Thursday, April 11, 2013

J is for Journeys to the Center of the Earth

I've written a few times about how Army Ants as I conceptualize it is far more than just a bunch of military insects going on military missions. They are a team of explorers ranging across a changing and unexplored wild. I feel so much like the early issues of Fantastic Four (and the 80s ones when Byrne was running the show) had this vast panorama on which to layer the story. They were constantly exploring some strange new environment, often with only the barest of plot hooks. The exploration was the thing. Challengers of the Unknown. Sojourners to the center of the earth. The nice thing about the Great Field is that it's all 'the final frontier'. The scale of the game allows me to justify that everything is new, weird, exotic and alien from the perspective of the insect characters. They just happen to be caught in the middle of a war staged against this fantastic background, with all sorts of other forces, creatures and factions at play at the same time. It's also part of the Star Wars inspiration for the setting - sure, you have this big war going on between the Rebellion and the Empire, but a large chunk of the galaxy is keeping on keeping on with its own thing, largely uninvolved in the epic war raging on its doorstep.

No comments:

Post a Comment