Secret Campaign Worlds...

[Scribble]

Anyone here ever try anything like this:

I like the ease of use of a published setting... Like the already detailed maps, detailed cities and such... Generaly even if I don't play in a published setting, I steal heavily from them.

But one thing I have NEVER liked about gaming in a published setting is that they seem to imply that characters can and should know everything about the campaign world... Even if they pretend they don't players generally still know most of the stuff about them...

So I was thinking about sort of mixing the two... Use the published setting, but change names of cities, and never admit that the campaign world is in use... Just give players partial maps, some correct some incorrect as the game progresses.. Let them know a good amount about the starting area but not much else.

Some world news filters in as they travel, but not all at once, and like the maps not all correct all the time.

I don't know, justa thought...

Anyone?

 

[jdrakeh]

Yeah. My Borderlands campaign setting is shaping up to be this kind of thing. Right now, I envision it as a reworking of a classic implied setting with names changed and a few new elements introduced from other sources. The goal is to create a setting that facilitates a youthful nostalgia and rekindles that 'first-time' sense of wonder (or, rather, to create a setting that avoids the "I remember this!" or "I've done this to death!" issues that seem to crop up when replaying classic D&D modules).

 

[blargney the second]

Ignorant protagonists is a trope like any other. One of the reasons why so many story heroes are very young is to make setting and plot exposition easier for writers. Personally, I've lost my taste for it in recent years because it's so over-used in modern fiction. Mileage varies, of course.
-blarg

 

[Scribble]

Ignorant protagonists is a trope like any other. One of the reasons why so many story heroes are very young is to make setting and plot exposition easier for writers. Personally, I've lost my taste for it in recent years because it's so over-used in modern fiction. Mileage varies, of course.
-blarg

Trope or not I find it fun. To me exploring the campaign world can be just as much fun as exploring a dungeon.

It's not really that I find it's too modern feeling or that "people back then (back when) didn't have access to maps... It's just fun to me to have people discover parts of the world.

 

[jdrakeh]

It's not really that I find it's too modern feeling or that "people back then (back when) didn't have access to maps... It's just fun to me to have people discover parts of the world.

I get you. I enjoy that style of play as both a DM and as a player. If I already know every facet of a given campaign world, any adventure set therein is a pretty droll experience. That said, some familiarity always seems necessary to have a great game experience, though this (for me) can be usually be limited to D&D's more anachronistic elements with regard to economy and social structures.

 

[blargney the second]

Trope or not I find it fun. To me exploring the campaign world can be just as much fun as exploring a dungeon.

Fair enough!

As both a player and as a DM I prefer to play with players who are knowledgeable about the world in which the game occurs. Different strokes and all that.

 

[blargney the second]

FWIW, here's the ignorant protagonist trope I mentioned. I realize what you're discussing is different, but I just love that site - so much useful stuff for RPGs!

 

[Ed_Laprade]

The one 'problem' I have with the Exploring the World trope is the possibility that you/another player will discover something about the world and say: "Well, if I'd known that such a class/race existed, that's what I'd have taken." In short, they've wasted X amount of game time already, and might have to waste some more before the opportunity to play what they really want to presents itself. (Of course, if the time really has been wasted, it probably won't matter much what the player runs...)

 

[jdrakeh]

The one 'problem' I have with the Exploring the World trope is the possibility that you/another player will discover something about the world and say: "Well, if I'd known that such a class/race existed, that's what I'd have taken."

This is only an issue if PC races/classes are off the table at character gen, of course. I'm getting around this in the Borderlands campaign by assuming that the Borderlands are the western expansion front and that the existence of all possible PC races (read "sentient, non-hostile, races" of course) have already been discovered (or disclosed by races already discovered).

In line with old school D&D, I'm also not providing any new stats for the new races -- only fluff variants that change how the culture or society operates. So, for example, the dwarves of the Borderlands don't fear magic (but don't practice it, either), don't covet material wealth, practice ancestor worship, and have a sacred duty to protect their former (and 'lost' currently) empire against detection/looting.

They have all the same mechanical stats as Generic Old School Dwarves have via the Holmes Basic rules.

 

[Crothian]

I run my own world so it is easier to do this in.

At the beginning of a campaign I give the players a list of interesting and potential plot points their character would know about. Some of the things they know, others do not. Sometimes they things they know another PC has contrary information about. There are plenty of secrets with the biggest one being "What the hell did happen to our last group of PCs?"