Robert E. Howard and Eiridia

Eiridia is 99% written, with just a portion of the equipment chapter left to go. It’s heavily influenced by my favorite author of all time, Robert E. Howard.

A lot of settings and adventures in the past year or two claim influence by the mighty REH, and rightfully so. The fantasy role-playing game market’s Old School Revival/Revolution movement has a niche movement of its own based around that author. Companies like NUELOW Games, Sword’s Edge Publishing, and of course Pinnacle Entertainment Group have released products heavily influenced by the father of modern sword & sorcery.

So with all this support for Howardian fantasy in RPGs, why release yet another setting influenced by him?

The reason is simple. Howard nailed visceral fantasy action in a way that is perfectly suited to a night of tabletop gaming.

So how does Eiridia draw on that influence? Not from the angle you might think. Most people focus entirely on Howard’s heavy-hitting, emotional style of writing when they try and create RPG products based on it. Nothing wrong with that at all, and Eiridia does some of that. But Eiridia’s primary draw from REH is his fascination with historical fiction.

Hyborea was heavily influenced by real-world cultures and history. The Stygians, for example, had massive similarities to ancient Egyptian society. In Eiridia, there’s no Egyptian analogue, but there is an analog for a number of major historical cultures – including feudal Japan, imperial China, pre-Norman Britain, the Bedouin, and many others.

Both Kevin and myself have a background in scholarly history. We both are fascinated by Earth’s ancient tales, and that influences our GMing styles significantly. Wellstone City is a product of Kevin’s interest in this, and Eiridia is my contribution. I like to twist reality just as much as Kevin does, so Eiridia is substantially modified from Earth – or even from other fantasy settings. It has some of the standard fantasy races, but where other game settings focus on race and class, Eiridia puts the emphasis on culture.

If this kind of setting interests you, keep an eye on this blog, and on my own personal blog, Dicejockey. I’ll be posting notes on how the creation of Eiridia progresses on both platforms.