Explore the remains of a legendary kingdom thought to have vanished from the face of the earth.
What really happened?
Where are the Atlanteans now?
Who lives in the wreckage today?
What ancient treasures can you uncover?
And will you survive to tell the tale?
Ruins of Atlantis is the new campaign setting I’m working on for my Labyrinth Lord game. It’s going to be a sandbox-type setting with an emphasis on exploration. If the players are interested, we could end up digging into the history of things and try to discover what happened and why. Or, more likely, we could end up digging into the ruins in search of monsters to kill and treasure to loot.
Though I’ve currently only got a very small pool of players, I plan to set this up so that we can West Marches it if the opportunity arises.
Below is the first rough map of the setting:
Ruins of Atlantis - First Draft
Click for bigger version
Sounds awesome! A place like Atlantis, which everyone has heard of but no one has a canonical truth, is perfect for getting newbies to grok the game.
Thanks, Jeff!
In fact, that is EXACTLY why I chose Atlantis. It could have been “Relics of [Insert Fantasy-Sounding Name Here]” but that wouldn’t have resonated like “Atlantis.” It will sound cool even to people who have never played before, and even grizzled vets will want a crack at exploring *Atlantis*. At least that’s my hope.
The beauty of such a setting is the non-dungeoncrawls. The atmosphere screams intrigue. Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner is required reading.
Elak is on my reading list since I saw it at Planet Stories, but I’ve never read it and don’t really know much about it. I’m torn between checking it out and doing a great send-up to all the old Atlantis stories, and just doing my own thing.
Part of the issue is that I’m expecting most of my players to be either a) totally new to D&D and/or b) mostly unfamiliar with S&S literature. So an overly-detailed old-school setting isn’t really necessary and most of it would be lost on most of the players.
What I’m thinking is that the nearer, lower-level areas will be more traditional D&D and the farther, tougher areas will get heavier on the details.
And, of course, there’s plenty of reason to use mythic Old School monsters rather than Grewhawkian ones: chimerae, sphynxes, cyclops, etc.
Um…just by the way I am a HUGE Atlantis aficionado. I think this sounds super-cool, and I only wish I’d thought of it first. Maybe I can help…?
: )
I hope I’m not disappointing anyone when I say that, though there is going to be plenty of classic Greek-ish elements to the setting, it’s going to be mostly standard D&D. Though my ancient Atlanteans were a Greek-like culture, and the ruins will have a lot of Greek architecture and the overall vibe will have a lot of Greek feeling to it, the basic premise is that a standard D&D (European-ish) outpost has been established on the island and the PCs will be standard fighters, magic-users, elves, etc.
Yes, they will encounter cyclops, hydra, Ray Harryhausen’s skeletons, and such, but they’ll also encounter good old orcs and goblins, too.
Many, if not most, of the rather rare magic items will be Greek-ish, though.
For what it’s worth, I’d love to see a “true” Atlantis campaign, too. I’m using the Atlantis legend as stage dressing and as a hook. Someone far more knowledgeable should give it the royal treatment.
Hi, I can’t resist answering your plea for a setting—having just written a novel on Atlantis that will blow your minds. This is as real as it gets. Take a look at “The Lost Era” at http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheLostEra.html
Or email me for more info at losteranz@xtra.co.nz and I will send you a couple of snippets from the book.
Enjoy!
Ian
@ KG: Well, I’d fully expect any setting for a true “D&D” setting to be a bit different from Plato/Solon’s vision of the place.
The idea of a true “outpost” of adventure is a cool one…a kind of Keep on the Atlantic Coast instead of Keep on the Borderlands. The adventures would be similar to viking mariners setting up shop in Hybrasil (or the New World) and exploring the ancient ruined depths of the island. Now THAT’s a giant sandbox!
I had thought (when you initially said “campaign setting”) that you were thinking of making a kind of Forgotten Realms/Hollow World/Etc. campaign SETTING. As in, shoe-horning the traditional D&D ruleset into the cultures and traditions of an antediluvian Atlantis. I mean, whose to say elves aren’t ancient Atlanteans and dwarves, humans, and halflings aren’t their genetically engineered servant races? Or something like that…
; )
Regardless…I agree that it sounds cool!
Oh, i can see WHY you picked that.
There are nice parallels between what happened there and what happened to Atlantis… it’s one of those cases where a myth started from an historical event.
Good catch.
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