Some of you may recall that, back in November, I did a two-part interview with Marzio Muscedere about his upcoming roleplaying game based on Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique setting. Since I dedicated this month to CAS and his works, I approached Marz to do a short guest post on a topic related to Smith and roleplaying and he kindly offered up the following, which I am pleased to share with you.
Most fantasy settings are about beginnings — the rise of kingdoms, the forging of alliances, the defeat of looming evils to save a still vibrant and hopeful world.
Zothique begins where those stories end.
Zothique is the far future, where the world we know is gone, drowned and buried by time. What remains is a final continent filled with ancient cities, decadent courts, fading cults, and scholars poring over scraps of maddening lore. It is a place where necromancers converse with the dead in shadowed tombs, while besotted rulers cling to ceremony as their palaces crumble to ruin around them.
For gamers accustomed to the default assumption that adventurers will, in some fashion, make the world better, Zothique offers a stark alternative — nothing is getting better. Empires are not being forged. They are rotting in place. Gods do not promise salvation — they are distant and cruel. Sorcery does not herald progress — it invites doom and corruption.
For players, this creates a different kind of motivation. Characters may find themselves searching for meaning, wealth, forbidden knowledge, or fleeting power in the world’s final gasp. Their goals are immediate and personal, steeped in wonder and doom. They explore not to save the world, but to plunder the secrets of a forgotten past. They make bargains with demons and devils not because they believe in salvation, but because they want something — anything — before the dimming sun finally fails.
For game masters, this is exactly what sword-and-sorcery and old-school gaming was made for. Dangerous magic is not an exception but the norm. Exploration is everywhere, whether it’s a tomb, a crumbling dungeon, a cursed city, or a half-forgotten cult clinging to its last rites.
Zothique reminds us that a fantasy RPG can be intimate, fatalistic, and strange without losing its power. It trades grand destiny for atmosphere, epic salvation for personal risk, and shining heroism for decadent desperation.
In Zothique, the question is not whether the world can be saved.
This reads like it was written by AI.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you're implying it was actually written by AI or whether you think the style is off but either way I disagree. I thought it evoked the dying world setting. Put another way: it made me want to play the game.
DeleteIt’s all the “not this, but that’s”. Having used ChatGPT quite a bit for creative fantasy writing, I’m very familiar with its patterns and this is a very distinctive one. I see about seven instances in the few short paragraphs above. If the author did not use AI, he should at least be aware that in 2026 his writing bears the whiff of AI.
DeleteThe other dead giveaway of AI is all the em dashes.
DeleteI'm a fan of em-dashes myself and have been using them since before it was cool ;-)
DeleteThe setting evokes a "TPK But Party Also Wins" double-death set of scenarios. Would be interesting to see how the DCC RPG engine here reflects that: Deed Dice or Spellburn so powerful it also kills the party in the final blow to destroy the BBEG
ReplyDeleteFor the naysayers, "besotted" is a word I see as sourced from Asimov, Marie de France, Shakespeare, and definitely Clark Ashton Smith stories
You know what they say about farts, "He who smelt it, dealt it". Maybe you're thinking it's AI, but really you're smelling your own AI? Catch a whiff of that and stew in it. Make a meal out of it if you're so hungry. But know your comments aren't welcome on a Maliszewski blog post about Muscedere's works. What you might do is consider recounting or deleting rude anti-artist banter. Do you even know how condescending it is to an artist to call their works out in a negative light when you have no works yourself to reference? Be a part of the solution, not the problem is all I'm asking
"I know you are, but what am I?" isn't the red-hot zinger it was in elementary school.
DeleteA lot of people want that accomplished internet sleuth and gatekeeper status nowadays. This exchange did help me learn that if I replace my over/misuse of colons with these em-dashes — it looks and reads better. Given Mr. Muscadere's history in game design — he's probably picked up on few tricks like this. Is the accuser familiar with any other works from the author? Because he is writing like this in 2016:
ReplyDelete"It is said even the boldest of heroes cower when madness sits the throne, and in the perilous and lurid city-sate of Hazruun the Vile - its sultan is indeed mad. For when the body of his only son and heir is found purple and lifeless, strangled in a back alley drinking den - it is decreed all must pay for the crime."
Investigate before accusation — it's quite rude and slanderous.
You're right. My apologies to Marzio Muscedere.
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