The Secret of Zir'An: Fantasy's Future

[ChrisH247]

Hi, My name is Chris Hockabout, one of four members of the small fledgeling game development studio: Paragon Games (http://www.paragongames.us). Like the majority of you, RPGs and RPG design have been a life-long love. Last year we partnered with Otherworlds Creations (http://www.otherworlds.cx), creators of the Diomin fantasy RPG and the Forbidden Kingdoms pulp-era d20 RPG (and you've got to check out their new one coming out: SOLID! the blaxploitation d20 experience) to publish our RPG: the Secret of Zir'An, which will be coming out in a 350pg. hardbound edition this July. Though we're already in the pipe for the printers we'd like forum readers to check out our site, download the playtest adventure, give us some feedback on what they like and didn't like, but also just to get the word out about a game we've spent years developing and are excited to finally be getting out to the public. But what is the Secret of Zir'An, and what do we mean by "Fantasy's Future?"

If you were to consider your typical sword&sorcery fantasy world as representative of a planet's medieval period, the Secret of Zir'An turns the clock forward to imagine what the same world's post-industrial period would look like. But this is not Steampunk, or even Dieselpunk as another RPG would characterize it. The focus is not on technology, that is merely one aspect of a post-industrial world. As the game world has evolved over the last ten years, the emphasis has always been on examining how the tropes of fantasy: monsters, gods, heroes, and especially magic, affect the development of culture, politics, economics, and religion. Whereas the common perception has been that magic receeds with the advance of technology (mostly out of our own belief that our past was more "magical" and that the advance of technology has overridden that magical past), we took the opposite stance: that in a closed system, where magic has always existed, magic is seen by the people of that world as nothing more than just another resource, like fossil fuel. Magic and technology are integrated: they've developed alongside each other and grown toegether in an organic fashion.

Setting:
It has been three thousand years since the world was remade in a mass global conflict that saw the fall of an advanced civilization and the departure of the world's Creators: the Seven Gods. In the aftermath of this conflict, the survivors had to rebuild their world, forming new cultures, new nations, but all without the assistance of their divine parents. The survivors of this new Epoch were truly alone for the first time. After a thousand years, peace and prosperity had finally returned and the scars of that global conflict were all but forgotten but a new nightmare would arise to reshape the world and all who lived upon it. For reasons that are still a mystery, seemingly random people find themselves endowed with vast, godlike powers, powers that corrupted them to evil. These were the Fane. As the Fane warred against each other to satisfy their urge to dominate nations fell and the world was plunged into chaos. When the most powerful of the Fane remained they ruled their domains as godlike despots who enslaved the people to their twisted desires. But there would be a liberator. Kah, the only banevolent Fane known, swept through the world like a cleansing fire, freeing those caught under Fane tyranny. Those he freed bacame the armies of liberation and the dozens of Fane overlords were reduced to seven. Seven godlike dictators who now hid behind their borders, awaiting for the day they will get to sweep across the world and reclaim the lands Kah liberated, lands that now stand as a beacon of freedom against the darkness of the Fane. Peace has reigned for the last fifteen hundred years. Kah has long since vanished, vowing to return if needed, while the Fane plot and scheme, dreaming of their lost domains.

Magic:
The Magic in the world of Zir'An comes in two flavors: Rune Magic and Shadow Magic. Rune Magic is as old as the world, used by the Seven Gods in the creation of existence. It is the operating code for reality. Rune Magic's strength is its versatility. Runes can strengthen the hulls of airships or lighten their loads, increase their lift, and suppliment their power suppliles. They are integrated into electrical generators to increase conductivity, in advanced steam turbines to generate heat to convert water into steam. The Runemage as the empirical scientist, researching runes and devising new uses. But runes can never be seperated from their source: the Seven Gods. Runes are the chapter and verse of the Gods themselves and so will forever be associated with spirituality and mysticism. The same rune that heats the boiler on a steam train can be utilized by an adventuring Runemage to fry an adversary to a cinder. The same levitation rune that helps a ponderous airship achieve lift, could be inscribed upon the sole of a shoe, allowing that Runemage to make astounding leaps as though he weighed as much as a feather. Runes are presented as a wide variety of basic powers that the game system allows you to apply in a number of different ways, each different "Form" ultimately modifying the effect in a way that's quick, fun, and cinematic. The other magic form, Shadow Magic, is best described as spiritual psionics. Unlike Rune Magic, Shadow Magic (which derives its name from a person's shadow, which in Zir'An is analogous to their soul) is an inborn ability. A more straight-forward spell-like system, it offers a player a number of interesting abilities unavailable to any other character as they tap the power inherent to their own spirit, shaping it into a number of different effects.

Technology:
The world of Zir'An is a finely crafted, well thought-out fantasy world. Our focus was on imagining the future of the fantasy world and while technology is an important aspect of that future, it is not its focus. Internal combustion, electricity, air travel, trains, guns, radio, and cinema all have their place in SoZ but you will not see any of the following:

goblin drug dealers wielding sub-machine guns
bi-planes dive bombing dragons
dwarves in steam-powered suits of armor
elves with laser rifles

Other games have done those, and done them well. Our focus is on the cultures that have developed over the milennia. The Technology, as well-defined and important as it is, is not the core of the setting.

Character:
The Secret of Zir'An asks the question: "what are adventurers and why do they do what they do? How is it that a rag-tag group of multi-national risk-takers seem to always be the ones saving the day?" And answer to this question is Fate. Fate exists to maintain balance, and the adventurers are the instruments of fate. Heroes or villains, Fate guides their actions, actions that decide the course of history. The player characters exist as part of Fate's Plan, their actions will decide the course of the campaign's future, and the future of the world. The Secret of Zir'An has abandoned a class-based character system, using instead a system where the player builds their character's history, the events that took place before they begin play, and by building their character's history they gain their skills and build up their stats while allowing their character concept to seamlessly conform to their own imaginations, instead of relying upon a fixed class or archetype system. Over the years playtesting the Secret of Zir'An, we have always been astounded with the variety of characters people have devised. Each character concept being radically different from each other.

Skills:
The skill mechanic will be familiar to anyone who has been playing RPGs for long, but with our Finesse System players will have more freedom to freely narrate their actions without relying on a die roll. Die rolls have always been a way to generate tension or introduce the possibility of failure (and therefore drama) to a gaming session. But does a master thief really need to make a climbing roll to get up a standard wall? Our skill system is more built around defining situations where a player will or won't have to make a skill roll. The Finesse System supports the idea that the PCs are heroes, with abilities borne of years of practice. If my character has been a gymnast for years, are you really going to make me roll my Athletics skill to leap across a ten foot gap? In some situations, yes, of course, but generally its going to be accepted that such a feat for my character is well within their abilities so no roll is necessary.

Combat:
No game can get far if its combat system is not easy, quick, fun, and to a lesser degree: cinematic. Using an action point system (spending Speed, in the parlance of SoZ), characters can execute chains of actions and maneuvers, describing their actions in a dramatic fashion. But combat in SoZ is quick and deadly and entering into combat is, as it should be, something not to be taken lightly. Our system includes a long list of various combat maneuvers, martial arts styles, and damage effects. The goal of playing SoZ is not to build the most ungodly combat monster imaginable, for even the toughest character can be brought down by a well narrated attack. Keep those Runemage healers handy and treat them well.

Conclusion:
This has been a mere overview of some of the core concepts of The Secret of Zir'An, there are more to be discovered. At launch, we will be releasing the Hand of Fate Screen, which will include additional gamemastering information, new spells, new weapons, monsters, skill packages, and a host of interesting tidbits. Hot on the heels of these two initial releases will be our Atlas, the guide to the world of Zir'An, and the Professional Adventurer's Guide, everything a prosepective Chosen of Fate needs to know to make it in the world of Zir'An.

[anonymouse]

This seems more like an ad. This particular forum's geared towards actual design work, which you don't seem to be looking for. I'm not even sure there's an appropriate place for this at the Forge; Publishing is for things actually.. published.