Why Are So Many Settings Post-Apocalyptic?

Folks who've been following my expansions for Sundara: Dawn of a New Age have noted several things about my setting that seem to buck the trend for a lot of other worlds we play in. For example, I'm doing everything I can to eliminate the idea of non-human characters all being part of religious and cultural monoliths by introducing a wider variety of cultures, physical adaptations, and faiths into the world. I'm foregoing the idea of national and even racial identities (which are surprisingly modern constructs), and focusing more on localities, clans, tribes, and a world in the smaller-scale. I'm including a lot of unique "period" technology, ranging from the dragon steel of Ironfire (a version of pattern-welded "Damascus" steel), to the wind catchers used for air conditioning in the towers of Silkgift.

But I realized something else that I did without even thinking about it, specifically because it's confused a lot of players used to traditional settings who are reviewing Sundara; namely they're under the impression that this is a young world, or that folks are playing during the golden age of this setting.

Young world? Not so much...

While several of the cities I've written guides for are only a hundred to a few hundred years old, Sundara is by no means a young world. Folks who checked out Archbliss: City of The Sorcerers (for either Pathfinder Classic or DND 5E) have seen that this floating city has been going strong for millennia. Moüd, pictured above, has only been recently re-inhabited, because the city was abandoned centuries ago due to a catastrophe that took an entire guild of modern necromancers to get under control until the place was habitable again. The cultures being released in my Species of Sundara books (particularly the ones for the elves and the dwarves) didn't just appear overnight; that kind of development takes a long time.

The longer I thought about what is giving this impression, though, the more I realized there's another relic of Tolkien's famous tales that made its way into our games without us really remarking on it. Because almost every setting I've ever played in has been a post-apocalyptic setting, or one that's in the middle of a Dark Age... and that's something I just didn't want to do when it was time to make my own world.

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And The World Fell Under a Shadow (Every Time)

One of the central themes of Tolkien's Lord of The Rings is that the world is in a dark place. Men have grown weaker and weaker, and amazing places and peoples have fallen into ruin, or been utterly forgotten. There is corruption everywhere, and the world is slowly approaching its last gasps. There are still some pinpricks of light where elder races preserve relics from the days of glory, but it is a dank, dreary, deadly world that has entered a twilight... basically a slightly more hopeful version of Dark Souls if you read between the lines.

And this is the same model so many, many RPG settings follow. All you need to do is look at the loot you find, and where you find it. It's why the Older is Better trope reigns supreme in so many of our games (I wrote more about that in Older is Better: A Trope That's Become a Reflex For Many Writers for those who need more details).

I didn't really intend to become the new standard, you know.

Because while most of us don't think of Middle Earth, Golarion, and other settings as post-apocalyptic (since we associate that with stuff like Mad Max, The Road, and zombie movies), most of them are. And if they didn't go full apocalypse (which Golarion has done half a dozen times according to the timeline), the game tends to be in a dark age. Old knowledge and techniques have been lost, relics of the past are rare but superior, and people are always trying to build back to where they were once more.

I didn't really stop to think about it, but Sundara does exist in opposition to this setup. Because the world isn't new. It isn't in some golden age. There have been catastrophes that have destroyed cities and altered regions in the past. There have been wars, and coups, and all the other growing pains of civilizations. But the purpose of the setting (and the themes of many of the cities I've released for it so far) is about progress. It's about moving forward, using the resources that exist to overcome trials and challenges. It's about invention and creation, rather than about looking backward to try to recreate the world as it was.

There are plenty of secrets, ruins, relics, and more scattered throughout the map, but what is just as common is that for every old way of doing something, there's a new way to improve on the process. A way to make it faster, stronger, better that represents a step forward in thinking, or in solving new problems... or solving the old problems that previous generations ignored, for those who read the secrets of what's going on in places like Moüd: City of Bones.

A Difference in Attitude

The more I thought about this, the more I wondered how deeply it affects our story desires, setting expectations, and even attitude as players and Game Masters. About how much of the "no guns in my fantasy" or "you can't make new magic items, only find lost and forgotten ones" attitudes are influenced specifically by this foundation. Wondering whether or not part of the restrictive attitudes a lot of games have is because it's baked into the setting that invention, progress, attempts to forge new paths are not what this world is about.

We aren't here to rebuild and move on, to become better than we were. Instead, we're just trying to survive in the shadow of lost glory.

Just some food for thought this week, and a request that all of us take a look inside and ask what we're trying to do with our games. As always, there's no right or wrong way to do this, and you should pursue the kind of games you want, and that are fun for you... but it's important to look at those games with a critical eye, and to break down the elements involved so you can recognize them for what they are.

If You Haven't Checked Out My Setting Yet...

For folks who are curious as to what a setting that's looking forward and trying to build a better tomorrow looks like, particularly in comparison to the more traditional settings we have where the world seems to be crumbling and civilization is just trying to hold on, consider checking out some of the releases I've put out so far!

- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!

- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.

- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.

- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.

- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.

- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.

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Ethnic Homogeneity in RPGs (Or, Why So Many Burly White Adventurers?)

I've been a tabletop gamer for a little over a decade now. That's a lot longer than some players, and a lot shorter than others. However, I've also gamed with all sorts of groups, and in all kinds of settings. In all that time, there's this weird tendency I've noticed, and that other players I've spoken to have also noticed. It is, in short, a knee-jerk reaction to keeping our game worlds, and the characters within them, in strictly segregated boxes. Like kids who enjoy all the foods on their plate as individual things, but if they touch even a little bit then we freak out and refuse to eat any of it.

Get your rice away from my grits, or I swear to all that is holy I will flip this table.

While we see this in lots of aspects of RPGs, nowhere is it clearer than when someone wants to play an ethnicity that "doesn't belong" in a certain part of the world.

They're People, Not Dishes

I'd like you to try an experiment, the next time you come to your gaming table. Build your character exactly as you normally would, but make that character ethnically different from what's considered standard for the region. Make it clear that you aren't looking to bring aspects of another culture into this region, and that you don't want special access to treasures or skills from the other side of the world. Your character is simply the child (or grandchild) of immigrants, and this is the way he or she happens to look.

Now, if you're part of a relatively open-minded group, you probably won't get any negativity for this decision. Some of your fellow players might even file this idea away for when they play characters of their own in the future. If you are not part of an open-minded group, though, you're likely to catch more flak than a British bomber flying over Berlin. Why do you have to be a special snowflake? Why can't you just be like everyone else, and play someone who looks like they're from here?

It often causes less ruckus at a table if you choose to play a tusked boar-man covered in ritual scars than if you want to be someone who has a different skin tone than the rest of the party.

Every World Has Multiple Cultures

Fantasy worlds have more than one culture, ethnicity, and religion. That's what makes them worlds, and not just nations. Even Middle Earth, which I continuously harp on for being bland, has diverse races of men. From the wild men in the north, to the desert dwellers of the south, there are variations in ethnicity. While no one in the main cast happens to be part of those cultures, or descended from them, that doesn't mean they don't exist.

You see the same kinds of diversity in good RPG settings. Whether you prefer Midgard or Golarion, The Forgotten Realms or The Known World that is the setting for A Song of Ice and Fire, there are all kinds of people, in all shapes, shades, and sizes. Despite their existence in the canon lore, though, it's like we forget that adventurers from all cultures travel all over the world. That they have children, and choose to settle down in places they weren't born. Merchants, caravan guards, diplomats, historians, and even seekers of magical knowledge may find themselves on the other side of the world from where they were whelped, and just decide there isn't anything at home worth going back for.

Especially since most adventurers have had their entire families killed off, anyway.

Unless there is something in your game's lore that specifically says a given nation is sectioned off, and that its people are not found anywhere else in the world, then why would you limit the stories players can tell?

But What If They're Not From Here?

The human mind likes things to be in nice, neat categories it can easily process. It's one reason why, when we have a game set in a given nation or country, and a PC that isn't from that region shows up, our brains glitch. Sort of like how you get used to seeing your teachers in the classroom, and when you see them out in public having ice cream with their kids, you tweak. Because it is a situation that feels wrong, even though you can't explain why.

It's 7:00 in the evening... why isn't she back at my school?

This is why I would suggest that, if the idea of PCs not all being from the same five square miles of ground is a problem, you ask yourself why. Why does it matter how the party got there, as long as the party is there when the adventure begins?

Explaining how a PC got to this place is the responsibility of every player. Some players might go with the ever-popular, "my character lives here," which is the simplest method regardless of your cultural heritage or ethnic appearance. Others, who want to have miles between them and where they began, might have more of a journey involved. Perhaps the fighter did a stint as a caravan guard, and decided he wanted to take a rest from traveling. Now there's this new opportunity on his hands, and he can make a far more lucrative career in this new land. Perhaps the wizard came across a continent to attend the city's arcane university, and now that she has completed her initial study, wants to put that knowledge to the test. The bard is... well... a bard, and this happens to be where he showed up after he left that last town. For undisclosed reasons.

A Closing Note

This post is not to suggest that anyone who has ever disagreed with a character's country of origin or ethnicity is somehow a cross-burning racist. I am not saying players, or DMs, who have problems with these kinds of characters are bigoted. What I am saying is that when we are presented with what, to us, are new ideas, or ideas that change things from our normal comfort zone, we often react by demanding the status quo remain the same. It happens every time a new supplement comes out for a game we like; there is always a group of players who won't allow it at their table, and who claim the rules and flavor as they were shouldn't be changed.

Often, though, once they've had some time to reflect, and actually look at what this new approach could add to their games, they find something they like. Even if they don't feel it's for them, personally, they can see the appeal.

That is the point of this week's Fluff post. Not to accuse anyone of having wrong-bad fun, or to demand that we all change our characters and games right now! I am simply remarking on a trend I've seen, and suggesting that if this is an issue you have encountered, that holding it at arm's length and really looking at it could lead to some new and interesting concepts, and stories.

Lastly, if this is a topic that interests you from a historical perspective as well (or if you're just tired of hearing that people want games to be "reflective of the time period they're emulating"), you should check out Medieval People of Color on Tumblr. It will raise some eyebrows if you thought the Middle Ages was just a bunch of white folks walking around in Europe.

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