D&D General A Tall Tale Setting

[Indagare Nogitsune]

I previously posted a rather odd idea for a setting that was created by the Fey Courts and Dragon Courts. This was inspired by some of the Jack tales mixed with some Tall Tales (here in the US they involve such figures as Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, and Pecos Bill). These sorts of tales also tend to be creation myths that have an exaggerated and humorous style to them that I'm really not good at replicating.

I'm not sure anyone would be interested in anything like this but, if you are, please reply here or on the linked thread. I'm a guy with three jokes, so I can use all the help I can get. Also note that I really liked Xanth, but I don't think the setting needs to have a pun everywhere either.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I previously posted a rather odd idea for a setting that was created by the Fey Courts and Dragon Courts. This was inspired by some of the Jack tales mixed with some Tall Tales (here in the US they involve such figures as Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, and Pecos Bill). These sorts of tales also tend to be creation myths that have an exaggerated and humorous style to them that I'm really not good at replicating.

I'm not sure anyone would be interested in anything like this but, if you are, please reply here or on the linked thread. I'm a guy with three jokes, so I can use all the help I can get. Also note that I really liked Xanth, but I don't think the setting needs to have a pun everywhere either.

When I think "Xanth", the first thing that comes to mind aren't the puns, but the pedophilia

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

When I think "Xanth", the first thing that comes to mind aren't the puns, but the pedophilia

Oh dear.

 

[Steampunkette]

Also the misogyny of Chameleon. A woman who is dumb and beautiful, plain and moderately intelligent, or ugly and brilliant, based on a monthly cycle. And how Bink would get her pregnant while she was beautiful and then have to suffer the rest of the time when she was pissed at him for tricking her dumb version into sex...

It ain't great. I enjoyed the puns and stuff when I was a kid, but the older I got the worse the underlying material became.

Anywho. Yeah. A setting based on Tall Tales would be pretty cool. Could also include various critters the people made up to mess with each other like wolpertingers, snipes, axe cats, dunganvenhooters, and more. Could either use extant Tall Tales figures like the aforementioned Pecos Bill or invent new ones fitting the specific setting you want to use.

Bonus points if you write out some of the Tall Tales those new figures got their reputations from as chapter-headers and full page lore dumps across from full page illustrations of those characters.

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

Also the misogyny of Chameleon. A woman who is dumb and beautiful, plain and moderately intelligent, or ugly and brilliant, based on a monthly cycle. And how Bink would get her pregnant while she was beautiful and then have to suffer the rest of the time when she was pissed at him for tricking her dumb version into sex...

It ain't great. I enjoyed the puns and stuff when I was a kid, but the older I got the worse the underlying material became.

Ick. I mostly remember the puns; it's been a long time since I've read one, so I likely missed this the first time around (and this really isn't giving me a motive to do a second).

Anywho. Yeah. A setting based on Tall Tales would be pretty cool. Could also include various critters the people made up to mess with each other like wolpertingers, snipes, axe cats, dunganvenhooters, and more. Could either use extant Tall Tales figures like the aforementioned Pecos Bill or invent new ones fitting the specific setting you want to use.

nods I was already thinking that a lot of the Fearsome Critters would make for some really unique monsters in the setting. While the established folk heroes are nice, they're also sort of specific. Then again, there's nothing preventing me from doing a "based on".

Bonus points if you write out some of the Tall Tales those new figures got their reputations from as chapter-headers and full page lore dumps across from full page illustrations of those characters.

I can read through more Tall Tales and see if I can emulate them. I worry that it'd fall flat, though, since I don't consider myself very good at that sort of thing. Full page illustrations would require me hiring someone to do them, but I agree it'd be neat.

Honestly, if I had the funds, I'd just hire writers and illustrators for "Tales of Timberland" or maybe "Tales of the Lumberwood" that evolve into an entire world filled with Fearsome Critters and larger-than-life figures. Brave adventurers could even get their names added to the roster of known folklore heroes the setting is based around.

 

[Steampunkette]

I can read through more Tall Tales and see if I can emulate them. I worry that it'd fall flat, though, since I don't consider myself very good at that sort of thing. Full page illustrations would require me hiring someone to do them, but I agree it'd be neat.

Tall tales, myths, and legends are all told in the same way. The protagonist faces some quasi-impossible challenge and through a quirk of their birth or some impossibly powerful skill accomplishes the task anyway.

Whether that's Hercules, Pecos Bill, Gilgamesh, or the Monkey King.

They only thing that changes between the stories is the language used to convey it and their relative position to our contemporary understanding of time.

Gilbert Mexico was a real powerful man who could lift a log thicker'n a telephone pole and throw it clear across three miles before it planted itself upside down! Him and his best buddy Ian Kiddo would wrassle across the great plains and tear out furrows with their shenanigans. Once they even wrestled so hard that an old mountain god of the native folk, Himuwaba, got jostled off his mountain peak and bounded down the mountain! He was so sore he called up on the North Star to send a giant blue ox to fight those two boys. And for nigh on a fortnight and tore up the ground in what's now the Grand Canyon before those boys managed to wrassle that ox to the ground. And the North Star falls in love with Gilbert for his bravery and invited him up into the heavens to marry her. But seein' as how ol' Gil only ever wanted to spend his time with his pal Ian, he rejected the North Star's offer. And Gil and Ian'd spend the rest of their lives having wild adventures!

That's Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the story of their battle with the Bull of Heaven after offending Humbaba. Ishtar becomes the North Star and the Grand Canyon replaces mountains that the pair leveled fighting the Bull of Heaven.

Add a hint of folksy jargon and shift the names slightly westward and... wham. Tall Tale.

Honestly, if I had the funds, I'd just hire writers and illustrators for "Tales of Timberland" or maybe "Tales of the Lumberwood" that evolve into an entire world filled with Fearsome Critters and larger-than-life figures. Brave adventurers could even get their names added to the roster of known folklore heroes the setting is based around.

Go get money. I'll write.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I've always assumed the reason we use the word "tall tale" is that Americans have an aversion to thinking of themselves as having "folk culture."

 

[Steampunkette]

I've always assumed the reason we use the word "tall tale" is that Americans have an aversion to thinking of themselves as having "folk culture."

Not really? Folk Culture has long been a part of American cultures and subcultures. It just tends to be more regional than national 'cause America is freaking big, geographically, as far as nations go. And people in Appalachia don't really identify with the folk cultures in the Midwest or Southeast. There's a lot of dangers out in the forests of Appalachia at night, but there's no Skunk Apes wandering, there. Nor Jersey Devils kicking up a fuss.

Tall Tales was just a fancy way of saying "Lying" in America for a long time. "Tellin' Tales", especially in the southern states, was a good way to get your britches tore up by a switch. So Tall Tales were just an exercise in lying about big crazy events to get people interested in fictional characters.

But around campfires and in fanciful books purchased by city folk, American folk cultures got spread and shared.

Pecos Bill is actually a really interesting example of it, because unlike Paul Bunyan or John Henry or Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill was made up, whole cloth, by one guy to sell books about the legends and "Tall Tales" of Pecos Bill.

But just like the rest, he became a part of the folk culture quilt that makes up the US.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Not really? Folk Culture has long been a part of American cultures and subcultures. It just tends to be more regional than national 'cause America is freaking big, geographically, as far as nations go. And people in Appalachia don't really identify with the folk cultures in the Midwest or Southeast. There's a lot of dangers out in the forests of Appalachia at night, but there's no Skunk Apes wandering, there. Nor Jersey Devils kicking up a fuss.

Tall Tales was just a fancy way of saying "Lying" in America for a long time. "Tellin' Tales", especially in the southern states, was a good way to get your britches tore up by a switch. So Tall Tales were just an exercise in lying about big crazy events to get people interested in fictional characters.

But around campfires and in fanciful books purchased by city folk, American folk cultures got spread and shared.

Pecos Bill is actually a really interesting example of it, because unlike Paul Bunyan or John Henry or Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill was made up, whole cloth, by one guy to sell books about the legends and "Tall Tales" of Pecos Bill.

But just like the rest, he became a part of the folk culture quilt that makes up the US.

I'm pretty sure Pecos Bill and Betty Crocker got married

 

[Steampunkette]

I'm pretty sure Pecos Bill and Betty Crocker got married

That is a bald faced lie! Pecos Bill is happily married to Slue-foot Sue! She road a catfish down the Rio Grande while shooting clouds out of the sky with a pair of pistols!