The Oracle of Munich - "The end is coming for us, Dear Friends, and we shall fight to the last to grasp our slipping sand."
For millennia, the beings of mystery, myth, and legend had orchestrated events of mankind to their liking. As earth crept towards what would later be called the Great War, the Oracle of Munich had foretold that the end of their control was coming soon as mankind was becoming more aware, more knowledgeable, and more capable of choosing his own fate. So it was that the League of Mists was formed to try to remake the world and to stave off the end of the Old Times. Man's stumble towards Awareness was not just a simple progression and evolution of his collective knowledge. Instead it had recently been developing faster and faster due to new discoveries by a loose organization of scientists, politicians, church leaders, and soldiers known as the Shadow Consortium. A few years ago, members of what eventually became the Shadow Consortium had discovered the League of Mists and had pieced together their intent to destroy the world and rebuild it as they desired. With so many agents of the League of Mists spread throughout the world's governments, the Shadow Consortium's only choice was to fight a hidden war that would determine the future of the world and the fate of mankind.
In Mist & Shadow, the truth is almost never what appears on the outside but is instead several layers deep within intrigue, subterfuge, and obfuscation. While magic and the supernatural is still outside the conventional knowledge of mankind, members of the Shadow Consortium work day and night to unlock the power of the unknown in combination with technology. The League of Mists pushes the gears of war forward as millions of men, women, and children die in a conflict that will remake the world. How it will end for sure is yet to be seen for even the Oracle of Munich now admits that the circumstances of her prophecy have changed.
While Mist & Shadow is marked as a fantasy setting, it also has strong historical elements as well as some horror influences.
Sub-faction - The Sleeper Wakes
This is a rough idea for what a sub-faction might look like. This example is a sub-faction of the Shadow Consortium:
H. G. Wells did not just use a creative imagination and a sharp mind to write his works as in 1912 he was approached by members of the Shadow Consortium to help them understand the artifacts they had recovered. While he was no occultist, he was a science fiction author who could perhaps connect the dots for them to unlock the power of the artifacts that had been found by the Shadow Consortium. Wells was one of the strongest proponents of trying to prevent the Great War, but the effort to prevent the war ultimately failed.
Once the war started, Wells consistently argued that Man must not be used in the battle against the League of Mists. After all, Man was an unwitting servant of the League's members. To organize against more violent and militaristic elements of the Shadow Consortium, Wells started the Sleeper Wakes group to lobby against open warfare with the League of Mists and to instead support fighting the League directly without involving the entirety of human society. He believed that mankind was about to evolve beyond Personages where it would no longer have to rely upon men and women who were as much pretending to be important and powerful as they were actually important and powerful. All men and women had the potential to be great, and he believed that when the League of Mists was defeated all men and women could seize that opportunity.
How crunchy is this setting (combat heavy to RP heavy?)?
In terms of combat vs. RP, I think that the system could support either direction alone or both directions at the same time.
One thing that is not set in my mind yet is whether a classic fantasy system focused around acquiring wealth and power (aka d20) or a newer system that is more focused around plot and action (like Savage Worlds or Fate) would be better.
In a D&D sense, PCs could be interested in advancing their own wealth and power, gaining experience from defeating foes or overcoming obstacles. Sure, they might be heroes, but wealth and power are things that all D&D PCs gain over time because those are fundamental aspects of the system.
In a Savage Worlds or Fate sense, game sessions could be focused around action in a pulp fiction style like Indiana Jones or Hellboy. In those systems, the PCs are heroes by their actions and perhaps stunts that they manage to pull off against the antagonists or to disarm a ticking bomb.
While I could decide one of these right here and now, I think the choice could be more decided by what system is chosen should Mist & Shadow be the winning concept. If the Swarm wants to develop a D&D-style game, then D20 would be better. If the Swarm wants to develop a more action-adventure or pulp style game, then Savage Worlds or Fate would be better.
In all these systems, there are a lot of opportunities to add our own mechanics to give the system a feel specific to our setting. As examples, with D20, there are feats, spells, magic items, technology, creatures and more. For Savage Worlds, there are Edges, Hindrances, creatures, equipment and other things that we can use to make the system feel right. Some of this is debate for the next stage, but I wanted to put these things out there.
Rules
If the game is set in one of the bloodiest wars of history, known for great number of people died pretty pointlessly for a few meters of muddy ground, I think it is pretty mandatory that a rule system for a game set in this era is highly lethal, to reflect the reality of trench warfare and the thousands of deaths and injured. Something simple yet deadly would be the best choice, I guess.
Responses to reviews
Re: Title
I think a better title is warranted. One idea I had was "Mist & Shadow: The Great War for Mankind" or something similar.
Re: Shades of gray
Yes, the factions are shades of gray, but I do think that the the Shadow Consortium is more towards the lighter side and the League of Mists is closer to the dark side. For the lighter side, think about the US in WW2 and the internment of Japanese Americans. For the darker side, think perhaps of Mussolini and making the trains run on time. ;) My apologies for using WW2 references, but more people know those than WW1 references...for now.
Re: World of Darkness
There are definitely parallels here, but I do not see a one-to-one type relationship. In the WoD, the different supernaturals tend to keep to their own - vampires with vampires, werewolves with werewolves, etc. You could certainly do a WoD chronicle that captures the Mist & Shadow idea, but it would be quite a strong break from the standard WoD plot points and themes.
World War I
While listening to Pulp Gamer today, they mentioned that there is a real lack of World War I games out there. I absolutely agree which is why I chose World War I as the backdrop and historical time period for Mist & Shadow. World War I has a lot of the features of traditional fantasy settings in that there are noble families that rule most of the countries. When you add in that World War I was the end of many of them, you have some significant potential for conflicts beyond what actually happened in history. It really is ripe for an alternative history/fantasy treatment.
WW I
There is one uestion I have: How much focus do you want to put on the historical accuracy? It is right that there isn't much gaming material on the first world war (I think there is a CoC sourcebook / adventure on it, but I am not sure if this is true or just a campaign from someone I heard about) but I think that the effect of taking the era as a background is somewhat lost if it turns out to be a mostly fantasy game with a few occassional name droppings.
I have studied history (and am going to teach it in school) so I have at least basic knowledge on the topic (I wrote a term paper once about Tirpitz and the German Fleet) so from the research side, I can give my input on those things.
Historical accuracy
In my mind, the history is the same up until the war breaks out. Once the war starts, the Shadow Consortium realizes they are going to have to be more active. They are still not openly trying to broadcast to humanity that they are under the control of hidden masters, but they are having to take more actions to try to keep the League of Mists from being succesful.
In the end, I think we would end up with our own version of the Great War, but it would have "real world" history as a foundation. To give you an idea, I recently read "The Guns of August" and am currently reading HG Wells "War and the Future" for research to give the setting a historical feel but not necessarily to be 100% accurate.
review by mikeb
Did you just review your own setting?
I mean not that I disagree with it, I like this setting and all, but that seems a bit odd to me.
Yes
Yes, and in the last message out to everyone, I encouraged concept authors to post a review of the favorite of their own concepts.
While the originality and writing quality are pretty subjective in one's own assessment of one's own concept (why I just picked scores of 3 for those), the inspiring part is important because it indicates a level of commitment to work on developing the setting. While I like my other concept After the Flood, it doesn't really inspire me to do a lot of effort writing if it were to win. However Mist & Shadow has me really jazzed to develop, and I wanted to capture that by ranking up the Inspiring category for it. There's also an aspect of the site that keeps from completely gaming the system - a setting doesn't get an aggregate score until a minimum number of reviews is reached.
Again, I highly encourage concept authors to choose their favorite of their own setting concepts and post a review.
That's understandable
I can agree with your argumentation and it's very understandable that you are thrilled about this one - I found it pretty cool myself.
The problem that I see is, though, that it is too easy to give the full 5.0 points to your own setting to toss off the vote, and those writers who are more honest about their settings's strengths and weaknesses - like yourself- are going to be disadvantaged by this.
And I think you underestimated your own writing skills with this.
Thanks!
Thanks for the compliment, I really felt like it flowed well together for once.
I'll keep an eye on the ballot stuffing, but I don't think it'll be an issue. We're a community, and we're small enough still that I can have a direct relationship with everyone. If I can't convince someone to give their own work a more realistic review rather than 5/5/5, then there are other solutions.
Also, I don't know if you've noticed yet, but the 3 categories of rating are weighted differently. This is another protection against gaming the system since a 5/5/5 doesn't increase the average like you might assume it would.
Operation: Gnome Surrender
This is a sample plot seed for a game session or set of sessions.
The Artifacts & Relics Recovery (ARR) division of the Shadow Consortium has discovered a small number of gnome tinkerers that have become trapped in the town of Bapaume, France, during the run up to the Battle of the Somme. According to ARR intelligence reports, the gnomes had been going to observe the introduction of the first tanks put into military service by the British. ARR intelligence agents were contacted by these gnomes, and they were asking for safe passage away from the front in exchange for a gnomish invention that could cause machines to breakdown.
Your mission is to infiltrate the German lines and make your way to Bapaume in order to gather information and eqiupment. Once there, you must secretly investigate the gnomes, identify the truthfulness of their offer, and recover any artifacts that they possess regardless of whether they are sincere or not. If the gnomes are sincere, they should be fooled into thinking that they are being escorted from the front and instead delivered into the hands of Shadow Consortium agents in Valenciennes, France.
Gafna of the Void
Gafna of the Void first became aware of itself at some point during the conquest of Athens by Sparta. Initially Gafna was unable to influence the physical world and could only observe it. Becoming lonely with only itself to keep it company, Gafna eventually figured out how it could reveal itself in the physical world. The problem with this is that humans were terrified of its appearance - twice as tall as a man, four arms without any legs, and a hideous visage floating a little off the ground. Gafna spent more time alone trying to determine a way in which it could interact with humans. Gafna's discovery would enable supernatural creatures to better disguise themselves from the observation of mankind.
Gafna found that through concentration and incantation of a ritual it had found inscribed on the walls of a shrine dedicated to Hades that it could summon a fog that would cloud the perceptions of humans and make them more malleable for its influence. With its newfound ability, Gafna of the Void was able to directly communicate with humans and use them to further its own agenda of discovering itself and protecting its existence. This existence has continued over the last two thousand years as it has taught the art of the Mist to a few dozen other supernaturals that have managed to find it and convince it to teach them its gift.