NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mystaros" data-source="post: 4042490" data-attributes="member: 3921">The current D&D campaign I am running is set in Aerth, Gary Gygax's setting from his Dangerous Journeys: Mythus game, modified by my own ideas. It is essentially an alternate Earth, the major alterations being:1) Presence of magick, which is expanded upon and developed industrially rather than technology (thus after the Rekindling/Renaissance, magick develops as technology would have, tech remaining at ~ Renaissance levels, magic going semi-industrial)2) There is a parallel world known as Phaeree, home to elves, dwarves, and other fantasy creatures from all cultures; and an Inner World a la Burroughs, complete with dinosaurs.3) The monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc), Buddhism, and other modern mainline religions never develop. The old Pagan gods are very real.4) The Island of Atlantis is a largish isle south of the Azores, inhabited by the old imperial Atlantlan peoples. The Sahara is mostly a large sea, an extension of the Mediterranean known as the Mare Phoeniceum. Lyonesse exists, and is a large island a bit bigger than Hibernia (IMC, this is Vance's Lyonesse, lock, stock, and barrel). The Black Sea and Caspian are joined by a channel north of the Caucasus. There are other geographical differences, mostly in the Americas (known as Antillia and Amazonia IMC).5) Historically, the major elements are very early contact between the Americas and Europe/Africa thanks to the Atlanteans. Roman emperors dined on potatoes and tomatoes, feasted on turkey and maize. With the influence of the Atlanteans history in Europe and Africa is rather different, with the Roman Empire being the "front men" for the Atlanteans during one of their imperial phases. The Roman Empire falls earlier than in our history. Countries are generally smaller, more definitively broken up along ethnic lines earlier. This is all thanks to magic and the enhanced diet from the greater variety of foods available. Empires come and go, but after the Great Migrations of the Teutonic peoples, generally the invaders are subsumed by the local population, rather than the other way around (i.e., Anatolia remains Greek up to the equivalent of the 20th century, Aegypt is Aegyptian, not Yarban, and so forth).6) There was a major War of the Gods that centered on the European pantheons at the same time as the Great Migrations. This brings the Devils of Hell into play (straight out of the 1E/2E books, mostly). Because I like devils as enemies...7) Demihumans are rare, but not unknown on Aerth itself. Gnomes are almost common in Zurich (of course), and are the major continental bankers and merchants; the Phoenicians operate similarly along the coasts, from Atlantis to Norge and every port in-between. Elves are uncommon in Lyonesse, rare in Cymru, Albion, and Teutonia, and very rare elsewhere. Similarly for dwarves in Scandia, and so forth. They have minor settlements here and there, or live among humans. The more powerful have the ability to walk between Aerth and Phaeree (i.e., a racial feat gained at 4th level+).8) The major difference between Gygax's Aerth and mine is in the Americas; my North America is much more crowded, with the Atlantians having founded a magical empire there some time before, bringing horses and slaves from Europe. It is essentially an adaptation of the Horseclans tales from Robert Adams, adapted to a magical apocalypse rather than a technological apocalypse. There the Invoked Devastation and the Great Rain of Fire occur in 4425 AA (equivalent to 1425 AD) when the Mage-Kings of the Antillian Empire attack each other over succession to the throne. After that point Antillia is essentially a post-magical apocalypse realm.9) Oh, also, the ancient history of Aerth is actually that of the Hyborian World of Conan, as developed by Robert E. Howard. It is the ancient history of this world that Howard saw in his visions, and thus wrote of... And yes, one can travel from Earth to Aerth...I've run two campaigns in this setting.The first was actually using Mythus, and set in Norman Albion in 4190 AA (1190 AD). The players were involved with the ongoing struggles between the various kingdoms of Albion at that time, after The Anarchy (Norman Albion, Cerniw, Anglia, Mercia, Vikland, Albion proper, and the Free City of London). The campaign revolved around the land trying to restore One True King to rule; the players discovered Excalibur's Scabbard and ran into a strange old man they believed to be Odin in disguise.The current campaign is set in 4130 AA (1130 AD) in Outremer, specifically in the Kingdom of Hierosolima. Though monotheism never developed, these lands are important for two major reasons: first, whoever controls these lands controls trade between three continents, and second, the city of Solima is held to be holy by numerous Sun-based faiths (including the Roman Olympian Church of Apollo, the Temple of Shamash of Palu-Ea, the Temple of Horus-Re in Aegypt, and the Temple of Mithras in Persia). As in our history there was first a series of Yarban invasions, followed by a series of Turkish invasions. The Turks threatened the Byzantine Empire, which though an enemy of the Roman Olympian states (the Greeks revereing Heracles as King of Olympus rather than Apollo), still turned to their cousins for aid. And so the Franks (along with Iberians, Occitanians, Italics, and even some Norman Albish) answered with the Great Crusade. This went much as our own did, and today the lands of Outremer are a patchwork of small kingdoms and petty principalities...And that's where the current campaign is set. We've had five sessions so far, and the characters are now 2nd level. Once I get caught up with the Campaign Log I'll be posting it up on my blog (URL below).BTW, I'm not currently running in the Wilderlands because I need a little something to "cleanse the palate" so to speak... need to take a break from there once in a while! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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