Foreword
Over the years, I've been increasingly dissatisfied with the state of RPGs, both in video game and tabletop form. One would think this is peak first world problem territory, but I assure you it’s a very pressing matter. Outside of pure gameplay gripes—of which I have many—the main issue is the writing and specifically the fantasy settings most commonly used in popular systems. My breaking point was the release and unprecedented success of Baldur’s Gate 3, a game so unbothered and nonchalant about its setting and lore implications I realized the time is ripe for countermeasures. Hence I decided to finally put onto paper the ideas that have rattled in my mind for a considerable amount of time. In this foreword, I aim to compose an overview of what I find so objectionable in the current state of setting writing and usage so readers are aware what my own work is battling and will hopefully understand the controversial among RPG veterans aspects.
There is no “most dire to least dire” classification to this list because the problems are essentially intertwined and feed into each other. Even when isolated, they are causing immense damage and need excising. One such case, and I’m already hearing the groaning and resistance building up among some echelons of the community, is unrestricted arcane magic. Unrestricted in the sense it can virtually do anything. I’ve come to realize it not only causes extreme balancing hurdles in gameplay, but also serves as plot insulation with its ability to solve conflicts. In addition, it overtakes the majority of fantasy stories and ultimately becomes the focus in one way or another. Fantasy writers tend to ignore the elephant in the room when it comes to the implications of arcane wizardry and its logical conclusion – the political tyranny of this group of people who literally have reality-bending powers at their beck and call. While I am aware of the suspension of disbelief, most fantasy stories and settings with sorcerous adepts demand too much of it. Even when ignoring all of this, there is a pronounced lack of the necessary human element in basing a narrative around arcane magic. You might notice I’ve been meticulous in specifying magic as arcane. There are, of course, other types, like divine or nature, with which I have fewer reservations and are the basis for the fantastical in my world. They are inherently limited and limiting, depending on beliefs and external forces which guide and set boundaries on their usage. I’ll get into specifics when showcasing my own setting.
Another cataclysmic setting ruiner is the lack of authentic conflicts. I have grown irreparably weary with the uncountable villains and unknowable esoteric entities who desire the apocalypse and the strapping adventuring parties ready to stop them purely out of convenience. There is little emotional or intellectual value in such things. I am certainly not seeing the end of our world and all the experience I have with saving fictional ones is rotting dead inside me. If some struggle is baked into a setting, it’s usually yet another evil wizard empire with a lust for power they already possess or malicious deities whose divinity is extremely questionable and their motives inscrutable. Godly beings who can exert power upon the physical world feature prominently in fantasy literature, but their presence and divine status are rarely justified, merely serving to keep the status quo static and sterile or are tacked on for tradition’s sake. Even Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity, whose entire plot is built around arguments for the existence of gods, fails to find a purpose for its pantheon. Some ideas concerning its deities are intelligent and worth exploring, but that is not enough to write them into a fictional world as-is because they cripple narrative potential and more often than not deflate the tension. I am interested in human struggles and relationships and how we deal with them, internally and externally, rather than navigating a world where magic provides everything and deities are mystically soothing your soul or capriciously toying with you, as is the case during a side quest in Pillars of Eternity.
However, I have a hunch as to why these stories are constantly perpetuated in RPGs. It has to do with how we’ve evolved over the last two decades to engage with the roleplaying part of this genre. I have to be very careful how I express this concern for fear of being misunderstood or accused of various unmentionables. I’m not afraid of being controversial, I just want to be controversial in the way I wish and is beneficial to the matter at hand. Contemporary RPG settings seem to have shifted towards enabling the player to roleplay an idealized version of themselves, as opposed to a different person with varying, potentially even disparate to their own, worldviews. This pandering, meant here in the most neutral sense, drives stories and writers to shy away from situations or contexts in which the player might feel constrained, offended or even emotionally or psychologically hurt. I am loathe to give specific examples due to the danger of being targeted for the wrong reasons, but I trust readers are savvy enough to have understood what I’m referring to. Depicting threats which have no direct counterpart in the real world sidesteps the possibility of unintentionally striking a nerve and alienating the player. I, on the other hand, have no such qualms and am convinced the narrative tension and eventual catharsis created by uncomfortable subject matter are much worth the trouble.
In this quest towards giving the players and dungeon masters absolute freedom, modern settings have become bloated and unfocused, sacrificing coherency, believability, verisimilitude and the much lauded immersion. Pathfinder’s Golarion is especially guilty of this, mixing and matching every fantasy trope imaginable, creating a sense of weightlessness and triviality, but D&D’s Forgotten Realms—and by extension Baldur’s Gate 3—can be effortlessly lumped into the pile as well. Not to mention Numenera’s Ninth World. While the presence of arcane magic can excuse this trend, it doesn’t justify it and certainly doesn’t make it engaging or stimulating. Consequently, I have consciously moved away from this and attempted to create an admittedly much more constrained world which hopefully still supports a variety of tales and roleplaying opportunities that don’t feel stifling but vindicating and liberating, leaving the player more prepared to deal with the overwhelming burdens of the real world after having gone through the struggles of little imaginary people. If we can challenge and change their fates and their world, maybe we can find a way to change ours too.
Currently, my setting is compatible with a heavily modified D&D 5E OGL system, which I’ll detail towards the end of this book and will include an introductory one-shot adventure, until I complete and playtest a more appropriate one of my own design. Have fun!
At least read the books, nigga, mentioning SLAY KWEEN shit in 
