It was believed that the world always existed and
was never changing, for nothing could ever exist without Law and
Order. Angels of the World Above served the incredible power that is
the Operator and watched over mankind, inhabitants of the World
Below, with ever vigilant eyes. None would have suspected that it be
one among them who would betray the very foundation of the known
universe.
Ledsabbath, an angel of the highest rank, found
the never changing notes of the divine choir boring and the mortal
crowds' uniformity pathetic; he wanted something that was never
conceived before, something new.
He knew that the lesser minds would be far easier
to tempt, so he stole the divine spark, planted it into a musical
instrument of his own design, and traversed the Void between the
World Above and the World Below on the Black Zeppelin, a legendary
vehicle.
Upon arriving, Ledsabbath sounded the instrument,
now known as the Ultima Guitar, and lo: the chaotic powers let loose,
like a virus, infecting and freeing the minds of mortals
as they heard the pure awesomeness that is metal music. Mankind has broken its shackles of ignorance and chose to carve its own future.
The Operator and His angels tried to save their
lost children, but their attempts so far have been fruitless. For his
grave sin, Ledsabbath was cast into a pocket deimension and chained
to a rock on an impossibly high mountain top, where a thirteen-strong
angelic choir shall sing the painfully monotonous melodies only to
him - forever.
Since that, the World Below has never been and
shall never be the same again. Metal music has torn the very fabric
of reality, springing forth mystic creatures and horrible
abominations into existence. It is this new world in which you start your adventure.
I imagine this setting would perfectly work with the standard gameplay assumptions of D&D. I have already started working on how magic guitars function (more or less replacing magic swords, I guess), and figured this setting would require some unique dragons as well (possible a simple dragon generating procedure).
They should be magic axes, of course ;-)
ReplyDeleteMagic guitars could act as the focus for something like the Summon spell from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, maybe toning down the game ending effects and making them more interesting (in the evil GM sense of the word). Battle would be about ripping open space and commanding loathsome minions. Then a party could consist of two guitars, a base and drums. (Not sure what they do though.)
I myself was toying with the idea of imagining the adventuring party as a band; however, the original idea was something compatible with most D&D-esque games, plus I couldn't come up with interesting AND appropriate functions for the different members.
DeleteBut: if we tone down the standard D&D assumptions to a minimum, the game could play similar to an inherently multiplayer Yu-Gi-Oh!, where band members summon different creatures and defeat the enemies' summoned creatures.