PsionicsWorld
- Thread starter Desdichado
- Start date
hafrogman
Adventurer
I think you'll find that those setting names are actually exactly what those settings mean, or at least they did in the beginning. Except for Forgotten Realms (because I've never really been clear on who forgot what exactly
) they're all a fairly central concept of the worlds in question. An artifact, a city or a theme, they're what those settings are built around. They may have expanded beyond those things, but at the start, that's what they were.You have a less focused concept for your world it seems, which is not at all a bad thing. In fact, your central idea of no magic, only psionics seems less a flavor thing and far more a mechanics thing. So we'll throw it out all together, and concentrate more on your other information.
Maybe something that suggests adventure, travel and civilization pitted against the unknown.
The Broken Road
Beyond the Lands of Men
The Steel Edge
The Forge of Destiny
Into Darkness
etc. etc. etc.
Desdichado
Hero
Well, true; my concept is less "high concept" and more "let's try D&D, but with an unusual subset of allowed races and classes to make it feel like a different game" which lends itself less well to labels. But, like I said, those campaign names were either based on sketchy details or extremely vague, high level concepts.
In any case, I don't think it's worth arguing about; you can't convince me that any dark suns are really an integral part of the Dark Sun setting (for example) instead of just being a cool name. That said, I really like the ideas you put out there. Exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for.
In any case, I don't think it's worth arguing about; you can't convince me that any dark suns are really an integral part of the Dark Sun setting (for example) instead of just being a cool name. That said, I really like the ideas you put out there. Exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for.
Minor?
Greyhawk - Castle Greyhawk. City of Greyhawk -> Circle of Eight. All the names you've been seeing in our rulebooks. Minor?
Dragonlance - Dragons. Lances that kill them. Minor, when they are the main thrust of the canonical storyline?!?
Forgotten Realms - Realms we have forgotten, and Elminster coming and telling us about them in the pages of Dragon magazine... (Elminster, minor?)
Birthright - okay, honestly, I don't know anything about the setting, so I cannot speak to that.
Planescape - the fact that it is all about the full panoply of planes is a minor part of the setting?
Dark Sun - aside from the hollow earth implication, which may well be minor, the reference to the fact that the energies we normally take to be life-giving are "dark", again, minor?
Okay, if you want to call all those things minor, I'll just be quiet.
Remathilis
Legend
Except for Forgotten Realms (because I've never really been clear on who forgot what exactly
Supposedly, the origin of the Realms was a collection of realms that came from alternate worlds, collected as they were Forgotten from thier worlds of origin (something akin to Mystara's Hollow World). So the Nation of Thay might have existed somewhere, been wiped out, then forgotten, but Thay "lives" on in Toril. (This was also part of the Realm's notion of stealing real-world deities like Tyr or Lovitar, as well as having Maztica, Kara-Tur, Al-Quadim, and other pseudo-ethnic settings).
Of course, as the idea progressed it fell away and was forgotten itself (ha!) and ret-conned.
The ironic thing: those FR fans who hated the idea of Arkanul and returned Abeir should know, that's keeping with the original spirit of the Realms and how they were created; shunted off from some other world onto Toril...
Desdichado
Hero
Yeah, I do think those are minor. Greyhawk? Are poorly colored birds of prey at all important in the setting? Forgotten Realms? C'mon, that's just a vaguely fantasy name with some heavy-handed nostalgia/romanticism undertones. Nobody even remembers the point of the title most of the time. Dark Sun--the life giving sun is "dark"? That's really stretching it. It was a desert world, and it was darker fantasy than FR. Dark Sun. Hardly rocket science based on important campaign details.
I can do the same for Birthright, Planescape, Ravenloft, Spelljammer and to a lesser extent Dragonlance. I'll give you Dragonlance if you want it, but even then the point of Dragonlance was a campaign that featured dragons more in depth than prior D&D material had. I don't know that the title of the setting came first just based on that, or if the title of the setting came later after the details of the dragonlance artifact had already been established, but it could have gone either way and had the same result.
I can do the same for Birthright, Planescape, Ravenloft, Spelljammer and to a lesser extent Dragonlance. I'll give you Dragonlance if you want it, but even then the point of Dragonlance was a campaign that featured dragons more in depth than prior D&D material had. I don't know that the title of the setting came first just based on that, or if the title of the setting came later after the details of the dragonlance artifact had already been established, but it could have gone either way and had the same result.
Desdichado
Hero
OK, I'm not 100% set on it, but I'm leaning towards [smallcaps]Souls of Steel[/smallcaps] right now. I've decided that psionics isn't from "the mind" per se; rather, it's power from another realm that was initially created and maintained as the subconscious thoughts, emotions, and mental wanderings of all mortals made flesh. The power of "magic" a.k.a. psionics is, therefore, the power of the soul in a very real sense.
Anyway, any more ideas, throw them my way. Like I said, I don't feel like that's necessarily exactly what I'm looking for there either.
Anyway, any more ideas, throw them my way. Like I said, I don't feel like that's necessarily exactly what I'm looking for there either.
Desdichado
Hero
Similar Threads
