Witches, Dead Kings, and Misery: Talking About Setting
The Misery spreads across the land, its vile claws rending earth, sky, and soul alike.
When it comes to fiction, I've always had a taste for fantasy, and within that I've tended towards books that present a world which is dark and weird, but grounded. Some of my favourites being Joe Abercrombie's First Law, Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings, and Steven Erikson's Malazan: Book of the Fallen. Yes I'm aware I just said I like grounded worlds and immediately brought up Malazan but it fits, you'll just have to trust me for now. Waxing lyrical about Malazan is far outside the purview of this blog post. Suffice it to say, I'm a fan of fantasy that puts its world and characters through the ringer.
So it is that when putting together the Northern Sanction for my Whitebox campaign, I made sure to lean on the things that I personally enjoy about fantasy worlds. This made for a sandbox worn down by the tides of war, dark magic and politics that is full of adventure sites and ticking time bombs: a coven of hags draining a unicorn's power; an undead king stirring in his deathless slumber, hungry to reclaim his lands; towns being torn apart from within by rampant corruption; a dead wasteland slowly devouring more and more of the kingdom...you get the idea. It's a place ripe for adventure, inspired by the things I like and full of Stuff To Do. Perfect, right?
...Right?
Well, having run a handful of sessions in this setting - play reports will be coming soon - I've run into a snag that caught me off-guard: I'm not excited to create in this world. Worse, I dread prepping for and running games in it. It took a while for me to dig into this and figure out exactly why I've been feeling this way, but I've come to a conclusion. A world in which lots of things are going wrong - indeed, much more is going wrong than right - is a world with many opportunities for adventure. But a world in which everything is going wrong is a lot less enjoyable to explore and create in as a referee when our own world is on fire.
It's entirely possible that to you, I may as well have just said "Breaking News: Water is wet!" But to me, this wasn't something that was immediately obvious; fiction has always been a significant part of how I process what's happening in the world beyond my small box. For a long time now I've worked themes and ideas I'm grappling with into my fiction, so running head-first into this problem has been quite a surprise.
There are big things happening in the real world that are important for us to engage with and, where possible, do our part to fix. However, sometimes you have to disconnect, sometimes it's OK to have an escape, for Elf Games to just be Elf Games. This is a leisure activity I take part in with my friends, ostensibly to have fun. The fact that I feel not just nerves, but real dread at the prospect of prepping for and playing in this imaginary space is deeply fucking stupid.
So, to recap: I have built a sandbox that is grounded, weird and rather dark in places. To stock it I worked in themes and ideas that have been on my mind a lot, with a healthy dose of Real World Shit. The unholy lovechild of all this is a setting I feel distress gaming in and creating for. So I'm left with a challenging question:
What am I going to do to fix this?
To be perfectly honest, I don't know. I have a few ideas, though all need serious thought and time given to them. There is, of course, the nuclear option of scrapping the lot and starting again. I'm not big fan of this for many reasons, but chiefly because my players have already started adventuring in the world and making connections. I don't want to negate that by pressing the big red button.
Another option is to take what I already have and rework it into something I find more palatable. What I would probably do is remake the map; keep what the players have already interacted with; bring over the stuff I really like and replace the things I don't like so much. I think that this is a reasonable option, particularly if I make sure to keep things I've already established as being true i.e the dungeon one group is currently in is one day away from the town, the Misery is a weird, ashen wasteland etc. It's early enough in the campaign with little enough of the map and factions explored that I don't think it would be too disruptive, but I would absolutely check with the players before making this call.
A third option, courtesy of RollToDoubt and Sahh, is to make some kind of alternate plane where things are fine and safe, providing a retreat between adventures where the players can lick their wounds and not worry about the melancholy and impending doom. This works pretty well with a lot of what I've already set up about the world and allows me to keep what I've already built with minimal disruption. However, it does still run into the issue of the adventure part of the setting being somewhat distressing for me to prep, which could be an issue long term.
Closing Thoughts
Sadly, there's not a perfect solution to this situation, as there rarely is with anything. I've got a lot to mull over, and I think a conversation with my players is probably in order. A good lesson to take from this is that there needs to be balance in a setting, not so much mechanically, but in the sense of having both light and dark in the things you create for it. Of course, if you find joy in a setting that is bleak as fuck then by all means, go with the gods; likewise if you prefer a wholly optimistic setting. But I have found that a very bleak world is not for me as a referee.
If you made it this far, thank you for putting up with this long-winded ramble of mine. It is perhaps self-indulgent, but I think an introspective topic like this can be interesting to read. I'll be sure to make another post about this once I've gone over things with my players and settled on a path forward.
Until next time, take care folks!