Underground Adventures Redux (Part 2)

Here are some factoids about the setting to go along the refreshed mechanics from Part 1.

- Tech Level is around Renaissance-era Europe. You've got the printing press, gunpowder and big ships that can cross the ocean. Plus airships (using a lighter-than-air fantasy alloy called Iridium), wired telephones (fuelled by mana-infused runes), and the occasional science-fantasy super tech (albeit usually hidden away in the underground).

- Governments gravitate towards monarchies, empires, with some republics and federations here and there. Most people have an intuitive marxist understanding of their socioeconomic circumstances and are quite frank about their positions within that framework. Other oddities include a City Watch modelled after modern police forces, talking animals being treated as people (and I'm talking about regular talking animals, not furries here, although there also are catgirls/boys/ennbies), and a general sense of desilusionment and fin-de-siècle to, well, *gestures at everything*, the situation.

- There is History but most of it isn't really important. There used to be a Great Elven Empire, but now it's gone. It wasn't beat by the Forces of Good or anything, it's just that the elves are too bored with imperialism to really care about its downfall. That's the main reason why there's so much of the fair folk in our day-to-day lives. Pixies are treated as pests. Trolls often work for the City Watch and harrass people.

- Adventurers are considered a pest, an easy mark for scams, and the occasional celebrated underdog in folk tales, when they actually do some good around them. Most of the time, they don't.

- There is a Cosmopolitan City (Eko, the City of Liars) and it has a King (Randal the Immortal) and Nobles and a Merchants' Guild and so on and so on. There is a massive eastern european magical wood (Brackenwoods) and a megadungeon (Castle Redvald). Wilderness-enthusiastic adventurers will probably start in the Creepy Medieval Town (Blightburg).

- I name some fantasy people, but they're all just that - people. You can make up more and have them be very common or rarer depending on what you prefer. For me it's a bit 50/50 so I like to have humans be like 90% of the countryside population, but about 75% of the city's population. Still humanocentric but it's not uncommon to meet a Devil or Rock Troll or whatnot.

- The major local religion is that of the Twelves. That's twelve cults dedicated to twelve Gods, + the really mean ones, such as the Ungod of Spiders. Ungods are really, really bad, but the regular Gods aren't necessarily super friendly, either. They just grant the occasional boons to their followers and can make life worse for everyone if not placated regularly. Whether the Twelve are Satellite AIs with buggy personalities (they are in my world, as even magic and "monsters" are a natural occurence in it) or actual supernatural higher beings is yours to decide.

- I wrote a bestiary here so I'm not going to re-list what's in it, feel free to go grab a community copy!

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I have less of an article and more like bits and pieces of ideas and images in my head when it comes to the YALBEG/UA setting, so this is a really difficult exercize to try and put it into useful words. So instead I'm going to try and write some adventures for the setting to see if it can help convey what I'm going for.