How does /tg/ feel about the venerable "Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy" genre, in which it either turns out or simply known as a premise that the fantasy world is the very far future of Earth?
I liked the Shannara books as a kid, and Adventure Time is pretty fun. I haven't really seen it don't well in an RPG, though.
>>43575706
I like Numenera, although the monsters could have been better. The Bestiary book helped a lot with that. They still need a more unified artistic look though.
The Dying Earth RPG is also awesome, but it's so niche nobody ever plays it.
Earthdawn does this, however it is set on Earth in the very distant past. It had shitty mechanics but very nice fluff. Technically in the some continuity as Shadowrun.
>>43575857
"Shitty mechanics" is putting it really, really mildly.
>>43575844
>The Dying Earth RPG is also awesome, but it's so niche nobody ever plays it.
How is it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoxMiZxN-F0
I was thinking about doing a setting like these. The world reversed back to the ancient ages, maybe bronze age, after a cataclysm. The thing is, the people would have to mine for resources, and the truth is most mines in the ancient times were extremely shallow, because the resources were plenty and abundant in the surface of the mountains. But nowadays we need deep mines to get them. How would people get stuff like copper, iron and whatever if it's not in the surface?
I need something that takes back the metal we've used in our society and returns it to the 'natural world'. Mountains, hills, mounds, whatever
>>43578971
major cities after the cataclysm would become mines, with the caveat of being major dens of all sorts of nasties.
>>43579002
That could be a cool idea. But what if I want the people in the setting itself to be unaware that there was a cataclysm? or maybe not, but unwary of the real extent of the old world and their technology. Knowing that there was something and now there is not, but not the full details.
I want the "it's our own world" thing to be hinted, and not actually really shown
>>43579367
That's only really something you can pull off in a novel where we only see things from one person's perspective.
You can't have an entire world of people who don't know it, and you can't put it in a sourcebook, and the first hint is going to be accepted as "oh, it's the old planet of the apes schtick is it?" anyway.
On top of that, the whole "mind blown" aspect is completely lost in this medium anyway. You can't control 100% at what rate characters gain knowledge and information when you're not controling them directly, as soon as someone gets the hint there are probably a ton if things he can do to confirm that they are indeed on earth, and you can't stop them unless you're a shit DM who only invite your players so that you can have an audience to your fiction writing.
That said, when it comes to individual people they don't have to know shit, the average person in any grimderp fantasy setting has very little knowledge of what's beyond the hill, let alone what was beyond the hill a hundred years ago.
>>43579367
What do you do when someone starts asking what the constellations look like session 1?
>>43579487
I'd agree, except that if it's not an outright published setting, it can still totally work.
And maybe the "mind blown" aspect is lost on you, but I've had some good DMs pull the wool over my eyes successfully enough to have had at least a couple "mind blown" experiences. Even when the clues were a little *too* obvious, it's still satisfying to have figured out the mystery before the reveal.
It all depends on the players, and that's really on OP to determine whether or not he'll be able to ruse his players and whether or not they'll like being rused.
>>43579524
show them a star chart, but dont have it mapped out. present it upside down and backward
>>43579367
for inspirational reading i would recommend Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. the first three books cover the decade following The Change, while the series after follows the children who grew up after The Change, there was a whole chapter of them exploring a ruined structure and trying to figure out what it is before you realize its the St. louis arch
>>43579524
I would think you have them roll some check to see if they can figure it out. I can tell you with great confidence the only things I can identify in the night sky are the Big Dipper, Orion's Belt, sometimes the North Star, and the Moon.
>>43579812
>show them a star chart, but dont have it mapped out. present it upside down and backward
So the apocalypse also flung Earth across the universe?
>>43579524
Who does that? Like, you've been invited to play in a completely run of the mill fantasy game, do you seriously ask your GM out of the blue to give you a map of the constellations, just in case there's something hidden there?
>>43579821
My point was that you can't hide from the players that they're on earth.
It's really easy to just look for the north star or a constellation, and that's the end of it. Even if you figure out ways to hide it from the characters, you're guaranteed to confirm it to the players.
Why not just embrace that everyone playing knows that they're on earth, but have fun with turning it into a mysterious "age of the ancients" thing for the characters?
>Haha, it was earth all along!"
is never going to be particularly exciting to the players and trying to "hide" it is simply not going to work if they ever set their mind to confirming that it is indeed earth.
It's way more fun to just go with and have them explore what characters describe as ancient catacombs and the ruins of the cloud castles, full of cryptic runes and incomprehensible messages like "Staff parking only".
>>43579787
Have you had anyone successfully pull a planet of the apes on you? Really?
Of course the GM can hide shit from the character, he's basically god, but hiding in plain sight type stuff like "it was earth all along!" is pretty impossible to hide from the players, and they're the ones you should be thinking about.
>>43580070
I guess my approach then would be to have the mystery first be that it is earth, and pretty much as soon as the players start picking up on it, shift gears (hopefully in a good way) into an "age of the ancients" campaign.
I guess I don't think I'd try to hide it, I just would only drop a couple hints here and there. In the case of them asking, I'd say let them have it, or enough of it that they are satisfied with having solved it.
>>43580132
Not a full-blown planet of the apes, no, but my local DMs all have the biggest hard-on for DnD there's no way that would ever happen anyway. And I'm not advocating for "It was earth along" as the definitive, big reveal, climactic moment - I would rather have it be an easter egg that reframes some of what's going on, but ultimately doesn't define the campaign or even really change it that much.
What, no Hiero's Journey? Heresy!
>>43580524
Tell me more about this, please
>>43580132
thats just a fucked up copy of a star chart and the sky is too cloudy to see stars or other shit.
>>43580524
Is Naked Afro Chick a main character?
>>43582118
No the moose rider is. An excellent book and Gary Gygax Appendix N approved!
