Heroes of Terra: The Mushroom War is a role-playing game using the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition rules by Blackwing Productions. Come adventure in a world of floral sorcery and saurian savagery!
Heroes of Terra is a pulp-fantasy setting in the vein of classic sword-and-sorcery literature, with a world that pays homage to classic video games of the early 1980s. It’s also strongly influenced by the isekai genre of Japanese anime and manga. You can think of the world of Terra as Conan the Barbarian, but the main character is a mustachioed Italian plumber instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or The Lord of the Rings with characters from Super Smash Brothers as the Fellowship.
Influences on the setting include Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, Elric of Melniboné, Conan the Barbarian, John Carter of Mars, the Lankhmar novels, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Donkey Kong Country, KonoSuba, and more, all thrown into a blender on high speed.
Jump high, grow huge, and break open chests filled with gold coins and flowers that give you magic powers. The various wink-and-nod references throughout the setting help Heroes of Terra work on two levels: first, as a semi-parody of beloved classic video games; and second, as a semi-serious pulp-fantasy setting where the stakes are as high as the survival of nations.
Terra is a parallel world, created 65 million years ago when a rogue asteroid came hurtling from the void of space. The life force of the world burned hot to save itself from destruction, but the effort spit the fabric of reality in two.
In one world, the asteroid struck the world; while life was spared by the world-spirit’s power, the life force of the world-spirit was irrevocably damaged, slowly draining away magic. That world was Earth, a place with almost no magic remaining by the modern day. Humans have evolved to utilize what little magic remains to its fullest potential, though they remain largely ignorant of their potential.
In the other world, the asteroid missed by the slimmest of margins. This world, Terra, remains a highly magical place. Dinosaurs remained dominant and mammals remained small and unimportant. Modern Terra hosts dozens of sentient races, the most numerous of them descended from saurians or from plants and fungi.
Until five years ago, the greatest nation in the world was the mighty Mandragoran Kingdom, a peaceful land of flowers and floral sorcery. In a devastating attack, the kingdom was toppled and is now occupied by the forces of the Dragon Empire, a barbarian horde of saurian warriors and fungal berserkers united by the mighty Dragon Emperor.
With the Sunflower King dead and his daughter either imprisoned or in hiding, the kappa have begun to exploit the kingdom’s land to the breaking point. The land has begun to awaken, calling out for heroes and giving powerful gifts to those who will aid it.
This initial setting book is designed to introduce players to the world of Terra and the return of humans during a time of great crisis, the Mushroom War. www.kickstarter.com
