Spellbreakers (Setting Idea)
This idea just hit me yesterday and I've been mulling it over since. I've never attempted to make an Indie RPG or even tried writing up anything conceptual before. I just felt especially compelled to get this particular concept I have in mind down somewhere so that others can see it and share their thoughts with me about it.
Setting Premise:
Anyway, the basic premise is that it's 1910 on the American frontier, and the players are members of the Spellbreakers, a special branch of the U.S. Marshals Service. While the Marshals deal with enforcing the law and dealing with mundane crimes and criminals, the Spellbreakers are tasked with dealing with the strange, magical, and supernatural elements that break the law. In this alternate history, magic is real, and so are many other things to roam the Old Eldritch West. Dragons, the Fae, Old Gods, Demons and many other assorted creatures do exist. But they aren't above the law.
Technology has progressed normally, for the most part, though the Dwarven Clans that reside in the Appalachian Mountains are a bit more advanced, though not particularly interested in sharing with young, reckless, humans. And, of course, there are some men out there with a strange spark of genius, capable of inventing wondrous, though sometimes unpredictable and dangerous, devices. Though not strictly magical, those men who would use their engineering and technological expertise for criminal acts also fall under the Spellbreakers purview.
It is a period of great expansion for the United States, and the belief in Manifest Destiny is strong. Settlements are built further and further out into the burgeoning territory each day, though not all of them last. The frontier is a dangerous place, filled with many dangers including several of the Elven Tribes and their Gods, who after showing no interest in being 'civilized' have fought against attempts by the U.S. government to relocate them from lands that they have lived off of since before the race of man even existed.
These are very strange times, when robberies are just as likely to be made by a pack of outlaws with revolvers as they are by a staff wielding sorcerer and a retinue of elementals or a mad scientist backed by mechanical spiders and armed with a tesla cannon. It is a time of great change, where even the greatest seers are incapable of seeing the coming future clearly, where the capricious 'Fair Folk' still steal babes from their cribs and destroy those who they believe have slighted them, where the caves and mountains of the land are home to great Wyrms who rest for centuries amidst their vast treasures, where the forests are protected by eternal spirits who have lived since the Earth was first formed and where the dead do not always rest peacefully in their graves.
But the Spellbreakers, be they men, dwarves, elves or others, are determined to make sure that no matter what might be out there, it will not prey upon the innocent with impunity.
Goal:
I know that I should try and better explain what I am trying to attempt with this game idea. Mainly, I want to try and mash together elements of Wild West and Fantasy adventure together for the people that love both of those things. Not idealized but not gritty either. The goal isn't to horrify those playing, but rather to really try and highlight the bizarre, the strange, wondrous, and fantastic elements. True, there are going to be plenty of scary moments, but they should never be so scary that that aspect overwhelms the entire experience.
I'm uncertain currently what sort of system I want to go with here. I don't know if I should try making a whole new system or if there might be a system that would be very easy to use with this setting.
This is all a very new experience to me (as it might be easy to tell) and I just hope that I'm doing it right. I crave whatever feedback, concerns, and other thoughts that any of you would be willing to share.
Setting Premise:
Anyway, the basic premise is that it's 1910 on the American frontier, and the players are members of the Spellbreakers, a special branch of the U.S. Marshals Service. While the Marshals deal with enforcing the law and dealing with mundane crimes and criminals, the Spellbreakers are tasked with dealing with the strange, magical, and supernatural elements that break the law. In this alternate history, magic is real, and so are many other things to roam the Old Eldritch West. Dragons, the Fae, Old Gods, Demons and many other assorted creatures do exist. But they aren't above the law.
Technology has progressed normally, for the most part, though the Dwarven Clans that reside in the Appalachian Mountains are a bit more advanced, though not particularly interested in sharing with young, reckless, humans. And, of course, there are some men out there with a strange spark of genius, capable of inventing wondrous, though sometimes unpredictable and dangerous, devices. Though not strictly magical, those men who would use their engineering and technological expertise for criminal acts also fall under the Spellbreakers purview.
It is a period of great expansion for the United States, and the belief in Manifest Destiny is strong. Settlements are built further and further out into the burgeoning territory each day, though not all of them last. The frontier is a dangerous place, filled with many dangers including several of the Elven Tribes and their Gods, who after showing no interest in being 'civilized' have fought against attempts by the U.S. government to relocate them from lands that they have lived off of since before the race of man even existed.
These are very strange times, when robberies are just as likely to be made by a pack of outlaws with revolvers as they are by a staff wielding sorcerer and a retinue of elementals or a mad scientist backed by mechanical spiders and armed with a tesla cannon. It is a time of great change, where even the greatest seers are incapable of seeing the coming future clearly, where the capricious 'Fair Folk' still steal babes from their cribs and destroy those who they believe have slighted them, where the caves and mountains of the land are home to great Wyrms who rest for centuries amidst their vast treasures, where the forests are protected by eternal spirits who have lived since the Earth was first formed and where the dead do not always rest peacefully in their graves.
But the Spellbreakers, be they men, dwarves, elves or others, are determined to make sure that no matter what might be out there, it will not prey upon the innocent with impunity.
Goal:
I know that I should try and better explain what I am trying to attempt with this game idea. Mainly, I want to try and mash together elements of Wild West and Fantasy adventure together for the people that love both of those things. Not idealized but not gritty either. The goal isn't to horrify those playing, but rather to really try and highlight the bizarre, the strange, wondrous, and fantastic elements. True, there are going to be plenty of scary moments, but they should never be so scary that that aspect overwhelms the entire experience.
I'm uncertain currently what sort of system I want to go with here. I don't know if I should try making a whole new system or if there might be a system that would be very easy to use with this setting.
This is all a very new experience to me (as it might be easy to tell) and I just hope that I'm doing it right. I crave whatever feedback, concerns, and other thoughts that any of you would be willing to share.