Men call it a gift, a talent.  I'll tell you what it is. It's a thrice-named curse, Magic is. A hole, a rip in a man's soul. And out pours the stuff of creation. 

Man wasn't made for it, not that. He was never meant to take the smoke and the fire that the gods wove to make this world and all its sisters. Never meant to make the world's lifeblood his own.

But you can feel it. Can't you? That rippling itch, that... pull, that siren song demanding you reach deep down into yourself and draw the magic out, shape it, weave great spells. I know you do, I can see it in your eyes. And I can see the fear. That's good, fear. Healthy. Fear keeps a man alive.

Well get you up, my friend, up into the mountains yonder. Get you up to where the ice cleaves the peaks. If you're lucky... She'll find you. If you're luckier, she'll give you her knife. If not... Well.

Will we meet again? I'd say we will. As friends, perhaps, but we'll meet. Now get you up, time's wasting.

--Kalrathi Huntsman Orick Tar, to a potential recruit.

Setting Zero

I've taken to playing a bit of a mini-game with myself lately, using Tangent Zero's "Zero Dice" to inspire ideas. Much like Rory's Story Cubes, but geared more towards fantasy/sci-fi elements, the Zero Dice have been great.  That said, I decided to create a basic framework of a campaign, using its history to inform me of things like player races, potential plothooks, etc.  So here's that history, along with links to the dice sets so you can see the images I interpreted.

Painted in Scarlet: The Patchwork World

So my nephew, fine lad that he is, has shown an interest in tabletop RPGs.  And I, being the cool uncle that I am (no, really, I swear!), offered to run Scarlet Heroes for him to get a taste of D&D. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I am a lazy, lazy man. So rather than come up with a custom world, I decided to save time partake in an experiment: Create a setting as someone his age might have in the early nineties, using those books and boxed sets an older brother (or cool uncle) might have on their shelf.  Here's what I've come up with so far...

Play begins in Thunder Rift, I've lifted a few modules from elsewhere to fill in some gaps (B7: Rahasia, for example, B3: Palace of the Silver Princess for another), bu Thunder Rift forms a nicely contained playground for the nephew to get used to the system with. Eventually, I'm sure, the brave and noble nephew will grow tired of the Thunder Rift, or he'll sneak through one of the many Ningaublin rifts to the world outside. What will he find there? Well...

The Gray Box. Enough of a setting to hang my hat on, open enough to do what I want and not worry about stepping on anyone's canon. Out in the Trackless Sea, one might find X1: The Isle of Dread,  And beyond that, people speak of a strange coast, upon which rests a strange city:

A bit closer to home, beyond the eastern edge of the map rests many a strange kingdom, an excuse to break out my Gazetteers (especially Principalities of Glantri).

Adventuring on the surface world is all well and good, of course, but everyone knows that the best adventure awaits the deeper you go, and if you go deep enough, well....

Many a strange and fanciful sight to be seen here in the Hollow World, and wouldn't you know it? The Immortals have replaced the Faerunian pantheon. Oh dear...

So there you have it. A cluttered world that makes a certain sort of sense when you step back, stick out your tongue, and cross your eyes. Adventure Modules, with a bit of tweaking, supply many a quest, and when the nephew has exhausted those, well... There's always a rumor and a whim, or perhaps a friendly Ningauble to show him the way to other settings. For extra monsters, there's always the Monstrous Compendium Annuals.

Now, I wonder where I put my Dark Sun boxed set...