Other than vaguely European medieval fantasy...

I find that after many years, my eye is wandering away from European medieval fantasy and looking for something more exotic. What are some other types of secondary world fantasy types of games that you've run in the past, or have a hankering to run in the future?

I'm familiar with several published settings for fiction or gaming that do this: vaguely Asian settings like Rokugan or Kara-Tur, vaguely African settings like Imaro's setting or Nyambe, vaguely Pre-columbian meso-American (Maztica), Arabian Nights, (Al Qadim), etc. etc.

More interested in either 1) personal examples of stuff you'd done that I can't just google or wiki up, and 2) ideas for how to make my setting have the type of feel that I want for it.

For a long time, I've called my setting an equal parts mixture of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom, H. P. Lovecraft, Sergio Leone and Charles Dickens, with game set-ups and adventures that feel like recycled Robert Ludlum plots. As my setting has evolved, I've minimized some of the urban dystopia and the alien-world natures of it, and I'd now describe it as a hybrid of the Hyborian Age, Sergio Leone, Rafael Sabatini, Pirates of the Caribbean, Clan of the Cave Bear, and The Mummy.

If that sounds incoherent; well, that's what I'm concerned about as well. It's a little tricky to mix cowboys and indians, pirates, sabertooths, Arabian Nights, and ancient horrors slumbering in nameless cities under the shifting sands. But, I can't think of anything I want to take out either.

Personally, I've been writing a post-Apocalyptic campaign for a couple of years, including all kinds of interesting elements. I also have a War of the Worlds campaign set in an Urban Fantasy setting, and my campaign featuring a fusion of Supers and HG Wells/Jules Verne/Space: 1889/etc.

Someone else on these boards has one that he's basing on Saturday morning cartoons like Thundarr the Barbarian and others.

If you're worried about jarring player sensibilities, sit down a minute and look at RIFTS.

Would an "All Viking-All the Time" setting be unique enough from bog-standard medieval fantasy to count?

Hobo said:

More interested in either 1) personal examples of stuff you'd done that I can't just google or wiki up, and 2) ideas for how to make my setting have the type of feel that I want for it.

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Well, for (2) we would need to know not so much what your current setting is, so much as what feel you are looking for.

As for (1), at the moment I'm working with alternate history fantasy in Deadlands. It is exotic insofar as the basis is not much like the current world - the Wild West being a woollier place with notably different social mores. While my players have some handle on that genre, the magic and changes in history keep them on their toes.

Outside of urban games, my favorite settings are deserts and jungles. I'm going to be running another Colonize the Jungle Continent game again here soon. I also think a Feywild-based campaign would be so far afield from typical Euro-fantasy - more like playing in Wonderland.

One setting that I have had an idea for is something like so: the world is new. The Gods just whipped it up, and the PCs are of the first generation of sentient humanoids. So, nothing has been done before. Figure it out. Go, be the first legends, the ones of myth.

I've seen talk of people playing in very Primitive Land-of-the-Lost style games (Dinosaurs and tribes and so on); back in the print days of Dungeon, this style campaign was fleshed out extensively in Dungeoncraft articles. I think Earthdawn sounds fairly non-Euro fantasy. Exalted's setting is like Greco-Roman fantasy and Mythic China jumped in a blender with a heavy helping of Anime.

There was a great storyhour (or PbP?) here set in medieval SE Asia (invoking a vietnam/cambodia-feel)

I've played fun campaigns set inspired by the Kingdoms of the African Sahel (mainly Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and the Hausa states (*who irl had chainmail wearing, horse mounted warriors with lances))

Another campaign world (my homebrew) was inspired by Kubilai Khans reign in China

and my lat campaign was set in Mythic Polynesia

Alternate history is good too
one of the favourite campaigns I played in was in a Solomon Kane-inspired 17th Century with strong Fae overtones (Lyonesse had risen and enveloped scotland, wales and ireland and the Protectorate of Britania was connected by land to (and encompassed) Northern France).

Tonguez said:

Alternate history is good too
one of the favourite campaigns I played in was in a Solomon Kane-inspired 17th Century with strong Fae overtones (Lyonesse had risen and enveloped scotland, wales and ireland and the Protectorate of Britania was connected by land to (and encompassed) Northern France).

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Alternate futures can be even better...

One of these days, if I can convince my players to play along, I want to run a campaign based off of the premise, "It's yesterday's world of tomorrow today!" It would be a near future game, and be rooted in what people 60 years ago thought the world would be like 60 years from then.

I have in the past run a RIFTS-like game, set in post-apocalyptic North America, using D20 Modern rules with modified 3E adventure modules. That was a lot of fun, for the brief period we played it.

When Gamma World and Dark Sun come out this fall, I've a hankering to mash them together and run a game reminiscent of Thundarr the Barbarian.

Check out Imaro by Charles Saunders. First two books are very sword and sordery feel and move up into epic in the last two. Fantasy africa essentially but fantasy Africa via Sword and sorcery as opposed to some epic fantasy (at first.) Amazon has the first two and the last two are lulu. Good stuff.

Umbran said:

Well, for (2) we would need to know not so much what your current setting is, so much as what feel you are looking for.

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Like... further down in the thread you quoted?

Hobo said:

It's a little tricky to mix cowboys and indians, pirates, sabertooths, Arabian Nights, and ancient horrors slumbering in nameless cities under the shifting sands. But, I can't think of anything I want to take out either.

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JoeGKushner said:

Check out Imaro by Charles Saunders. First two books are very sword and sordery feel and move up into epic in the last two. Fantasy africa essentially but fantasy Africa via Sword and sorcery as opposed to some epic fantasy (at first.) Amazon has the first two and the last two are lulu. Good stuff.

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Mentioned that one specifically in my first post too.