The road yet taken; old timers: what is your White Whale setting?

[Eyes of Nine]

Yes. I've run a number of one-shots, but of the players willing to play, 2 of the 3 couldn't resist trying to make it into a comedy. Despite having read the comics.

Ah, thanks. I was confused by the "non-humorous" part.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Which part? Why is it my favorite game or why never a full campaign?

What makes it your favorite game - or more accurately (I hope) what makes it your favorite setting? I'm always down to get inspired by awesome settings.

 

[John Dallman]

Note, there are RPGs for both Discworld and Laundryverse (well, actually, I think the Laundryverse is stalled out...)

My Discworld campaigns were playtests for the two editions of the licensed game. My Laundry game was GURPS 4e, because the dedicated RPG wasn't out when I started.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

1. I've always wanted to set a D&D game in the world of Steven Brust's Jhereg series where the houses substitute for the race choice.

2. I've always wanted to run a D&D clan setting with 12 different clans and a corresponding iconic monster based on the 4 elements crossed with Good, Neutral, and Evil such that all the fire clans may work together as much as all the good clans.

3. At this point, realistically, I just want my Torg stuff to arrive in large enough quantity that I can start my campaign.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

2. I've always wanted to run a D&D clan setting with 12 different clans and a corresponding iconic monster based on the 4 elements crossed with Good, Neutral, and Evil such that all the fire clans may work together as much as all the good clans.

What's one example of this? Like, one clan is the Dragon Clan? Oh, I got it -
You've got the Good Fire (Coatl), Neutral Fire (??), Evil Fire (Red Dragon) etc?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

What's one example of this? Like, one clan is the Dragon Clan? Oh, I got it -
You've got the Good Fire (Coatl), Neutral Fire (??), Evil Fire (Red Dragon) etc?

You pretty much nailed it.

I know Good/Fire was Phoenix and either Neutral or Evil Fire was Salamander, but I don't remember the last one. I know it wasn't the dragon because they were their own thing. Although in the world all "fire"creatures have a certain kinship to each other so even if a Red Dragon wasn't the iconic clan monster they still might find themselves working for any of the Fire clans in some capacity.

Basically I wanted to explore a world where Good/Neutral/Evil have more innate reason to "work together" to achieve some goals since I find the same-old-same-old evil creatures being used over and over a little bit tiring over 30 years of gaming.

 

[Mercurius]

What makes it your favorite game - or more accurately (I hope) what makes it your favorite setting? I'm always down to get inspired by awesome settings.

Short answer: A rich density of imagination.

Longer answer: Talislanta is a truly "exotic" fantasy world with few, if any, real world analogues. There are dozens of races and cultures, each of which is distinct. The main timeline (all five editions, but not Savage Land) is set about a thousand or more years after an apocalypse. The main setting is the Talislanta continent, but there's other continents lightly described in the Worldbook. It is more Jack Vance and Clark Ashton Smith than the Tolkien/Howard of early D&D. It harkens back a bit to the science fantasy of the 70s, with a bit of a "disco" vibe. I see it in a similar tradition as other "non-traditional" fantasy settings like Tekumel and Jorune. If nothing else, it is a wonderful world to explore through reading...lots of great ideas.

Plus, everything but the most recent book (Talislanta: the Savage Land) is available for free in PDF form on Talislanta.com. The Savage Land is a new book that covers the time right after the cataclysm, and is very sword & sorcery-ish. There's also a 5E version, but I recommend the Tal rules to get the full feeling of the game.

If you're curious, probably the best place to start is the explanded version of the Chronicles of Talislanta (link opens the PDF), and also the Talislanta Worldbook, which touches upon the other continents. If you're interested in the game itself, the big 4th edition book is probably the most popular treatment.

For a deeper dive, Hotan's History of the World covers the history and continent of Talislanta in depth, and the Archaen Codex or Codex Magicus have a lot of great lore. I'd also recommend checking out one of the bestiaries.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

I want to do a grand imperial space opera like Dune or Fading Suns, but using troupe play. Players portray the leaders, strategists and spymasters of a powerful Noble House and scheme against their House's enemies. Then in the next session they play a team of agents who infiltrate and sabotage on behalf of the House's leaders. Then depending on how that mission goes, the House Leaders find out the results and work with the political consequences. Rinse and repeat.

I suspect Band of Blades could be hacked to make this work, if I ever free up the time to run this.

 

[ccs]

Gamma World.
I've never really gotten to run, or play, in a decent GW game.

Running GW;
Pretty much no one that I've ever played these games with was much into that flavor of Sci-Fi stuff. So that pretty much rules out me running a GW game. Maybe one of these days via some VTT & an on-line group. But that's not quite the same as getting together with friends around a real table.

Playing GW;
I've been in several very short lived GW games over the decades as a player. None of them has ever captured any of the flavor found in any of the books. Or things that inspired this game. Most have quickly devolved into seeing how much damage could be inflicted with this or that weird weapon/mutation. And after a few sessions, rather than trying to improve the sessions, the group drops it.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I've always wanted to run a Battletech/Mechwarrior campaign. The players would be a merc outfit and they would take jobs around the inner sphere.

It's tough because I don't know a ton of folks interested in the setting, and many feel its too wargamey.

ON THE NOSEY!

I actually have a 'system' that uses BT for the mech battles, and then the Masterbook System (find it at PiGames; Catalog ) for the PC's Role-Playing Character stuff. Turns out, the 2d6 %'ages of rolling equate almost seamlessly with the Difficulty Numbers (DN's) of the Masterbook System (I only had to add a DN of "Tricky / 11" to equate to BT's Roll Needed of 9; about 27.7%). So, basically, when you are in your mech and rolling a "mech skill" (Piloting or Attack), you just find the Roll Needed, as per BT, look at the DN of Masterbook and roll your appropriate skill. Easy peasy.

But...never got a chance to play it past the second session, just as they PC's were on a Dropship and the ship was violently shook by...something...then the ships warning claxon's started wailing! Man. Talk about a cliff-hanger! LOL!

Aside from a Battletech/RPG campaign...I've always wanted to run an Earthdawn campaign. Great setting, interesting system (1st edition is the one I'd run), with some cool possibilities.

^_^

Paul L. Ming