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  • Star Wars, specifically the universe created by the EU from 1991 to 1999. It was a wide open wild west of ideas. The details of the clone wars hadn't been established, Anakin Skywalker as the chosen one didn't exist, and there was just such a massive variety of content.

    • This, though I'd even be willing to stretch it a few years later.

      You get everything from people analyzing the gritty details of the technology of the setting, to the classic wild adventure romps, to wacky mystic stuff. It brought us incredible stuff like the original Battlefront II's portrayal of clones, Jango and Boba Fett being further fleshed out, Shatterpoint being basically Space Vietnam, and more.

      • I cut off at 1999 because that's when The Phantom Menace came out. I still enjoy what that following era of the EU became, but TPM completely transformed the shape of the Star Wars EU. While the pre- and post- TPM EU is still officially the same continuity, the texture was so changed that you can easily treat them as two different visions of Star Wars.

  • Hogwarts.

    A huge castle where you can learn magic, explore and live adventures with your friends? There's a reason there was so much success for that saga.

    JKR is a horrible person, but that universe is still there for people to create and share stories. There are a few fanfictions out there that are better than the last books.

    !leaky_cauldron@diagonlemmy.social for people interested in that universe.

    • But I also want the fantastic beasts too. That book is way more interesting! Same universe but less about the school and more about finding the creatures.

  • The Cosmere

    Different worlds with hard-ish magic systems that are different. Yet each is a manifestation of the same underlying forces/rules across the Cosmere.

    Whether it’s Stormlight, Ferruchemy, Metallurgy, etc. they’re all aspects of investiture.

    Which means you get unique stories and challenges in the worlds but you also get the occasional cross of characters with one set of magic in another world of the Cosmere that has another.

    And my personal favorite in the Cosmere is the Wax and Wayne series of Mistborn (books 3-7) where you have metal based magic in a Wild West like setting. So people who can manipulate metal using bullets from pistols in unique ways. Imagine all those fantasy novels with wizards… but centuries later as technology advances to the age of steam engine and firearms.

    An excerpt from one of those books

    Smoke curled in the air over the bandit boss’s pistol.

    “Oh . . .” Wayne said softly. “You just made a bad mistake, mate. A very bad mistake.”

    The boss turned away from the body, holstering his gun. “Fine,” he yelled, walking toward the door. “You can have some fun, boys. Burn it out of your blood quickly and meet me outside. Let’s—”

    Everything froze. People stopped in place. The curling smoke hung motionless. Voices quieted. Whimpering halted. In a circle around Waxillium’s table, the air rippled just faintly.

    Wayne stood up, shouldering his dueling canes, inspecting the room. He was placing each and every one of the bandits, Waxillium knew. Judging distances, preparing himself.

    “As soon as I drop the bubble,” Wayne said, “this place is going to erupt like an ammunition store in a volcano.”

    Waxillium calmly reached into his jacket and slid a hidden pistol from beneath his arm. He set it on the table. His twitch had vanished.

    “Well?” Wayne asked.

    “That’s a terrible metaphor. How would an ammunition store get into a volcano?”

    “I don’t know. Look, are you going to fight or not?”

    “I’ve tried waiting,” Waxillium said. “I gave them a chance to leave. I tried giving this up.”

    “You gave it a good show, Wax.” He grimaced. “Too good a show.”

    Waxillium rested his hand on the pistol. Then he picked it up. “So be it.” With his other hand, he poured out his entire pouch of steel into his wine cup, then downed it.

    Wayne grinned. “You owe me a pint for lying to me, by the way.”

    “Lying?”

    “You said you hadn’t brought a gun.”

    “I didn’t bring a gun,” Waxillium said, reaching to the small of his back and sliding a second pistol out. “You know me better than that, Wayne. I never go anywhere with only one. How much bendalloy do you have?”

    “Not as much as I’d like. The stuff’s damn expensive here in town. I’ve got maybe enough for five minutes’ extra time. My metalminds are pretty much full, though. Spent a good two weeks sick in bed after you left.” That would give Wayne some healing power, should he get shot.

    Waxillium took a deep breath; the coldness inside him melted away and became a flame as he burned steel that pinpointed each and every source of metal in the room.

    For anybody interested in starting with a book that is in the Cosmere “Mistborn: The Final Empire” is a great starting point.

  • My favorite is Middle Earth, but my 2nd choice would be the Dresden Files. Everything from Chicago to the Feywild to Vampire parties to the realms of the dead.

  • In FFXI, at around level 20, you have to walk from your starter city to the main capital city, Jueno. It takes a couple of hours your first time, because all of the monsters are level 40+, and you have almost no chance of surviving an encounter,. You have to cross several very large maps in the process, usually alone or with a friend at around a similar level, and there is a lot of sneaking around you have to do in order to avoid detection. I always liked this part of the game because of the challenge it presented. When you arrive in Jueno, you finally get your chocobo license and never have to walk across those maps again, unless you really wanted to.

    The updated version of the game doesn't require traveling like this anymore. I think you can just take an airship or teleport there somehow now, but I still take the long way for nostalgia whenever creating a new character.

  • High fantasy set in a post apocalyptic world. More-so when all of the technology is forgotten, or unknown, rather than when they are making use of the barely working technology.

    The Shannara series is the only book/tv series I have read that fits this. I myself have set several of my RPG campaigns in a setting like this, and am working on another when the TMNT RPG is rereleased.

    Into the Badlands (TV Show) is a close setting, it is feudal post apocalyptic fantasy where they have limited technology.

    • The closest example to this I know (and dearly love) is a proto immersive sim on the Doom engine, Strife: Quest for the Sigil. A comet strikes the planet, killing millions and casting the world within the death throes of a plague. In the ruins of the world, a religious sect worshipping a dark god called the Order stepped up and took control.

      Aesthetically it's a lot of medieval castles and towns, but with sci-fi technology crammed everywhere in a way that feels as organic as you can get on the Doom engine in 1996. Your main medieval hub town has a tavern, shopkeeps selling crossbow ammo, leather and metal armors, and you pay for your surgery with the autodoc using gold coins. Do enough missions for the resistance and the doctor even gives you health boosting implants. Your first missions see you raiding a limestone holding area to kill a captured rebel about to rat out the resistance in exchange for his freedom, using a machine gun to break rebels out of prison, then you're off to knock out a power generation facility before raiding the sewers to find the switch for the main castle forcefield.

      It's a tad clunky in parts, the story isn't much to write home about (but nails the presentation with a comic book art style and shockingly solid voice acting considering the era and budget), and the sewer level is an unpunished war crime, but if you can get the remastered Veteran Edition made by now veteran game remaster-ers at Nightdive Studios. Or you can find a copy of strife.wad and it's voices file and load it into GZDoom if you wanna yar har and feedle your dee.

  • As a kid I loved the realm of Dinotopia. Something about the art style fascinated me as a youngster

    • Gurney is a master of his craft, I couldn't blame you for liking his art. I like it too

  • Warhammer 40k, pre 8th edition. It's a massively deep setting full of stories that are told by unreliable narrators.

  • This is one of my favourites.

    Academy City (Magical Index) It's set a bit into the future with elaborate world building. Most people have esper abilities or are capable of learning magic. The characters are well thought out. Ironically the least impressive character is the main character.

    I'd love to be one of the other characters and get to live and explore that world.

  • Skies of Arcadia.

    For one thing, the entire setting is just a bunch of floating islands, and I love that trope.

    For another, there's 6 moons, each with elemental powers. The land under each moon is affected by these powers, making the land under the red moon a scorching desert, and the land under the green moon a thick jungle.

    Then there's the subtle mysteries. There's an iron star in the atmosphere, which is a satalite but everyone forgot what it's called. There's a black moonstone, but no black moon to go with it. There's a looper of every moon colour, but there's also a black looper that only shows up once you defeat the main villain.

    I think, most of all, I love the tone. Pirates fight an evil empire, and a heroic, upbeat attitude is never punished.

  • The Fugue from Weaveworld. Something about a magical world, hidden in the intricacies of something as seemingly mundane as a rug.

  • The Dragonball Z universe. The setting would be similar to earth but with the existence of Capsule Corp tech, the lookout tower with the hyperbolic time chamber, sensu beans, and of course the dragon balls. Having the powers of most of the characters would be dangerous though, so without all of those.

  • The world of the Tapestry series, by Henry Neff.

    It's Potter-esque, except darker and more complex. Plus there's a great epilogue book set 1000 years into the future after the first series concluded.

    Doesn't hurt that Neff is a wonderful person on top of being an amazing writer.

  • Being an Eloi wouldn't be so bad, "a banal life of ease". The nights are a little rough, but it's like that everywhere.

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