[I posted this awhile back on the old boards, but I’m always interested in new feedback.]
D&D makes a lot of tacit assumptions about how the game world works, and most campaigns naturally follow along. If you'd like a very different flavor, it might require only some tiny changes. Give a few of these a try:
For a whole 'nuther kettle of fish, realize that your fantasy world doesn't have to resemble the late Middle Ages. You can try:
D&D makes a lot of tacit assumptions about how the game world works, and most campaigns naturally follow along. If you'd like a very different flavor, it might require only some tiny changes. Give a few of these a try:
- Have all the players run characters of the same race and class: a troop of mercenaries, a band of outlaws, an order of knights, whatever. Not every party has to be the fellowship of the ring.
- Have the characters either be a family or have families (or start families).
- Eliminate monsters. Or keep them in the background awhile. Fighting human enemies should be plenty exciting, and when the evil sorcerer finally summons his demonic allies, it means something.
- Stick to just a handful of monsters. Choose either goblins or kobolds or orcs as your cannon fodder, and rely on class levels or different equipment to differentiate them.
- Base your goblins and elves on folklore, not modern fantasy. Have them rely on magical deception (not studded leather and a morningstar) to get the job done.
- Have the monsters be something that can be dealt with by wits, such as with riddles or tricks. In folklore, magic is often just knowing the strengths and weaknesses of various beasts, knowing what they like and dislike, knowing how to talk to them, etc. The key to killing the dragon isn't having a stronger sword arm; it's knowing that the dragon has a soft underbelly, and if you dig a ditch, he'll crawl over you and expose it.
- Don't forget animals. Talking animals are a staple of fairy tales and fantasy, and some animals are natural predators of monsters the heroes might face (e.g. mongoose or weasel vs. basilisk or poisonous snake, giant owl vs. dire rats or were-rats, tiny mouse vs. elephant, etc.)
- Have an enemy. Despite all the dark overlords in fantasy fiction, few of them last past an adventure or two in D&D.
- Drop the "flavored" classes. Ranger, Paladins, Monks, Bards, Clerics, and Druids all bring a distinct "D&D" flavor to the game. Optionally, make their class abilities feats that other classes might take. Let Fighters take Rage and Favored Enemy as feats.
- Implement priests as Sorcerers or Wizards (with the Cleric spell list) so that they're wise men, not warriors. Same with Druids. Make Turn Undead a 1st-level Cleric spell, and have Druids cast Polymorph Self to shapeshift.
- Let Clerics turn any and all supernatural creatures not just the undead. In folklore, goblins and trolls can't stand the sound of church bells.
- Make the spellcasting classes prestige classes with prerequisites. After all, isn't it odd that a Bard with four skill ranks in Perform is good enough to enchant people with his music? And that a Druid that barely knows his way around the woods knows enough of nature's secrets to command it? Should every religious figure wield powerful magic? On a daily basis? 0-level Druid spells could all require, say, 8 skill ranks in Wilderness Lore and Knowledge (Nature). A 5th-level Expert on those topics could then take one level of Sorcerer and take only nature spells onto his spell list. Similarly, 0-level healing spells might require 8 ranks in Healing and Knowledge (Nature), and a high-level Ranger might take a few levels of Sorceror with a few healing spells (requiring rare herbs, naturally).
- Don't give back spellcasters their full power after one night's rest and some study/prayer time. Make recharging require rare magical ingredients, or blood sacrifice, or a selfless act of piety. Or simply make it take longer. That way spellcasters won't toss spells left and right, but they'll have them for when they need them.
- Try a different set of combat rules, like Ken Hood's Grim-n-Gritty Hit Point and Combat Rules or any variant that doesn't keep giving extra hit dice ad infinitum. Instead of increasing hit points, you can increase armor class. This makes magical healing less necessary, even if you keep the heroes at roughly the same power level.
- Remove spellcasting entirely. Have all magic through magic items.
- Make spellcasting always take a full round or more. Suddenly spellcasters aren't video game characters.
- Have magic transform its user. Over time, necromancers grow pale and withered. Fire mages start giving off sparks when angry; eventually their hair turns to living fire. Shapeshifters take on the traits of the animals they become.
- Limit all sorcerers to a strongly themed spell list. For instance, a "fey" list of just: daze, dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation, obscuring mist, charm person, hypnotism, sleep, change self, ..., polymorph. Or a summoner list of just the Summon Monster spells. You can make an entire magics system out of just summoning (e.g. Elric).
- Eliminate all directly-damaging spells. It's not like wizards can't do any harm without magic missile and fireball, and they're certainly more interesting that way. Or just make all those spells more difficult. Besides, isn't a wizard supposed to turn you into a frog?
- Have the heroes be the only spellcasters in the world -- or the only good spellcasters in the world, hiding their powers from their evil enemies.
- Make all magic easy to "track" with Detect Magic, so covert spellcasters won't want to cast indiscriminately. Make flashy evocations (e.g. Fireball) particularly easy to track.
- Have magic items be gifts from powerful allies, not loot from enemies (who have an odd penchant for leaving magic cloaks in the closet).
- Have Knowledge (History) provide characters with the names of weapons, their powers, any magic words they need to activate them, etc. That way the wise wizard (who really should have plenty of knowledge skills) doesn't cast a spell to uncover an item's powers; he looks it over, mumbles to himself, then announces that this must be the long, lost whatever, used in the great wars against whomever's army, etc.
- Have magic items' powers reveal themselves to the characters gradually, based on their actions and what they learn about them. Rather than having a Fighter find a +2 sword and ditch his "worthless" +1 sword, he can discover new powers in his original sword with the help of the wizard (or ancient elf, or crotchety dwarf, or talking animal) he rescued.
- Provide treasure with a place in the world: armor once worn by the current king in his youth, works of art by a now-mad mage, historical documents, etc.
For a whole 'nuther kettle of fish, realize that your fantasy world doesn't have to resemble the late Middle Ages. You can try:
- Renaissance Europe -- gunpowder, pikemen, halberdiers, lots of breastplates, but few full suits of armor
- Ancient Rome -- iron age, few long swords, lots of spears and short swords, soldiers in chain mail or breast plate (actually lorica segmentata)
- Ancient Greece -- bronze age; if everyone's using bronze, you might not need any special rules for it
- Dark Ages -- for most of the middle ages, plate armor was not available, and neither were the various reinforced forms of mail (splint, banded), bastard swords and great swords weren't around, many polearms weren't common; a soldier in a full hauberk of mail was a serious threat
- Early Bronze Age -- read some Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan) for some good stories of primitive heroes; imagine combat with spears, bows, hides for armor, etc.
- Napoleonic -- Castle Falkenstein (the original or the GURPS version) might be a better option for this
- Age of Sail -- pirates, 'nuff said
- Age of Conquest -- it's eerie just how similar the Conquistadors were to D&D adventurers, going from place to place, killing (with "magic" weapons and armor) and looting, making some allies, then leading a big attack on the supervillain's castle (Mexico city, a metropolis of stone pyramids built on a lake in an extinct volcano).
- Age of Steam -- everyone loves intricate brass clockwork
- Modern -- D&D doesn't seem to handle this too well, but you can try it
As you know, I have integrated several such ideas into my own campaign. I love variety, and departing from the standard 14th century European model. Having said that, I also like the 14th century European model, too, but variety is cool.
