Gaming Universes

The aim of this page is to cross-reference the "gaming universes" I have built up, the figures available for them, the rules sets I like to use for them and, if relevant, any ongoing future notes / plot ideas for campaigns.

This has been updated in August 2025.

 

1. Jungle Deep

I play in this universe either with the RoSD supplements, or the 5LFTB procedural campaign system

Type : Fantasy

Figures : 28mm Anthropomorphics; 28mm Fantasy, Ancients and Medievals

Rules sets :  Five Leagues from the Borderland; Rangers of Shadow Deep

Where I am at :

THE ISLAND :

Busy painting up the figures for this.  The idea is to go back to the RoSD rules to play this.  I will use 5LFTB to procedurally generate the campaign, and for the Threats notion that I greatly like.  Games directly generated by 5LFTB will be played with 5LFTB (converting heroes from their RoSD profile); but woven into it will be the "Story Clock" idea lifted from 5PFH.  The Story Clock scenarios will all be RoSD ones, mostly fan-made stuff from the Facebook group.

 

Incidentally, I reckon that ChatGPT , fed with a couple of ideas to avoid simple hack and slash, would be particularly suited to writing RoSD scenarios, given their structure.  

 

 

THE VALE : 

The aim is for Drake's Seven to reduce both The Ruin Within and the Curse of War to zero.  These two Threats are well worked into the storyline.

The storyline is developping as follows :

-  The Death Cult of Sisyn came to the fore in The Vale, as a way of protecting its inhabitants against some evil.  They did this by using the Pull to draw the dead back into the world (Partho has not thought of this interpretation...).  Their source were the sites where Tarans had died in ancient battles.

-  The Tarans took obvious exception to this, and tried to brutally stamp out the Sisyn cult, which they managed quite effectively

-  The Priestess of Sisyn not only had Queen Tara assassinated, but eliminated the entire court in Tara's Tower, and massacred thousands of her people.

-  The Tarans, who once fought the Deep, have, like indeed many other ancient Hu-Man civilisations, become its servants (The Curse of War).

-  The cult of Sisyn has long been dormant, but is rising again.  Its objectives have somewhat changed - use the Taran burial mounds to raise undead warriors to protect the cult against future aggressions.  The necromancer at The Shroud was actually their Priest; it is his death that "activated" the present Priestess.

-  Although the cult is not a servant of the Deep, they can hardly be allowed to prosper.  They therefore become the Threat that is the "Whispers from Beyond"

 

Drake's Seven cannot be involved in reducing this Threat, because of their links to Sisyn and their deception.  I will leave another band (who do not have to start at level 0) to deal with the Whispers from Beyond.

In the meantime, I will move on to another part of the RoJD world, this time using Badgers & Burrows, after buying the latest supplement of 5LFTB. 

 

2. The Hyborian Age

These are ongoing campaigns of my own invention, but generally using the official or semi-official scenarios, with or without modifications.

To bring to the campaign world the "existential threat" which is not present enough, I will play the next campaign based on Strabon's attempts to revive the Acheron Empire...and play the Undead he raises as the Heros; and then perhaps a second campaign in which the true heroes fight back.

This will allow me to paint some lovely new undead stuff, wights, vampires, ghosts,..

That said, the Pillar of the North has taken quite an epic turn, with Ardon in real danger from the Hyperboreans...if it falls, then both the Watch and the Aifreweia will lose their lynchpin and become far easier prey for all the dark forces of the hostile North...

Type : Fantasy

Figures : 28mm Fantasy, Ancients and Medievals

Rules sets :  Conan

Where I am at :

 

i. Play the sixth scenario of Pillar of the North 

I have chosen the scenarios that seem ideal to adapt to this campaign, as follows : 

Au Nom d'Ibis (Chimenes allies attempt to kill the necromancer, in a last ditch attempt to save Ardon; if the heroes fail, the campaign is over)

For the Blood of a Barbarian (the necromancer or one of his acolytes attempts a major summoning)

  

The current political situation in Ardon has been summed up in the introduction to Au Nom d'Ibis.

 

ii. Write the seventh and ultimate scenario of the Veiled One, which will see the heroes on the battlefield of the Shamla Pass (deploying my "Battlelore Mythology" units for an epic feel), trying to reach Natohk so as to use on him the Mitra artefacts they found under his temple.

3. Carnevale 1795

I would like to play the Carnevale rules, after some minor background tweaks.  I was mainly looking for a game that mixes history and fantasy, and also black powder weapons with reloading rules and hand to hand combat.

Type : Fantasy-Historical

Figures : 18th Century

Rules sets :  Carnevale

Where I am at :

Not yet started, and painted has not yet begun

 

4. The 1809 Campaign

Not necessarily a campaign per se, but perhaps the breaking down of one or more major battles of the campaign, into divisional level battlefields.

Type : Historical

Figures : 15mm Napoleonics (French, Rhine Confederation, Austrians)

Rules sets :  Soldiers of Napoleon

Where I am at :

Not yet started, painting is underway

 

5. The Tungan Uprising 1865-1878

The historical uprising in Central Asia, but with extended involvement of external powers.

Type : Historical

Figures : 15mm Colonial (Kashgari, Chinese, Russians)

Rules sets :  Principles of War

Where I am at :

Not yet started

 

 

6. War of Sinkiang 1921-

An alternative history campaign, which presumes that the unlikely "Army of God" was launched by the Bolchevik regime into Central Asia, shortly after the end of WWI.

Type : Historical

Figures : 28mm Back of Beyond

Rules sets :  Setting the East Ablaze

Where I am at :

Yang Zengxin having opened up the way to Turfan, and reinforced it, the second phase has come to an end.

The Armée de Dieu will therefore be convinced by Yang Zengxin to head along the north road.  Update all the leaders objectives (libellé "Armées") to take into account these recent events.

Write the next scenario (which will be obvious once the different objectives are laid out).

7. Red Barricades 1942

The epic ASL campaign...

Type : Historical

Figures : -

Rules sets :  ASL

Where I am at :

Prepare Day 3

8. Five Parsecs from Home

A campaign using the procedural system of 5PFH as a campaign motor, played with other rules sets.  

After three attempts to create a universe I want to actually play in, I have finally come up with The Best Idea Ever.

Inspiration came from the TV series "Kaos" and then blossomed, absorbing my Of Gods and Men idea along the way.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...occurred the events that a million years later, carried in memory to an obscure planet in a forgotten corner of the universe, would become the founding myths of Homo Sapiens.

In sum, the events in this distant and ancient galaxy forged our own mythology.  

The Olympus System for example, in which I will no doubt begin the 5PFH campaign, contains the planets of Thebes, Sparta, Argos, Knossos,... Each planet is ruled over by the latest member of a dynasty, but said ruler interacts with AI reincarnations of his or her ancestors three generations back, shifting from one to another personality as circumstances dictate.  The planet of Thebes, for example, is in the hands of the Labdacides; ruled by Antigone, its AI personalities include Laios, Jocaste, Oedipus, Eteocle et Polynice...

The Olympus System includes such places as Troy Station, technophobic outcasts; the complex known as the Elysian Fields, which goes beyond luxury and restricts membership based not on wealth, but on glory; the sacred graveyard encircled by the Styx asteroid cloud, that only the mysterious transporter Charon is capable of crossing; and so on.  Among the diverse factions of the Olympus System are the Furies, Bounty Hunters to whom an unrequited victim can appeal, and who track the unpunished; the Centaurs who practice gene-splicing; the crazed Maenads whose visitation can mean revelling or death, or both....

Other solar systems include An, Eden, and so forth.  

What binds the fates of these different solar systems together, are the Gods.  These are alien entities that, for reasons of their own, can exert far-reaching power throughout the solar system.  Their power tends to exert itself in characteristic ways.  The inhabitants of each solar system call them by different names; the entity that can manipulate electromagnetic fields goes by the name of Zeus, or Adad; the one that can stir the seas and influence the tides is Poseidon, or Enki.  Their motivations are mysterious, although they communicate their desires through individuals named Oracles.

They also have their enemies.  Be they named Titans or Daeva, they are agents of dissent, sometimes enemies and sometimes protectors of humankind...Pazuzu may be a harbinger of disease, or protect humans against others of his kind; Prometheus was sentenced to eternal imprisonment on the Eagle Asteroid; every time he serves a life sentence and dies, he is brought back to life; his punishment for having shared the secrets of interstellar travel with the inhabitants of the galaxy.

In terms of playing style, rivalry between dynasties, often fueled by the Gods, will provide the basic adventuring of the 5PFH generator; a given Greek myth will provide the elements of the Story Clock.  There is not meant to be copious interaction between different star systems; interstellar travel is possible, but acutely painful and possibly fatal.

The heroes, since I will begin in the Olympus System, will be Ostraka, ostracised individuals.  The solar system has a fair number of these, who band together and form a useful reserve of mercenaries (somewhat akin to Ronin...).  Their aim goes from simple survival by banding together, to attempting to gain citizenship, or even pleasing the Gods which can be a road to personal glory.  They also attract other individuals who live outside the polis system, such as young Spartans in their rite of passage; Titans; wandering actors,...

-  Depending on the myth being played, they may be following a great hero (for example, they would be part of Odysseus' fleet, or Herakles companions,...) 

 I may extend into the domain of starship battles.

Type : Science Fiction

Figures : 28mm Sci-Fi; 2mm Starships; 6mm Sci-Fi

Rules sets :  Flying Lead; A Billion Suns; Gruntz

Where I am at :

 

The idea now needs developing.  Step One is to see if it gets me painting some sci-fi figures, after which I should develop, to start with, a single world, and then gradually develop it as I delve into Greek mythology.

 

 

10. Club Games

Different rules sets that I use for club games, either short campaigns or one-offs

Type : Various

Figures : 15mm Biblical (Hittites, Syrians); 15mm Classical (Syracusan Greek, Carthaginian); 15mm Medieval (Nikephorian Byzantine, Khazars, Sicilian Arab, Fatimid Egyptian, Normans in Sicily); 15mm Renaissance (Dutch East India Company); 15mm Napoleonics (French, Austrians); 15mm Colonial (Ottoman Turks, Arab Revolt); 2mm Starships; 28mm Fantasy

Rules sets :  Briskars; Battlelore Mythologie; Fantastic Battles Historical; Banner War; Command and Colors Ancients; DBA; Irregular Wars; Tactique; Fistful of Lead; Black Ops; A Billion Suns

 

11. Non-Universe Solo Games

Different rules sets that I use for solo games without any particular connection between them, just pitting different armies head to head.  There is a possibility of adding a new historical campaign centred on 10th century Byzance.

Type : Various

Figures : 15mm Classical (Syracusan Greek, Carthaginian); 15mm Medieval (Nikephorian Byzantine, Khazars, Sicilian Arab, Fatimid Egyptian, Normans in Sicily); 6mm Micro-tanks

Rules sets :  Banner War; Battlegroup Northag

Where I am at :

I need to flesh out my Nikephorian Byzantines, paint the missing half of the Arab armies, and paint a Norman army.  I could also add to my 6mm micro-tank forces.

I am seriously thinking about resurrecting DSC, especially for the Byzance campaign, as I really loved that ruleset...better make sure beforehand of the make-up of each army !