It's a hard sci-fi setting dressed up like a fantasy setting

I did something sort of like this in a game I ran once.
>standard fantasy setting
>players start in a little town in a valley, spend levels 1-5 doing regular fantasy stuff
>as time goes by, more and more orcs and nasties start encroaching from the west
>similarly, evil and unnatural looking clouds are visible on the western horizon, appear to be growing closer
>eventually, a large orc army shows up at the town, demanding they be allowed to cross to the eastern side of the river where a lot of the good races live, threaten violence if not allowed to cross but make a blood oath that they will not raid or kill anyone
>players manage to broker a temporary truce between the orcs and the town, the orc women and children are permitted to camp on the east side of the river
>it turns out the orcs are being driven east by horrific monsters and dark magic
>the players set out west to investigate
>as they go, they fight the odd orc splinter group, pass through abandoned towns, etc
>the farther they go west, the more often they come across twisted monsters and corrupted flora. The clouds grow eerier and strange storms split the sky nearly every day
>eventually they come to the edge of a forest at the foot of the mountain, only the foliage and grass is blood red and very, very strange
>a twisted black tower peeks out over the treetops in the distance, vile smoke pouring from its chimneys
>thisistheplace.png
>the players fight through the blood forest, enemies include orcs zombified and controlled by sentient vines, tentacled and spiny bear monsters, very very hungry trees.
>they finally reach the tower: It is a strange thing seemingly built from metal, built almost as though it were thrust into the ground at an angle, random jagged pieces of metal surrounding it festooned with skulls and gore as if to ward away intruders
>the party finds a door, enter
(1/2)

All the VIPs could have been scooped up and whisked away in the first weeks/months. What you have left is a planet of the cabana boys.

>I wouldn't go hiking in some unexplored area if there was no chance someone could send a rapid rescue my way using my advanced survival gear to hold out until it comes.
All the 'survival gear" in the world doesn't matter if you don't have the basic infrastructure to replace it.

Large portion of the population was living there by choice in poverty. They were given a chunk of land to farm and a contract to show up for whatever labor the resorts needed in exchange for living in paradise (no native diseases, temperate climate, low g, high oxygen, etc.) The collapse of the economy due to being cut out of the FTL network caused a violent split between the self-sufficient 'poor folk' who were quickly growing in number, and the 'outworlders' that were in control of the technological systems

Most of whom packed into the handful of independent FTL ships and left

What's if ftl requires wormholes which collapsed

>trying to explain FTL

What technology did these people come with? Even poor people can get very basic smart phones so some industries had to have propped up to support the farmers (i.e towns for vendors to sell things to do what they do and such) I can understand that some technologies wouldn't hold on for 200 years but you wouldn't completey forget that it exists. Saying the world regresses to some kind of mad max type deal with feudalism and resorting to basic non-high tech means and weapons makes more sense then saying they go back to medeviel means and forget their technology and knowledge existed at all.

Gotta explain ftl. Not the mechanics but how it functions in setting.

Might not come up a lot, if it's a 'not' fantasy setting.

more?

(2/2)
>the floors, walls and ceilings are made of metal, in places chasms open up to blackness below, upper floors partially visible through rents in the ceiling, light let in by gaps in the walls
>crystals set in the walls flicker with edlritch light, casting the interior of the tower in an eerie wavering glow
>the party works their way upwards, in places having to climb up narrow shafts where stairs are ruined or blocked by debris
>they encounter constructs, traps that cast magical rays at them, what appears to be concentrated jets of the dark cloud that blankets the land, thick black vines that are usually safe, but when damaged deliver an electric shock to anyone near by
>at the top, a chamber dominated by a window looks over the mutated countryside
>they have to fight a heavily armoured wizard type monster, armed with a silver staff
>they defeat it, in its dying breath, the wizard crawls over to a metal chest bolted into a desk, opens the lid and pushes two buttons within
>the crystals in the walls all start flashing red in unison, a horrible wail fills the tower
>party ties a rope to what looks like a ships wheel, rappel out the shattered window
>just as they touch down, the tower starts to collapse in on itself, chunks of it crumpling and exploding at the same time, then disappearing completely, sending shockwaves of energy in every direction
>in the space of a minute, there is nothing left where the tower was except a crater
>loot they took with them:
>>a clear helmet that seems indestructible. Not only does wearing allow a full range of vision, but when you look at enemies through it a small magical sigil appears above their head that only you can see
>>a magical sword that glows almost too brightly to look at when the hilt is gripped correctly, can cut through metal like butter
>>the wizard's staff. Only a meter or so long, it emits red rays when willed to. The ranger is especially adept with it.

I agree. 200 years seems a little short.

I'd go with 500+.

200 years might be enough if they didn't have physical records. But that would require more weirdness.

If you really want 200 years, maybe the Humans and Lizard Alien VIPs fired shots at each other while trying to assign blame for the war?

Computers from ten years ago barely function, and they have no capacity to create more. (Seriously, who would research archaic computer construction?) This is a planet of people who's grand parent's grand parents haven't touched working high-tech if they're outside The Church

>people keep missing that it was stated in OP that the functioning technology was gathered up by the elite

>vines that deliver an electric shock when damaged
I see what you did there, and I like it

>The Church
The problem with that is that a church is all about record keeping and spreading the good word. I can't imagine that 200 years would be a short enough time to erase/warp peoples understanding of history enough to make a fantasy setting.

Look at third world countries with no manufacturing, whose economies essentially rely purely on tourism, and some agriculture.

Now take an entire *planet* and reduce it purely to tourism. There's no manufacturing, there's no agriculture, no nothing. Most maintenance and supply is probably brought in from offworld, as are power cells.

It's easy enough to believe without mental gymnastics if you want to believe. Though I will agree with other anons in that the timeline should probably be more like 400-500 years afterwards.

The players figured most stuff out pretty quickly and played along, but they didn't get the vines until I explained them as simple electrical cables that zap you when you strip off too much insulation.

To this day, it's the best adventure I've ever created and run, which is surprising: it was in Pathfinder, and at a time when most of my stuff was cringe-inducing garbage. I really want to bring it in again, but neither of the two fantasy games I run are really compatible.

Maybe they're more like the Cult Mechanicus or the Brotherhood of Steel
Tight knit, religious group (maybe not super religious in the case of BoS but they still use terms like Paladin) that believes that the common man should not have tech because it will only hurt him or needs to be hoarded and protected for some reason or other

>>It's a hard sci-fi setting dressed up like a fantasy setting
>>Planet was cut off from the rest of the galaxy and devolved
>>Planet was a luxury resort, no fossil fuels, quickly ran out of heavy metals for advanced tech
You just described Tékumel word-for-word. Was it intentional?

no idea what Tekumel is

That could work.

200 years still might be too short. Widespread literacy will mean once things quiet down a little there should be lots of records of what happened. You might need significantly longer for physical records to decay/be destroyed.

Tekmule was my first setting.
It had actual magic too in with the sci-fi stuff.

I don't remember it being a resort planet though.

>Look at third world countries with no manufacturing, whose economies essentially rely purely on tourism, and some agriculture.
>Now take an entire *planet* and reduce it purely to tourism. There's no manufacturing, there's no agriculture, no nothing. Most maintenance and supply is probably brought in from offworld, as are power cells.
>It's easy enough to believe without mental gymnastics if you want to believe. Though I will agree with other anons in that the timeline should probably be more like 400-500 years afterwards.

Well the thing about third world countries is that they are not completely cut off from everything and everyone else though. We're talking about a planet that somehow is lost and forgotten about and for some time and was already set up to fail by not having any sort of industry on the planet (which I find ridiculous by itself) more so the fact that after some time inquisitive sorts would not start the path towards making rudimentary re-discoveries unless the ability to do so is being purposefully surpressed as is supposedly the case with this church.

Also, planets are big places, if you restrict the movement of people to certain areas why not have areas only you can access that have such technologies in them to sustain your power and keep people in relative dark age mindsets/levels of education?

if it's super scifi then there may be little to no paper documentation, since it would have all been done electronically. So if there's no computers available, there are no records available.

well, no records available to those who aren't high up church members, that is

You could be like the Church of Ethos

xenosaga.wikia.com/wiki/Ethos

If the game plan is just to stall until you get picked up by Big Brother Earth, is there any reason at all to educate the population? Wouldn't it be better to leave them in squalor and idiocy so they can't rise up as easily?

Doesn't matter that much. If everyone's literate all you need is a blank wall and some charcoal and you can write shit out when your tech dies.

Isn't this pretty much the Might & Magic setting?

>Isn't this pretty much the Might & Magic setting?
Is it?
I thought Might and Magic was pretty standard fantasy fare.

Fuck dude just use endless legend and call it a day

No no, it ran out of heavy metals and then was cut off, no word on a timeline prior to the cutoff. The cutoff simply eliminated their ability to refresh tech and knowledge since they no longer made it on world.

Nope, it's a sci-fi setting where the factions regressed into feudalism and barbarism. It's much more obvious in the Might & Magic games, especially the later ones

i am okay with this

Pimp ass robots are the best faction. Money>Bitches.

Haven't played since in a while.
How do they explain magic?

I haven't heard any evidence of Earth still being existent. Or, really, any part of society outside of this planet.

The war could easily have resulted in this shitty resort being the last fragment of several dead cultures.

I don't necessarily hate this. I've allways like the concept of hard sci-fi (in the sense of drawing from as much real world science as possible) but found the genre, on the whole dry and technophilic.

Despite Destiny many failings as both a game and setting, least of all its lazy use of space magic. I did enjoy it's distinct sense of 'mystical heroism'. I wouldn't mind something like that more fleshed out. The world still runs on science and reason, but for what ever reason people still still ACT like they live in an nordic ballad.

>church
>operates on faith
It's perfectly reasonable that the stronghold of humanity has survived.

I imagine that there is/was quite a bit of arguing about that at one point. Some believing Earth lives, and is coming to help, others believing that Earth is dead, and they're on their own, and still others believing Earth simply can't be assed to help.

What's a church without some sects?

Obviously, dominant faith would hold that there are still humans out there somewhere. No possible way all the thousands of colonies were glassed. Someone will show up eventually and even one good FTL ship can get enough FTL juice down from deep space to get everyone off.

Has anyone already worked on an Endless Legend rpg setting? I've played the games and am seriously considering using it for my next game and if someone else already did the work, then hey, bonus.

On that note, what age of tech would be the best one to play in? Supposing a single Endless Legend match takes a few decades to hundreds of years or so.

>Robots
That isn't cultists.

>Implying the cultists aren't robots.
The Queen and her primary footsoldiers/leaders are. Hell, they're literally more robotic than the Dosh Lords.

i think the entirety of a game, form age 1 to 5 is supposed to be like a thousand years, give or take a hundred. winters are supposed to get longer as time goes on, indicating auriga getting old and prepping for death.

really, any age other than 4/5 are good.

>tfw Dosh Lords in Spaaaaaaaaace

they vodyani are the darkest timeline of the broken lords. they gave into their lust for life essense and became space vamps

And acquire more dosh than ever.

What if Dosh Lords are canon winners of Endless Legend?

Unless the plot focuses on one of the factions forming ("Hey PCs, the Wild Walker tribes have just suddenly started coalescing into cities, what's up with that?") then the mid-game at the earliest. The PCs are heroes infused with Dust, and play like low-powered Exalted. They're more than just hired thugs, they're geopolitical game-changers.

WELL LADS
WODS OUT FOR THE LADIES

look, in a game were everyone existed

>dosh lords and roaming jews get into fights early since the clans think they can control the dust, when the lords need the dust to survive
>technophiliacs in super cold war with forgotten since they keep stealing their holy relics and the forgotten have a hard on hate for them
>forgotten play all sides
>ardent mages align with jews to keep dust flowing and not be swallowed up by lords
>shifters are super smug holier than thou and constantly fight for pearls and will do anything to get their hands on them
>wild walkers are just trying to be wild walkers
>everyone drops everything when necrophages show up to fight them

Ardent Mages are Jew offshoots though.

>implying it won't be Vaulters

heres my head canon

>broken lords are close to economic victory, have wiped out clans and control most of the dust in the world, have dust era 5 tech
>vaulters/forgotten are close to science victory. vaulters research science and production tech, forgotten have serum and food
>wild walkers, mages, cultists, draken, and shifters left out of the running
>draken, being filthy peace loving scum they are, decide to try and broker peace
>somehow, though forked devil tongue speak, manage to secure peace with everyone
>vaulters devise a way to get everyone off of auriga safe and sound
>lords pony up the dust, vaulters bring the tech, vaulters run around backstabbing and sneaking to make sure nothing goes wrong
>they run into a snag, mages pony up and use the dust from lords to fix it with magic, get a place away from a dead world
>draken lobby for everyone to get off safe and sound
>reluctantly they agree
>fast forward, you have super dust colony ships blasting off from auriga mostly safe and sound looking for a new world to settle

>Implying Vaulters didn't win a Quest Victory

Couldn't most of the tech regression be explainable by loss of power sources? Batteries dry up, solar cells die eventually. Soon enough you can't use so much as a phone so most of it becomes junk. You could fix up a few hand cranks or water wheels or something but maybe quickly suppressed by the church?

Better idea.

Hard sci fi. Only a handful of planets inhabited. They're so far apart that travel is ultra rare.
One planet develops a full AI or something, it takes over the system defense systems (on nearby moons etc). Sends messages to the other planets that an immense pandemic has spread throughout the planet. "Stay away".
Any ship that comes near gets glassed. Most technology is controlled by the AI. It just wants to sit around and do nothing, but most importantly destroy anyone who attempts to hack or control it.
Enough time passes, many people die because they try to fight the AI, eventually we have a more relatable numenera setting.

Or give it some goals. Conduct research. Exterminate organic life. Turn humans into robots. Gain a spiritual understanding of humanity. Fight an alien AI/virus that humans don't know about.

Hand cranks and water wheels might just not be good enough. Even if you could make something that will output 240V AC, any fluctuations will fry sensitive microelectronics, and the power output will be so low that it might take weeks to charge up a single smartphone battery with your entire water wheel. You might be able to power electric lights for your village, assuming the bulbs won't also blow if there's a power surge, but how will you make new light bulbs? Making super fine filament wire isn't trivial.

Exactly. Everyone is going on about how it's infeasible for tech to be gone quickly, but there are other considerations like power supplies. Anything powerful or reliable enough would be seized by church or other organisations, just need there to be a window where everything can go to shit and then its 100x harder to get going again. Just say some bullshit about solar flares and call it a night.

A planet with no fuel or metal? How the fuck does that even happen?

Sounds like the might and magic games.

>planet has only had life for a few thousand years
>planet is far away from galactic core
done you dirty dwarf humper

Sauce for that pic?

I would recommend checking out 'hard to be a god'. The church in that is hyper anti-tech, to the point where I could see them comin down hard on anyone with tech. Maybe the "Pope" of the church was a tech/janitor for the resort and maybe he had the means to reconnect with the rest of the galaxy, but chose not to reveal it do to the power he attained through being tech savy/head of the church