Taking a stab at Gygax 75: A Martian Setting

Some Background

    For those who are not aware, Gygax 75 is a sort of challenge (available for free here) based on creating a new campaign. It is based on an article written by Gary Gygax in 1975, less than a year after the original editions of D&D were released. The challenge itself is broken up over a series of weeks, with each one focused on a different concrete task. 

    I have been interested in trying the challenge ever since I first encountered it, and now that I have some inklings of an idea for a Mars inspired setting, I decided that now is the time.

Week 1: The Concept

Pitch Points

• Everyone lives in enormous canyons. This red planet is inhospitable outside of enormous canyons which snake across the surface of the planet. Every canyon has a river snaking through it, providing life-giving water and supporting the agriculture necessary for large, organized society.
• The soil is iron. The planet is red, because nearly all of the soil is incredibly iron-rich clay. Iron is a common resource, as metallurgy has advanced enough to pull it out of the soil. Iron is everywhere, and the color red, of rust, is seen as a peasant's color.
• Ancient ruins dot the surface. Ancient structures, mostly buried among the red wastes, lie waiting on the surface. Inside, are ancient artifacts and treasures that are incredibly valuable due to all of their inherent resistance to rust, not to mention whatever else they do. 
• No gods or demons, only spirits. The world is filled with spirits, many of whom are quite powerful, that are invisible but for the slightest shimmer. Each is an individual, with their own inscrutable goals and methods. They will still act as sources of power for divine magic, however. Constructing humanoid statues is forbidden to prevent the spirits from possessing them.
• Focus on the household. In this setting, space is limited. This means that owning a physical household is incredibly important and requires constant work to keep. Further, household will be more like clans, with many people living together. The players will all be of the same household, at least to start.

Sources of Inspiration

• Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S. Lewis. This story is what really inspired me to do a Mars based campaign. The source of my ideas about canyons and invisible spirits.
• Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Pulp fantasy, focusing on daring adventure. Descriptions of life on mars are also interesting, might take the idea about the extra color as well.
• The Vaulters from Endless Legend. A group of hardy humans, with a wonderful plate and angles aesthetic. Wonderful imagery to use, though perhaps slightly too advanced for this setting.
• Tekumel. While I don't plan on pulling much from the setting, the design and ways that it incorporates the world into everything is incredibly interesting. I particularly like how it integrates a fantasy and sci-fi (though back then, sci-fi was a part of fantasy).
• Creatures from Rain World. A visual wonder, Rain World also has a number of imaginative creatures to use: disco-lizards, vultures, daddy-long-legs, scavengers, and more. Some might require some work, but they will make original creatures for a campaign.
• Wikipedia article about kami, as well as the specific kami pages that link from it. These are a very good explanation of a system of spirits, along with detailed information about certain examples that I could use directly or could use to establish a pattern with my own.
• Dungeons and Drawings. This book has a wonderful aesthetic and despite the name clearly referencing D&D, is system agnostic. It also makes sure to include a number of non-western monsters in here, so there are quite a few uncommon monsters, with the beginnings of statblocks for them as well.

Thoughts

    Working on this challenge certainly gave me a new appreciation for it. I have many more ideas for the worldbuilding, like inheritance laws or looking into the effects of an iron-rich diet, but those aren't important for making a gameable campaign (at least for the most part) and thus, can wait. 

    Further, while I had my ideas I only realized where I was pulling them from when I sat down and tried to write out what my sources were. Just doing that, helped me realize what was inspiring me and helped me see what other things I could use for inspiration from those same sources.

    Still, I have now wrapped up week 1 of the Gygax 75 challenge! Next week: Mapping the surrounding area, which I believe might be a bit interesting considering that I plan on having civilization within a canyon.

Continue to Part Two