What if, for the hell of it, someone paid a black magician to let all the demons out of Hell for just one night?
Then, what if they didn't go back? In fact, what if the result was a judgement day won by the Devil?
The premise alone is a great campaign idea, but reading Blish's classic novels on the subject, Black Easter and The Day After Judgement Day adds lots of new inspiration.
However, if one has "hell on earth" as a theme one must have an idea what hell looks like.
I remember the first time I saw Bosch's triptych. I thought the painter must be a modern one, a contemporary of Dali probably. But Hieronymus Bosch gave us this image of hell at the dawn of the 16th century.
Too bad he didn't have a heavy metal band to sell the reprint rights for an album cover.
So, for the serious side of my new game world I have a principle literary touchpoint: Blish's idea of a failed judgement day brought about in the now by man's arrogance...or perhaps just the idea of being on the wrong side of it. For the picture of hell I want to paint I have a primary image of a late medieval hell.
Later, we'll look at how we can make a sandbox, old school game world out of them.
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