In this RPGNet thread, poster "Bailywolf" had an interesting concept for a game setting.

Imagine that there was some powerful entity offering various people vast power with which to change the world - but in return it would transform them bodily into grotesque monsters. Furthermore, it will tell those it makes the offer to that there is a fixed total number of people it will transform - so if you refuse the offer, it will go to someone else instead who might be less inclined to use his power ethically and responsibly.

You were going to use your power responsibly - right?


This kind of campaign framework could be very interesting for a supers campaign, as it can come with a lot of pathos. The characters might start out with noble intentions - accepting the transformation so that the power won't go to outright villains who could wreak devastating havoc with it. But they will be shunned and rejected by society for their appearance and for the crimes of their brethen who are monstrous in mind as well as body - and how long can they maintain their nobility under such circumstances?

For some further ideas, maybe the power of the transformation works like the Essence shards in the setting of Exalted - there is only a limited number of them, but they are basically indestructible and when one carrier dies it immediately seeks out the next host. Thus, there will be a race to kill the "bad guys" in possession of this power so that the power can migrate to "worthier" hosts - while the "bad guys" will want to get to newly-erupted monsters in order to recruit them to their side for protection.

I'm currently working on a few ideas for a high-powered GURPS fantasy setting (I'm talking of power levels appropriate for Exalted here).

It takes place on an artificial world created by powerful aliens about 8,000 years ago, and abandoned 6,000 years ago. They seeded ecosystems (and sapient beings) from six different planets on this world. What I want to come up with is some sort of justification why the different ecosystems haven't intermingled totally. Different climate zones wouldn't work - the original zones were split up evenly along the entire spectrum of available climates.

The best justification I can come up with is that the vegetation of each ecosystem is dependent radically different sets of microorganisms - so when one ecosystem attempts to spread into a new region, the microorganisms of the former inhabitants have to be purged or at least weakened sufficiently so that the new life forms can spread into this region. For this region, the sapients living in this world sometimes set fire to patches of "alien" vegetation when they want to spread into new territories.

How plausible would this be? Or can anyone come up with a better explanation which allows for some intermingling and changing territorial boundaries, but not total integration?

Well, after nearly a year and a half at Eruvian.Com, I have to admit that the site isn't working out for Urbis as well as I've hoped. While there was an initial burst of enthusiasm and feedback, the site seems to be pretty much dead now.

So now I'm doing what I always do under these circumstances - I'm creating a wiki for it. The Urbis Wiki can be found here. I haven't ported much material over yet - the formatting takes time, and I'm also adding some new material while I am at it. But I think it will be worth it.

The most significant change are the so-called Designer's Notes - where I explain my choices for introducing a particular setting element, and provide some additional resources. You can see some of this in the Races and Solar System sections, which are mostly ported over by now.

Please tell me what you think of this. Is this a useful addition?

Well, my Pyramid article with the near-future setting I've hinted at from time to time has finally been published:

The Orgone Tomorrow (Pyramid subscription required to read it)

And currently I am contemplating whether I should expand the setting and submit it to e23 as a stand-alone setting. But before I decide on that, I need some feedback from those who have read it - and I don't just mean a high ranking (although that certainly wouldn't hurt, either... ;) ).

So if you have read the article, could you perhaps answer a few questions?

- What worked for you, and what didn't?
- What aspects of the setting would you like to see expanded upon?
- If an extended version of this setting were to be published on e23, would you consider buying it? ;)
- Anything else that comes to your mind regarding this setting...


Finally, if I do decide to pursue further publication of this setting, I might have use for a co-author - especially one who currently runs GURPS and has a firm grasp of all the recent 4E GURPS rules supplements...