What marks the best franchises? The most renowned stories? What can outlast plotlines and even characters? Setting.

Star Wars is beloved by many, not just for the quality of the films, but for the very setting these characters come from - their galaxy of Jedi, Sith, X-wings, Death Stars, and wookies makes for an exciting setting that people want to see in action. Set a game or a book in the Star Wars universe, and you have an instant audience. The same goes for Lord of the Rings's Middle Earth, or the countless other popular settings.

Most webcomics don't have settings beyond something simple and general, and for a great deal of time the same could be said of Sluggy Freelance. What made the stories great was not where they were set but the personal interactions of the characters, something that cannot be simply be recreated with new characters. However, over the years Sluggy Freelance has begun to collect a few fragments of setting, just enough to put together a composite setting that could actually be reused with fresh characters.

In short, what I am saying, is that Sluggy Freelance has become so advanced that in theory an author could write a story that did not involve Torg, Riff, Gwynn, Zoe, Bun Bun, or any of the other main characters, and yet still be recognized as writing in Sluggy Freelance's setting - instead of some generic modern setting.

What marks out the Sluggy setting, however? What makes it different? Let us begin with the basics, namely it's regular environment. Sluggy Freelance appears to take place in a regular American city of no fixed name or location - If pressed, I would guess maybe in the New England region. That is a key part of the setting, since for something to be identifiably Sluggy it would have to take place in the same city where all these strange occurances happen.

So we have our starting setting. But it is no different then any generic modern setting used by thousands of webcomics, books, comics, movies, or tv shows. What makes it stand out as unique? Firstly, we should look at the supernatural. In this world, there are Vampires and mummies - we can extrapolate there are probably werewolves too. They seem well-organized, stealthy, and in control of their own affairs - no overt rampages, but at the same time the Vampires at least seem unafraid to kill on a whim.

The holidays also exist physically, although this would likely have little import. We can only imagine the reason why they go unnoticed is that they - like the vampires and their ilk - have kept up with modern advances in technology to continue masking their presence.

Leaving those supernatural creatures behind, we may now look to mortal forces and how they mark Sluggy Freelance as different There is Hereti-Corp, which, although fallen, still seems to possess assets and members aching to find their way to glory again. They are perhaps the only mortal organization plotting world domination and are relatively nonethreatening, but they are still a recognized player in the Sluggy Freelance setting. The Order which fought the kittens may or may not be still around, and it appears Vampire Hunters exist in small pockets - in otherwords, a Cthullunoid atmosphere is in place, meaning that although foul supernatural forces threaten humanity, they are held at bay by small bands of individuals making individual efforts. Arminius is an example, but Riff and Torg probably make a bigger difference then even he.

That leads to more divine affairs. The biggest difference between Sluggy Freelance and other settings is sadly poorly defined at this time. There are multiple dimensions out there, different versions of our world, as well as different versions of the demon's dimensions - however, an overall theme emerges.

What we can tell is that, in general, the demon dimensions are currently in control of celestial affairs. Were it not for their constant infighting, each would have conquered it's corresponding mortal dimension by now, crushing the last bastion of resistance in the face of an all-demon multiverse. All but one of the Gods and Goddesses of good are imprisoned, and it appears their divine minions have been slain or otherwise defeated. For the first time in perhaps millenia, a Goddess is free and planning to stop the demon's plans, but ironically might further them by giving them an excuse to unite once more.

And so we have our setting - a sleeping world, still oblivious to the threats that it faces, protected only by the efforts of a few. Some who fight fight selflessly and put all their effort into it - Arminius is a good example. Some fear the conflict and try to hide from it, only to fail - as Mosp did. As always, however, there are a few who stumble into the situation and find themselves thrust into the roles of unlikely heroes - Torg and Riff.

I would advocate for Pete to allow perhaps 'fan fiction' - not using the characters, however, just the setting. See how people would want to handle a Sluggy world, and perhaps struggle to make sense of it. Try writing in Sluggy as a pure drama - it'd be hard, since if you go for realism, wouldn't someone look into the countless deaths that have gone on in the vicinity of Torg and Riff? I am impressed, as always, with Pete's skill in presenting his believable world, and would welcome anyone else to make their own observations or challenge anything I have said.

Actuallly, I recall a while back a group of Sluggites searched the archives for whatever clues they could find and determined that Sluggy takes place in Dansville, New Jersey. I'd point out a link, but I doubt the topic exists anymore.

Does it now? Well, that would help define it even more as a setting, what with a confirmed location.

I had always thought it was on the fringes of Hoboken NJ. I have family there and, let me tell you, its a scary place. The forces of the damned have already staked their claim on that little piece of land.

Yeah, we know for a fact it's in New Jersey, as said here and probably in some other places, too.

I was one of those people in that discussion. What with the fact that it's an easy drive from New York City and some of the highways mentioned, we concluded that Sluggy almost certainly takes place in Pete's hometown of Denville, NJ. Gwynn even mentioned Denvilleonce. And it would make a certain amount of sense.

Also, while your hypothesis about the dimensions is interesting, Dolash, I can't agree totally. We've only seen evidence of one other dimension (Sham-Pain) where demons defeated a goddess of good. The main Sluggy dimension seems to have the usual Judeo-Christian set up, including a Satan trying to create the Apocalypse. And if he needs to do that, it implies there is a God for him to fight. Heaven has also been strongly implied, by the resolution of Kesandru's Well. And in that storyline, we were presented with the Raythdom, a dimension that had nothing to do with demons or gods at all, apparently.

From what I can tell, although Pete has indeed continued to define his world, he has also continued to expand it. The Sluggyverse feels far bigger than it started out. I totally agree that it has taken on a character of its own, and it might indeed be an interesting place for other adventures besides just those of Riff, Torg, Zoe and all.

Not everywhere seems to follow those trends. We now of sluggy prime, the rayth dimension, heaven, hell (maybe), dimension of lame, dimension of pain, sham-pain, dimension of grief (although I think this is strictly Mitdo*), tentacle torg's dimension, and the distant past where torg got chaz (not a dimension, but metaphysically distinct from the present. Only sham-pain, grief, pain, and arguably prime are subject to this battle. Other dimensions have different major players (such as K'Z'K), and different rules.

What I think defines the sluggyverse is the quick acceptance of absurdity. Zoe meets a pair of fellows that trample her in a frisbee match, their bunny nearly kills her, and the alien they are chasing with lasers nearly eats her. What does she do? hang out with them all the time, even when they continuously subject her to mortal peril. Mulder has the picture of Aylee driving "enhanced" with crayon and Scully rolls her eyes and goes along with it instead of the rational thing (refusing and telling Skinner that Mulder needs a padded room). While most of the denizens apparently have never seen a talking ferret, alien, or vampire, but they get used to the idea with little of the usual skepticism. It's almost as if, while they were never told such things exist, it makes perfect sense to them that they do.

About the dimensional thing, as I said, we have been given relatively little to work with so far, and we can only hope Pete himself explains it to us, but I think from what we've seen we can assume there are more demon dimensions then Sham-Pain and the Dimension of pain - After all, there are more then two worlds with Torgs and Riffs in them. Maybe it is true that Sluggy Prime is mostly split between a Judeo-Christian God and Satan, but then again, perhaps not - much of what we've seen could be adequetly explained away if Sluggy Prime was instead connected to the demon-dimension system, like Heaven being a left-over fortress of the Goddess and the angels being her remaining minions. Perhaps it is some fusion of the two, and the Goddess is allied with a Judeo-Christian style god, but I doubt Pete would want to go that route because it's difficult to do without perhaps offending someone.

As for your absurdity point, Wistful, it is a good one, but I would say that more defines Pete's writing style then his setting. However, I also agree that if someone else were to try and create something set in Sluggy Freelance, for best results they should probably emulate and pay homage to the sort of acceptable absurdity. An important point to add to that, though, is that Pete is a difficult writer to follow since he balances the use of drama and comedy in the same story, and to get similar results someone would have to understand and recognize how Pete writes.

I don't know if a non-Sluggy comic strip, short story or whatever set in the Sluggyverse would have all that many recognizable characteristics, unless there were cameos by the regular crowd or organizations like HC. It isn't like there are any special "rules" that differentiate it from the real world, except for a few Pete throws in through Riff's inventions and Gwynn's dabbling with the Book of E-ville.

Er... I kind of laid out all my points in the first post about what I thought a Sluggy Setting could have to be recognizable - you could disagree, and say I didn't have enough points, but I have in part already answered your point.