Welcome, traveler, to the Strange Paths! Upon these farflung mystic ways the immortals contend for mastery in the Game of Fire and Ashes, putting themselves to the test in the Forge of Souls -- while somewhere, the hidden and invisible essence of the Dreaming God slumbers on and betimes yet stirs...
The Strange Paths is a campaign background for a PBEM game using the Hero System Rules. It is a high-powered campaign, with characters starting at around 1000 points, but PCs are the protectors of entire universes and their opponents are the fundamental nature of the metaverse and the forces of entropy and order.
Each PC is an arch-mage, the secret defender of an entire universe. An arch-mage's "universe" may be comprised of a single planet, like Tolkien's Middle Earth, or a star-spanning empire, or anywhere in between. Adventures consist of exploring various other dimensions and discovering the secrets of the metaverse in order to defeat those who would seek to -- blindly or wittingly -- conquer, destroy, or alter the universe the arch-mage has sworn to defend.
Inspiration for this campaign comes, of course, from a number of places. Zelazny's Amber series, beginning with Nine Princes in Amber and ending at The Courts of Chaos, exerts a great deal of influence (later books in the series can be ignored), as do Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories and Moorcock's Eternal Champion stories (especially but not solely those of Elric of Melnibone). Lovecraft, Zelazny, and Moorcock offer pictures of the unseen forces at work -- mysterious, ineffable, and far larger than is comprehensible by a single person.
Most people will recognize the influence of the old Dr. Strange comic book adventures as well, which is really the genre that is being simulated here. Along the same lines, John Ostrander's Grimjack comic book series (especially the gritty early issues drawn by Timothy Truman) with its interdimensional city of Cynosure (obviously the inspiration for Cabochon, along the Strange Paths) is a source of ideas for the campaign world.
Anything by Jack Vance can be profitably read for the flavor I hope the campaign to possess, at least on the surface -- the encounters of rational but roguish travelers with strange and unfamiliar cultures. Similarly, Matt Wagner's Mage series, an evocation of the Arthur myth, describes the sort of adventure that I think would be fun to run. Almost any of Zelazny's works have the sort of grand scope that I think is part of the genre convention as well. I've mentioned Amber, but Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness are also worth re-reading.
I'm reading some of Joseph Campbell's scholarly work, most notably The Hero With A Thousand Faces, which I think will have some bearing, since part of what PCs do will be to dispatch heroes on journeys for a variety of byzantine purposes. By the same token, Larry Niven's fantasy stories set in the antedeluvian world of the Warlock -- particularly the story "What Good Is A Glass Dagger?" but also The Magic Goes Away -- which picture magical duels as involving long periods of investigation and preparation followed by sharp, violent confrontations also describe the tone and pace I'm thinking of.
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Jordan's Eye of the World (to a lesser extent -- Jordan is highly derivative) can be reread for flavor, and Chalker's Dancing Gods novels, though somewhat tongue in cheek, have some ideas that can be incorporated as well, especially for the distinction between magical and rational universes.
As I find (or remember) other things, I will mention them here.
Adventures
Like to join? Have an adventure idea or other comment? Have a book title or comic book series I should check out? Send me e-mail!
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