(Blast from the past 2008-11-28)
What if, for the hell of it, someone paid a black magician to let all the demons out of Hell for just one night?
Then, what if they didn’t go back? In fact, what if the result was a judgment day won by the Devil?
The premise alone is a great campaign idea, but reading Blish’s classic novels on the subject, Black Easter and The Day After Judgement Day adds lots of new inspiration.
However, if one has “hell on earth” as a theme, one must have a conception of Hell and what it looks like.
I remember the first time I saw Bosch’s triptych. I thought the painter must be a modern one, a contemporary of Dali probably. But Hieronymus Bosch gave us this image of hell at the dawn of the 16th century.
Too bad he didn’t have a heavy metal band to sell the reprint rights for an album cover.
So, I have a principle literary touchpoint for the serious side of my new game world: Blish’s idea of a failed judgment day brought about in the now by man’s arrogance…or perhaps just the idea of being on the wrong side of it. With it, I have a primary image of Hell from a late medieval view, which matches the picture of hell I want to paint.
Later, we’ll look at making a sandbox, old school game world out of them.
The original version was published on People To Be. It has been edited lightly for grammar and clarity.
This was my very first blog entry discussing the ideas that became “The World After” setting.
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