LuckyLegs: Echoes From Fomalhaut currently covers two fairly different settings.
The first of these is
an unnamed, fairly vanillaish setting (tentatively named "Wanderlands" or "Drifting Lands" until something better comes up) which includes: the Isle of Erillion, the Twelve Kingdoms, and the Kassadian Empire. The tone is more Gygaxian Greyhawk than Wilderlands; and in fact parts of the setting slots into Greyhawk without much difficulty. This setting mostly works from the AD&D core book baseline, with the same array of classes and races (although more humanocentric). Nevertheless, if it is in AD&D, it is in the setting. The few departure points are:
- Monetary treasure is more scarce, approximately 1/5 of the book values. This can be handled with a *5 multiplier if desired.
- Higher level magic-use (4th+ level spells) requires taking a test with a M-U organisation. This can be easily disregarded.
The three regions described so far:
- The Isle of Erillion (issues #01 to #08, overview in #02, hex descriptions in #03-#04) is a large island, vaguely inspired by 13th century England. Erillion is ruled by a small maritime principality, inhabited on its coastal areas, but featuring lots of mountainous or forested wilderness in its interior. The tone is more or less vanilla. Also includes Baklin, Jewel of the Seas, a city supplement. The setting is now more or less "complete", although there are materials I would still like to publish for it in some form.
- The Twelve Kingdoms (issues #08 and on, overview in #09) is a more northern archipelago of small, quarrelling kingdoms on a barren, wild northern land inspired by the Celtic fringe, Finland, and Jack Vance's Lyonesse novels. This is a slightly grimier shade of fantasy, although with touches of surreal stuff. This is the current focus of the zine.
- The Kassadian Empire is the remains of a Rome-like empire that never fell, but disintegrated into numerous rival city-states and principalities. The style is "Roman ruins meet mediaeval Italy". This setting has a more specific style; decadent and cloak-and-dagger stuff. Not much of this setting has appeared specifically in the zine (except more recently, in issues #09 and #10), but a standalone module by a friend (In the Shadow of the City-God) has been released, and a large B/X sandbox campaign module is forthcoming in addition to two smaller OSRIC modules (this is a bit confusing, but that's how we played them).
The campaign materials from the first two would easily find a home in a general AD&D or D&D game. You may adjust things a bit, but no more than par for course, really. They should work both in their original context, and separately. You can also import existing modules easily, as I have done with various Judges Guild, TSR, and modern old-school materials.
The second main setting is
the City of Vultures, a specific corner of the world of Fomalhaut (which has ironically received no coverage in the zine otherwise yet). This is a highly exotic campaign set in an ancient, decadent city-state ruled by shadowy conspiracies, and built on top of a deep, interconnected underworld from an age of lost high technology. The City of Vultures has been inspired by Indo-Persian civilisations, Empire of the Petal Throne, Fritz Lang's paranoid movies (and film noir in general), the Flash Gordon comics, and so forth. These materials appear from Echoes #03 and on, with increasing frequency from #06. An overview is found in #06, and a wilderness supplement in #08. Also of note is the Nocturnal Table, a supplement for generating city encounters and flavour that was originally developed for this city. You can try it for free on
Chartopia (courtesy of tuirgin), and there is a comprehensive
Fantasy Grounds implementation by EOTB.
This definitely carries very strong flavour and assumptions. It is almost completely humanocentric (some gnolls and goat-men notwithstanding), and has a strong weird fantasy/planetary romance element. The gods are petty and capricious, and the world is mostly independent city-states with a heavy emphasis on sailing and adventures on strange islands. The City of Vultures, and Fomalhaut in general would be a natural fit for Hyperborea or Seven Voyages of Zylarthen (the latter of which has no cleric class). Coincidentally, we have just started a Zylarthen campaign in the setting last weekend. PM me for our house rules doc if interested.
Hope this is helpful.