The Fallen Times Preface

Aug 2, 2017

The Fallen Times is a fantasy setting for a Fantasy Craft campaign that I ran from 2012 to 2013. It's not the best setting, there's a lot of reductionist versions of real world cultures. I was trying to make a kitchen sink setting so that players could make just about any archetypal fantasy character they could imagine, AND also take advantage of Fantasy Craft's many character creation options.

So why am I posting it? Several reasons.

One is that despite its flaws there ARE parts of the setting that I'm proud of. Cirque Du Soldat became a well developed culture thanks to Christine's character. I had a lot of fun with the relationship between the Halflings and the Ogres. Homlan provided some conflicted heroes and treacherous villains.

Next is that I had a lot of fun GMing (and for two sessions PCing) this world. Christine, Mara, Will, Anthony, and Colin were all PCs in the campaign and would later be on You Don't Meet In An Inn. They all had very interesting characters from Christine's mercenary burglar circus performer who became touched by foreign gods, to Anthony's Homlish inquisitor who was often conflicted between what was good for his people and his people. Christine is even writing a novel loosely based on the character she played.

Speaking of writing, I also want to share some of the fiction beyond the setting document that I created to flesh out one of the game's major NPCs. I always enjoy side stories written by players that show a character's hidden thoughts or events that happened "off screen."

Lastly is that there has been interest in my GMing notes for the podcast. While this campaign was never recorded I thought that there might be some interest in my history as a GM.

I hope you find the following material interesting.

-Austin