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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 1398194" data-attributes="member: 463">I think Hyborea is about mood and language, it's about the peoples - dark-eyed Hyrkanian riders, hawk-faced Stygians, Aquilonian knights in jet and gold...The world exists as backdrop to the characters, it is not an exercise in world-building in the Tolkienesque sense that most fantasy gamers are accustomed to and seem to expect.It notably didn't suffer from many of the modern cliches of world-creation based on a pseudo-medieval setting, although pastiche writers have tended to harm the unique flavour - the green jungles of Khitai are _not_ Imperial China, for instance, no matter what the pastiches or the rather lamentable Mongoose map would have you believe.&nbsp; Aquilonia is not France, neither is it Rome or Byzantium.&nbsp; Zingara is not late-medieval Spain; Howard's lands draw elements from the real-world but are not imitiations and should not be treated as such.&nbsp; The importance of the setting is in the mood &amp; feel of the place, which is a million miles from the sub-Tolkienesque world we expect to see.&nbsp; Even having most the western continental coast a barbarian wilderness and the great kingdoms of the age largely land-locked is something I don't think I've seen in any modern world setting.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 1398194, member: 463"] I think Hyborea is about mood and language, it's about the peoples - dark-eyed Hyrkanian riders, hawk-faced Stygians, Aquilonian knights in jet and gold... The world exists as backdrop to the characters, it is not an exercise in world-building in the Tolkienesque sense that most fantasy gamers are accustomed to and seem to expect. It notably didn't suffer from many of the modern cliches of world-creation based on a pseudo-medieval setting, although pastiche writers have tended to harm the unique flavour - the green jungles of Khitai are _not_ Imperial China, for instance, no matter what the pastiches or the rather lamentable Mongoose map would have you believe. Aquilonia is not France, neither is it Rome or Byzantium. Zingara is not late-medieval Spain; Howard's lands draw elements from the real-world but are not imitiations and should not be treated as such. The importance of the setting is in the mood & feel of the place, which is a million miles from the sub-Tolkienesque world we expect to see. Even having most the western continental coast a barbarian wilderness and the great kingdoms of the age largely land-locked is something I don't think I've seen in any modern world setting. [/QUOTE]

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