A DC/FH Hybrid - Help Build a World!

Cargus10 · April 6, 2008

I've been asked to do an “urban fantasy” kind of campaign, as the players have been inspired by the “Dresden” series by Jim Butcher (excellent stuff, if you've not read it, stop now and go get it at once!). However, they don't want to be in that particular “world”, but something unfamiliar but with a somewhat similar feel.

So, I started thinking about it. The one big problem I have with the Dresden books is that, despite all the magical mayhem that occurs, the population at large never actually starts to believe. Its all explained away as “people don't want to believe that, so they find excuses not to”. Yeah, that may be true to an extent, but c'mon...when you have a passel of evil wizards trying to open a gateway in a supernatural storm in the middle of Chicago and there's an undead T-Rex running about being controlled by an air spirit that is a lecher and voyeur, well, people are gonna notice! They just will.

So, I decided, how to interject the fantastic and supernatural into mundane life, yet keep one side from overwhelming the other? What I came up with was an earth-shattering event of enormous importance that occurred some time ago, so that the effects have somewhat damped down. I decided that some event (handwave, handwave, will make something up here involving other dimensions and maybe cosmic ley lines or artifacts or entities, or what have you) will occur that will not only interject magic into the world, but will also let in any number of supernatural beasties, from fey to vampires to demons to ghosts to weres to God-literally-knows-what.

So, my point of departure is 1697. Very little exploration of the Americas has occurred yet. The Portuguese, Dutch, and French are in Africa, but not in quantity. I postulate “portals” opening in several places, specifically eastern Europe, the Russian steppes, Northern India, Amazonia, Yellowstone, central Korea, south Africa, and possibly 2-3 others. Europe gets a burst of magical energy that causes some people to become lycanthropes, while others are initially thought slain but arise later to become vampires. One effect of this is that Peter the Great, traveling about Europe incognito at that time, is slain (or worse), leaving Russia without a strong leader to face the swarm of demons that come through portal in the steppes – Russia as a nation is effectively wiped out. A single entity of enormous magical power enters via the Indian portal, one capable of mentally enslaving literally millions of people. Crazed armies of fanatics go on to conquer all of India and much of China and SW Asia, creating a “dark empire” that lasts until the present day.

In Europe, the British Isles are somewhat spared, and Sweden becomes something of a world power again, bolstered by the surviving Russians that have retreated to the Murmansk and Archangel areas. Europeans lose their presence in Africa, and the voyages of exploration come to an abrupt halt. Scientific inquiry doesn't halt, but slows down dramatically.

OK, so...what next? I'd like to keep religion out as a “power”...people will certainly believe still, but holy relics, prayers, etc. will have no more effect than they do now (though true faith, whether in Yahweh, Allah, ancestor-spirits, or the Tooth Fairy is sometimes useful in powering magical effects....).

So help me play what-if. Extrapolate to the current day. Obviously, technology is going to lag. I think I'd like to posit no wireless communications, and of course no electronic revolution. Perhaps no heavier-than-air flight? What about personal automobiles? What are the standard military weapons, and what nations are true powers? What kinds of magical “societies” will arise, and how will they interact with government and church?

Any and all speculation is welcome, and I'll try and weave it all into a nice tapestry for the players.

Chris Goodwin · April 7, 2008