Since I have started a "Land's End Season 2" campaign, I thought it would be a fun post to collect some of my favourite inspirations for the campaigns here.
Some of these informed the tone or atmosphere more generally, and others I stole from directly. See if you can guess which is which!
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| Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique cycle. Desolate wastes, corrupt wizards, a terrified populace, and Mordiggian! |
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| You already knew it. |
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| Dark Souls, the best console game ever. |
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| Robert E. Howard's El Borak stories. Adventuring amongst savage tribes in the desolate regions of the world, discovering lost cities and vast hidden treasures. |
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| Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea cycle. |
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| The old Dark Horse Indiana Jones comics, especially Fate of Atlantis. I was going to mention Raiders, but I already wrote a whole blog post about it a few years ago. |
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| H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. The original 'hidden valley' adventure site! |
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| Myth: The Fallen Lords, by Bungie. Dark fantasy wargame that rips off the Black Company extensively. |
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| Daggerfall, the best Elder Scrolls game. Crude, buggy, dark, mysterious, with a charm all its own. |
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| Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness |
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| Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa. I wouldn't run it on its own, but picking bits & pieces from it works really well. |
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| Oni Press' Wasteland comics. Post-apocalyptic desert adventures. |
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| The Secret Teachings of All Ages, by Manly P. Hall. Dense and difficult, sometimes woefully outdated, but worth a read. |
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| Exile: Escape from the Pit by Spiderweb Software. Taking it back to the '90s! |
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| Jason and the Argonauts film (1963). Man those outfits were boss. |
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| Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne. |
Also: the Wilderlands, everyone's gaming blogs, the SRD, and a giant stack of reference works!
I can't really believe it myself, but Lovecraft doesn't actually get a mention. Land's End is much more pulpy and action-packed, it doesn't really have any sense of horror. There are some gross Lovecraftian monsters but the Chthulhu mythos doesn't even really make sense in the setting, except for a few veiled references.
[LATE EDIT: I forgot one absolutely VITAL component!!!]
