Introduction

I am building a world, provisionally called Angadurgh. This world is to be the location of a fantasy role playing game (most likely Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition ).

Here I list a few sources of inspiration - note that I don't really plan to create a world like any of these - but rather I like these sources, and I would like elements from them to infuse my world if only from a thematic or flavour point of view.

Obviously I have enjoyed Tolkien and cannot deny its influence on the genre. I suspect that some of the earlier eras described in the Silmarillion would make interesting campaign settings, but I do not intend to create anything much like that myself.

Other books I read in my 70's adolescence would include Michael Moorcock's works Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné, Vol. 1), Roger Zelazny, Piers Anthony, Robert Asprin, Sprague DeCamp, Aldous Huxley, Jules Verne, Arthur Conan-Doyle. I watched Doctor Who, Blake's Seven, Logan's Run, Mad Max. I love Monty Python, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams (although it is not obvious how these last will infect my world).

No list would be complete without Robert E. Howard, and H. P. Lovecraft.

More recently I have enjoyed China Mieville Perdido Street Station, Steven Erikson Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen), the Indiana Jones movies, Avatar (yes, there are strong RPG useful elements there), Dan Simmons' Hyperion. Of the D&D campaign worlds out there I have most enjoyed Eberron.

I am a lover of early fiction, and have read La Morte D'Arthur and its variants more than a few times, loving the simple prose and profound ideals present in early fiction.

So - what else do we have? I like my worlds to feel whole, in the sense that they have some kind of consistency. But I want them to have diversity, and even weirdness. I want adventuring possibilities to go all the way from dark, frightening gritty realism to world-shaking sorcery and high magic. I want slimy political intrigue, bloodthirsty arena crowds, marching legions, dark horrors dwelling in subterranean crypts, ancient mysteries reaching dark tendrils into the here and now. I don't especially want Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and Humans in the Tolkienian (or even Gygaxian) sense to permeate my world, although I don't rule any of them out, if I can see where any of them fit into my vision. I like steampunk but I don't want my whole world to be that way. I like pirates and ninjas, but I think to fit them into this world will require some re-imaging. Sky-pirates spring to mind - yes, I love the idea of aerial cut-throats raiding towns and villages, carrying off loot and fair maidens (or daughters of wealthy citizens).

I would like the dominant civilisation(s) to be human (whatever that means). There will be several competing cultures, some ancient, some new and "barbaric", each with varying degrees of decadence. There would be some significant non-human presences, both intermingled and separate, and both widespread and localised.

In terms of gods and deities - this is a tough area. I think I would like the gods to be dark and dangerous. Seldom giving a gift without exacting a price. Jealous, and fitful, perhaps even childlike and capricious, like ancient Greek gods. Demanding of complete obedience and servitude from ordinary folk who wish to gain any benefits from them. Those few individuals of personal power or prowess that may attract the attention of a deity may have some bargaining power, and may indeed obtain a favour or two. Deities may choose who they favour, and it is not always obvious why they choose one and not another, although performing great deeds is usually a pre-requisite. I see dangerous mobs of cultists mindlessly carrying out what they see as their god's wishes, heedless of morality or even personal well-being, and priests twisted by ambition directing their activities until their fickle gods abandon them for some other tribe.

For magic, again I like my magic to have dark and dangerous overtones - and this will apply to what I shall term "high magic" or ritual magic. Low magic usually has only a short term effect, and duplicates some mundane power. All species have some representatives that are infused with the capacity for low magic, this is represented by their powers. I shall term these "gifted". The majority of each species is simply mundane, although being mundane does not mean that such an individual cannot rise to great temporal power. Today's pope cannot cast spells or heal people miraculously, although there are other religious people claimed to have this ability who have no power within any religious structure. All player characters, and most of what they will fight will be in the gifted category.