System-free Settings

[WereSteve]

I have all of the older Loremaster / Shadow World supplements. . . they all contain more than one page of system-specific rules (though they are still an excellent read and a lot of fun). Did the new 4th edition Shadow World stuff drop the Rolemaster stats and such?

I don't have any of the 4th edition Shadow World material to compare to as I have the older print runs ... mostly of 6001 thru 6012 as those were the particular modules that appealed to me the most. Then again, I have a tendency to ignore rules cruch if there is a good bit of fluff that I borrow for use in my home world setting ...

 

[radferth]

Checking at home last night, both Road of Kings and Wilderlands Players Guide have about 10 pages of rules stuff, although is both cases the actual setting info is systemless. Don't know about the new Road of Kings they have out. So neither technically qualifies. I'd make an argument for setting the bar to include Road of Kings (in which all the rules specific content is character write-ups) if I liked it more, but truth be told I found it a bit spotty. If you like Hyboria enough to set a campaign there, you probably already know everything in there, anyway.

 

[The Lost Muse]

Arg. Tough call on raising the content limit. My only worry is that doing so lets stuff like the Wilderlands Player's Guide (which is pretty clearly a D&D 3.5 book) into the 'systemless' list when it shouldn't really be there. I'll think on it over lunch today!

Fair enough, can't ask for more than consideration.

 

[Voadam]

Isn't the Player's Guide to Eberron by WotC a stat free overview of the Eberron Campaign Setting?

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Just thought I'd mention Crucible. It's a GURPS setting but it's nearly system free.

 

[Voadam]

I think the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer by WotC describes country leaders with things like "(Lvl 15 ftr)" and might say what the gods' domains are but I think that is it for stats in there.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Maybe the determination should be a percentile rather than a page count.

After all, you could have a 10-page PDf with only 1 page of rules (10%), or (to use a recent example ) a 500 page book with 8 pages of rules (just over 1%).

Just an idea.

 

[Voadam]

Hotan's History of the World by Morrigan Press is the Talislanta game world with no game mechanics or stats.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=23624&it=1

 

[Crothian]

Isn't the Player's Guide to Eberron by WotC a stat free overview of the Eberron Campaign Setting?

Not completely. There are feats and sidebars with rules sprinkled throughout the book.

 

[Alt F4]

Maybe the determination should be a percentile rather than a page count.

That would be especially good if the OP wants to broaden the search a bit to includes rules light settings. System-free settings could remain as 1 page of rules maximum, and Rules-light settings could be those which have less than X% of rules material in them.

And of course all of this could be listed on the EN Wiki too.