Neverland RPG Setting: intro.

This is the introduction to Neverland, a systemless setting, that will be available to all patreons, and after it's completed and the 5 reward tier gets their free copy to drivethru. Depending on the success of the product, a kickstarter may be launched to provide a second edition with game mechanics for the world's most popular rpg systems (cough, pathfinder or D&D, cough).  

Neverland

There is an island. Some call it Neverland. Some call it the Land of the Forgotten, or Pride’s Fall. There are a hundred names, depending on what coastal tavern you frequent. But all warn that the island is dangerous, and that when it looms out of the fog, turn away, for there are jagged rocks prepared to shipwreck the survivors—and leave them marooned behind the great fog banks.

It is never in the same place. Maps to find it—or avoid it—are useless. Some sailors refuse to take such maps onto their ships, for they think that the island will either make itself scarce if the map is intended to find it, or seek out the poor fools that think paper can protect them from it. A few claim to have escaped from the island, building rafts or making unspecified bargains with those who live there.

These men and women usually end up moving far inland, and even avoid lakes and rivers. Not that they have much of a reason to stay on the coast—no ship will take a crewman who has come to the island’s attention.

But Neverland is not simply a place one can find, and it seems to have an appetite for innocence. Children go missing, some walking into mirrors, some finding fairy rings deep within the forest. Some are taken by strange beings, either handsome or horrifying. Those who return speak of a wonderland, full of ageless beauty and nightmarish horror, where pirates and spirits wage war over ancient treasures, and deep crypts echo with the rattle of bones. Not all children come from the same world—worlds of clever machines, worlds of magic, and quite mundane worlds where nothing ever happens are all are represented. Most are taken in the night when the fog lays heavy on the land. During such times, wise parents cover mirrors and stand vigil over their children—but it doesn’t always work, and many of the vanished children did not have families to watch over them.

Many children vanish forever, and those who escape the island seemed to have aged little, if at all, even if decades have passed back home. Some of these children return to their lives, some must build new lives in a world that no longer remembers them, and some… some spend the rest of their lives seeking to return to Neverland.

As to what Neverland is, none can say. Hell, heaven, domain of a capricious god? All legends have their proponents, and no legend has a lock on the truth.

But people still seek it out for the rumored treasures that exist on the island, while others hope to find their children. And when the fogs cover all, some children find their way to Neverland, whether to their doom or salvation, none can say.