Why is it so hard?

Every now and then I stumble upon an RPG setting I just can't wait to sink my teeth into, and then promptly don't. So today I want to talk about two such settings. I've read them, I love the worlds, and I have no idea what to do with them.

It just so happens that they're both post apocalyptic, and as such are pretty grim, but the flavors are pretty different.

First up is Engel.

Engel is originally a German RPG from 2002, published in English under the d20 system. Now I like the d20 system for several different settings such as D&D and Star Wars, but in my mind it really fell flat in Engel.

The setting is pretty damn awesome though. Set in 2654, in a flooded Neo-Medieval Europe where the Angelitic Church rules all. The Church enforces it's decrees (amongst them a strong hatred of technology) with the power of the Angels (or Engel) who serve the Church and it's Pontifex Maximus in all things.

The forces of darkness usually takes the shape of gigantic intelligent insects that emerge from perpetually smoke enshrouded areas called Brandlands, to wage war against the Engel and eat people in general.

The closest we get to a neutral faction are the Junk Lords, warlords who controls a few lonely cities with the help of forbidden technology.

I can't really give the setting it's true kudos here, it really is magnificent, and well worth reading if you're not going to play it. There are several pretty big spoilers in the main book which I obviously won't mention here, so beware if you read it, you can't un-know what you know.

So why not run Engel? First off is the system. As mentioned above, I don't want to use d20, and I'm much to lazy, ahem, busy to rewrite it to another system. The original German version had a different system called Arcana, which used Tarot like cards, but it's very free form, in fact much too free for my tastes.

Secondly, I have no bloody clue what kind of a story I'd like to run with it. None, nada. The default position assumes the players take the role of Engel, which is really nifty, but doesn't help me at all.

My second “What to do with it” game is Unhallowed Metropolis.

This incredible setting takes place in Neo-Victorian 2105, where all cities are walled to keep out huge roaming hordes of shambling undead. In a nutshell, the dead rose in 1901 and the world went to hell in a hand-basket. Pure chaos everywhere as they infect those they bite, you know, the typical Zombie plague thing. Then things got worse as large swatches of land sickened, and either died or mutated.

For 200 years or so, people have struggled to reclaim the cities, reinforce them and survive. And they've done it. But apart from some changes like equal rights between the sexes, society is still very Victorian.

This combined with the wide spread use of Tesla technologies, a semi persistent need to wear gas masks outdoors, and undead stalking their victims through poisonous smog, makes for a setting cool enough to make me drool. And yet I don't know what to do with it! Very frustrating indeed.

Like Engel, Unhallowed Metropolis is a highly entertaining read, that deserves more than I can give it here. It has things like the all female guild of Mourners who are tasked with overseeing wakes with their kukris in hand, should grandfather come back for a bite, to the soldiers of the Deathwatch, to haughty aristocrats plotting in their mansions, this setting is a nonstop Gothic gloom fest!