The Isle of the Myst

[MoonHunter]

Off the coast of the continent is the Isles of the Mysts.  It is a moderate sized isle with stranger properties.  

First off, it is not on any current map of the Continent. It can not be reached by simply sailing in a direction. It can be reached only when the moon is right and the ebb and flow of time is favorable.  In fact, if you go to the right place in the world at the right time, you can walk there.

The Isle has similar geography and weather to Ireland.  The people there are of celtic origin and culture, circa around the time BC. They call their island, the Isle. The only real difference is the presence of more fog.... Well, and the other places.

The other places. If you walk the right paths at the right time, you can get to the other places.  Geographically, they are much like Ireland. Weatherwise, much the same, except for the fog.  But each other place is a bit different.  

The closest "other places" are the easiest ones to get to and have the most contact with the Isle.  Pathfinding or Mystwalking is a feat or knack to find ways to other places. You can do it without knack, it is just more difficult. (if you take it multiple times, you get better odds)

The summer country, is a land of Shidhe.  These are not the Tolkein bastardization of Shidhe, but real Fey.  They are taller, stronger, finer of feature, sharper of wit, and wiser in the way of magik and war.  In short, they are everything humans want to be and a bit more.  

North Country, is another Fey land, but one of ice and cold.  Snow Wizards and Ice Princesses, Yeti and Polar Bears, populate this land.  

The Swordsland: These land is populated by a people from far and away. They are masters of the sword.  (Imagine a world of idealized Samurai).  This may be an optional one, it is not celtic, but it does fit the theory...

Avalon: Here the high king and his knights maintain a beautiful and orderly society.  

The Wild Lands: Filled with stange beasts, and stranger subhumans.  

Note: To reach an otherland from an otherland, you have to cross into the Isle and find the way to the other otherland.  

The Isle of the Mist is a place of dreams, where ideal times and places are kept, to keep the dream of their time and place alive.  It is a magikal place filled with ideal places.  

Now of course it has to menaced by some great Evil, trying to corrupt and take the magik of the Isle.

[Agar]

I like this idea and where it's going. My favorite fantasy creature was always trolls rather than elves, they seem like you could find them in the Wildlands.

Maybe there is more than one threat to the Isle. A religeous movement could declare that the creatures from the Isle are evil and the Mysts cloak the evil doers actions and ways. Instead of trying to steal the magics, they would try to destroy them. When an average peasant sees a preist walk into the mist that has been the stuff of legends for generations and makes it all vanish, that pesant will probally support what ever the preist says.

An ambitious warlord from the swordsland might try to seize control of the paths to the Isle to keep his people in or other peoples out. Avalon could be an orderly society, but lawful evil can exist, Morganna and such. A strange god-like creature similar to leviathan from that cuthulu writer.

[CaptainPenguin]

IA CTHULHU!

Where is the world of bizzare, pseudoreal, insane monstrosities?

[MoonHunter]

In another game. After all how many gibbering crazies do you need once you have CP?  

Are you sure we managed to get all your brains scooped up from the last melt?

[MoonHunter]

I have been giving this setting some thought.  ...

You see I would like it to have a special feel, a sense of the mythic or dream quality.  As it stands in my mind, it is nothing more than several areas that use the same map that are tennetively linked to each other. In metagaming terms, it is a game, several splat books, and a rifts/ torg like meta conception.  

How do I convey the sense of myth?

Perhaps in the GM section some tropes and advice on how to achieve the mythic feel.
     The timelessness of the place and the eternal cycles.
     How nothing ever really changes and everyone likes it that way
     Epic suggestions for plot lines. Nothing should be mundane. It has to be pulpish, larger than life, an action film caught in a game...
     The description examples need to have the "narrator" quality reflecting the epicness..

Perhaps a section with each NPC or place that includes its mythic counterpart.  A'dam was akin to the Raven, the helpful trickster. blah.. blah.. blah.. giving you an idea about what part of myth the character is.

This would require several mythic archetypes to be included int he book.


     
Also.. the bad guys need to be bad... so they are monsterous invaders, nightmares made reality.  

Of course, the smart ones can shapeshift... So we can have pretty bad guys too.
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[Ria Hawk]

Take a look at Gloomveil.com.  Might give you some idea about how to achieve the feel you want.  Granted, Gloomveil is more horror-oriented, but still.

[MoonHunter]

I did not find it nearly as engaging as you did.  It has a nice idea, but does not really express anything truly horrifying or interesting.  
You cower in the good place and adventure outside of it... returning if you can.  I guess I am just jaded to it.

There are more ideas on how to run horror in my tip series...
http://www.openroleplaying.org/tools/tips/search.cgi?t=BOO!&max=75&start=1

The sys op for the site has yet to post the rest of the series yet, so there is only 33 instead of the 55 at this time.  I jigged the link so it will pull all of them up when he does.

Given popular demand in the chat area, I have grabbed many of the ones that have not been posted and posted them up...
http://www.rpgcitadel.com/guild/index.php?topic=629.0

[CaptainPenguin]

d**n, Moonie. Lately, I've been reading your tips on OpenRoleplaying, and it's just....It's just.....d**n!

You really do your homework, man. Between that job and figuring out tips, I wonder how you find time for eating.

[Strolen]

I understand the dreamy quality you are wanting from the setting and see how difficult it would be to make it a reality in a game.

I am probably wrong, I have a great sense for not getting what Moonhunter is looking for. So I won't try and just go off on my tangeant that the idea led me on. I will take the traveling the path idea and dump that for my own train of thought...

For this I see events and people flitting in and out of reality in the fog. As you move through the fog the past/present/different lands all sort of meld together occasionally giving each a glimpse of another. It can either be ethereal or sometimes could even solidify. I see these as sort of constant random encounters that could drag any great deed from the past that left an impression or had enough power to enter the power the fog holds.

Walking over a large clearing and suddenly a huge battle materializes around you. This one is tangible as opposed to flitting and ancient enemies are striking at the PCs. They can be drawn into it until the crisis is over and perhaps into that plot line or it could dissappear as quickly as it arrived.

Perhaps they are traveling through an area where a slaughter took place and they witnessed it, they cannot leave that part of the world till they reveal the truth of what happened, and even while they are trying to do that they could get sucked into something else. There could be many plot lines that continue to deepend sucking them deeper and deeper in the fog and unless they solve all the problems given to them the fog will eventually add them to its inventory of lost souls.

Fun for the players to keep track of what is going on and maybe force them in and out of different realities making them try and keep up with everything that is going on and where they are. Some things may bleed over into each other so clues in one reality blend into the other like a huge puzzle. Hell but fun to plan I think.

Probably requires a new thread but without entirely hijacking the thread, I like where this thought process is taking me. A plot idea at least.