I was given Legends of Anglerre for my birthday this year and love it – finally a narativist game I can get behind. The world of Anglerre and the Hither Kingdoms don’t do much for me, though. Here are 4 game worlds I’d like to see Anglerred:
- Mystara & the Hollow World
- In the beginning there was the Known World. It grew from its humble beginnings as the default campaign world for Basic and Expert Dungeons & Dragons and, over time, and became known as Mystara.
In the late ’80s TSR described Mystara in a number of gazeteers as the foundation for nearly every BX module produced. In the ’90s players were treated to the Hollow World within the core of Mystara’s planet. The line was a bright spot among TSR’s bloat. It’s high, swashbuckling fantasy was one of the first worlds I thought about while reading Legends of Anglerre.
- Talislanta
- Talislanta is an odd duck among published settings. It’s not precisely high fantasy, not swords & sorcery exactly, nor a dying earth (despite it’s Vancian influences). It is, however, a well-developed and supported setting (even still by fans, despite being retired), rich in cultural detail. I’d never been a huge fan Talislanta mostly because I never could think of any stories. But when I finished reading Legends of Anglerre and started casting about for a published setting worthy of Cubicle 7′s Starblazer FATE system I immediately thought of Talislanta. Best thing is, all the products are on the web and free.
- Tékumel
- The first time I heard of Legends of Anglerre John Till was talking about converting Tékumel to Cubicle 7′s Starblazer Adventures take on the FATE system. When my good friend gifted me LoA the first thing he mentioned was that I might like to fit M.A.R. Barker’s totally-devoid-of-western-culture-artifacts fantasy setting. They are both right, of course. I would play in a Starblazer Tékumel campaign though I am still too fond of Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne to use it to run a game.
- Japan’s Kamakura Period
- Japan’s Tokugawa period is usually thought of as “Japan’s medieval period”; the earlier Heian-Kamakura period might well be thought of as their period of Empire building, or their ancient “Rome period”.
Taking place from 794-1333 in the Western calendar, Heian-Kamakura was a time when great samurai clans like the Fujiwara were on the rise, and the classic struggle between the Imperial court and the Shogunate was being forged, when he gods of Shinto still had some power, perhaps, but Buddhism was making in-roads.
A much mythologized version of Heian-Kamakura is presented in Legend of the Five Rings RPG. Despite my disfavor of that game, utilizing any supplement to tell stories in this period (from GURPS Japan to Wikipedia) would be a hit.
