An Attempt at a DTD setting 'Remake': DTD Redux
May 4, 2019 11:30:37 GMT -6
Post by bobsomething on May 4, 2019 11:30:37 GMT -6
So I'm aware this one is probably going to be a tiny bit controversial or make people people roll their eyes, so here's a bit of context.
In the past few years I've gotten myself involved with the OSR, or 'Old School Renaissance' crowd which is sizably made of old greybeard grognards and tabletop hipster-douche (as in 'I don't like what's popular'-type of hipsters, not the type that buy Funko Pops) like me who decided they preferred retroclones than modern editions of tabletop RPG. DTD came back under my radar when I got my copy of a supplement to a space opera OSR game called Stars Without Numbers, which is scifi space opera loosely based off modernized OD&D rules. The supplement in question, Codex of the Black Sun, is all about combining science fiction and magic and this got me dusting off my old notes for a remake of the Dungeons: The Dragoning 40 000 setting. The short version on how and why I wanted to remake the setting was twofold: on one hand I loved all the homebrew and crazy setting ideas other people had throw in but on the other hand it seemed to me like the setting was becoming too bloated, with ideas more and more tacked on and less fused and reimagined as they were when Lawful Nice wrote it. On one hand it would be easy to dismiss my idea as trying to be 'more serious' with DTD. That's not quite the case. I think the key word to my remake/re-imagining is more consistent. In any case, what follow is a repost and slight edit of what I rambled off on my blog. For now I've not worked too much on setting history, simply reworking the setting metaphysics and core concepts.
You can find the original blog post here. I intend to continue posting about these ideas, slowly (or not-so-slowly, we'll see) fleshing out more and more of the setting over time.
THE MATERIUM
The name Great Wheel is the modern name of the known universe. It has had many other names for every culture, every species has called it something or other throughout their history as soon as they glanced upward and saw an endless sea of blinking lights where the Gods were said to live. In term of size it is massive, dwarfing our own Milky Way and is said to hold so many worlds as for them to be uncountable. The Great Wheel is also said to have four poles, based on the outdated model developed by ancient Dragons. There is some truth to this elemental models, however. The 'south' of the Great Wheel (its all a bit relative) is in fact home to much warmer crystal spheres and burning stars which can tear even shielded spelljammer vessels, for example.
Most worlds are found inside Crystal Spheres, which usually house a sun (or some close analogue) and has one or more habitable worlds inside. I'd say orbiting but that implies that a heliocentric model would always be accurate: it isn't. It is not unknown for some of these spheres to have their own oddities when it come to the laws of reality but the vast majority of them are considered to be stable and non-hostile to most known forms of life. Some spheres have air inside them, allowing people to breathe in space beyond the confine of a planet inside it. Most don't, however. Beyond this is nothing but airless void but this is hardly the end of our exploration of that universe.
There exist a massive, impossibly vast network once built and inhabited by the Old Ones and later the Eldars. It is called the Webway and sometimes the First World or Feywild. Some parts of it are small enough to exist as passages for individuals while others are impossibly vast caverns filled with glowing, alien life and some other parts are so larger as to be able to hold entire Crystal Spheres. Most of it is unexplored and dangerous, filled with fickle and ageless creatures engineered by the Old Ones (or Syrne). Even the passages explored and used by the ancient Eldarin have crumbled and those that remain are jealously guarded by them.
THE IMMATERIUM AND MAGIC
When people speak of the Immaterium, in hushed tones I should add, they usually speak of The Warp:the hellish dimension of Chaos where Daemon dwells. However this is not the only part of the Immaterium, the realm of thought, souls and ideas. In ancient times it was the Realm of Souls, the Supernal Realms or The Wyld: an endless expanse of possibility and thoughts. The growth of Chaos and its ravenous powers has tainted the Immaterium.
The shallows of the Immaterium are called the Umbra or the Ethereal Plane: it is a reality which exist overlaid the Materium and is where lesser spirits, daemon and ghosts exist. This reality can be entered through astral projection or the use of spells. Deeper in the Umbra still exist certain domains of powerful beings which might be entire Planes of their own. A domain which exist parallel to the material world is the Underworld also known as The Shadowfell.
The Abyss is a massive rift in the Materium where the Immaterium (especially all the Chaos-ey and tentacle-ey parts!) is leaking. The worlds trapped inside this anomaly exist in both the material and immaterial and they are terrifying places where Daemons roam free, chaos cult is the only law and madness and mutation are a constant.
Most forms of Magic derive from the Warp (or rather, the Immaterium as a whole) in some form or another. This is both extremely useful, as it allow to bend the material world to one's will but it is also extremely dangerous. Psychic abilities have existed in most lifeforms in some shape or another and that power is both feared and revered in equal measure. The four most common forms of Magical powers are as such:
In the past few years I've gotten myself involved with the OSR, or 'Old School Renaissance' crowd which is sizably made of old greybeard grognards and tabletop hipster-douche (as in 'I don't like what's popular'-type of hipsters, not the type that buy Funko Pops) like me who decided they preferred retroclones than modern editions of tabletop RPG. DTD came back under my radar when I got my copy of a supplement to a space opera OSR game called Stars Without Numbers, which is scifi space opera loosely based off modernized OD&D rules. The supplement in question, Codex of the Black Sun, is all about combining science fiction and magic and this got me dusting off my old notes for a remake of the Dungeons: The Dragoning 40 000 setting. The short version on how and why I wanted to remake the setting was twofold: on one hand I loved all the homebrew and crazy setting ideas other people had throw in but on the other hand it seemed to me like the setting was becoming too bloated, with ideas more and more tacked on and less fused and reimagined as they were when Lawful Nice wrote it. On one hand it would be easy to dismiss my idea as trying to be 'more serious' with DTD. That's not quite the case. I think the key word to my remake/re-imagining is more consistent. In any case, what follow is a repost and slight edit of what I rambled off on my blog. For now I've not worked too much on setting history, simply reworking the setting metaphysics and core concepts.
You can find the original blog post here. I intend to continue posting about these ideas, slowly (or not-so-slowly, we'll see) fleshing out more and more of the setting over time.
THE MATERIUM
The name Great Wheel is the modern name of the known universe. It has had many other names for every culture, every species has called it something or other throughout their history as soon as they glanced upward and saw an endless sea of blinking lights where the Gods were said to live. In term of size it is massive, dwarfing our own Milky Way and is said to hold so many worlds as for them to be uncountable. The Great Wheel is also said to have four poles, based on the outdated model developed by ancient Dragons. There is some truth to this elemental models, however. The 'south' of the Great Wheel (its all a bit relative) is in fact home to much warmer crystal spheres and burning stars which can tear even shielded spelljammer vessels, for example.
Most worlds are found inside Crystal Spheres, which usually house a sun (or some close analogue) and has one or more habitable worlds inside. I'd say orbiting but that implies that a heliocentric model would always be accurate: it isn't. It is not unknown for some of these spheres to have their own oddities when it come to the laws of reality but the vast majority of them are considered to be stable and non-hostile to most known forms of life. Some spheres have air inside them, allowing people to breathe in space beyond the confine of a planet inside it. Most don't, however. Beyond this is nothing but airless void but this is hardly the end of our exploration of that universe.
There exist a massive, impossibly vast network once built and inhabited by the Old Ones and later the Eldars. It is called the Webway and sometimes the First World or Feywild. Some parts of it are small enough to exist as passages for individuals while others are impossibly vast caverns filled with glowing, alien life and some other parts are so larger as to be able to hold entire Crystal Spheres. Most of it is unexplored and dangerous, filled with fickle and ageless creatures engineered by the Old Ones (or Syrne). Even the passages explored and used by the ancient Eldarin have crumbled and those that remain are jealously guarded by them.
THE IMMATERIUM AND MAGIC
When people speak of the Immaterium, in hushed tones I should add, they usually speak of The Warp:the hellish dimension of Chaos where Daemon dwells. However this is not the only part of the Immaterium, the realm of thought, souls and ideas. In ancient times it was the Realm of Souls, the Supernal Realms or The Wyld: an endless expanse of possibility and thoughts. The growth of Chaos and its ravenous powers has tainted the Immaterium.
The shallows of the Immaterium are called the Umbra or the Ethereal Plane: it is a reality which exist overlaid the Materium and is where lesser spirits, daemon and ghosts exist. This reality can be entered through astral projection or the use of spells. Deeper in the Umbra still exist certain domains of powerful beings which might be entire Planes of their own. A domain which exist parallel to the material world is the Underworld also known as The Shadowfell.
The Abyss is a massive rift in the Materium where the Immaterium (especially all the Chaos-ey and tentacle-ey parts!) is leaking. The worlds trapped inside this anomaly exist in both the material and immaterial and they are terrifying places where Daemons roam free, chaos cult is the only law and madness and mutation are a constant.
Most forms of Magic derive from the Warp (or rather, the Immaterium as a whole) in some form or another. This is both extremely useful, as it allow to bend the material world to one's will but it is also extremely dangerous. Psychic abilities have existed in most lifeforms in some shape or another and that power is both feared and revered in equal measure. The four most common forms of Magical powers are as such:
- Wizards, sometimes called Thaumaturge, Arcanist or Magisters rely on complex and ancient formula developed by the Old Ones (and later Eldarin and other races) which allow one to bend the forces of the Warp (sometimes called Winds of Magic) in a mostly safe and non-corrupting way. While the method itself is extremely safe and clean learning it is a whole different ordeal and requires keen intellect and solid memory.
- Sorcerers, sometimes called Psykers or Witches rely on pure will and desire alone to channel raw Warp energy. This make them the magic-users most apt at utterly spamming their powers to no end. Obviously this has a major drawback: their innate power is exceedingly volatile and an unprepared mind will find itself consume by the powers of Chaos. Having an innate connection to the Warp is a dangerous thing and often seen as a sign of mutation.
- The third major category is the one with the most names: some are called Clerics while others are called Shamans, Druids or even Warlocks. Rather than learning to channel the Warp through complex multi-dimensional formula or through innate ability they acquire their ability through some patron and higher power. This power is given and further augmented and sustained by belief and some form of code or behavior. Their abilities vary immensely depending on this outside power source.
- Finally there are Adepts: they channel the energies of the Immaterium through their bodies and mind in a more esoteric way which is both simpler and strange than the spell formula of the Wizards or the surge of power of the Sorcerer. These include the likes of the Monks, the Psion and the Paladins among others.