This is something I have touched on before, that most fantasy stories are set in a medieval European setting – or at least what American writers think is a medieval European setting. Sometimes it can venture into an Asian setting, but you don’t see much beyond that. The world of Mist and Shadows does have elements of that, but it also has other elements, with a wide variety of cultures and time frames and landscapes.
As an Australian I have snuck in some Australian feel to parts of it – animals, landscape, a bit of language, that kind of thing. Nothing too major. But recently a new idea (yes, another) has been playing around in my head.
I guess it all started when reacquainting myself with the Dark Sun setting, ready for the 4E version of it. As part of that – as you do – I checked out its TV Tropes page. One of the pages there was of Death Worlds, which listed Australia as a real world example. Hardly surprising given the sheer amount of vicious, venomous and downright deadly wildlife we have, not to mention the tracks of inhospitable terrain. (Warning, clicking on a TV Tropes link could see you trapped there for hours.)
Another item read at about the same time was the Badass of the Week entry on Australia. This one contains very strong language, but is a hilariously over the top view of Australia.
All this got me thinking – people enjoy the over the top renditions of Australia and the characters of the like of Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee. Why not stick it all in a fantasy setting – the death world nature of its wildlife and terrain, the monstrous prehistoric animals, the mythical animals, the characters and slang. It’d be something rather different.
Then I stumbled upon a couple of post on the Giant in the Pen forums of people adapting elements such as that for RPGs.
And so the idea came about of a story (or group of stories) playing well and truly up to the ocker, death world nature of Australia. I have the plot and am starting work on it, and so far its been fun.
Of course playing Fallout and Borderlands probably is also a reason behind all this.
