The Age of Epics Campaign- Part I Brainstorming and Kit-bashing

Today I participated in a discussion on RPGNet regarding the Prince Valiant Story telling game from Chaosium. We all agreed that the system is a wonderful mix of a rules light / setting rich RPG that was really way ahead of its time.

It got me thinking of a "back burner project" I've had for quite some time. I've been toying with a Medieval Age setting for awhile where I could mix Western European tales such as those of Camelot, and Eastern tales of the Orient such as those found in the Arabian Nights.

Now that we’ve released the BoL Edition of Legends of Steel it seems like a great time to work on this a bit more.

I want it heroic in tone and light in magic and I want it set in mythical/quasi Historical Earth.

For my resources I've decided to go with the LoS/BoL rules set. As source book material I'm using:

• The Prince Valiant Story telling game – Chaosium
• Charlemagne's Paladins – TSR
• GURPS Arabian Nights - Steve Jackson Games
• The Adventures of Sindbad - HEX Games

I know there are many more source books and systems I could use but I want to get started on this rather than spend time fumbling around gathering stuff. I also want to stress a heroic upbeat tone rather than a dark and brooding one. And these were the best choices for that which were at hand.

From the material I gathered I want to kit-bash a world in the same vein as the Prince Valiant comics. I also want it to expand and share it's universe with other legendary heroes near or about that period.

On my "Age of Epics" Earth Prince Valiant, Morgan Le Fay, and King Arthur will share the world with Sindbad, Ali Baba, Maugris, and Roland.

The main rules tweak I will have is that the use of magic is entirely the realm of the GM. There will be no magic using player characters. That isn't to say that players cannot play Priests or Mages, they can- it's just that they wont be allowed access to spells. The Mages will be more like Alchemists and Sages with a bit of sleight of hand thrown in.

Holy men, be they Mullahs, Monks, or Priest of Odin, will rely on their faith rather than their deity handing out "Cure light wound" spells every day.

There will still be magic wielding adversaries, Magical creatures, enchanted items, and more.

More to come…