[Torg] aysle a bit lame?

[Kansas Jim]

mark writes:

>                     ive always had a problem with aysle as to my mind 
> its just too much like any other fantasy game world. i love all the 

Aysle does come off as generic fantasy but it does have hidden depths.
The Tech and Social axioms are closer to the Renaissance than the usual
medieval/Dark Ages seen in most fantasy settings, which I found when
combined with Core Earth elements that the native inhabitants would
try to cling to inspired me in some non-traditional directions for
stories focusing on politics, economics and even civil rights
("half-folk are people too!") instead of the usual dungeon crawls and
dragon slaying my players expected. (Though as it turned out, they not
only expected that but would have preferred to be doing that as well,
so my differing emphases for the realm wasn't entirely appreciated.)

> roleplaying worlds. so what to do with aysle? ive seen some pirate ideas 
> for it but i still want to keep the magic in some form. i'll probably 

Magical pirates, obviously! :) More seriously, while pirates has been
the hook I've used to describe the latest revision I want to do with
Aysle they're just part of it, I'm envisioning naval/aquatic themes as
a main thrust for the realm. I've always pronounced Aysle like "isle"
so why not make it a naval-themed realm? I think the time period usually
associated with pirates can also be a better fit with the Tech and
Social axioms than the usual medieval fantasy viewpoint. And there's
all kinds of possibilities for how magic and supernatural creatures
would supplement or replace naval technologies, putting a different
spin on things.

> see if i can take magic away from the people and give it to the select 
> few. i also have to say im not a huge fan of honour/ corruption. any 
> thing that could replace it?

I have been considering moving the chivalrous concepts from Aysle to
the Cyberpapacy where it might go better with the medieval mindset
there, but I've been at a loss as to what would take its place in Aysle.
Removing H/C just leaves the realm with LoObservation and Magic, two
passive WLs which don't really do a lot for atmosphere and defining
character behavior.

>              on a final note i want to shift the cyberpapacy to a less 
> restrictive area im thinking possibly brazil? however i want to try and 
> retain some link to france by having just 3 stelea around paris. keeps 
> the cyber pap source book material quite useful still. do you think any 
> high lord would land in 2 areas like that? maybe malraux does this 
> either to block or aid a struggeling uthorion? thoughts on this?

The Living Land initially dropped in three areas and after a while the
Nile, Nippon Tech and the Cyberpapacy created new realms far away from
their original ones so as a strategy there's certainly nothing stopping
the CP doing something like that. I'm not sure one zone around Paris
would actually make the sourcebook material all that useful since in the
sourcebook Paris is a Core Earth hardpoint, not really a part of the
Cyberpapacy.

>          p.s. if cyberpap is in brazil what would the reaction be to the 
> akashans arriving?

Not too different from their reaction in the published material, as I
recall the Cyberpapacy was preparing to invade Brazil when the Akashans
arrived so they had to put those plans on hold while the re-evaluated
the situation.

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html