American Mythology Setting (Help is welcome!)

[Zap Dynamic]

Foundation, the Ville du Sans.

I love it! The only thing I might change is the Dr. Steam bit. MAYBE he came along and started it, but I think he would have moved on before it became a place of corruption. I imagine him being too brilliant/focused on his work to be caught up in corruption, politics, or silly things like profit.

As you are looking at a port city and have mentioned Paul Bunyan, you could find a way to include Stormalong.

Who knows, there may even be a great white whale and a one-legged captain out there. Ahab and Moby **** are pretty solid american legends by now.

The horrors of industrialization can be pretty well shown with the docks and the industries around whale oil.

The more I think about it, the more I think that giants need to have a definite place in this setting. There's just too much precedent for it. However, it seems like they show up in the world occasionally (as opposed to living in the world normally). Does this imply that they live in remote areas that no one's ever found? Or maybe that they come from some other plane?

I don't know how we managed to overlook Captain Ahab so far. Good call!

Gremlins stuff.

Giant stuff.

Simulation stuff.

I like it! The gremlins could be statistically identical to goblins, and flavorfully identical with rats. They're small, disgusting creatures who came over from the old world by hiding aboard ships, and now they plague the underworld of every major city.

I mentioned above that I think giants are simply going to have to be a part of the setting.

I want to be careful about getting too modern with our interpretation. The idea of a "simulated reality" craze is a powerful part of American culture, but I don't know that it's an appropriate mythic element given the time period of the setting (late 19th century). I feel like people back then were more interested in the idea that nature was considered "passé" and were anxious for the day when the whole world became urbanized than the idea that reality is this place that needs to be escaped from. I feel like Ninjadeadbeard comes close with his latest comment: the idea of escaping reality is related to the existential movement, but I think it's a product rather than a cause.

However, I could totally get on board with some kind of addictive substance that's introduced to the population of the continent and threatens their way of life.

Can I donate my Modern Gods project to this setting?

Thanks for the offer! A lot of those could be really useful, but some of them are way too modern for the setting. World, Road, Wood, Stone, and The Artist would fit right in, and Media, The Kid, The Man, and El-Five are too modern, and the rest fall somewhere in between those two camps.

Any chance you'd like to take out the modern gods and add in some Steampunk Manifest Destiny era gods instead?