Afterlife Quickstart Inspiration
In this blogpost I wanted to talk about my inspiration for the adventure in the Afterlife: Wandering Souls Quickstart. If you haven’t read the adventure in the quickstart yet – warning – this post will have spoilers! So go download it – it’s free! I won’t post massive spoilers, but we’re going to take a deeper look into the limbo mentioned in the quickstart.
What’s a Limbo?
Limbos may be cities, forests, or even entire worlds. Each limbo is populated with its own unique inhabitants who have no idea of any realm beyond their own, much like humans on earth. Wanderers enter (and exit) limbos through the Tenebris, but consider limbos their own realms. A limbo may appear like a person’s version of Heaven, or it may appear totally alien—it all depends on the limbo.
The Wall of Thorns
The main Limbo in the quickstart is the Wall of Thorns. Here’s what players see when they first enter:
The Wall of Thorns exists in an endless grey land of dark, wispy clouds and muffled thunder. A stone’s throw from where you stand, a ten-meter-high wall stretches from one end of this limbo to the other. Upon this wall sprouts thousands of brilliantly coloured red roses. In front of the wall is a giant obsidian tail of a creature so large you can neither see the beginning nor end of the tail.
The Wall of Thorns isn’t a new setting for me, at least not in my personal life. In fact, it’s a realm I cooked up for my home group all the way back when I was still in University and had far too much time on my hands to think about distant lands. At the centre of this land was a woman, half-human half-snake, who cared for the realm and all who in inhabited it. When my players met the character who would become the Reaper of the Wall in Afterlife she didn’t guard a wall of memories, like in the quickstart, but she was still an ancient being with knowledge to share.
Colour is Key
An endless grey land speckled with flecks of vibrant red always read romantic to me. Nothingness and then… emotion. The red colour in this limbo is a visual clue to what is important, what is cherished, and what should be explored. It’s the quest exclamation point above an NPC’s head in a video game. However, red also means danger. It’s a warning and the roses of the wall are red with good reason – if a Wanderer looks too long into one they’ll become addicted and stay there forever.
The rest of the world is muted grey tones stretching from black to white. The absence of an abundance of colour also adds to the mystery of the limbo. Is there more to the grey than meets the eye? Will things become more colourful to players as they explore, learn, and understand?
Exploring the Alien
When I wrote the setting for the Wall of Thorns I could have gone with something more alien or more familiar. Afterall, Limbos can be anything I want them to be. I could’ve had players swimming in a pool of chocolate pudding with tiny fluffy balls who communicate through yips. Or have them greeted by a granny who feeds them a few warm cookies and sends them on their way. However, while limbos can be anything in Afterlife it was important for me to convey the feeling of Afterlife. A quickstart is the first taste players get of the setting!
Melancholic | Macabre | Strange | Familiar
I’m personally in love with alien lands, strange places with strange customs I’ll never understand. Afterlife takes these weird places and then centres them in very human contexts. Whether it’s family drama or a few visual signifiers telling player’s they’re not completely lost – I always wanted something in Afterlife’s setting people could relate to. Being able to relate makes a story more engaging, but is also makes it easier for players to participate in creating the narrative of the game – coming up with cool suggestions and going with creative ideas they feel would fit a scene.
In the Wall of Thorns the familiar comes in the form of the Reaper who is angry because someone stole one of her daughters (the snakes who inhabit the Limbo). While not everyone can relate to ‘a mother’s love’ they can relate to cherishing a person, missing them, and wanting them back in their lives.
What do you think?
Did you read the Wall of Thorns adventure? What did you think of the Limbo there? What’s the first Limbo you’re going to create for Afterlife? Let me know in the comments!