Give me a setting... that I can dig.

[WhatGravitas]

Okay, I'm planning for a new campaign with my group this summer (and hence will be using 4E) - but I need a setting I can wrap my head around.

Some of my preferences:
- I like Wheel of Time a lot, at least the atmosphere - mainly because of the wealth of implied cultures, recurring characters and themes and his names, I guess I also enjoy their interaction.
- But I also dig Mieville's Bas-Lag novels. I like his style and the weirdness and brutality of his world.
- I definitively like pulpy and/or S&S influences. And give me more tentacles, i.e. Lovecraftian, inhuman, alien histories. Like "At the Mountains of Madness".
- I also have a certain penchant for "scientific" magic, less for the whimsical "dark arts" magic of S&S.
- I need grit and darker fantasy.

I've considered Eberron (and used it in the past), but there are some hindrances:
- The map. The scale just... bothers me to no end, it gives me mile-wide rivers (because some rivers are broad enough to be more than a blue line).
- The over-abundance of civilization: Too much explored on Khorvaire, especially for its size. Even if I use the original scale to get more "wilderness", the distances between centres get insanely large. Basically, I want a bit more medieval/dark age/PoL atmosphere. I don't like that a lot is shoved into Xen'drik.
- Sometimes too happy: Well, the empire of Galifar is a notch too perfect for me - over 800 years of peaceful development.
- Sometimes tries too hard to be different: Less of a bother for me, but for my players - they want normal Drow. The broad magic is sometimes too pervasive (I also have the feeling that this changes a lot from book to book). And as a DM, I want a looot more ancient empires. I don't like that a lot is shoved into Xen'drik.

Right now, I'm planning to rip Eberron apart, inject a bit of Iron Kingdoms, a bit of Call of Cthulhu, and a bit of Points of Light. And I guess I will get my "dream setting" out of it.

But there's the off-chance that there's
a) a perfect setting for me out there, and
b) that there are more settings that could serve as inspiration.

So, shoot me your settings.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Desdichado]

Right now, I'm planning to rip Eberron apart, inject a bit of Iron Kingdoms, a bit of Call of Cthulhu, and a bit of Points of Light. And I guess I will get my "dream setting" out of it.

Wow. I could certainly run with that right there.

 

[Pinotage]

Reality Deviant Publications has the Blood Throne Setting. It's for True20, but might be what you're after. Gritty, with gunpowder and fire arms, ascendant technology (machines, sciency stuff), and various othes interesting things like bone shamans, fetishes, and other cool stuff. It's a great setting, and well worth a look at.

Pinotage

 

[DarkKestral]

I believe a Bas-Lag setting is in the works. I can't recall who is publishing it though. I think Green Ronin? However, AFAIK, it's supposed to be released here soon... along with mechanics to suit.

 

[Voadam]

I believe a Bas-Lag setting is in the works. I can't recall who is publishing it though. I think Green Ronin? However, AFAIK, it's supposed to be released here soon... along with mechanics to suit.

Adamant Entertainment I believe.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Reality Deviant Publications has the Blood Throne Setting. It's for True20, but might be what you're after. Gritty, with gunpowder and fire arms, ascendant technology (machines, sciency stuff), and various othes interesting things like bone shamans, fetishes, and other cool stuff. It's a great setting, and well worth a look at.

Pinotage

Thanks, I'm looking at the preview of the Player's Guide right now... and it's cool. Definitively an inspiration, maybe more!

Cheers, LT.

 

[Voadam]

Okay, I'm planning for a new campaign with my group this summer (and hence will be using 4E) - but I need a setting I can wrap my head around.

Some of my preferences:
- I like Wheel of Time a lot, at least the atmosphere - mainly because of the wealth of implied cultures, recurring characters and themes and his names, I guess I also enjoy their interaction.
- But I also dig Mieville's Bas-Lag novels. I like his style and the weirdness and brutality of his world.
- I definitively like pulpy and/or S&S influences. And give me more tentacles, i.e. Lovecraftian, inhuman, alien histories. Like "At the Mountains of Madness".
- I also have a certain penchant for "scientific" magic, less for the whimsical "dark arts" magic of S&S.
- I need grit and darker fantasy.

There is a Wheel of Time d20 game by WotC and a non-RPG Illustrated Guide to the Wheel of Time that would be a great basis for using the setting in an RPG. I have both and recommend them heartily (though I have not heard good things about the WoTd20 adventure).

I haven't read Mieville so I can't comment on that.

Dark fantasy I always think of WFRP with its Chaos cults (there is a great Illustrated Encyclopedia for the world that is another great RPG setting guidebook) and the Michael Moorecock Elric world with decadent Melniboneans and chaos sworn pantangians. Plenty of room for Lovecraftian influence in both.

Scarred Lands is d20 but the campaign guides are pretty statless and I consider the aftermath of the apocalyptic gods war fairly brutal S&S with civilizations on the edge of falling and tons of monsters in the wilderness. Evil gods and dark titan cults give some dark fantasy lovecraft angles as well.

 

[Voadam]

Earthdawn originally by FASA then I think Living Room games and I think then Red Brick.

People emerging into a new world after having hid in magically protected Kaerns while godly cosmic horrors scoured the world in a huge epoch cycle. Has most D&D races plus others and advancing powerful magic that I think would fit well with 4e style high magic levels.

 

[davidschwartznz]

Given you're going to 4E, would it be blasphemous to suggest Pathfinder Chronicles (Paizo does love Lovecraft, Mieville, S&S, and classic D&D)?

 

[CruelSummerLord]

Okay, I'm planning for a new campaign with my group this summer (and hence will be using 4E) - but I need a setting I can wrap my head around.

Some of my preferences:
- I like Wheel of Time a lot, at least the atmosphere - mainly because of the wealth of implied cultures, recurring characters and themes and his names, I guess I also enjoy their interaction.
- But I also dig Mieville's Bas-Lag novels. I like his style and the weirdness and brutality of his world.
- I definitively like pulpy and/or S&S influences. And give me more tentacles, i.e. Lovecraftian, inhuman, alien histories. Like "At the Mountains of Madness".
- I also have a certain penchant for "scientific" magic, less for the whimsical "dark arts" magic of S&S.
- I need grit and darker fantasy.

So, shoot me your settings.

Cheers, LT.

Sounds like you might like Greyhawk, believe it or not. Gary Gygax and others have openly noted the Lovecraftian influences, especially with Tharizdun and the Elder Elemental God, and tentacles abound when the latter is considered. Conan, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and Jack Vance influences abound as well, so the pulp/swords and sorcery elements that you like are present as well.

There's also some science-type magic with the crashed starship in the Barrier Peaks, the presence of Wild West-influenced Murlynd and his "science tech", and also some of the stuff from Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, if you care to integrate it.

Greyhawk is often grim and gritty, or at least is sufficiently sketchy that you can insert it. There's mistrust and negative history in even supposedly Good-aligned countries, hideous evil through guys like Iuz and the Scarlet Brotherhood, and there's always plenty of room for new villains.

With a history that is alternately sketchy and detailled, Greyhawk has the capacity to be a very deep setting, depending on what canon you choose to integrate. Greyhawk's greatest strength is arguably its ability to let the DM pick and choose what he or she wants to put into the setting, and there's ample room for you to insert your own original villains and history to make the setting darker, if that's the way you want to go.


Greyhawk also avoids much of what you dislike about Eberron, most notably the fact that few of the countries had a really peaceful and happy development. Displaced peoples, expansionist empires, hidden secrets, and betrayed alliances are all rife in Greyhawk, and proposals to darken Greyhawk or show skeletons in the closet fit in quite comfortably with the setting. And in any case, if you want to go that way, Greyhawk offers ample room to do so.

Greyhawk is also a meat-and-potatoes setting. The drow originated here, and there are no Drizzt Do'Urdens running around, either. The drow of Greyhawk are all 100% pure, unsullied evil, and they know it. They not only know they're evil, they get off on the fact that they're rotten to the core.

It should also be noted that, despite the presence of so many countries, there's no guarantee that they're necessarily civilized. Especially since the Greyhawk Wars, a lot of civilization was wrecked, which leaves ample room for wilderness and new states, if that's the way you're inclined to go.

Also, don't feel the need to incorporate large amounts of canon into your setting. One thing that frustrates me about my fellow GH fans is their apparent need to conform as closely to established canon as possible in their writing, when Gygax clearly stated that his original intent was to give DMs room to flesh out the setting as they saw fit.