"original" campaign worlds?

[fusangite]

Joshua says

fusangite: Kishkumen as one of the three Nephites!

That's playing him against type, alright!

As much as I think fusangite's original post is a fascinating tangent, let me try to address the original question a bit.

You must remember my Mormon theology is all self-taught. Thus, there are a limited number of places outside the Book of Mormon where I looked for additional data.

As you can tell, I took considerable license with the Jonases as well.

As for the tangent problem, you'll see that my original post asserted that using D&D is about choosing to operate within the narrow strictures of genre. I was basically siding with those who don't turn their D&D games into D20 games and choose to retain as many common elements of the genre as possible.

The D&D games I run right now have dragons, elves and many of the things in the monster manual. Wizards has not designed such a great system that its basic principles have intrinsic value; I am currently playing D&D because it is a heavily codified system that allows players to limit my power in a particular way that only heavily codified and therefore carefully circumscribed systems do. I'd probably abandon the D20 framework altogether if it didn't have the particular advantage of heavy codification and the unique roleplaying dynamic it creates.

My question therefore is this: if you aren't going to use the generic features of D&D, what is the point of using the system at all?

 

[fusangite]

Joseph Elric Smith says

Wow that sounds fantastic, and has given me some interesting ideas thanks so much for sharing

If you'd like to discuss it further, feel free to e-mail me.

 

[s/LaSH]

Here's one for ya....

[CORE ETHOS SENTENCE]

Across the windswept plains of the Red Continent the wodka flows, the atom glows, and the KGB knows.

(Snipski)

There is only one question you should be asking, comrade: "would you like fries wif dot, Imperialist stooge?"

Sounds like Paranoia... never played it, though. Is Stah-leen a computer?

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Joseph Elric Smith says



If you'd like to discuss it further, feel free to e-mail me.

I would but for some reason I can;t seem to send one to you through the board
ken

 

[rounser]

I think it is the characters that inhabit the world that make it original, unique and fun to play.

*me gives the man a cigar*

 

[Dark Eternal]

Ok, I've been trying to avoid posting in this thread, but it just won't go away. So I'll succumb to the temptation, at last, after all.

What follows is a teaser for my original campaign setting for a horror / survival game. Ravenloft was just too tame for me, so I came up with this..... it may be a little over the top for a lot of people, but it's definately not Tolkien.


"The sky is dead in my world."

Across the remains of what was once a land of peace and beauty, the souls of the living vie with the furious spirits of the dead for the very air they breath. Those who survived the Absolution numbered only a hundreth of a hundreth - and among the millions who died, there are many whose deaths were so sudden, so violent, that there is no hope for their spirits to rest peacefully.

"The light has forsaken us..."

It has been years since the slightest shaft of sunlight pierced the eternal Soulstorm that hides the sky from view. A night darker and more deadly than any that men were meant to know has swallowed the Earth, and the hearts of all who live yearn in vain for light.

"Hope, Peace, Good... relics of a past shattered forever."

For the survivors of the most horrifying disaster imaginable, each day of life must be stolen from another. Every hour carries the threat of violent destruction at the hands of the living... or the dead.

"Nothing makes sense. Reason is a casualty of War."

Magic gone wild has reshaped vast portions of the world into Something Else. Creatures that can not exist prowl the shattered streets; the Soulstorm burns with incomprehensible energies that tear the very fabric of Time asunder... only the gatherings of those still living grant any kind of refuge for Order and Pattern. And every day, another gathering is consumed by the Dead.

"No world has ever been more in need of heros. And no world has ever been more capable of breaking them."

The only hope for a future lies in the hands of those who will risk everything - mind, body, heart and soul - against hopeless odds in a battle to bring order to chaos, reason to madness, and True Death to the restless dead. But against a world where the very air is alive with hatred and murderous lusts, who can still hope to fight against the darkness?

"The sky is dead, in my world... but I am not. And while I live, I will fight. For if I do not, then I am dead... and I know what Death has in store for me." - Vagadeth, a Survivor.

 

[Desdichado]

As for the tangent problem, you'll see that my original post asserted that using D&D is about choosing to operate within the narrow strictures of genre. I was basically siding with those who don't turn their D&D games into D20 games and choose to retain as many common elements of the genre as possible.

The D&D games I run right now have dragons, elves and many of the things in the monster manual. Wizards has not designed such a great system that its basic principles have intrinsic value; I am currently playing D&D because it is a heavily codified system that allows players to limit my power in a particular way that only heavily codified and therefore carefully circumscribed systems do. I'd probably abandon the D20 framework altogether if it didn't have the particular advantage of heavy codification and the unique roleplaying dynamic it creates.

My question therefore is this: if you aren't going to use the generic features of D&D, what is the point of using the system at all?

I'm not sure exactly what you're saying, as I see d20 and D&D as too very different animals. D&D is highly codified, and very narrow in what type of fantasy it allows you to do, that is true. d20 on the other hand, while it may be highly codified (a relative position, certainly -- I'd say GURPS is at least as codified, for example) is completely open and allows you to do all kinds of other things by making relatively minor tweaks to the rules.

So why use it? For one thing, I happen to like the d20 system relatively well -- I certainly don't have any problems with it, so why not use it? For another, it's easy to find players who are familiar with the basics of it. I don't know any GURPS players in my area, for example, and I only know of one HERO system group (and I'm not interested in playing with them, to tell you the truth).

I guess my question is, why not use it?

 

[KDLadage]

I am biased, of course...

...but I do think UMBRAGIA is original. And as my all volunteer team and I continue to drive this setting to its core -- I think it actually gets more original (if there is such a thing) every day.

 

[barsoomcore]

My question therefore is this: if you aren't going to use the generic features of D&D, what is the point of using the system at all?

I use a lot of D&D reference material, including the core rulebooks, because they have a ton of useful material for me in running my campaign. I don't know if I'd say Barsoom is a D&D campaign, per se, since it doesn't include many of the traditional D&D elements, but really, who cares what you call it?

I use GURPS books in my campaign, too. CoC, MERP, Harn -- all these have provided my campaign with depth and ideas. What's the point? I have no point.

I use d20 for character generation and task resolution. I like it. I don't know if there's a "point" to using any system.

 

[Desdichado]

Oh, and the fact that you can buy d20 books and use the material therein. There's more d20 stuff than just about anything else out there, and I borrow liberally.