

Of course some people might feel a bit annoyed that I collectively refer to modern D&D as a singular 'setting' but I'm going off the implied settings from 3e to 5e, which are the editions of the game I've been familiar with throughout my life until recently. I'm all too aware exceptions exist!

Embracing The Cheese?

In many ways, quite a few people find the 'fantasy clichs' tiring. However, my highly biased opinion is simple as such: I've wrnt so far into hating these that I've come full circle in loving them all over again once a greater understanding of their roots, evolution and appeal come from. In other words, this?:

It may seem silly and indeed it is silly, but that does not make it any less valid. There kitchen sink has continued to appeal to people over the year for reasons and there is nothing inherently wrong with it provided one use it right and understand how to use it.

So how would one do a 'Trapped-In-an-MMORPG' game, anyway?

In this cancerous mess of a post, the idea of the now-infamous 'trapped in an MMORPG' cliché of modern Light Novels and anime was outlined as being a potential concept for a game. While it has zero value to the old guard of grognards, to me it seem like an idea with interesting hybridization of very old school and very new school ideas: the kind of game concept which would appeal to the people my age or younger, in other words, those I game with. This is not a post to convince any veterans that it's a good idea. I'm well aware it has no appeal to those unfamiliar with MMORPG and modern video games and anime. Not that I blame anyone, a lot of things are pretty crummy these days.

Game Design Conceits

Obviously, a lot of MMORPG and video games elements are ill-suited to tabletops. Therefore we have to make some assumptions about what kind of video game this would be to allow a functional tabletop campaign to happen within it.

• The game most likely is ridiculously technologically advanced in order to work, therefore the implied setting is futuristic. Think less current video game and 'MMORPG holodeck'.
• The game is more likely geared toward action-RPG and/or third-person style action games and shooters (albeit from a first person view for the character) like Dark Souls, Warframe, the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer or TERA online than an interface-based MMORPG like Everquest or World of Warcraft. The players are inside the game, after all, using their minds to simulate the body's movements.
• The game very likely allow a more complex environment interaction than current videogames, allowing players to pick up environmental objects and move them. Doors can be closed, blocked by crates and objects can be stacked. In other words, anything short of destroying walls which limit the map itself is theorically allowed, at least within a dungeon.
• Towns likely have built-in safeties which render objects indestructible and unmovable. Same for NPC. This is to prevent players from breaking the hub areas and 'griefing'.
• Character death now mean player death, as per the cliche of 'trapped in an MMO death game' stories.

Mission-Based Gameplay

In my head, the game which would be best suited as an inspiration is not even a classical MMORPG: it's Warframe. Now I'm biased because it's what I've been playing for a month and it's really damn good, but nonetheless, there's a lot of good which come from a mission-based structure. This is not to say the open areas where players can roam don't exist but in many ways they are boring, antiquated empty areas where the only quests are 'go kill bears and bring me their asses'. Fetch quests sucks!

The fact each mission is labelled in what type it is BEFORE starting (and the fact that, in sandbox play, players can easily find them) mean that pre-mission preparation is not only a factor but a clear gameplay element. The mission blurs give hint of what enemies are inside and so what gear, powers, spells or whatever to equip.

Dungeon Missions

Dungeon Missions would form one of the 'core' mission types and are those best suited to the tabletop medium, as they themselves originally evolved from the tabletop roots. A dungeon in this definition is an 'instance' where a group of players enter. Under my current game design ideas, Dungeon Missions=/=Map Missions (I'll get back to 'Map Missions' in a moment): a dungeon is less open, more room-and-corridor-based and the environment is just as important as the monsters. There are dead ends and secret rooms. The game would use advanced procedural generation to create these dungeons but obviously, in real life, it would be a mix of random tables and GM crafting a suitable dungeon.

• Dungeon Treasure Hunt: Explore the dungeon and recover X amount of loot found in chest. This is different from 'dropped loot' from random enemies, as the chest is a distinct (glowing) in-game object.
• Dungeon Assassination: Explore the dungeon and find the boss inside and kill it.
• Dungeon Extermination: Explore the dungeon and wipe X specific enemies.
• Quest Dungeon: A major dungeon with elements of multiple mission types with a major boss at the end. Much more massive in size.

Map Missions

These are different from dungeons in their structure: larger rooms, more interconnected, little to no dead-end and no secrets. These are more similar to the maps you'd find in Warframe. They are designed to allow players and enemies to split up/regroup on a need and for prolonged battles.

• Defense: Hold out for X turns against enemies and prevent whatever you are defending from being destroyed.
• Escort: Similar to defense but with different map layout, you need escort a convoy from area A to B.
• Skirmish: There's a pre-set number of enemies in the map. Kill them all.
• Assassination: Like Skirmish, but you need to kill a boss to complete it.
• Monster Hunt: Like assassination, but with a bigger map and a huge boss at the end. Has more players in it than the usual party size, meaning it's a good place to bring NPC players (by that I mean someone playing the game who is an NPC, not an NPC in the videogame itself).

Exploration Missions

It's here that the 'holodeck' nature of the game come in, as nothing in real-life would ever have something of this scope (or at least have it and be good): Exploration missions are small hexcrawls where the players are expected to camp in-game. Given they are trapped in the game, this mean they are vulnerable when sleeping.

• Reconaissance: A 'small'-ish hexcrawl for a normal-sized group. It's an instance meaning only the goup can enter.
• Exploration: Every few days (or maybe weeks) or so, the game world will automatically generate a new hexcrawl area that multiple groups can enter and everything, be it resources or loot, is up for grab. This is a PVP mode, meaning player-versus-player. Considering death in the game is permanent, this is some serious stuff.

Knowledge Of The Game

While the players may be trapped inside the game, meaning they can't check the game's wiki, having to rely on purely in-game data (read: stuff in their sheet and game document), the more people play the more the exact stats of certain monsters and items will be known. Understanding the 'meta game' is an important element, as it will allow the players to prepare their loadout for the mission ahead. This also mean that manually acquiring the information is required, even if it mean just hanging in town asking other players what they know of X. Beta testers may still be in the game but this carry a risk: that things were changed between the beta and current version.

Random Elements?!

A certain level of chaos and GM flexing their creative muscles is still required: if everything was 100% planned out it would make for a boring game. As such the game has a certain amount of procedural generated 'special content' which has a small % chance of appearing in certain areas of certain missions. These are the 'funny rolls' on the random encounter table, these things which only happen on certain rolls and which may make the players crap their pants and run away from the encounter.

Players Interacting

One thing to remember is that the game world is currently full of other human beings equally trapped in this mess. People will panic, go crazy and worse. While the game world has static elements, such as merchant NPC standing still day and night, most of the Non-Player Characters of the campaign will be just as much individuals with names and lives as in any game.

Hirelings

Or 'noobs'! A good source of hirelings are other players trapped in the game who are lower level: being unskilled in the game and/or unable to grasp the more complex and deadly gameplay of higher levels and being afraid to die they tend to gather around good players and defer to their authority and skill.

Crafters

Some people will simply decide 'fuck it' and wait out to be freed from the game. In the meantime they will level up their crafting skills and make a living gathering materials for other players and crafting them new gear. These people form the core of the in-game economy, as in-game NPC invariably only sell the most basic of items which quickly become worthless.

Guilds, Conquest and PVP

In time, players will gather into 'guilds' which offer in-game benefits. The non-player guilds will become enemy or ally factions as the game shift into the 'domain management' of higher levels as players gather more and more resources to build themselves an in-game guild base. First a small building then eventually a fortress of some kind. Other guilds can attempt to invade these bases and steal their resources. Crafters not hanging in the town where combat is disabled will be found inside those, having access to the guild's vault (an actual, physical place in this game).

The Conquest mode affect the game's overworld: there are small towns scattered across the world, which factions can conquer and/or protect to gain additional resources. This mean that, rather than having to face some orc horde or hobgoblin army the invader are other players and their summoned NPC soldiers, 'built' using their guild hall and it's resources.

Elf Replacement: Moon Folks

A hodge-podge post in presenting various, somewhat disparate idea for a 'Moon Folks' race, drawing inspiration from the Lunarian of Final Fantasy IV, Celestrian of Etrian Odyssey V and Soratami of Magic: The Gathering and other disparate sources. Mind you, the idea of associating elves with the moon or another planet is by now old hat and has been done before in Golarion, Pathfinder's setting, where Elves originally came from their equivalent of Venus. The idea was also brought up by Joseph Manola at Against The Wicked City, among many others that can't be recalled right now but swear I've read before. I figured I'd give it my own spin as well as slowly shape my ideas for a JRPG-esque setting, as highlighted here and here.

Tamiyo the Moon Sage by Eric Deschamps

The Moon Folks

The being called Moon Folks do not call themselves that. What they call themselves no one knows, but they have been around in history from time to time, never gathering in one place on The Planet to form any coherent nation but enough for archaeological records to show they were around. Most Moon Folks who come down to The Planet tend to be broadly split into a few categories. There are the agents (who serve some higher power or political figure), who tend to want to set themselves up as advisors to powerful individuals (think like Merlin) or as some wandering magician serving some higher power (sort of like Gandalf). Then there are the exiles, who flee due to some crushing defeat of either themselves or their allies and who abandon their homeland to become land-dwelling mortals. Some of them can be great heroes (or at least sire them) but others are foul villains with sinister agendas.

As a race, the Moon Folks do not fall anywhere on the Good or Evil side: if they fall on any side it is most likely beyond human comprehension. They never really side with any cosmic force of absolute destruction, however, safe for some fallen and twisted individuals. They live for centuries and when they die their bodies turn to light and vanish to grow into Moon-Pearls at the bottom of their lunar seas. While capable of reproduction, for the most part their society is one of reincarnated spirits made flesh, living off in their crystalline cities tended by magical homoculi and other weird things which would populate a late-game JRPG city on the moon. Moon-Folks are notoriously disconnected from nature, as they live in the bizarre and mostly-sterile landscape of the moon.

Physically, the Moon-Folks vary greatly in appearance, which is shaped by arcane forces and bizarre eldritch rules only known to themselves. While a sizeable portion of them do look like ethereal and beautiful humans with light pastel or white hair, some displays odd traits like truly elongated, almost rabbit-like ears (think 'anime elf ears'), horns, feathers for hair, three eyes or seven fingers and toes. They rarely look monstrously deformed as these alien features tend to be delicate and well-formed...but they certainly look alien and weird.

Moon Folks Adventurers

Most Moon Folks encountered on The Planet are adventurers: the rare few who aren't generally have managed to earn themselves a rather cozy spot from which they can either observe or influence the world, such as the aforementioned court magicians, prophets or sages. Questing moon-knights and wandering sorcerers travel far and wide in search of purpose and hidden truths and only rarely do the Moon Folks ever create a village or outpost for themselves: these tend to be secret bases and hidden villages built to guard places of great power or pathways between the planet and the moon.

Magnolia, from Bravely Second.

Just how wise Moon Folks are really is...up to debate. Most are ill-prepared for life on The Planet, even if their past incarnations have gone 'down there' before. In fact, odds are that whatever a specific Moon Folk remember is centuries out of date anyway. In spite of their smugness many of them fumble at basic tasks, which can amuse humans. Every generation there are a few Moon Folks who fall in love with mortals and produce offspring.

There tend to be two paths which appeal to the Moon Folks: that of the spellcaster and that of the hybrid jack-of-all-trades. In systems which use multi-classing, Moon Folks should be encouraged to multiclass: a reflection of their many lives and the phases of the moon. It is in Moon Folk nature to diversify their skill set and fighting style. Some do it because they feel the strong pull of a past life while others do it to distance themselves from a past life, such as one who was a Fighter in a previous life now having the Rogue class as this current incarnation is much more two-faced and doesn't really feel like being a master swordsman. Especially if the past incarnation got stabbed in the face by a goblin. This conveniently allows the Moon Folks to use the Elf class from systems where such a thing exist or to use Magic-User with maybe a tweak or two.

Moon Maidens

Cecil Harvey from FF IV, the ORIGINAL
'brooding bishonen' of the franchise.

For the most part, Moon Folks don't reproduce the 'old fashioned way'. Those who reproduce with don't have to produce an offspring which is female...but if you ever needed some mysterious, mystically-gifted and impossibly cute and sweet  blue-haired girl to drive the plot it would most likely be a Moon Maiden. Lacking the wisdom of other Moon Folks, the Moon Maidens are often cruelly exploited and manipulated. Reproducing with humans yield a human offspring (albeit often quite lovely in appearance or magically-gifted but otherwise human) while two Moon Folks reproducing together brings to life an entirely new Moon Folk soul, which grows as a pearl in the moon sea as any other. Often called Moon Maidens, Moon Princess or something equally fancy they don't automatically have to be female.

Some Moon Maidens come into being on their own as part of vague, ill-defined prophecies without having any parents while others still occur when a moon pearl fall to the planet early in it's infancy, birthing a Moon Folk (initially) disconnected from past lives. A few rarer Moon Maidens are born of human parents either due to, again, ill-defined prophecies or the mother being exposed to the moon pearl which transfer the unborn life to the unsuspecting woman or, in some cases, a man whose next child will be a Moon Maiden. These Moon Maidens born of human parents tend to share some resemblance to the parent but tend to have some odd, tell-tale sign of their inhuman heritage.