Where in the World?

The last incarnation of my MF game was set outside Earth. The world had two moons and was a terraformed garden planet before the Interstellar Federation from which it's colonizers originated from collapsed and died. This time, I'm setting it on Earth, somewhere in the not too recent future.

Earlier, I mentioned my preference in setting the game amidst a Hawkmoon-esque feel. The action of this particular Mutant Future happens a lot longer after the last planet-busting weapons were detonated. Instead of one big mad minute where everyone who had something worth shooting let loose and trashed the world, we had a long, extended spate of unpleasantness which led to the End of the World as We Know It. In Moorcock's books, this extended time of unpleasantness was called the Tragic Millennium. While there were various times of reconstruction and recovery, the ultimate end after this era was the gradual erosion of technological civilization giving way to the quasi-medieval world of the wasteland.

Now that I've more or less determined the 'how' and 'when' of the setting, what remains to answer is the question where the action takes place.

The Hawkmoon novels picture a Europe composed of a patchwork of squabbling principalities ruled by petty monarchs. And one big bad Dark Empire. This sort of fits my gaming model but I decided on moving the game to North America. With a big landmass with so much space to play in, amidst interesting and varied terrain, I feel that this pretty much meets my demands. One of my inspirations is the old Gamma World module Legion of Gold. The feel of that game setting really doves into how I intend to run this coming incarnation of MF. A lot of sword-wielding feudals ranged against the new barbarians amidst the ruins of the Ancients. Mutants? Yes, quite a lot, but this time, I'll be dialing down the gonzo-weirdness factor a bit.

Other influences include Richard Adams vision of horse clans and steppe warriors duking it out with knights from extant kingdoms such as Pitzburk. I see the new world as a bit warmer, what with all the havoc caused by the Tragic Millennium and the resulting climate change that followed. Lands previously considered relatively cold north of the Canadian border are now pleasantly warmer. Hence, I'm imagining massive rain forests with corresponding mega mutant flora and fauna in places like Virginia. I believe Sterling Lanier's Heiro novels suggested something like this in their version of the mutant future.