I know it’s way past playtesting time, but I finally got around to running the latest Dark Age over the weekend. We upgraded the tech level to Black Powder with some simple theme changes, and I’ve been mostly using eastern fantasy as my inspiration.
I have in mind the backdrop of a war between 2 empires — the Empire of the Sun and the Kingdoms of the Dragon. Add in that the whole thing is being engineered by the Hell Kings, who are trying to drum up extra souls. First starts an escalation in murder from the King of Murder, then the other kings get in and plagues and famine start up. Basically bureaucratic maneuvering, hell style.
Nothing plot wise, just some enemies and background to gives me war to play out and some reasoning behind the troubles. Plus, I can sprinkle in lots of hellish monsters as needed.