If you were hanging around these parts a year ago, you will have seen the long string of posts about Abraxas, the fantasy setting Jamie and I created and were planning to use for our MMO at Eidos in the late 1990s. Abraxas is a continent of prehistoric civilizations, aircars, vril-powered cannons, cosmic rings around the Earth, neanderthal barbarians, psionic magic, and hostile intruders from other stars. A Princess of Mars rather than Lord of the Rings, say. While digging through some old floppy disks, Jamie came across this image of the Vadem Causeway gate outside Tamo Anchan, as depicted by our concept artist Darren Horley. Would've been great to materialize there and go charging your character through the city in realtime 3D... Sigh.
Friday, 3 June 2011
Gold, silver, ivory, apes, and terror birds
If you were hanging around these parts a year ago, you will have seen the long string of posts about Abraxas, the fantasy setting Jamie and I created and were planning to use for our MMO at Eidos in the late 1990s. Abraxas is a continent of prehistoric civilizations, aircars, vril-powered cannons, cosmic rings around the Earth, neanderthal barbarians, psionic magic, and hostile intruders from other stars. A Princess of Mars rather than Lord of the Rings, say. While digging through some old floppy disks, Jamie came across this image of the Vadem Causeway gate outside Tamo Anchan, as depicted by our concept artist Darren Horley. Would've been great to materialize there and go charging your character through the city in realtime 3D... Sigh.
Ooooh I looked through your posts on Abraxis and it looks awesome. I've been puttering around with my own science fantasy setting for old school gaming with similar concepts-swords, teleporter travel, ancient technolog, psychic powers. Think Tékumel with a little higher technology base. However, it sees you beat me first.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever thought of publishing this setting for paper and pencil RPG (assuming you haven't already).
OK, as I read your blog further I found out about Fabled Lands. Looks like a great game. Are their any plan of adding Abraxis as setting?
ReplyDeleteAbraxas... pardon.
ReplyDeleteWe did think about publishing an Abraxas RPG using my Tirikelu rules system, SM. Tirikelu was originally created for Tekumel and should make a good fit. But, as a dedicated Tekumel player, I have seen how the gaming public prefer "medieval America" as a fantasy setting and so I suspect the level of interest in such a project would be miniscule - unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteIs Abraxis part of the Fabled Lands world? If there are books after number 12, will they be set on Abraxis?
ReplyDeleteI wish you would reconsider. With renewed interest in Barsoom due to the upcoming John Cater movie, I think that the "sword and planet" genre might be on the verge of a resurgence and Abraxas and similar settings could capitalize on that.
ReplyDeleteBart, it's not part of Fabled Lands. Follow the tags to "Abraxas" on this blog and you can read the full story.
ReplyDeleteSchool Master, well, I'd love to do it. And I hope that the John Carter movie will swing the pendulum back in the direction of planet stories and science fantasy. Commercially, though, we'd have to start with something like a novel or comic book and build enough of a following there to support a paper-&-pencil RPG.
Alternatively, I still think it would make a great CRPG setting...
Maybe we could think of Abraxas, Legend and the Fabled Lands as being different planets in the "Fabled Universe"? Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteI can't see it myself. The flavors are different. Abraxas is alternative-historical Earth circa 40,000 B.C., in a universe inhabited by psionic aliens. The gods they worship either don't exist or are alien beings. Legend is a distorted representation of the world as it may have seemed to a devout medieval Christian. There is only one God of Legend and He's the real deal. FL is the full-on invented sub-creation type fantasy with gods, races, fantasy kingdoms.
ReplyDeleteFast-forward Legend to the present day and you would have something like the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Fast-forward Abraxas to today and you would have our world as it really is, the vril-powering rings that encircled the Earth in 30,000 B.C. having dissipated into space. Fast-forward FL and you would never reach anything like a modern world - it would remain pretty much the same forever.
Still, that's just my view. Nice idea!
Btw a quick note to say that gamebook fans will want to see what we've got lined up over the coming week. Tune in on Wednesday for details. Here's a clue: it goes right back to the beginning.
ReplyDeleteOh! I hope is the 4-books-in-one editions!
ReplyDeleteAbout the post. Is there any room for a MMORPG of Abraxas?
That's what Abraxas was always meant to be, Ikaros. Jamie and I have the game design and development experience, all we're lacking is the $20 million :)
ReplyDeleteAs for what we're posting over the next week - I'll just say (quoting the Master) it's "not the bang, not the word; the true beginning."
When will books 5 and 6 be out?
ReplyDeleteFurther FL books are mainly dependent on digital sales, Bart. FL2 for iPad is due soon, and we have plans afoot for Android and other platforms. There will be print editions too if sales figures justify them, but the future of gamebooks is mostly digital.
ReplyDelete