Dreamworlders with vorpal boomerangs of the platypus!

[alsih2o]

Europe seems the default setting. We see a goodly bit for asian cultures and even a small share for African adventures and settings. I believe I have even seen material for Native American gaming.

Where is the Australian stuff?

People who deal with the dream world and have boomerangs and throwing sticks and large expanses of dangerous land and nasty poisonous critters all about and a huge life-filled mysterious reef and and and and...

Doesn't it seem ripe for use?

 

[VirgilCaine]

Yeah. Open ground should be used, if only because you're different and thus have a hook for ads and such right there.
I probably wouldn't use such a product as a main setting [but then, I know extremely little about it, so who knows!], but I would incorporate it as part of another world--Maybe as another Savage Coast (Mystara) type region. But it could be so cool and nifty I'd want it as a focus for a world or an unfinished section of one [Earth-sized planets are HUUUUGE].

 

[alsih2o]

Anything?

 

[MrFilthyIke]

If you make an Aussie setting, make sure you have a high Fort and Reflex for resisting and dodging all the poisonous fauna

 

[der_kluge]

Aren't like 9 out of 10 of the world's most poisonous snakes in Australia?

An Aussie setting would be pretty cool. A colony of criminals.... hmm, interesting concept.


I'm still waiting on d20 India, though. 7 headed, 4 armed anthropromorphic elephants wielding scimitars, adorned in gold and jewels and multi-colored robes - that's what I'm talking about!

 

[Estlor]

You know, this really isn't what you're looking for, but in the Known World/Savage Coast, the Wallara race is a spiritual group of dragonkin (also known as chameleon men in other products) that have an aboriginal culture. Or, rather, a watered down D&D aboriginal culture, but it's the closest you get.

 

[SWBaxter]

Where is the Australian stuff?

People who deal with the dream world and have boomerangs and throwing sticks and large expanses of dangerous land and nasty poisonous critters all about and a huge life-filled mysterious reef and and and and...

Doesn't it seem ripe for use?

White Wolf's Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Palladium's Rifts both had Australian supplements that dealt with aboriginal myths, dreamtime, etc. I'm sure there are others. So far as d20 goes, I've seen some monster lists inspired by Australian mythology and real-life critters, but I'm not familiar with anything more detailed than that. I'd speculate that so far as d20 goes, the lack of coverage is because the source material doesn't really lend itself to a "kill critters/take their stuff/get xp/become godlike" paradigm, that seems to permeate a lot of D&D-style treatments.

 

[Voadam]

The pdf monster collection Bane Ledger has a strong australian monster theme I believe.

 

[humble minion]

Being an Australian myself and fancying myself a writer, I put a fair bit of thought into producing something like this. It's a very tricky mythology to D&Dise, however. There are plenty of creatures that could be adapted to be monsters, but the tone is entirely wrong. Aboriginal myth tends to consist of lots of small, independent tales - origin stories about how the crocodile was made, or why the seasons change. The culture doesn't really have an epic tradition or warrior ethos like in classical or Celtic mythology, which is where D&D gets a lot of its monsters and tropes from. There's no Theseus or Cuchulainn - you almost never hear the same name in two different stories.

It could be done, but thematically a functional roleplaying supplement would resemble the source material very little. It would be like writing a d20 sourcebook for Aesop's Fables.

You might want to check out http://www.mythopedia.info/29-australia.htm if you need some ideas.

 

[Dr Simon]

I once Googled for any Australian-based fantasy RP stuff. I found a site where some guy had made stats for the Giant Aardwolf and other such things, but nothing much else.

Of course, there is Pratchett's "Last Continent" which is more about post-settlement Australia than Koori culture, the "Terror Australis" supplement for Call of Cthulhu (much of which is in the "Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep") and "Target: Awakened Lands" for Shadowrun.

When the Creative Conclave was in its heyday, the land of Or began to take on a slightly Australian flavour, especially the indigenous Ketwari people. Partly, I think, because mcuh was written around the time of the 2000 Olympics. It was never, however, meant specificallly as a fantasy Australia.

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