Suggestions for a fluffy setting?

[Mean DM]

Greetings! I am thinking about running a future game with a non-D20 system (Burning Wheel) and was hoping to pick your brains. My dilemma is this...What would be a good setting to mine? I'm looking for a standard fantasy setting that is either system-free or light on crunch. Basically a moderate magic setting with plenty of room for heroic drama. I'd like at least one big city that is fleshed out as a base of operations. And the biggest selling point will be a boat load of plot hooks and simmering politics and conflict . At this point I am tempted with Kalamar, but am interested if there are others with a similar feel. Midnight (currently using it) and Eberron (not to my personal taste) are out. FR and the Diamond Throne are contenders, but do not know how easy it would be to mine. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanx for you help!

Mean DM

 

[greywulf]

Might sound all daft and retro nowadays but I'd go for the original setting from old D&D for your needs. Give the players chance to visit a magocracy in Glantri or Alphatia, enter an Arena in Thyatis or even cruise into the Hollow World for some Aztec-and-Dinosaur action. I'm in the middle of preparing a d20-based return to that world for my players, and we're all itching at the prospect of whomping the Black Eagle Barony one more time

 

[haiiro]

I played a session at last year's GenCon with Burning Wheel's creator, and two settings came up during table chatter: Midnight and Middle Earth. One of the other players (who'd had a lot of experience with BW) brought up Midnight, and Luke brought up Middle-Earth -- and agreed that both were a good fit for the game: passionate, relatively low magic, character-driven -- all things that BW is very, very good at.

I've never looked at Midnight, but I can vouch for the Decipher LotR RPG being relatively system-light: there's a lot of fluff in the core book (I don't have any of the others). Both sound like excellent choices to me.

If you haven't already, you might want to pop this same question on the BW boards.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

http://www.tekumel.com/

 

[Ryltar]

Planescape. Iron Kingdoms. Dark Legacies.

 

[SWBaxter]

Greetings! I am thinking about running a future game with a non-D20 system (Burning Wheel) and was hoping to pick your brains. My dilemma is this...What would be a good setting to mine? I'm looking for a standard fantasy setting that is either system-free or light on crunch. Basically a moderate magic setting with plenty of room for heroic drama. I'd like at least one big city that is fleshed out as a base of operations. And the biggest selling point will be a boat load of plot hooks and simmering politics and conflict .

Harn. Most of the sourcebooks are system-free, there's ridiculous amounts of detail available on most of the cities and countries if you want it, and it's got a metric boatload of politics and conflict going on. Best part is that none of the supplements resolve any of the plothooks, everything is dated 720 TR and where it goes from there is completely up to the individual group.

If you go that route, I'd recommend getting HarnWorld, which gives an overview of the world and a fair amount of detail on the island of Harn. Pick one of the Harn kingdoms in which to run your game - a popular choice for political intrigue is Kaldor, which as of 720 TR is about to be plunged into a succession crisis that may lead to civil war - and if you're so inclined buy the kingdom module for that kingdom, and/or a module covering one of the manors to use as a home base. Depends on how much detail you want, I find that just the HarnWorld book is good enough for my purposes.

 

[Mean DM]

Thanx for the tips folks! I will give Midnight another thought. We are currently playing there at the moment and I was kinda wanting a change. But you have a point that it does fit well with BW and there is certainly enough of a continent to move to a less hazardous environment (the players are currently at Baden's Bluff). And this might just be the excuse to get the 2nd edition book too!!

As for Harn...I am already a dedicated collector of both Kelestia and Columbia Games . Kaldor and Kanday are sitting on the shelf beside me. But to be honest, I have never gamed there. If I could track down Melderyn at a reasonable price, I might be tempted. It is a bit too bad teeth and tattered clothes for BW IMHO. I know other Harn fans have done it, but I think it would be a tad hard for me to pull off. But I will adventure on the Misty Isle one of these days...I have too much inverted in the product line!

I kinda like the Idea of Middle Earth. A Fourth Age campaign is appealing. I think I have Decipher's LOTR on my shelf too (did I already say I was a compulsive collecter?). Let me think on this.....It is growing on me.

Cheers,

Mean DM

 

[morrigan]

Greetings! I am thinking about running a future game with a non-D20 system (Burning Wheel) and was hoping to pick your brains. My dilemma is this...What would be a good setting to mine? I'm looking for a standard fantasy setting that is either system-free or light on crunch. Basically a moderate magic setting with plenty of room for heroic drama. I'd like at least one big city that is fleshed out as a base of operations. And the biggest selling point will be a boat load of plot hooks and simmering politics and conflict . At this point I am tempted with Kalamar, but am interested if there are others with a similar feel. Midnight (currently using it) and Eberron (not to my personal taste) are out. FR and the Diamond Throne are contenders, but do not know how easy it would be to mine. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanx for you help!

Mean DM

Atlantis: The Second Age being released at Gencon fills all your requirements. If you can't wait til August, try to find a copy of the old Atlantis The Lost World book by Bard Games on ebay. You won't be sorry.

Cheers,
Scott Agnew
Morrigan Press Inc.