Now that the details of the book are becoming more public, I think a fun exercise would be to suggest a setting and someone give a suggestion on how to run it.

For example:

How would you run Howl's Moving Castle?

Weird War with the Magic rules. Keep a tight grip on tone, atmosphere, and tech level. Flavor magic to be less "mechanical" like DnD and more fairy tale in feel.

Book or movie? The two are quite different.

Uh, if you'd want, give a suggestion for each.

And it was only a sample suggestion, what settings are you interested in running?

There's a thread floating around here for an Avatar: The Last Airbender setting that has peaked my interest. And I always enjoyed the lore and aesthetic of Naruto. For both, I would use a blend of fantasy and Steampunk; taking bits of each.

For the former, I would replace the magic skills with the different bending styles and tie them to different characteristics: Earth (Brawn or maybe Willpower), Water (Agility), Fire (Cunning), And Air (Cunning or Agility). That's just at a glance, if I ever run this campaign, I want to sit down and hammer out the finer details.

For the latter, I would probably drop all combat and magic skills and replace them with Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu, for a start.

As for Howl's Moving Castle. I think you nailed the most important points. However, I wonder if there's something interesting you could use for Demon Hearts. If I recall correctly, both Howl and the Witch of the Waste had demon hearts in the book.

I think my first attempt at a campaign will be Urban Fantasy, with the narrative system "Urban Shadows" as inspiration. I like the idea of starting with the real world, as there is less work to be done establishing the setting.

I’m hoping Genesys will fit my current campaign idea I’m writing in a setting I can only describe as

‘a pre-apocalyptic industrial revolution magitek setting’

The primary (starting) location is the port city of (TBC) a bustling city of industry in a country in the midst of social, political, Magiteknological and environmental change.

Conflict points

· Class (Old Blood vs Wealthy vs Poor) – The rise of the untitled wealthy industrialist has diminished the power of nobility and demonstrated for the first time to the masses that not just birth determines your fate.

· Religious (Industrial driven atheism vs Old Faith vs Lightbringer Cult vs Dark Gods) – The rise of an industrial class and the concept of man defying the natural laws of God has greatly diminished the churches influence in (TBC) but the darkening world has led to the rise of the Lightbringer Cult. The Dark God’s are a story driven mystery and their origins and purpose will be revealed later.

· Race (Human vs Dweller vs Iron Cast vs Ogrun vs Undead) – Humanity sits at the top of the race pyramid in an uneasy relationship with the once more numerous dwellers and the savage and exotic Ogrun. Both the dweller and Ogrun race can and do intermingle with humanity in (TBC) with only moderate social stigma/difficulty. The Iron cast are an immortal race of fey that for reasons they will not (cannot) reveal have subjected themselves to the Iron Curse, binding them to the mortal realm and form. The Undead are an ancient problem that is seeing a resurgence as the wheel of life wobbles on its axis.

· Industry vs Nature – The event known as the darkening has led to the world becoming darker and colder which has led to further magiteknological advancements to counter this, requiring a greater push for material and resource further damaging a wounded ecosystem.

· Progress vs Survival vs Environmental Apocalypse vs Supernatural Doomsday – The magiteknological advancements made have ensured the survival and even prospering of the races but un-tempered by the understanding environmental impact it has. Powered as they are by Magick the devices use far greater levels of that energy in far greater quantities than a spellcaster, additionally the material that forms the essential core for the bridge between machine and power is part of an ancient spell that banished the dark gods and its removal from key sites has weakened the gates of their prison.

Notes

1. Magick is life and life is magick and is finite. The material used to power the magitek devices draws its energy from the planetary lifeforce .

2. Lightbringer Cult. This is a doomsday, messianic cult that believes a saviour will rise to restore the sun and warm the world. The different sects have varying and sometimes radical or destructive beliefs.

3. Old Faith. Not as popular in (TBC) the churches opposition to advances in Magitek led to both nobles and the industrialists pushing its influence to the boundaries.

4. Dweller - details pending

5. Iron Cast - details pending

6. Ogrun - details pending

7. Undeath - a rising problem where the dead are no longer resting as they should.

8. Magiteknology - railroads, airships, steam powered ships, firearms. All developed using magical engineering.

9. The Darkening - a historical event where the light of the sun no longer shone as bright or warmed as it should.

10. Environmental Damage - the consequences of an unfettered magi-industrial revolution.

11. Dark Gods - big bad guys, background story is in progress.

12. Magisters (Magic users) - the guys doing magic.

13. Material most fabulous - the coal of magi-industry.

Inspirations

In Gaming

Eberron

Blades In The Dark

Secrets of Zi’Ran

Thrugh The Breach

Castle Falkenstein

In cinematography

Mel Gibson's Braveheart, for its landscapes, its roughness and its romanticism;

Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow

Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

Dark City

In Literature

KM McKinley’s The Iron Ship

Brian McClellan’s The Powder Mage

Mary Shelley and her Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus,

Howard Phillips Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos

Stephen King’s Gunslinger

Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusion

Mike Mignola’s Hellboy

The Prisoner of Zenda

I’ve been making my own setting, or settings I guess, and it is looking pretty promising. The OmniSphere has a little bit of everything.

I have something like 15-20 campaign ideas at this point. Just waiting for the book to see what would work best. These are campaign ideas I've had off and on for years, some decades, that just didn't work in the other systems I enjoy.

A really low combat Magical Highschool/College in a fantasy setting. The "low combat" just doesn't work in most action oriented system, but in a Narrative leaning system, it should work.

My current idea, with little knowledge of the contents of the book, is an Earth in the future where advanced computing has led to "magic" (only humans). Colony and exploratory ships that are faster-than-light are getting to new worlds, one being explored appears to be inhabited by only flora and unintelligent sentient fauna familiar to the group.

Inspiration: Aliens (movie), Prometheus (movie), Elex (video game), and Witcher (video game), Shadowrun (RPG) and Cyberpunk (RPG).

Will use urban magic - but not sure where to go after that just yet.

Think people lost sight of the game. Awsners the last posters setting suggestion.

Wild wild west movie anyone?