Really dig the breakdown of how pillars anchor a setting before mechanics. The progression from elevator pitch to bus ride pitch is somethng I wish more designers talked about - most skip right to rules and then wonder why their worldbuilding feels disjointed. Kinda reminds me of how Darkest Dungeon handled its gothic horror, starting with atmosphere and dread before systems. Love the invitaiton for community worldbuilding too.
I think that’s the most important thing with my settings too.
Especially my recent revisiting of fantasy, nobody’s elves are like the Elves of Mystamyra — all because I did something silly, I decided every Elf is a woman, and that lead to so much of the history of that world.
A setting based on your game would have as a crisp explanation of America discovery: mankind has abandoned the old continent to find a new place to found a new civilizarion... does that sound good?
First off: if it sounds good to you, that's all that matters! I want people to write their own stories too, so even if tomorrow my game says "America is actually one giant taco floating around the Atlantic", please feel free to say hell no and say "In the chronicles of Father Gaius Quintus of Pompeii, it is instead stated that America..." and come up with your own lore!
Sanguis Sanctus will be full of unreliable narrators, so why not!
Regarding your question, I have an idea about what is going on over the pond, but I can't tell you yet 👀
I am in the process of doing some research and gathering information, so it will take a bit!
Question — with Grimdark, I’ve been thinking and talking about that, and I ask myself — Except for Fallout — is there a real Grimdark world except for it. There’s so much hostility amongst every faction, making it Grim. And the world is irradiated, so there’s not much you can do about that either - making the world dark.
Would the players have a chance to overcome the hordes, like the North did against the Winter King in Game of Thrones, or is everything really futile, and you’re only delaying the inevitable?
One would be Noble Dark, and other would be Grim Dark.
Thanks for reading the article, Mark! And thank you for such an interesting question, I hope you don't mind if I give you a rather length-y answer. (Also, minor spoilers for Sanguis Sanctus' world lore! Feel free to skip the long answer!)
The short and easy answer: No, completely solving the problem is essentially impossible for the players, and the reasons are far more horrifying than "because we are outnumbered by the monsters". So I would say it's a pretty grimdark setting.
The long and complex one is: because they may be indirectly responsible for this apocalypse.
When I wrote this setting one quote came to my mind, from legendary game designer Tuomas Pirinen of Trench Crusade:
"It's not the horrors of war that frighten me, it's the unseen horrors of peace. A world where war is more comfortable than peace."
This last sentence hit me like a truck, and inspired me to write a setting like this, where war has quickly become more comfortable than peace.
In Sanguis Sanctus, conflict is now inevitable.
In the full game there will be a timeline, where it will be shown that vampires do not appear all of sudden, but are rather "welcomed" into our world by people involved in brutal and long wars, especially by those stuck in these conflicts.
One of the factions, the Holy Church of Our Lord, believes that the vampires come from "Hell". But that so-called "Hell" is quite different from what they imagine.
It is a dimension, parallel to our own, in which ideas take form. A realm of Concepts, if you will. This Realm of Concepts is influenced by the collective consciences of mankind, and as such, we could say that the first conflict of between humans must have created the embodiment of bloodshed, the embodiment of hatred and conflict. A beast that only craves suffering and blood.
A vampire.
And so, the more humanity became aggressive and warmongering, the more powerful these creatures became. Until they ultimately managed to reach the veil between our worlds, and with the help of desperate men, they crossed the bridge and invaded our own world.
So, humans have no chance, humans are destined to be wiped out by vampires ? Actually no. The Realm of Concepts (or Hell, or Paradise, you choose :D) is influenced by the consciences of humans, and one strong feeling is always that of resisting and fighting back, which is a way more positive thought that invigorates humans to not succumb.
Unfortunately though, ultimately men are the warmongering individuals who brought the vampire plague here in the first place, and so they keep directing that energy towards hurting each other, sacrificing countless innocents to gain a few meters of ground, and other acts of senseless bloodshed.
And so they invigorate the adversary they are so desperately trying to fight. And they can't stop fighting.
So yeah, I would say Sanguis Sanctus is stuck in a loop of conflict, where war has become much more easy than peace. I would say it's pretty Grimdark.
1) The realm of concepts is the reason why in this game Priests will sometimes, although rarely, be able to channel "miracles" into our real world, by intense prayer and thought.
2) I love Fallout with all my heart! It's one of my favorite worlds in gaming, since I was 13 years old!
Really dig the breakdown of how pillars anchor a setting before mechanics. The progression from elevator pitch to bus ride pitch is somethng I wish more designers talked about - most skip right to rules and then wonder why their worldbuilding feels disjointed. Kinda reminds me of how Darkest Dungeon handled its gothic horror, starting with atmosphere and dread before systems. Love the invitaiton for community worldbuilding too.
I like it too.
I think that’s the most important thing with my settings too.
Especially my recent revisiting of fantasy, nobody’s elves are like the Elves of Mystamyra — all because I did something silly, I decided every Elf is a woman, and that lead to so much of the history of that world.
You touched one game I really enjoyed when I started studying game design! Darkest Dungeon!
Glad you liked the article, thanks for reading it!
A setting based on your game would have as a crisp explanation of America discovery: mankind has abandoned the old continent to find a new place to found a new civilizarion... does that sound good?
Thanks for reading the article!
First off: if it sounds good to you, that's all that matters! I want people to write their own stories too, so even if tomorrow my game says "America is actually one giant taco floating around the Atlantic", please feel free to say hell no and say "In the chronicles of Father Gaius Quintus of Pompeii, it is instead stated that America..." and come up with your own lore!
Sanguis Sanctus will be full of unreliable narrators, so why not!
Regarding your question, I have an idea about what is going on over the pond, but I can't tell you yet 👀
I am in the process of doing some research and gathering information, so it will take a bit!
Interesting — I like the premise.
Question — with Grimdark, I’ve been thinking and talking about that, and I ask myself — Except for Fallout — is there a real Grimdark world except for it. There’s so much hostility amongst every faction, making it Grim. And the world is irradiated, so there’s not much you can do about that either - making the world dark.
Would the players have a chance to overcome the hordes, like the North did against the Winter King in Game of Thrones, or is everything really futile, and you’re only delaying the inevitable?
One would be Noble Dark, and other would be Grim Dark.
Thanks for reading the article, Mark! And thank you for such an interesting question, I hope you don't mind if I give you a rather length-y answer. (Also, minor spoilers for Sanguis Sanctus' world lore! Feel free to skip the long answer!)
The short and easy answer: No, completely solving the problem is essentially impossible for the players, and the reasons are far more horrifying than "because we are outnumbered by the monsters". So I would say it's a pretty grimdark setting.
The long and complex one is: because they may be indirectly responsible for this apocalypse.
When I wrote this setting one quote came to my mind, from legendary game designer Tuomas Pirinen of Trench Crusade:
"It's not the horrors of war that frighten me, it's the unseen horrors of peace. A world where war is more comfortable than peace."
This last sentence hit me like a truck, and inspired me to write a setting like this, where war has quickly become more comfortable than peace.
In Sanguis Sanctus, conflict is now inevitable.
In the full game there will be a timeline, where it will be shown that vampires do not appear all of sudden, but are rather "welcomed" into our world by people involved in brutal and long wars, especially by those stuck in these conflicts.
One of the factions, the Holy Church of Our Lord, believes that the vampires come from "Hell". But that so-called "Hell" is quite different from what they imagine.
It is a dimension, parallel to our own, in which ideas take form. A realm of Concepts, if you will. This Realm of Concepts is influenced by the collective consciences of mankind, and as such, we could say that the first conflict of between humans must have created the embodiment of bloodshed, the embodiment of hatred and conflict. A beast that only craves suffering and blood.
A vampire.
And so, the more humanity became aggressive and warmongering, the more powerful these creatures became. Until they ultimately managed to reach the veil between our worlds, and with the help of desperate men, they crossed the bridge and invaded our own world.
So, humans have no chance, humans are destined to be wiped out by vampires ? Actually no. The Realm of Concepts (or Hell, or Paradise, you choose :D) is influenced by the consciences of humans, and one strong feeling is always that of resisting and fighting back, which is a way more positive thought that invigorates humans to not succumb.
Unfortunately though, ultimately men are the warmongering individuals who brought the vampire plague here in the first place, and so they keep directing that energy towards hurting each other, sacrificing countless innocents to gain a few meters of ground, and other acts of senseless bloodshed.
And so they invigorate the adversary they are so desperately trying to fight. And they can't stop fighting.
So yeah, I would say Sanguis Sanctus is stuck in a loop of conflict, where war has become much more easy than peace. I would say it's pretty Grimdark.
Thanks again for reading!
Oh, two little side-notes:
1) The realm of concepts is the reason why in this game Priests will sometimes, although rarely, be able to channel "miracles" into our real world, by intense prayer and thought.
2) I love Fallout with all my heart! It's one of my favorite worlds in gaming, since I was 13 years old!
I like that you touched on things from earlier articles to reinforce your meathod of creating a setting. I find this world of yours interesting.
Thanks for reading the article, and for your kind words! Glad you appreciated it!
You're welcome.
Dude “bus ride pitch” is a great ideas
Glad you like it! I always feel that if you can hook some people with an elevator pitch, maybe they will follow you through the bus ride too! :D
i definitely have to get one for my game establishing the game in a quick way is always so difficult
You should submit this to our first digest: https://roleplayersdigest.substack.com/p/coming-soon