D&D Settings but not D&D

[Viking Bastard]

The only reason, I'd think. But you've really got to love the setting and really dislike the mechanics to do that, I believe.

Depends on what system you're converting to and how you approach it. Not all systems need everything statted out.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Some friends of mine once expressed the view that D&D isn't a good fit for Dark Sun. They saw D&D as being gonzo and cinematic, while Dark Sun is grim n' gritty.

Eberron would probably be better served by a 1920s pulp or Indiana Jones type of system such as Spirit of the Century. Ironically, here I think D&D isn't cinematic enough, it's too rooted in battlegrid gamism and/or the prodding with ten foot poles style of play. Although Eberron is replete with trap and monster filled ruins, it doesn't want to approach them in at all the same kind of way that D&D does. The action needs to be much more fast and furious, and much less Tomb of Horrors-y.

Back in the 90's I did a RQ2 conversion for Dark Sun, which felt more closely allied to the themes for me: fragile weapons, limbs being maimed, powerful cults, dark and dangerous. Nice!

I also did a RQ2 conversion of Eberron which worked nicely. War forged were a little mor distinct mechanically (heh) and it meant that a number of green claw mercenaries were still a threat to experienced heroes without level inflation of bad guys.

 

[amerigoV]

I agree that that is kind of funny. Ironic, even. Despite the fact that Eberron was the only setting for the post 2e world designed specifically to be an official setting for the D&D rules, it doesn't seem to feel particularly D&Dish in many ways. This probably also explains the polarized response to it; some people really love it, and many really hate it. Among the haters, the fact that it "doesn't feel like D&D" seems to be a commonly repeated refrain.

I attribute that to what Eberron WANTs to be vs. what it is under 3.5. I'll put it in terms of the Cars movies - Mater can wish to be a Ferrari all he wants, but he always will be a tow-truck. Two-fisted pulp action has a need for speed that 3.5 just does not have especially as you go up in level (on the other hand, nothing does "killing big things that man really should not fight in any normal world" better than D&D).


On Savage Worlds and Iffy. I have found one has to "unlearn what you have learned via D&D" to really get into Savage Worlds. It usually helps playing a different genre than fantasy to judge the system. But to each their own.

 

[lin_fusan]

If the OP wants more Planescape-related material, these articles might help:

Dragon #287: Fractious Factions
Dragon #339: Dead Factions (this one is mine! Hee hee!)
Dragon #351: Gatetown of Ecstasy

Also, Paizo's Savage Tide's last 4 adventures has a lot of planehopping. Their Shackled City Adventure Path mention Carceri at the last adventure, but I don't know if the PCs go there.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Within the entire D20 multiverse, Eberron would probably work best in Mutants & Masterminds with its Books of Magic and Warlocks & Warriors supplements.

 

[S'mon]

On Savage Worlds and Iffy. I have found one has to "unlearn what you have learned via D&D" to really get into Savage Worlds. It usually helps playing a different genre than fantasy to judge the system. But to each their own.

One issue I had with SW was that when I played it, I played in-genre for the game (War of the Dead, modern survival horror, we were told to make 'normal people'). I treated my flaws as flaws. Another guy (a) took the same flaw as me and played it as a virtue, and (b) played it as D&D - and he was rewarded by the system for doing so, on both counts. It seemed like it would be a good system for playing Duke Nukem as a PC, or Ash in Medieval Dead - but not Ash early in Evil Dead, or anything like a 'normal person'.
Also, the zombies were made super-hard to kill; but this didn't make them scary - our PCs were still extremely robust so it just turned combat into a grindy whiff-fest. In fact I remember learning to dread combat, it was so dreary, which seemed like the opposite of the way the game was supposed to work.

 

[amerigoV]

Also, the zombies were made super-hard to kill; but this didn't make them scary -

That means your GM needs to unlearn what they have learned . As a GM, making too many high toughness / Wild Cards gets this result (grindy). I've seen that happen a number of times (self included) from former D&D GMs. Too bad that was your experience with the system.

I ran some zombie action in both Ravenloft and in Pinnacle's Wild Hunt. I added a bit of spice like when you hit a zombie that would just result in a Shaken fun stuff would happen -- split open their guts and intestines start to grapple you, noxious gas emits from the body, cut their legs off but they still keep coming, etc. That's the kind of stuff that creeped my players out without making the zombies "tough" or super hard to kill. Horror is not about making things hard, it about making them unsettling and scary.

 

[the Jester]

I've done it the other way- a friend ran a 3e D&D game set in the Warhammer Fantasy world. Excellent fun.

 

[Blackwind]

There is a Planescape-inspired supplement for Dungeon World in development, called the Planarch Codex.

[Dungeon World: Planarch Codex] A Mini-Supplement - Story Games : Tabletop Roleplaying 2.0

It looks pretty awesome.

That said, I do still love some of the classic D&D settings, Planescape included, but I would be unlikely to run any of them using D&D these days. Dungeon World or The Shadow of Yesterday would be higher on my list. If I did use D&D, I would probably use OSRIC.

 

[Southern Oracle]

If the OP wants more Planescape-related material, these articles might help:

Dragon #287 : Fractious Factions

And that one is mine!