How Far Are Gamers Willing to Stretch D&D?

[GMSkarka]

Here's a question that I've been mulling over for a bit:

I've got an idea for a campaign setting. Instead of fantasy using the standard Dark Ages/Medieval/Renaissance European foundations, it's a look at what fantasy would be if it was based on a mixture of the American Western and Chinese Wuxia.

Friends I've spoken to find it interesting, and really get into it once I give details. However, each one of them has recommended coming up with an entirely new system for it....with everyone stating a variation on the following: "D&D players will not go that far out of the box."

So I'm wondering....is there room for a setting, intended for use with the core rules, that is so far from the standard fantasy tropes? Or is a new rules set the way to go?

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'd totally go for a d20 version of something like that. Of course, I'm currently playing in a D&D Victorian England game with Elves, Orcs, and Dwarves. There are enough different books out there that each touch on a subsection of what you have in mind that creating it would be fairly easy.

I guess the question that needs to be asked (since you're a publsiher) is - is this for publishing or just for play? I can see a valid argument for making it a different system if the idea is to publish.

Then again, d20 may be ready for a new setting/style.

 

[Henry]

The thing is: Are you talking all-new character classes, or stretching fighters, wizards, clerics, etc. into this new mould? Are you thinking of "d20" or specifically "D&D"?

If D&D, then the classes would have to fit the genre really well, and I'd have to say, "I'm from Missouri." (to recall a phrase). If just d20, then that's malleable enough for damn near anything, as you know.

 

[Pbartender]

Here's a question that I've been mulling over for a bit:

I've got an idea for a campaign setting. Instead of fantasy using the standard Dark Ages/Medieval/Renaissance European foundations, it's a look at what fantasy would be if it was based on a mixture of the American Western and Chinese Wuxia.

Actually, I'd love to see something like that for Iron Heroes.

Like Henry alludes, personally, I'm plenty willing and able to jump that far outside that box... I'm just not entirely certain whether D&D itself is capable of it.

 

[WayneLigon]

Friends I've spoken to find it interesting, and really get into it once I give details. However, each one of them has recommended coming up with an entirely new system for it....with everyone stating a variation on the following: "D&D players will not go that far out of the box."

I don't think that's true. We have Eberron, which apparently a lot of people think steps pretty far outside the bounds of standard trope D&D fantasy, and that seems to be doing really well. Arcana Unearthed has done well and that goes a bit further, with new classes and races.

I''d love to see a setting like what you describe for d20/D&D.

 

[sjmiller]

I personally find that the d20 game mechanics, most specifically the D&D mechanics, work great for pseudo-European fantasy. They work okay for some aspects of pseudo-pan-Asian fantasy. I even think they work okay for pseudo-pan-African fantasy, with some tweaks.

Generally, if I want to do something outside of the typical pseudo-European fantasy I use different game engines. I know others will say that the d20 system works great for all sorts of genre, but I tend to disagree.

 

[Wormwood]

So I'm wondering....is there room for a setting, intended for use with the core rules, that is so far from the standard fantasy tropes? Or is a new rules set the way to go?

It sounds like your setting would have a place for fighting men, rogues, and magic. If that is the case, I don't imagine it would be too far afield from the "D&D experience".

And we can always use some more wuxia- and western- flavored additions to the d20 rule-o-sphere.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I don't think that's true. We have Eberron, which apparently a lot of people think steps pretty far outside the bounds of standard trope D&D fantasy, and that seems to be doing really well.

Here's the thing, though - a lot of people think Eberron steps pretty far outside the bounds of D&D, but this...

I've got an idea for a campaign setting. Instead of fantasy using the standard Dark Ages/Medieval/Renaissance European foundations, it's a look at what fantasy would be if it was based on a mixture of the American Western and Chinese Wuxia.

... is far, far, *far* further outside those bounds. To someone who sees Eberron as even pushing the limits of D&D-style fantasy, what Skarka describes surely lies outside them. To someone who sees Eberron as outside the limits of D&D-style fantasy, what Skarka describes may as well be Victorian social comedy.

Personally, I don't see Eberron as even near the boundaries of D&D-style fantasy. Even so, I would say Skarka's idea pushes the utility of the D&D rules to the straining point, is probably a poor fit mechanically, and doesn't have any strong thematic connection to the D&D tradition. I might like it *better* than D&D, though probably not as I don't like Wuxia much (now if it were western + anime, or western + true S&S... *then* I would definitely like it better). But I wouldn't see it *as* D&D, and if being D&D was something I wanted out of an RPG, I wouldn't like it.

Even if it were western + anime + sword and sorcery, a veritable Neon Cowboy Hyperboria, using the actual D&D rules for it would seem odd to me. d20 Modern, on the other hand, would be great.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

What Henry said.

Although I wouldn't play it regardless of the system (I think wuxia is best left to film), if d200 can be stretched enough for M&M, I can't see any reason why it couldn't do what you want.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would have no problem with a more wahoo setting using the D&D rules.