Saturday, July 9, 2016

Revitalizing My OSR Retroclone Campaign Setting - Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis

Listen now of a time long over or yet to be when super science & black sorcery thrived;an ancient world which exists between the cycles of time  and the alternative shadows that have been or will happen or has already been. Between the sinking of Atlantis and the time when mankind reach for the stars there existed Atlantandria Port City to the stars!



This is Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis born of the frustration of ancient disasters where super science  and the waxing of magic exist in a uneasy truce. A place whose knowledge and power echo through eternity and a place founded upon the bones of an ancient empire whose time is long past. A place whose skies and sea rest with the gleam of space craft. And a place whose ports are crammed with the wares from hundreds of worlds as well as the shadows and reflections of other worlds far beyond.
The city is built quite literally on the bones of the Old Atlantis colony city itself; its remains lay beneath its streets, a twisting maze  of strange catacombs, ancient dungeons, and worse lay just below the gleaming city streets.



"For there are worlds beyond worlds, as Kull knows, and whether the wizard bewitched him by words or by mesmerism, vistas did open to the king’s gaze beyond that strange door."
Robert Howard 
"The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune" 

The wares of a million worlds are traded here and the seas are alight with the sails from ancient and decedent kingdoms. The power of trade is only now reestablishing itself as tribesmen still wield the relic armor and energy weapons of Mu and Lemuria.


Long guns are common among the tribes of the wastelands and mutants, monsters, and worse roam there. Ancient Atlantian battle machines still prowl these places, some only a few hundred miles from the city itself.  This is a city build upon the forbidden knowledge of ancient magic and power, its very foundations awash with the magic of old Lemuria and Atlantis. Here ancient cults plot against one another and the city itself is awash in a thousand plots. Alien slave traders vie with those of  chaos tainted blood in the shadow of ancient god kings. The port city and space port is all that remains of this once great world. A place of sword and sorcery,super science as well as sorcery, but it is world in decedent decline filled with barbarian tribes and fierce independent adventurers who seek wealth, their fortunes, and glory. But there is far more too this world  then one mere space port and the sea that surrounds it.



The Wastelands of the God Kings
“Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.” 
― Robert E. HowardThe Complete Chronicles of Conan

When Atlantis sank beneath the waves there were many ruins left within the wastelands. An entire country full of the ancient remains of this once spectular ruler of not only this world but the once might colony worlds of Mars and Venus as well.
But now only the jade lined ruins and gleaming stoneworks remain above ground.
Below are mazes of corridors, dungeons of horror, and far more.
These wastelands are the home to roving tribes of barbarians, desert dwellers, and inhuman monsters.

 
File:Athanasius Kircher's Atlantis.gif

The wastelands of the god kings is the home to numerous ancient pyramids, ruins, and far worse wonders for time itself is broken in these places and many strange things come through the once stable gateways.

“By such reflections and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, the qualities which we have described grew and increased among them; but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power. 

Zeus, the god of gods, who rules according to law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honourable race was in a woeful plight, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improve, collected all the gods into their most holy habitation, whch being placed in the centre of the world, beholds all created things. And when he had called them together, he spake as follows --” 
― PlatoTimaeus/Critias

There are dungeons and ruins a plenty here to tempt adventurers and explorers into their depths, strange alien creatures stalk the wastelands and kill with little provocation.
File:Leonardo Coccorante - 'Harbor Scene with Roman Ruins'.jpg
It is a dangerous time for this world. A place of mystery and horror just waiting for adventurers to set foot within its confines

.

Hundreds of wizards rule these desert domains and ancient ruined palaces, doorways to a thousand universes open and close with the spinning of the stars. Ancient cults to Lovecraftian entities wander its trails and knights do battle with beings from beyond time and space in the shadow of wrecked space craft. 
From across the wastelands ancient alien traders and mutant adventurers travel with barbarian warriors and knights of old. 

The call of adventure awaits the party of adventurers brave enough and fool hardy to heed the siren call of this world, welcome to Accursed Atlantis! 


Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis is my OSR test bed setting. A campaign setting where I can literally drop anything into the sword & sorcery mix and not break the science fantasy setting. I created Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis in response to constantly having to shift and move around game resources constantly to accommodate another fantastic OSR piece of supplemental material. So instead I made the material accommodate the world where any time lost piece of technology or adventure might & could show up. Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis is my OSR test bed campaign world where adventure is right around the corner.

In my own campaign other dimensional location the city states of

Atlantandria are a mix of energy weapons and black powder. They follow by route the ancient ways of technology and super science as well as black sorcery.
 Campaign Workshops &
Revitalizing My OSR Retroclone Campaign Setting

There have been a few recent developments in the OSR that have convinced me to revamp,  redo, and rewrite Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis. These are in no particular order: 
  • The fact that I've played a lot of Dungeon Crawl Classics and especially I've used Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine resources over the last year or so. Now with the highly successful Mutant Crawl Classics rpg kickstarter its a good idea to create my own science fantasy setting.
  • Lamentations of the Flame Princess keeps releasing incredibly good top quality material that I want to use at my table so I'm keeping an eye on the upcoming Gencon titles.
  • Geoffrey McKinney's four Carcosa adventures released via Lulu over took the OSR halls by storm. 
  • I've finally got a copy of Dark Albion & now Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos, the very nature of magick and chaos in the Dark Albion setting is something I want draw upon and use in my own games. The corruption, darkness, and horror of Chaos is far more insidious and dangerous in Dark Albion then it is in other old school games. Basically this is chaos done right, in Fantastic Heroes & Witchery the strain of it runs through the rules book but chaos in all of its multi headed horror gets a far more adult treatment in Dark Albion. 
  • Venger Satanis's revamp of Crimson Dragon Slayer & continuing support of Alpha Blue Material needs a setting where his creations might bedevil my players. Now with Crimson Dragon Slayer day coming up fast the need is even greater.

    Those are a few of the various reasons why but the big reason that I'm trotting out Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis  is because one of my players recently acquired a copy of Astonishing Sorcerers and Swordsmen of Hyperborea. Basically this means that I need my own setting that draws from but doesn't copy Hyperborea. I've also added in another player into both my Monday night and Tuesday games.


    Because of this I've been wanting to draw upon some of the OSR resources that I've got at hand to really pump some life into this setting. Here are some of the resources that I'll be bringing to the table for Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis in no particular order of importance :

    1. Many of the titles from Neoplastic Press I can't stress how excellent these have been for both inspiration & in terms of monster design as well as creature implication. 
    2. Astonishing Sorcerers and Swordsmen of Hyperborea.
    3. Goblinoid Games Products especially Mutant Future (I've got to aquire a new copy soon mine fell appart after four years near constant use. 
    4. Petty Gods will have shrines, temples, and various religious areas across the  Accursed Atlantis setting.
    5. Pulling PC classes from Black Box Books
    6. I'm also going to pulling monsters and creatures from  CC1 Creature Compendium From  New Big Dragon Games Unlimited
    7. The PC's are going to have run ins with the Eld and have already felt their presence in a few instances. They have no idea of the depths of weirdness that they can get themselves into.
    8. There are a ton of other dimensional alternative Earth OSR locations I've got on the back burner to use and pull from.Many of these are inspired by Skirmisher Publishing products.
    9. There are deep connections between my Warlords of the Outer Worlds campaign setting and  Atlantandria Port City Of Accursed Atlantis
    10. There are many more reasons which I will be exploring in upcoming blog posts. 


      For now keep those dice rolling!


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