Retro-Futuristic Fantasy: Magical Cold-War

[chronoplasm]

OK, so here's this idea I want to pursue for a setting.
I want to take Gygaxian fantasy and mash it up with the cold war era.

Nuclear Weapons
Bomb Shelters
McCarthyist Witch-Hunts
The Space Race
First rumors of UFOs

Sources for inspiration:

• Old campy science-fiction films where the alien invaders are clearly supposed to symbolize Communists.
• Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, a response to McCarthyism using the Salem Witch-Trials as an allegory.
• Dr. Strangelove
• Hellboy
• James Bond
• Lord of the Rings
• Animal Farm and 1984
• Russian folklore (Baba Yaga, etc.)
• American folklore (Super Man, etc.)

OK, so here are my thoughts:

The Communists will be represented by a faction known as The Neurarch Collective.
I'm combining Mordor from Lord of the Rings with alien-invaders from McCarthyist science-fiction.
The goblins and orcs will be little green men in 'silver suits', but less shiny and more rugged.
The half-orcs, bred to look more like humans, are used as infiltrators. This is where influence from The Crucible will come in as communities will execute any one they suspect of being an orc.
The eye of Sauron is Big Brother from George Orwell's 1984.
The One Ring is a nuke.

The orcs and goblins of this world are united by a psionic hivemind. They have highly advanced technology that appears crude and primitive due to its ruggedness.


The Capitalists will be represented as a group of kingdoms united together by a faction known as The West Tower Company.
The divinely-righted kings of the golden lands have been overshadowed by a conclave of merchants and mercenaries. The company has a much larger sphere of influence than any of the kings, and it has been using its money and power to influence over the temples, thus giving them a high degree of indirect control over the kings and emperors of the land.
They have been cultivating religious-fanaticism throughout the kingdoms in order to cement their control.


Both factions have been competing for dominance over the floating cities in the sky, but have been kept in check by powerful artifacts and the threat of mutually assured destruction.


Your thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[ajanders]

Hmph.

The Neurarch collective isn't a hivemind of orcs and goblins, silly creature of flesh.
The Mind doesn't see green and pink skin.
The Mind accepts everything as part of it: orcs, goblins, half-orcs, eladrin, dragons....each physical aspect of the mind serves the whole in serene harmony.
Red dragons breathe fire to stoke our forges. Goblins mine in tight quarters. Hydra serve as sentinels, each head looking a different direction.
All are part of a harmonious whole.

The Mind does not "infiltrate" with flesh. The Mind sends messages to creatures not part of it, showing them how to be part of the Mind.
Sometimes creatures have to think about the messages for many years before they make sense.
(Infiltrators aren't based on The Crucible, they're based on The Manchurian Candidate. Subliminal messages could be hidden in art, poetry, or random swirling designs displayed on the wall)

The Collective doesn't refer to itself as the Collective: that's a Westtower term for them. They are the Mind: all concept of self has been eliminated.
The Collective appears peaceful, even utopian: orcs lay down with elves and halflings lead them about on the backs of dinosaurs. Or dragons.

In contrast, the Westtowers appear chaotic, even random. Fortunes are made and lost in weeks: palaces rise over the floating cities, then are abandoned, then taken back apart or converted to apartments. Life in the Westtowers is a constant struggle for capital, cash, or food, depending on which you fear more: being outgrown, being broke, or being hungry.

 

[chronoplasm]

^^Nice. Now how about some background...

A pathways within the mind converge in one place; the tower from which it all began. At the base of the tower there is a sarcophagus that contains the remains of its creater, the wizard Koschei.
It was Koschei who started the revolution. It was Koschei who layed down the foundations of the mind. It is Koschei who is at the center of it all.

The cyclopean eye is a popular feature in the Collective's architecture. It symbolizes the Likho; one-eyed goblinoid messengers of Koschei.

There is a special race of goblins called domovoi who live here. They are held in very high regard by the Mind.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The Communists will be represented by a faction known as The Neurarch Collective.
I'm combining Mordor from Lord of the Rings with alien-invaders from McCarthyist science-fiction.

<snip>
The half-orcs, bred to look more like humans, are used as infiltrators. This is where influence from The Crucible will come in as communities will execute any one they suspect of being an orc.

Don't use Half-Orcs- use Changelings from Eberron and give them the Orcish or Aberration subtype. If you use Aberration, it is because they've been selectively bred from all of the races within The Collective.

The eye of Sauron is Big Brother from George Orwell's 1984.
The One Ring is a nuke.

"The Eye" should be a caste of specialized Diviners...actually, Seer Psions in this case whose job is to monitor society.

The goblins and orcs will be little green men in 'silver suits', but less shiny and more rugged.

<snip>

The orcs and goblins of this world are united by a psionic hivemind. They have highly advanced technology that appears crude and primitive due to its ruggedness.

Perhaps a variant of mine would be appropriate: Make them like the Daleks or Cybermen- Orcish & Goblinoid brains in Construct bodies. Just mash those races with Warforged stats and voila!

You might also wish to check out Chaositech and Lords of Madness for rules about grafts and "mutations" that are FRPG appropriate.

Overall, Collective PCs might have less equipment, but may have more intrinsic abilities than their counterparts.

The Capitalists will be represented as a group of kingdoms united together by a faction known as The West Tower Company.
The divinely-righted kings of the golden lands have been overshadowed by a conclave of merchants and mercenaries. The company has a much larger sphere of influence than any of the kings, and it has been using its money and power to influence over the temples, thus giving them a high degree of indirect control over the kings and emperors of the land.
They have been cultivating religious-fanaticism throughout the kingdoms in order to cement their control.

That kind of setup could lend itself to creating Warforged as well, similar to those I mentioned above- but with different capabilities...perhaps with an arcane equivalent to the Soulknife's Mind Blade as opposed to a Slam attack.

They might also have a larger amount of low-level magic items- wands of MM or Healing, dragoon-esque archers all equipped with Quivers of Ehlonna, etc.- in wide use throughout society, since the free-flowing gold can buy a LOT of magical equipment.

Thus, a typical West Tower PC might have more and better gear, but may not be as tough individually as a Collective PC.

Both factions have been competing for dominance over the floating cities in the sky, but have been kept in check by powerful artifacts and the threat of mutually assured destruction.

Does either faction actually control a floating city?

Or are the cities themselves beyond either faction's current reach, serving as highly visible reminders of what once was and may yet be again? You know- lost, abandoned (populated or not!) like Atlantis...BIG PILES OF XP IN THE SKIES!

 

[chronoplasm]

Perhaps a variant of mine would be appropriate: Make them like the Daleks or Cybermen- Orcish & Goblinoid brains in Construct bodies. Just mash those races with Warforged stats and voila!

You might also wish to check out Chaositech and Lords of Madness for rules about grafts and "mutations" that are FRPG appropriate.

That would be pretty cool.

Does either faction actually control a floating city?

Or are the cities themselves beyond either faction's current reach, serving as highly visible reminders of what once was and may yet be again? You know- lost, abandoned (populated or not!) like Atlantis...BIG PILES OF XP IN THE SKIES!

I'm thinking no. First off they have to find some way of to get people up there. Existing airships and flight spells don't go that high.
Secondly, the floating cities have defenses that nobody has been able to penetrate.