Crothian said:
There really aren't that many published setting that have gone under the radar. The most out there of them are like Midnight and Oathbound. But neither are really out there. There is a new sewtting that coming out by Inner Circle Games called Avandu. Judging only by the monster book for it it does seem like it will be different. THe Primer though won't come out till Gen Con.
Yeah, you have to look at the non-published settings, really. Despite the clamoring for something new, in practice something old with a twist seems to be what actually sells. Anyway, just to throw one of my homebrews out there, in the hopes that someone else plays it, since who knows when i'll ever get to run it:
Twist one: The faeries are the terrible, primal faeries of early Celtic and Germanic lore--unfathomable forces to be reckoned with, guided by alien moralities. And they're not too keen on sentients, who totally mess up their wonderful nature--building, clearing land, farming, and just generally making things ugly. But, they seem harmless enough, so they charge the elves, who are, after all, part faerie, with watching over the rest of the humanoids and making sure they don't get out of hand. They leave the elves to their devices for a few thousand years. Over the course of many generations, the elves (1) take some losses and realize they just can't single-handedly keep up with all the humanoids and (2) see distinct differences in the danger some humanoids represent vs. others. So they start working with the dwarves, humans, and sometimes gnomes and halflings, to repress the orcs, kobolds, goblins, ogres, etc. By the time the faeries next "check in on" the elves, they see this horrible situation: they have seemingly forgotten their charge, and are not only not keeping the humans (most notably) in check, but are actively encouraging them and sometimes aiding them. Ditto for the dwarves, gnomes, and halflings, though that's less of a practical concern because they're just not as prolific. IOW, your typical D&D setting. So the faeries decide they've made a mistake--the elves aren't capable of doing the job, they'll have to do it themselves. Nature, with the aid of the faeries, reasserts itself with a vengence. Civilization is destroyed, and the only humanoids left to survive are at the indulgence of the faeries. They keep some around for entertainment, worknig some of them in slave-labor camps, and let others live "free". Of course, every plant, every animal, is an agent of the faeries, so freedom is only an illusion--you are only as free as the faeries choose to let you be. The faeries use this paranoia, combined with their very real power, to play one group against another. The semi-animal humanoids are the "house slave" equivalents, with the mantis men being their favorites, both because they are the most alien to the other humanoids, and because they particularly savor elfflesh. The elves are the most-hated of all the humanoids--the others couldn't help it, they were just obeying their corrupting nature, but the elves knew better, knew their duty to the faeries, and forsook it.
It has now been another thousand years. Only the oldest elves (and the faeries, of course) remember a time before the Overrunning. And now a new resistance is forming. All but the longest-lived races remember only the current state of affairs, and what the elves tell them. Which is, needless to say, not the whole truth. Now orc, elf, goblin, human, dwarf, and others all work side-by-side attempting to escape the faeries. Their enemies are not only the faeries themselves, but those among the humanoids who seek the faeries' favor--and the very living things around them. Their weapons are few, but they have a few advantages--since the faeries have no true understanding of life and death, necromancy is an art completely unknown to them.
Oh, and for an added twist: start with the races of an amalgamated African mythology, instead of European. It actually fits even better, then, in a lot of ways--frex, mantis men are already the ogres of the mythology (the "default" nasty badguys, that is).
Anyway, i've done a bit more on this, enough to run it, but never had a chance to do so. So maybe someone else will.
