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Wilderlands of High Fantasy - Wots...Uh The Deal?
- Thread starter elijah snow
- Start date
Odhanan
Adventurer
Okay, Eberron is more a blend of "Noir", "Pulp fantasy" and modern Steampunk (or magio-techno-steam-punk stuff, if you will). It has weird savage continents like Xen'Drik, but also towering metropolises like Sharn, the detective with his large hat, smoking a pipe, waiting for the last airship to leave the airport (i.e. Noir aesthetics), mechanical golgoths powered by magic and roughly made of wood and metal parts, steaming and breathing clouds of black smoke, dark murders with many groups and organizations backstabbing each other, that kind of stuff. It's a huge blend.Kunimatyu said:
Wilderlands is much more about pulp fictions. It's more like going into adventures in the wilderness with Conan or Tarzan, discovering forbidden bloody cults in jungles like in stories of Howard or Lovecraft, it's mixed with some sci-fi elements (and I mean true "aliens came to this world in space ships" sci-fi, not something that would just look like it). It's a bit like role-playing Eberron without all the techno-magic and noir elements, just on Xen'Drik or similar isolated areas of Eberron.
Well, there's two different kind of pulp; there's more, but let's stick to two. One form of pulp is fantasy inspired, Conan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leiber, etc. The other is 1930's to modern t inspired, King Kong, Maltese Falcon, Indiana Jones, etc.
In my mind Wilderlands is of the first type. You have grey (not really good or evil) heroes struggling in a harsh world. You have over the top beasts and bizarre locales (dark gods, evil sorcerers, and buxom princesses). Heroes sometimes fail and get hurt.
In the later category, the locale is important, but the focus is on the protagonist. Generally the protagonist is almost always good and fight against obvious evil (King Kong really does blur the line there). The pulp is very cinematic and there's no concept of death or failure for the heroes.
Eberron falls into this group since it includes a lot of post World War I flair. I believe the Mummy and Indiana Jones are listed as inspiration.
Pulp, in general, is pretty controversial, so ask 100 people and you'll get 101 different answers.
In my mind Wilderlands is of the first type. You have grey (not really good or evil) heroes struggling in a harsh world. You have over the top beasts and bizarre locales (dark gods, evil sorcerers, and buxom princesses). Heroes sometimes fail and get hurt.
In the later category, the locale is important, but the focus is on the protagonist. Generally the protagonist is almost always good and fight against obvious evil (King Kong really does blur the line there). The pulp is very cinematic and there's no concept of death or failure for the heroes.
Eberron falls into this group since it includes a lot of post World War I flair. I believe the Mummy and Indiana Jones are listed as inspiration.
Pulp, in general, is pretty controversial, so ask 100 people and you'll get 101 different answers.
Akrasia
Procrastinator
I'm a big fan of creating and running 'homebrew' settings...
... But the Wilderlands is the first published setting that has made me want to use it for my games in decades. (At least since the ICE 'Middle-earth' campaign modules and the TSR 'Known World/Mystara' gazetteers from the mid-1980s.)
(I wasn't really aware of Judges Guild when I first got into role-playing games around 1980; however, since discovering Necromancer's 'new' stuff for the Wilderlands, I've picked up a fair number of the original products on e-bay.)
If you're interested in using the Wilderlands, I would strongly recommend getting the Players' Guide for a good overview of the setting.
... But the Wilderlands is the first published setting that has made me want to use it for my games in decades. (At least since the ICE 'Middle-earth' campaign modules and the TSR 'Known World/Mystara' gazetteers from the mid-1980s.)
(I wasn't really aware of Judges Guild when I first got into role-playing games around 1980; however, since discovering Necromancer's 'new' stuff for the Wilderlands, I've picked up a fair number of the original products on e-bay.)
If you're interested in using the Wilderlands, I would strongly recommend getting the Players' Guide for a good overview of the setting.
elijah snow said:
I'd definitely go with the Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set. The Player's Guide, while good, doesn't hold a candle to the boxed set, which is the best d20 product I own. The City-State book is mostly a city. Though cool, how can it compare to the whole of the Wilderlands?
Here is a link to my review of the boxed set:
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13976
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