Individual Idyll's are connected by a fluctuating series of portals between the hearts of each town. If you are at the right time, travelling between one town and another is easy. However, most of the time, it requires careful consultation of the future shift patterns to find a route to a connection to the town you wish to visit, which usually takes a week, and sometimes more. However, every Idyll is always connected to one other Idyll at any one time.

However, the end is not yet in sight. Beyond the boundary of the Idyll villages, the world is wrecked and ruined. Death and struggle is law, while dark creatures stalk the landscape and mad men roam, seeking blood. Again, Idylls legacy of tolerance and kindness has saved it.

For, the supernaturals stand guard over us, even now. They watch from the shadows, or the crowd, or the air, or from behind your eyes. They are there, our eternal guardians from the evil and horror beyond. While you live your lives, in the eternal peace and comfort Idyll provides, remember them, for they are the ones who suffer and die for it. But they do so gladly, in payment for your kindness.

I bring you tales from the frontlines. Of vampires and werewolves and kappa and all manner of beasts and monster who we have accepted, and who turned to our side, and now guard our doorways. Of the foes they fight, terrible mutated creatures and armies of human survivors from beyond the villages, jealous of our lives and willing to kill to take it. Some even call our coexistence with the supernatural, and would destroy us and all trace of us, preferring to live in a nuclear wasteland.

How do I know so much? I am of their kin, although not wholly. My father is one of the Sidhe, a kind soul who is even now fighting to defend Everbrook, an Idyll in Northern Ireland, from an onslaught of Femorian demons. I tell his stories for that is his power, he is strengthened the more who know his name- Aleisas, that is.

Ah, but now I must move on. The trade caravan is moving towards the portal, and I would not want to be left behind. Remember the name, and remember the constant vigil of the guardians, and honour them for their sacrifice.

Yo /tg/, had an idea after watching a variety of monster movies and reading the thread about setting alignments (Grim/Neutral/Noble, Dark/Boring/Bright) which blossomed into this. Unnatural, magical or otherwise freaky creatures who, finding acceptance and tolerance in a variety of small villages across the globe, now strive to defend those villages from the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.

The term "Idyll" (Taken, rather obviously, from Idyllic) refers both to the quasi-nation of all these supernaturally guarded towns, and to any town or village within it. This might need changing, but its a low priority. All Idyll's are protected from the radiation and fallout by a sphere of magical energy, powered by the hope and comfort of all the people within. An Idyll will only fail if its entire population is slain or reduced to despair. However, the protective magic does nothing to prevent intruders- that is the domain of the Guardians.

Guardians can be Any mythological monster, creation of mad science, creature from a story, crazy concept or whatever. All that matters is, they're not entirely human, and in such a way that mainstream society would reject them, leading to their acceptance into one of the Idyll villages. Some may even have never known mainstream society at all, and simple stumbled upon an Idyll by luck or design. Whatever the reason, they've learnt to love the community, and now defend it against all comers.

The game would be run in BESM, M&M or any other point based system you care to mention, to give the PC's a good degree of control and flexibility over their character concept and abilities.

Campaigns would, ideally have a good mix of combat and roleplaying. Sessions in the town would include not only fighting off bandits and wandering monsters, but also developing social relations and the towns infrastructure as a whole. If ever forced to leave the blessed lands of the Idylls, they would journey through the wastes, to accomplish dealings with the outside world, such as trade (For, as small villages, the Idylls are somewhat lacking in technology), diplomacy (From preventing more bandit raids to bargaining for the help of a newborn elemental spirit) or truly mythic quests (Such as going to recover an ancient magical artifact in order to rejuvenate and strengthen an Idyll where the magic is inexplicably failing, endangering the people)

That's all the ideas so far, although more may develop over the course of this thread. What do you think /tg/?

So basically retrograde-tech nobledark mythworld?

>>5895456

That is a very concise summary, yes.

I would make the denizens somewhat specific. Mythic creatures, for example. And I would have the creatures stay mostly in the lands where they were "born". Ie- Norse mythological creatures in Scandinavia. I would have the monsters make strange and sometimes nearly unfulfillable requests.

>>5895524 And I would have the creatures stay mostly in the lands where they were "born".
I'd like to expand on this: in the lands where their myths were born, although they could attach themselves to a person that they feel is similar or even a reincarnation of a human featured in their myth. (whether this is true or not...3000year old myths might have terrible memories)

Also, social awkwardness by some/most/all of the denizens.

>>5895524

A few good points, although the last one needs to be dealt with carefully. The tentative harmony between unnatural and human denizens of the Idylls is meant to be at least semi-stable, and if the unnaturals were making insane demands every other week it really wouldn't. However, having some very odd needs and such wouldn't be so out of order.

Additional setting info and secrets.

Border Folks are an interesting breed, not really dwelling in an Idyll, but rather hanging around on the edges of the protective field of a particular Idyll. There, they can live in relative peace and comfort, nothing compared to the folks of the Idyll, but vastly better than most lives in this new world. However, Border Folks are an important part of the worlds salvation, for as they grow happier and content, they can slowly strengthen the Idylls field around them, eventually becoming part of the Idyll proper, increasing the communities size and population it can support. Some wonder just how large the Idylls can grow, although in the decade since the War, only a few have grown more than a few miles in diameter, and many less.

There are rumours of a Lost Idyll. A place where something went wrong, and all its folk were slain or taken. Some say it was destroyed, some say it simply vanished, and other, a few but growing number, whisper the supernaturals turned on their human allies, taking domination for themselves. This is causing ripples of discontent in the usually peaceful world of Idyll.

The Idylls are a mystery, even to the supernaturals. None of them can really understand why such places are protected, and the people within really are too good to be true, a step above normal people. Some have theories of them being lost descendants of an ancient civilisation, or alien relics in the ground, or the blessings of old gods, or a thousand others. Some wonder still if they were called to the Idylls by some other force, and if the humans in the villages really know so little about their state...

>>5895565
Certainly, they wouldn't be deal breakers, but for example...(off the top of my head) Alf liked to eat cats. The purpose was to establish that while they are helping the idylls greatly, they're still alien.

What era did the apocalypse occur? How far did it put them back?

>>5895683

A modern era nuclear war. The villages weren't exactly set back, but they're virtually all small rural communities, which never had much high technology anyway. Just cars, computers, perhaps a factory or two in one of the larger ones. Not particularly centres of science or learning.

>>5895696
So they have all of the technology that they would be able to repair and maintain themselves?

>>5895713

Yes

>>5895718
this barrier, is it a magical wall or just a boundary?

>>5895741

Its intangible, hard to notice its actually there, although its quite obvious from the state of the vegetation. Within, the plants and animals are plentiful and healthy. The further out you go, further form the center of the barrier, the landscape slowly metamorphoses into the wastelands, with the twisted forests of the border regions usually being as far as people go. Its not a visible barrier, just an energy field in a rough sphere.

>>5895777
I take it the denizens are more powerful inside the sphere? Is there a time limit to how long they can be outside? Do they become incorporeal or anything else?

>>5895789

Depends. Normal humans who go outside simply get horrifically irradiated and have their life span shortened. Supernaturals of various sorts, depending on their specific abilities, can survive without serious harm for varying periods of time. They aren't exactly more powerful within the fields either, although they do have the advantage of fighting on the home turf of the town the love.

The sphere's of energy aren't a mythworld superimposing itself on our reality. There isn't a division, there always were myths which lived, Just the Idylls are the places where these Mythological entities found their peace, and settled down.

Sounds like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.

>>5895822

Heard of, but never looked into it. Care to impart the salient details?

i like this concept and would like you to keep posting about it as you flesh it out.

What exactly would be the aims of a group of players within this setting?

If normal humans are subject to incredible radiation and sickness upon leaving the Idylls, that kind of prevents them from going outside to seek out forgotten technology or whatever.

OP, I love your setting. I got goosebumps (goose bumps?) reading the first two-and-a-half posts.

Just wanted you to know.

>>5895822

Pretty much the same. The world has been covered in a toxic magic smog called the miasma. A few isolated villages are spared because of mysterious crystals that protect their villages from the miasma. The game revolved around you making journeys out into the miasma to find magical fountains that kept the crystals powered up as well as eventually destroying the miasma itself.

A little different but similar enough that I figured you might have played it.

>>5895865

My thought was the PC's playing the supernatural Guardians of an Idyll, with the general goal to keep the town safe, although I did list above a few alternative overarching plots (Like wasteland diplomacy, or quests for lost artifacts). Also, human-superscience users could become guardians, like a man with a power armour suit or cybernetic implants, if you wanted to play a more "Human" character.

>>5895901

No actually, must be an odd case of parallel evolution of ideas. Still, worth thinking upon.

Just throwing this in there, but perhaps the effect of an Idyll on the monsters is just as beneficial to them as to the humans. Sure they have needs, but the Idyll caters to them in some way without forcing it's citizens to live in fear of it's protectors.
As an example, a large family of Vampires had been feeding in this one area for centuries. The war brought them down to one small town in their central lands. Half of the defenders died to protect this last vestige of their history and it became and Idyll, with them as it's protectors. The blood of the lost became the barrier and the contract between the creatures and the humans. Because of it, the Guardians, while still needing to feed on blood, don't need as much anymore. They've made a ritual of feeding with the people. They take a bit of blood from the townsfolk, but mostly it's infused with their joy and hope and willingness to sacrifice and that makes up for the killing and the feeding and the terrifying they used to do. It's not so bad compared to out there, that's for damn sure....

Cool.

>>5895912

That is a perfect example of a very functional Idyll. Nice one.

>>5895885

Heh, thanks. I always like to introduce new settings and ideas with short, in setting styled stories. Its good to know at least some people like them .

>>5895901

The basic premise ("happy villages exist amid desolation because heroes make it possible") is the same, but Crystal Chronicles has a very distinctive mood and feel which is quite different from what I get here.

I like this.

You could have the mythic beings inundated with current tech too.

A minotaur guardian for a small Idyll uses not only his strength and endurance to defend his people, but also a Browning M2 machine gun.

>>5896026

That's perfectly reasonable.

>>5896026
>>5896058
More like perfectly awesome.

Okay, this idea is really shaping up. Minotaurs with Machineguns? FUCK YEAR

What other kind of shit could there be defending these places?

Zombies? Good zombies? FUCK YES! GOOD ZOMBIES!

>>5896155

Good zombies infused with symbiotic demon-possessed pre-war cyberware.

I think I almost understand the "setting alignment" shit just from hearing this, but not quite.

What the fuck would a grimbright setting be?

>>5896026

The local doctor treats critical wounds with werewolf blood transfusions, sutures with vampire spit.

>>5896193
Grim would be the world setting, where bright is the attitudes of the people. In this case, it's a dark, dangerous, wicked world, but the people are upbeat, helpful, and generally the cream of humanity's kindness, with the occasional exception.

>>5896224
Are you saying the opposite of
>>5895456 ?

I don't understand ._.

I can picture if this was made into an actual game.

The book cover could have some fucking Minotaurs like the guy said. Armed to the teeth. One has a machine gun, another a bazooka, others with just their fists, one has an axe or baseball bat.

Badass.

It is one month after the last bomb dropped in Europe, and none leave their homes for fear of the fallout. From the scorched earth surrounding an Idyll in northern France, tiny green sprouts slither up into the light. These delicate clover stretch for about three miles in all directions.

By spring this has become a field of thorns strong enough to pit tank treads. No one goes out on foot. If a vehicle is left idle for any length of time the vines ensnare it. By the next morning it will be too entangled to be towed free; or to open the doors, for that matter.

A year later brambles have piled atop brambles waste-high with thorns the length of shark teeth. Within a year of that it's a hedge-maze twelve feet high, filled with red eyes and melodic whispers, from which nothing human ever came back out.

Now it is a forest, towering to the heavens and stretching ten miles in every direction, growing right up to the Idyll's borders and cloaking it in twilight at all but the four hours of noon (three in the winter). It is utterly safe from the outside world, but no one comes or goes save through the portals to other Idylls.

And the portals have grown unreliable of late. . .

Crimefighting Medusa who shows her face to the criminal scum and then hauls the stoned motherfucker to the edge of town (or jail, if appropriate).

>>5896330
SOUNDS MYSTERIOUS

I wrote a comedy about a post-apocalyptic paradise once. They were by-and-large happy for not having much to worry about, but their town being settled on a giant cannabis field didn't hurt, either.

>>5896356
Hahahahhahahha

>>5896356
>/co//ck//y/ /fa//tg/uy

>>5896224

No, wrong.
Grim/noble is outlook, dark/bright is setting. What you just described is Nobledark (i.e, OP's setting).

What would grimbright be, though? The real world?

A bright and beautiful place without any serious problems, except that everyone's a dick?

>>5896330

Fuck you for killing this thread. Asshole.

>>5896633

Its not his fault interest wavered for a little while, and his idea was pretty interesting. But things like that happen to threads, all the time, they rise and fall.

I'm still reading the thread, certainly.

But if people are going to rage at me for contributing ideas I'm less likely to immediately contribute more.

/tg/: turning the apocalypse into a Disney movie and kid shows into dystopian nightmares.

Was the thread on setting alignments archived?
Link?

Can we get a little more definition on the Denizens? Are they just humanoid supernatural entities, kinda like WoD, or could it include really strange beasts, ghosts, maybe even rogue robots/AI's, mutants etc? Is it simply totally freeform? What empowered humans, psychics etc?

>>5896769
Bump for this.

>>5896769

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/5881187/

>>5895415
I see an Idyll is in Norway

>>5896824
Thank you.

From what you said about the border folk, I take it the Idyll's don't allow immigration? While that does make some sort of sense, it puts them in a different when you think that, while they live in comfort, hundreds of thousands starve and die beyond their borders.

>>5896983

I assume that the borderlanders were cantankerous folk who didn't want to be part of the community, or else poor folk who couldn't find homes there, but who nevertheless can find shelter there in an emergency (kind of like tent towns outside a walled city).

>>5896820
In my vision (not the op), the denizens are local myths given life. Humanoid is not a prerequisite. Human 'creations' or the accidents given life in the cataclysm would be the abominations kept outside the idyll.

idyll is swedish for "a place of harmony and peace."

>>5897144

OP here, didn't actually know that, I just used a diminished version of "Idyllic".

>>5896820

Honestly, I'd leave it freeform. They're just entities which would be rejected almost everywhere else, but were accepted there. That's the only really necessary factor. Apart from that, let your PC's go nuts.

>>5897014
>>5896983

You're both half right, but yeah, that's the general feel of things. Its possible, although difficult, to move from the border to the Idyll proper, but as an outsider, you'd need live in the border for a few years to gain enough trust to be allowed in. Some borderfolk don't want in, preferring their life on the edges, while some simply can't afford the move, or are tied down by other concerns.

>>5897144
Sweden is a part of Norway isn't it?

>>5895427
>The term "Idyll" (Taken, rather obviously, from Idyllic)

Uh, no. The term idyllic comes from idyll, meaning an artistic representation of a peaceful, pastoral scene. Which in fact is perfect for your world of scattered villages, but you don't seem to have known it.

>>5897144
That is interesting, though it's originally Greek.

>>5897305

I don't mean etymologically. I just used Idyll as a shortened form of Idyllic, without knowing the actual meaning of he term. A happy coincidence.

>>5896432

The dude from the other day's thread contended that the real world was Neutral Neutral.

I think he was full of shit.

Bump for an awesome idea!

>>5897688

The real world is neutral boring.

Grimbright is a world where everything is beautiful and brightly coloured but danger lurks beneath the polished surface and it's people charming but cruel and capricious. A disney movie where Snowwhite is raped and killed by the dwarves after she cleans their house and her animal companions eat her discarded corpse. It is the standard alignment of the fey and similar magical settings/creatures.

>>5897800

That's what the guy in the old thread was saying. It also doesn't make sense.

"Bright/Dark" describes the settings environment and how dangerous it is. It's the "environment" axis. Both the "polished surface" and the danger lurking beneath that surface are accounted for under the environment axis; neither of those things affect the noble/grim part.

"Noble/Grim" is the "people" access. It describes the general response to the environment, whatever that may be, and the general attitudes of the people in it. Both the apparent charm and the actual motives of the people will be accounted for here (on the "people axis"), without affecting the environment axis.

A setting where the environment is beautiful and fun but also secretly dangerous evens out to neutral. A setting where the people are sweet, pleasant and optimistic but also dickish averages out to neutral. That's Neutral Neutral.
And it isn't boring at all.

>>5897864

Or a Grimdark setting which seems Noblebright on the surface, depending on how you look at it. Either way.

A Grimbright setting is one where life isn't hard and the world is a fairly pleasant place, but the people are still assholes who never stand up for eachother or do the right thing.

FUCK YEAR FUND THIS TIMES INFINITY BILLION

sage for homebrew

only joking

>>5897864

No it's more complicated than that.

bright/dark describes the aethestic of the universe not it's character. A -bright universe is aethestically pleasing and beautiful. a -dark universe is dark and gritty, washed in shades of mud and dirt.

the noble/grim axis describes the character of the universe and its people. It is the 'hope of success' access. In a noble- universe the people are kind and trusting. Good always wins out. In a grim- universe the people are shallow, barabaric and callous, evil always wins.

>>5898018
>bright/dark describes the aethestic of the universe not it's character. A -bright universe is aethestically pleasing and beautiful. a -dark universe is dark and gritty, washed in shades of mud and dirt.

Bullshit. Asside for the feywild thing (which I think was wrong) this was never even implied.

>The other axis is the darkbright axis, which determines the extent to which the place they live in sucks. A bright world is generally a very nice place, a neutral world is more balanced, and a dark world is one that is savage and hostile. This determines the pressure the people are placed under.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/5881187/#5882209

Noble/grim/dark/bright make no mention of aesthetic-vs-reality.

I would be tempted to run this with McWOD (world of darkness d20), brewing up a few new creature types, such as fey.

Hell, standard WoD wouldn't be an awful fit, if you mostly ignore the fluff.

Actually, I take that back, WoD is awful for anything if you ignore the fluff.

>>5898094

Screw you. My versions better. And you know it.

Thanks for fagging up a great thread, morans
>>5896432
>>5896769
>>5897688
>>5897800
>>5897864
>>5897891
>>5898018
>>5898094

a good source for ideas for the guardians is the nightside books by simon r green. there's a good mix of supernatural and futuristic types, lots of different stuff in there you could use.

OP here, a bump for the late crowd.

Requested Archive.

Now, let's see if we can have some good debate and discussion here.

Bump