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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Gamemastering advice on preparing adventures for Sword & Sorcery campaigns
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<blockquote data-quote="Yora" data-source="post: 8341679" data-attributes="member: 6670763"><p>That's a really good thought. Not only do Sword & Sorcery settings tend to be more blank spaces than known places, it's also generally near impossible to find any clear patterns.</p><p>If you had a campaign in Middle-Earth, you'd expect every small ruin you come across to be known to sages and be part of a greater story. In Middle-Earth, you could say the primary role of ruins is to serve as memorials. Consulting the most learned character in the party on what he knows about the history of the place every time you reach one would be completely appropriate for that specific setting and it's tone.</p><p>In Sword & Sorcery, usually nobody knows, or even expects anyone to know. Local gossip about a nearby ruin is much more useful than asking a sage about its historical origin. it just is. It's origins being lost to time is a big part of the tone that much of Sword & Sorcery has.</p><p></p><p>This does not only apply to places. Supernatural stuff also seems to be usually outside of clear categories that are understood by mortals. In a game system like later editions of Dungeons & Dragons, you have clear distinctions between a demon and and elemental. Or a demon and an aberration. I think Sword & Sorcery almost never makes such distinctions. They are all supernatural monsters that come from strange places unknown to mortals.</p><p>And with that in mind, I think a vaguely defined "Underworld" is the most you get in the way of other worlds or dimensions. Demons might come from a completely separate realm, but it's not a place that characters could visit. Instead, you more commonly have large unnatural areas or regions that are part of the same continuous landscape as the homelands of mortals. You reach those places not though magic portals, but why walking beyond the edges of the known world.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yora, post: 8341679, member: 6670763"] That's a really good thought. Not only do Sword & Sorcery settings tend to be more blank spaces than known places, it's also generally near impossible to find any clear patterns. If you had a campaign in Middle-Earth, you'd expect every small ruin you come across to be known to sages and be part of a greater story. In Middle-Earth, you could say the primary role of ruins is to serve as memorials. Consulting the most learned character in the party on what he knows about the history of the place every time you reach one would be completely appropriate for that specific setting and it's tone. In Sword & Sorcery, usually nobody knows, or even expects anyone to know. Local gossip about a nearby ruin is much more useful than asking a sage about its historical origin. it just is. It's origins being lost to time is a big part of the tone that much of Sword & Sorcery has. This does not only apply to places. Supernatural stuff also seems to be usually outside of clear categories that are understood by mortals. In a game system like later editions of Dungeons & Dragons, you have clear distinctions between a demon and and elemental. Or a demon and an aberration. I think Sword & Sorcery almost never makes such distinctions. They are all supernatural monsters that come from strange places unknown to mortals. And with that in mind, I think a vaguely defined "Underworld" is the most you get in the way of other worlds or dimensions. Demons might come from a completely separate realm, but it's not a place that characters could visit. Instead, you more commonly have large unnatural areas or regions that are part of the same continuous landscape as the homelands of mortals. You reach those places not though magic portals, but why walking beyond the edges of the known world. [/QUOTE]
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