I have too many half-complete TTRPG projects. I have even more half-baked ideas I’d like to start. Both likely symptoms of my ADHD. It’s a blessing and a curse for creativity!

Sagenlund (story-land) is how I’m going to consolidate the largest group of ideas I have, into a Shadowdark setting. It will be one of three things I’m hoping to work on this year. The other two are finishing my Stars Without Numbers campaign (this one’s close!); and continuing to push on the Polynesian expansion for Worlds Without Number.

I have an idea for an upcoming post about my view on TTRPG rules, which explains why I choose these projects. But this post is going to focus on introducing the concept for my world. It’s an ambitious project; with a few ambitious goals for what a final product for this setting would look like.

The setting is simple. The world has two real gods: The Collector and The Teller. The Collector listens to stories and adds them to his book. Occasionally updating old ones with new versions; slowly altering the present by turning myth into reality. The Teller spreads new stories to ensure nothing spins out of control. Of course, these are not the gods that people worship, those are ones spun into existence by the stories themselves.

While the gods walk through the world, and players may encounter them (even though the characters would not know it), the protagonist and antagonist of the setting are the King and the Bard. The King has constructed his court to collect stories and retell them to cement his power. This has created a world that is safe, only when you follow a strict set of rules. Even venturing out of your home at night can be dangerous.

Conversely, the Bard, weaves tales of hope. In so doing, he changed the world. His stories created heroes, capable of addressing the threats created by the King. His legends led to the discovery of a new continent. One filled with ancient ruins, treasure, adventure, and above all else, hope.

The King and the Bard understand how The Collector and The Teller work. They vie for control over the legends shaping the world. In his domain, the King reigns supreme. His control over the stories told, time and time again, is too strong for The Bard’s influence to overcome it. However, in the new land the two spar back and forth shaping and reshaping the legends forming the continent’s history. The Bard is creates tales of treasures that could break the King’s grip, even back home. While the King sows tales of monstrous guardians and traps around every corner.

Mechanically, there is a hex-crawl on the newly discovered continent, where the heroes to go forth and face all manner of inexplicable horrors as they seek to learn what destroyed the ancient civilization that once inhabited the continent. Because, learning how it happened, may provide a path to breaking the curse at home. Adventures in the homeland focus around saving small, isolated villages from the problems sown by the King’s tales. Unraveling the complex fairy tales and putting them to a definitive end by having stories sung about the heroes’ victories.

While traditional dungeon crawls work well in this setting, there are also fairy tale quests. My ultimate goal is to create a Fairy Tale generator as a GM tool, to make new quests.

Fairy tales often provide a nice template for a quest. Here is an example fairy tale, based on The Hand with the Knife, as recorded by The Brother’s Grimm.

The Elf, The Axe, and The Girl.

Everyone knows to avoid the forest. Danger lurks around every corner, as all manner of creatures will rend you limb from limb. This is when it all started:

There was once a girl who lived just over these hills. She was the youngest in a family of four, and the only girl. The mother adored her sons more than anything in the world and always forced the daughter into chores at their behest.

The girl however, had a magical admirer. A forest elf who watched her work whenever she could. He watched her and learned her path into the forest. Each day, the elf watched her struggle to complete her work; continuing on from dawn till dusk. Then one morning, he reached his hand out from the shadows as he heard her footsteps, handing her a magical axe. With the axe, the work was done in half the time.

Each day after her work was done, she would return it. Each morning, she would bring with her a treat to say thanks; exchanging it for the axe. Eventually, she learned his favorite was anything with the warm smell of cinnamon.

Seeing how quickly she could complete her work, her brothers grew suspicious of her and followed her into the forest. They saw this exchange and made a plot to take the axe.

The brothers tricked their sister, by offering to complete her work and giving her a day of reprieve. They marched into the woods, bringing a treat with them. They sent in just one brother, quietly; to fool the forest elf.

When the hand reached out of the shadows, the brother grabbed the axe and lopped off the hand.

The next day, the girl returned to the woods. When she went to do the exchange, the elf lopped off her hand and stole the treat.

Returning home, maimed and unable to work, she was cast out by her family. She returned to the woods, sobbing, having lost the only friend she had known – and her family – in the same day.

The elf approached, to demand his axe back from the girl and throw her out of the forest. Though, the two quickly realized they had been fooled. The forest elf and the young woman stayed in the forest, and no one has been able to pass through unmaimed since.

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I changed a few things, to make it into something the PCs may want to investigate. We have a location, the dangerous woods; a problem, locals are afraid of or can’t pass through the woods; a potential way to lure out enemies, cinnamon. What’s better, since it’s a fairy tale the elf need not be the actual enemy. It could be anything with sharp claws drawn to the scent of cinnamon. However, it would be interesting to use some creature(s) missing a hand or foot.

I altered the story to fit my setting, you only need to make it clear the threat still exists. The sentence at the beginning, and the girl getting maimed, signal this.

Fairy tales provide pretty nice quest outlines. This was part of my inspiration for the setting. I’ll be slowly tying together a handful of adventures I have written for systems like Shadowdark, Forbidden Lands, and Monster of the Week to become part of Sagenlund.

Happy New Year!