Southland: Notes

THE SOUTHLAND

A Fantasy Core Setting

© Jerry Harris 2014

Published here as Open Game Content.

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Index.)

Southland Index

Southland Notes

Let me start with an apology.  I have very little excuse for not researching the continent of Australia better.  It would have taken much longer to prepare, and I just didn’t have the patience.  I considered this project iffy at best and didn’t want to torture myself with it any more than I had to. 

You see, variations of this setting, called The Wastes, have bouncing around my head for about 20 years.  (You can see it here in the Sample Adventure.)  It has been a continual source of frustration.  When I finally stumbled on the thought of placing it in the real world, Australia, I jumped all over it.  Anything to get this thing over with.  One “Search and Replace” later, it’s the Outback.  Ultimately, I hand-waved reality in favor of some questionable placements and descriptions of natural features.  (Not to mention an overly creative use of Vegemite).  It’s an adventure setting, not a geography lesson.

The idea of putting this vague setting in Australia happened when I had this other idea of putting a giant dungeon inside of Ayers Rock.  I wrote out an outline for several levels.  Then I thought, “Why not just put the whole “Wastes” setting in Australia?”  After I did, I ended up putting the giant dungeon into Mount Connor instead, with Ayers Rock instead being the mystical center of the continent. 

So where is this dungeon then?  Why didn’t I post it?  I ended up deciding to take my giant dungeon notes and instead use them in an entirely different setting, which I’m hoping to work on next, albeit scaled down somewhat.  Southland itself got too big, with every idea for it turning into a “rabbit hole” of additional work (two words: Naval Combat).  This would have never gotten finished if I’d put a mega-dungeon with it.  I think any big dungeon will work just as well anyway.  This whole setting is really just a place to stick your own stuff into.  

This setting is part of a larger imagined setting.  I’ve got more details, but they’re really not necessary for game play and mostly only deal the Commonwealth’s history.  The Southland is tentatively connected to the Oriental setting and the Dark Continent settings.  (I’m still not sure how or if Fantasy Ireland should be formally joined in with the rest.)  I view the Commonwealth home continent as a largely civilized and explored place that wouldn’t be much fun for adventurers, except for the barbarian-filled northern areas and the border with the Hegemony.  There’d be plenty of political intrigue for title-level characters back home though.       

If pressed, I’d view this world as basically earth, but smaller in circumference.  There’s no North and South American continents.  There would also be large terrain obstacles between the major nations, preventing easy invasion and trade.  I have no world map nor list of nations.  It’s all just vague thoughts in my head for now.

The town of Cross, Hells Gate (originally Doom Keep), Cairns (originally the Dark Kingdom), and the Insect Kingdoms were throwbacks to the original setting, which why they fit somewhat uncomfortably into this setting.  I just couldn’t let them go after all this time.  A little out-of-setting weirdness is okay though.  One admitted stumbling block I had working on this setting was my lack of discipline in cutting loose sub-par ideas.  I wasn’t sure if I was putting in enough interesting spots in the setting to make it worthwhile, so I made the fateful decision to make everything work, no matter how questionable (except for the Tasmanian Devil).

The Cross map and Governor’s Estate layout were really old and hard to clean up.  I clearly have no future in civic planning or any grasp of Medieval economics.  Sorry, just roll with it or come up with something on your own.

You can thank a friend going into the Marines for the Commonwealth Marine stats and the other military stats.  I’m not sure how useful these will be for adventuring, unless your group wants to play as a bunch of Marines, but there they are.  I admit to having fun making them up.

The Frontier Service was obviously modeled on the French Foreign Legion.  The setting environment, as well as my reading of Beau Geste, viewing the movie March or Die, and Snoopy’s imagined adventures as a Legionnaire, just seemed to cry out for an analogue in the adventure.  When reprobates and idealists, lead by psychotic sadists, fight berserk, man-eating Humanoids, everybody wins.  There was something like this in Australian history, though I modeled the Frontier Service after a Mexican version, where convicts served at the Presidio in present day El Paso.   

Yes, Grumpy and Alice on Monster Island are Land of the Lost references.  Maybe there are Serpent Men (Sleestak) hibernating somewhere on the island.  A few from the Dark Continent could have come over.  (I am planning on finally stat’ing that out in the future.  Here’s what one Serpent Man wizard looks like in the meanwhile.)  

The Kalbarri Portal is obviously based on Stargate or Star Trek’s Guardian of Forever.  Whatever analogy works best for you.  In all honesty, this is the actual natural arch in Kalbarri, called Nature’s Window.

I do not know where the image I’m using actually exists.  I downloaded it a couple of years ago with the name Aussie Portal, but stupidly didn’t make any note of its location.  I assume its somewhere in Australia, but I don’t know where and couldn’t find it.  Oh well, close enough.

These two natural features (the 12 Apostles and Remarkable Rock) should have been included somewhere, but I couldn't figure out what to do with them.

Likewise this feature, the Tasmanian Arch.  I couldn't think of way to make this work as a portal transferring dinosaurs onto the island.  Maybe something else?

I have written some stories about this setting in its previous incarnation, including details about Circumsphere itself.  No, I don’t want to share them.  They’re too incomplete, and I don’t feel like re-working them.  I think it works better as a mystery to be solved with your own imagination.  If its discovery is used as a capstone for a campaign, as intended, it’ll have more meaning that way.