Moon Post-Mortem

So I'm close to finishing a campaign, which is good. That doesn't really happen.

It was set on the moon of my usual group's setting, for the moon of Oris is quite special.

It's basically a big mirror. It reflects and interacts with both the the sun and the planet itself, but also the things on the planet, specifically magic. And moons are always magical, they transform werewolves, vampires can't cross a stream full of moonlight, chunks of astral debris are used in all kinds of magic shit, etc.

Many, many, years ago, in a more enlightened age, some wizards sought sanctuary on the moon, a place to practice their craft in peace. And they noticed these strange phenomenons, and utilized them. For every spell or magical act on Oris, a small portion of that was stolen, and reflected on the moon.

As I've said in other posts, magic is everywhere and in everything, so a few refugee wizards soon created a great and powerful society by using the moon as a siphon. They had infinite power, food, materials. Nobody went without and the grandest experiments could be conducted with ease. There were biomes, generations of culture and history, a shining city on a floating hill. It was rumored they could alter the fabric of reality itself, grant wishes like gods.

But something went wrong. Probably greed, that's what the elves would say (but there were wizard elves up there too). The civilization is all gone, some catastrophic event.

The devices of the moon still work, still suck up power. Even after all the cities and experiments have crumbled and fallen apart. There is nothing left but twisted experiments, overgrown ruins, and a metric fuckton of arcane radiation.

The moon is still taking a little share of magic. But as things go wrong, more than just the arcane energy is taken. People are taken, things and creatures are taken. Enter your party. Trapped on the moon in a variety of ways (magical mishaps, one-way portals, dimensional fuckery, random happenstance, you name it.) they must overcome the ravenous hordes of mutants, insane survivors, and dangerous leftovers of a civilization that advanced too far.

 And perhaps, if they venture far enough, they could unlock the Moon's power for themselves, and grant their own wish...

This was post 1 out of ??? and I kinda wanna set it up as a primer for a setting as well as a reflective. The moon became a sandbox where I could get a little more hardcore and weirder than normal. My group was ready for some greater risks and to bring the R to the OS. The lovely bit was is that pretty much anything could happen, so I sprinkled a bit of everything. I learned a lot, and  My main influences were games like LISA, Earthbound, and stuff like Mad Max and Fist of the North Star. Next time I'll get into the nitty-gritty of some places, items, treasure, and THE WARLORDS OF THE MOON.