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Worlds

These are my three primary worlds developed for the Perilous Adventures Warbands Guide (PAWG). These encapsulate the core setting (Shattered Veil), an alternative medieval Europe (Crooked Crown), and a modern horror variant (Shadows of the '80s). Each summary highlights the setting’s essence, tone, and key conflicts, distilled for quick reference in a manual or player guide, maintaining the gritty realism central to PAWG.

The Shattered Veil

  • Overview: A fractured, primal fantasy world where the Veil—a mystical barrier sealing elder horrors—shattered centuries ago, leaving wastelands, warped jungles, and crumbling ruins.
  • Tone: Desolate and chaotic—warbands scavenge amidst ash and overgrowth, survival a daily gamble against a scarred sky flickering with auroras.
  • Key Conflicts: Veilborn monstrosities (e.g., Lichbound Knights) plague the land; rival factions—Ember Clans, Riftborn, Crag Lords, Marsh Witches—vie for Veilshards, fragments of power from the broken Veil, seeking to restore order or dominate chaos.
  • Regions: Bleakspire Wastes (ash and spires), Verdant Rift (twisted jungles), Ironcrag Peaks (forge-laden mountains), Sunken Marsh (fetid bogs).

The Crooked Crown

  • Overview: An alternative medieval Europe (circa 1200 CE) twisted by supernatural dread, where the Crooked Crown—a lost artifact of dominion—unleashed a Plague of Shadows, awakening ancient horrors across the continent.
  • Tone: Dark and oppressive—plague-ravaged villages, crumbling cathedrals, and superstition grip a feudal world teetering on collapse.
  • Key Conflicts: Monsters (e.g., Draugr, Sluagh) rise from myth; factions—Thorned Cross, Veilweavers, Iron Pact, Bogborn—hunt Crown shards to rule, destroy, or hide them, battling kings and cults amid a cursed land.
  • Regions: Black Forests (Germanic gloom), Gallic Mire (French swamps), Nordic Fells (Scandinavian frost), Celtic Moors (British mist).

Shadows of the '80s

  • Overview: A gritty horror world set in 1985, blending small-town Americana with secret monsters and conspiracies—think Stranger Things meets The X-Files with Kolchak’s edge.
  • Tone: Tense and paranoid—neon-lit diners hide cults, sewers crawl with terrors, and Cold War labs birth nightmares in a retro dystopia.
  • Key Conflicts: Hidden creatures (e.g., Sewer Stalkers, Videotape Wraiths) stalk; warbands—Survivors, Sneaks, Investigators, Occultists—unravel government cover-ups (e.g., Government Shades) and fight horrors, balancing sanity against survival.
  • Regions: Suburban streets (shadowed normalcy), urban sprawl (conspiracy hubs), rural backroads (isolated dread).

Notes

  • Core Themes: Shared grit—Shattered Veil’s chaos, Crooked Crown’s curse, Shadows’ dread—warbands endure (e.g., 160 HP vs. 80+ damage)—no easy wins.
  • Scope: Shattered Veil’s alien wilds, Crooked Crown’s warped history, Shadows’ modern horror—diverse yet cohesive—e.g., Chimera Spawn vs. Sluagh vs. Sewer Stalkers.
  • Manual Fit: Brief (e.g., “fractured fantasy”), evocative (“plague-ravaged”)—quick world hooks.