The King is Dead: A Gothic 18th Century that Never Was
One thing I realized while working on the introduction is
that the old “A Land in Need of Revolution” section from the early The King is Dead material only tells
half the story. It embraces the Gothic
vampire slaying and the 18th century conspiracy-and-criminals angle,
but it doesn’t acknowledge the gonzo kitchen-sink part of the setting. Admittedly, the actual games I’ve played with
Robin haven’t really involved that part either, but I really do want The King is Dead to be a setting that
embraces all of what Savage Worlds offers.
Writing the new introduction has forced me to reexamine my
focus, to fine-tune my vision. The films
and television programs with the biggest influence on the setting were always
crazy mash-ups, and I need to push those influences to the forefront. It also made me switch the tagline to “Revolution
in a Gothic 18th century that never was” instead of “Gothic
revolution in an 18th century that never was.”
That change in word order is significant (to me, at
least). “Gothic revolution” honestly
doesn’t make sense as a phrase anyway (what? The revolutionaries all wear black
and listen to industrial music?), but emphasizing the setting as a “Gothic 18th
century” underlines that The King is Dead
is about an alternate reality, a stranger reality. It also, subtly, increases the importance of “that
never was.” The world of The King is Dead isn’t just a world
where the Golden Age of Piracy (early 1700s) and the French Revolution (1780s)
are happening at the same time, it’s also a world with wizards, witches, and
maybe even werewolves.
(I’m totally going to have to include a section in the GM’s
guide called “Dark Bargains” wherein I detail several supernatural power groups
that are willing to lend their aid to the revolutionaries at the price of
making humankind prey to more than vampires.
The werewolves are lurking in the deep, dark forests and the fairies are
waiting in their graves.)
In any case, work proceeds slowly. I need to figure out a schedule that gives me
time to devote to my wife while also giving me more than three hours a week of
real writing time. I can crank out a
short blog post in half an hour after my morning coffee, but I can’t warm up to
real work in that time.
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