The Most Creative TTRPG Settings and Milieus

[Ralif Redhammer]

People today often do much worse than "not buy a product."

Look, they can do whatever they want, but I would rather see positive statements of inclusion and joy than picking fights that are inevitably going to feed the trolls and encourage them to brigade and review bomb.

Been thinking about this, and I think it is important to make our entertainment, games, media, books, all unfriendly to fascists. D&D and DCC RPG have gone the route of using positive inclusivity to that end. But it is also valid to pick fights with fascists. Entertainment is filled with people doing that. The aforementioned Spire explicitly placed the PCs in the roles of the oppressed fighting their oppressors. The goal should be to make fascists and bigots feel unwelcome. Leave them with awful games like the terrible MYFAROG and puerile Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Games that are the opposite of creative.

Let me put forth X-crawl. System is basically 3.5 D&D.

Setting is:

It's Earth where Roman culture never fell, and Christianity remains an underground cult. America is run by Ronald Reagan, who takes advice from a magical, intelligent short sword.

The main event for the 'bread and circuses' is X-Crawl, or televised dungeon crawling that mixes in adventuring with WWE style theatrics. You can be a babyface or a heel - and that affects play. Another cool idea: all flaming weapons are made only by one company, thundering another, etc - so getting a sponsorship to get enchants is a thing.

You can develop special actions, like being able to shape your Wall of Fire to read 'We Love You Detroit!'.

Sadly, I'd moved before my friends started a campaign of it, so I only know it second-hand, but I definitely remember the tales of the Stunning Scotsman and his being able to successfully grapple a hydra. Briefly.

XCC is pretty darn cool, darn gonzo. I am looking forward to sitting down and reading the XCC RPG book that was just released when I have the time.

 

[Reynard]

But it is also valid to pick fights with fascists.

Sure it is valid. But it is also very likely counterproductive.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Let me put forth X-crawl. System is basically 3.5 D&D.

I fell in love with this setting and premise after playing a one-shot of XCC. I had a cockamamie scheme to do a side-quest mini-campaign of it during a Spire campaign I was running, using a hack someone put together of Homebrew World. Sadly, it never worked out.

 

[Laurefindel]

I am interested in hearing what games, settings and milieus in TTRPGs you personally find to be highly creative, original and fresh.

I was about to nominate Forgotten Realms and the Warhammer RPGs (both fantasy and 40K) as the are still highly creative, original, but admittedly no longer fresh. Same with Star Wars as a setting; very creative, kept surprisingly "fresh", but I wonder to what extent I'd say original as they keep recycling old themes? Still one of my favourite setting to play in though, and one that let me be most creative as a GM. Eberron was a fresh and creative take on D&D settings... 20 years ago. Another of my favourites but also no longer "fresh" (fresher than FR though).

Invisible Sun is probably has my vote here, with an honourable mention for DIE RPG. I wish I had a better memory for these things; I remember reading about a few indie games and thinking "that's original and creative and fresh!" but of course I can't quite remember how they were called and what made them so original and creative and fresh.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some faves from my collection:

Paranoia!
RIFTS
Space:1889
Numenara
X-Crawl
Deadlands
Dream Park
Underground

Some of these I’ve barely used the rules, but instead, adapted the settings for use with another TTRPG’s system (typically HERO). The prime example of this is the setting of Space:1889, which I used as the backdrop for supers games circa 1900 (in HERO), and 1914 (in M&M).

 

[MGibster]

Deadlands

Way back in 1996, I couldn't believe a game like Deadlands was published. The western as a genre wasn't exactly popular at the time and I really didn't think the game would ever be as successful as it was. I consider it one of the best original games to come out of the 1990s.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Way back in 1996, I couldn't believe a game like Deadlands was published. The western as a genre wasn't exactly popular at the time and I really didn't think the game would ever be as successful as it was. I consider it one of the best original games to come out of the 1990s.

Today it can kinda seem like there's a ton of weird west out there, but back then, between original Deadlands and the Joe Lansdale's Jonah Hex revival, it really felt like we were seeing a new genre invented out of whole cloth.

And I know the Dark Tower was a thing before that, but I think that's sort of its own animal.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Warhammer and Earthdawn for me. Settings were fun.

I do enjoy The Witcher setting but not from the TTRPG but from the computer game, use the World Book that was published way before the TTRPG came out.

 

[overgeeked]

Been thinking about this, and I think it is important to make our entertainment, games, media, books, all unfriendly to fascists. D&D and DCC RPG have gone the route of using positive inclusivity to that end. But it is also valid to pick fights with fascists. Entertainment is filled with people doing that. The aforementioned Spire explicitly placed the PCs in the roles of the oppressed fighting their oppressors. The goal should be to make fascists and bigots feel unwelcome. Leave them with awful games like the terrible MYFAROG and puerile Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Games that are the opposite of creative.

Exactly. Screw the fascists and their feelings. They are always the enemy even if they don’t feature prominently in a game. Hiding and not picking fights does nothing but preemptively yield space and ground.

XCC is pretty darn cool, darn gonzo. I am looking forward to sitting down and reading the XCC RPG book that was just released when I have the time.

The newest version looks fantastic. The setting is batshit in the best possible way. It really does fit the DCC RPG engine like a glove.

 

[hawkeyefan]

For example, I think Spire is, well, inspired from a setting perspective as well as a game perspective. It relies less on old tropes and really embraces its own private milieu. Full disclosure: I have not had a chance to play it yet but have read it and talked to folks who really like it.

Yeah, Spire would be near the top of my list. It's a really great setting, and there's no other game that's really similar. It's vitally important to play, as well.

Heart, the sister setting of Spire, is also pretty imaginative. It's basically a living dungeon that warps itself based on the desires of its inhabitants (or at least, its limited understanding of their desires). It's less specific in a way because of its nature, but the nature of the setting is designed specifically with gaming in mind.

RIFTS

I mean, the setting is so bonkers and over the top in such a great way that people actually endure the rules to try and play the game. I absolutely loved the setting when I was younger, and I think it's just jam packed with tons of ideas.