Forked Thread: Describing a setting in 12 bullet points

[wingsandsword]

Forked from: Forgotten Realms "Canon Lawyers"

Indeed, and this can apply to most anything. I've look at fantasy art from book covers, or even the back cover book blurb, and come up with ideas that weren't similar to what was found within. Heck, I only had a vague idea what Dark Sun was about, but as I was considering buying the initial campaign set, I was thinking what Defilers and Templars were. If I'd made it on my own, there's no telling how different it would have been from the official version.

I wonder what ideas people would get if they were given 12 bullet points of an existing setting...

I like this idea, a lot.

As a way to get people away from the weight of Canon and to the core ideas of a setting, as well as to inspire DM's, what if we describe our favorite settings in a minimalist fashion, something that somebody who has no prior experience with the setting but knows D&D can read those bullet points and take away key ideas and elements enough to run a game for players that don't know the setting but know D&D, that at least bears a decent resemblance to the canonical setting in theme and flavor.

Maybe a simple summation of basic concepts, key elements of flavor, religious concepts, really big name NPCs (Elminster, Raistlin, Mordenkainen, The Lady of Pain, ect.), odd elements that make a setting really unique (Warforged and Artificers for Eberron, Defilers and Preservers for Dark Sun. . .).

So, does anybody want to try to summarize their favorite setting into 12 single-paragraph sections?

 

[ssampier]

Birthright

[from memory]

* No Psionics
* No orcs, orogs are the main enemy
* Dwarves physically made of rock, halfings can see into shadow world, elves have no clerics and are largely antagonistic to humans
* goblins are somewhat civilized
* Humans are divided by culture
* Magician class
* really powerful monsters called awnsheghlien
* gods were once human
* Player Characters are regents, rulers of a country or area
* Bloodlines

 

[Remathilis]

Eberron

• Pulp Adventure meets Noir Intrigue
• Magic is common; warforged, lightnening rails, airships, magewrights
• Dragonmarks and the Draconic Prophecy
• Xen'drik: the lost contient of adventure
• Psionics is welcomed and has a defined place in the world
• Old favorites (elves, drow, dragons, halflings, beholders) new flavors
• A war-torn land full of espionage and subterfuge
• Alignment is Fluid; trust no one
• A place of exotic adventure locales, all connected by easy travel
• If it exists in D&D, it can be placed in Eberron
• Few heroes left, you're the only ones who can save the world
• A land of mystery, excitement, and magic

 

[Bumbles]

I thought somebody might fork this. Let's see where it goes...

 

[Klaus]

Let's see:

Eberron
- Pulp fantasy: two-fisted adventurers in magical setting reminiscent of the 1920s.
- Low, wide magic: minor magic is common, powerful magic is rare.
- Old races are new again: elves, dwarves, halflings, goblins, orcs and gnomes all have unique flavor.
- New races tied to the setting: construct soldiers, psionic ascetics, morphing changelings and savage beast-men.
- Balance of Terror: a continent-wide war just ended because of a nation-wiping cataclysm, but peace is but a dream.
- World of exploration: mysterious continents await brave adventurers.
- Mercantile Princes: twelve houses hold control of major economic areas thanks to magical birthmarks.
- Ancient Evil stirs: demons bound in the underground, alien entities sealed in a distant plane, insidious nightmares ruling a far-off empire, dragons manipulating a mighty prophecy to control the future.

Dragonlance:
- Heroic Fantasy: good-hearted adventurers in world where magic is rare and power has a price.
- Balance in All Things: Good, Neutrality and Evil must coexist.
- Magic is Controlled: wizards gather in secret societies, clerics in strict religions.
- Dragons are no mere beasts: each dragon is smart and has its own agenda.
- There's a place for funny: gnomes are crazy engineers, kender are benign kleptomaniacs, gully dwarves are decadent dummies.
- There's a place for love: sincere love is the mightiest weapon, obsessive passion is the downfall of the powerful.

Ravenloft:
- Gothic Fantasy: tragic heroes in a world of supernatural horror and insidious corruption.
- Evil is Rewarded... And Punished: evil deeds bring more power and corruption, until the evildoer becomes trapped in a prison of his own making.
- The World is Beautiful By Day and Terrifying By Night: By day there's hope, beauty and love. Night brings despair, horror and rage.

 

[cmrscorpio]

Planescape

• Rule of Threes - Thing happen in threes
• Unity of Rings - Circles and cycles are surround you
• Center of All - Meaning and purpose are found within
• The Factions - Philosophers with clubs
• Sigil, City of Doors, the Cage - The hub that connects all existance
• Her Serenity, Her Dread Majesty, The Lady of Pain - The Power who rules Sigil in silence
• The Blood War - endless, eternal conflict between the fiends over the fate of all worlds
• You can go anywhere, provided you can find the right door and have the right key
• You can find anything
• It's not about monster bashing
• It's about exploration of worlds and of self
• It's about finding your answer to ineffable questions

 

[cmrscorpio]

Spelljammer

• D
• &
• D
• i
• n
• S
• P
• A
• C
• E
• !
• !

 

[wingsandsword]

How I would list Planescape in this fashion:

1. The Great Wheel. Planescape is the "Great Wheel" Cosmology of the 1e and 2e Core books and 1e and 3e Manual of the Planes fleshed out into an entire setting instead of just being a place for high-level side quests.

2. Powers. Also known as Gods/Goddesses, they are all out here, pretty much all the fantasy and mythological deities are present, and they are pretty close. A divine realm could be right down the road. Their followers, servants, and offspring are everywhere.

3. Sigil. The City of Doors, at the center of the multiverse, accessible only by portal, where pretty much everyone from everywhere can meet in relative neutrality, ruled over by the nigh-omnipotent Lady of Pain and administered by Factions. No Gods Allowed.

4. Factions. Large societies devoted to a philosophy or ideal: Law, Knowledge, Death, Entropy, Self-Reliance, Intuition, Reincarnation, Chaos, Sensation, Atheism, Nihilism, Anarchy, Independence, ect. they are the major political bodies of the Planes, and they provide most of the civil services in Sigil.

5. Belief is Power. On the Outer Planes, belief creates reality. Get enough people believing something strongly enough and it can become true, at least locally.

6. Portals. You can go anywhere, if you have the right key. Portals connect the various planes with each other and Sigil.

7. The Lady of Pain. Nigh-omnipotent, reclusive, enigmatic, and wrathful woman clad in robes with her head covered in a crown of blades. She rules Sigil, and her greatest laws are that Powers can't enter and she not be worshiped as a deity herself. Those that defy her are banished to The Mazes or just plain flayed.

8. Law & Chaos. The Ethical axis of alignment is just as important as good vs. evil, maybe even moreso. The Blood War pits fiends against each other in titanic conflicts, chaotic factions face off against lawful ones regularly in political as well as more overt clashes.

9. Unlikely allies, unlikely adversaries. It's possible for PC's to have allies that are fiends, and antagonists that are celestials. Seeing a Devil and an Archon drinking together in a tavern in Sigil isn't unheard of, and having a Harmonium Paladin as a persistent pain-in-the-neck to the PCs is quite plausible.

10. Philosophy and Exploration. The setting is a lot more than dungeon crawls and linear adventures. Exploration of the planes, exploration of yourself, and exploration of what is reality is a big deal.

11. Patterns and Cycles. The multiverse has odd cycles and patterns, that are oddly predictable (and in some ways oddly unpredictable). Things happen in threes, things happen in cycles, but then there is the odd flicker of chaos in order, or surreal order in chaos.

12. Crossovers and Kitchen Sink. Since the Planes are shared by most D&D worlds, it's possible for pretty much anything from any D&D book to show up eventually, even if it's rare. Very few things just plain don't fit at all.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Please don't do "fixed it for you" posts on ENW. Thanks.

 

[gamerprinter]

Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting

Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting (coming in August 2009)

1. Gothic horror in a feudal Japan-like world.
2. Undead Imperial Court & Shogunate rule all absolutely.
3. Undead lords become so to maintain power and status quo.
4. 15 Martial noble houses & 15 samurai variant classes
5. Ninja with ki/psionic powers.
6. Ressurrection and Raise Dead do not work.
7. Reincarnation is hard-wired into society.
8. Past lives of reincarnated characters can be remembered, thus are multi-class characters.
9. Escaping endless reincarnation cycle is possible though rare and heretical.
10. Taxes are 40% of annual income
11. Becoming undead is too easy.
12. Undead and Demon-Spirits are never what they seem.

GP