What flavor does your campaign have?

[Black Omega]

In case you didn't know, two-weapon fighting is so 1999. No fashion concious gamer would be seen dead playing a bladesinger anymore, for that matter. Oh, and this summer, mithril is "in" and adamantite is "out".

Though there are rumors one fashion designer has talked the Seven Sisters into modeling a daring new line of Adamantite breastplates so this could change. But mithral, especially in a chain shirt, is simply timeless.

 

[S'mon]

Leiber & Moorcock were my primary childhood influences - I was reading them long before Hercules/Xena were on the air. The TV shows are too cheesy and inconsistent to really fire my imagination, except for some of the Xena flashback eps perhaps (eg with the steppe Amazons). Conan & Vance are cool but less resonant for me. I've just acquired the Fantasy Masterworks' complete Conan series, but currently I'm more influenced by the Marvel comics' version of Conan, good for a quick sword & sorcery plot (eg I used a 'Man Who Would Be King' Marvel Conan story a few years back for a PBEM scenario). Buffy - well, Buffy is great, but the magic lies in the dialogue & characterisation; if I run a Cyberpunk game it might be an influence, but to me it's less suited to D&D. Tolkien - I use his monsters a lot, but more as Moorcockian 'chaos beastmen' (some Warhammer influence there too - Warhammer obviously borrows massively from Moorcock).

One seemingly simple change that isn't so simple in practice is lowering the magic level to keep things "grim and gritty". Since so many people have mentioned "grim and gritty" and "low magic" in their responses, I'd like to hear just what they're doing to acheive that.

For those who want a Moorcock flavor, have you cut out arcane magic? Have you restricted magic primarily to summoning spells?

In Olnor, my high-level Moorcockian world, I've made no rules changes, but there are Mabden hordes numbering in the millions, imprisoned Chaos gods, a ten-thousand-year-old atheist mage-empire, etc. Also the 'good' PCs find themselves fighting on the side of Chaos against the empire...

In Ea, my grim & gritty world, the main thing is somewhat lower magic - spellcraft checks needed to make magic items - and a dearth of high level NPCs to provide support to the beleagured PCs, as well as lots of chaotic politics, literal Chaos, and the looming threat of a new dark age following the collapse of a world-spanning empire... one strong influence is 20th-century geopolitics, especially the end of the British empire & decolonisation.

 

[mmadsen]

Leiber & Moorcock were my primary childhood influences - I was reading them long before Hercules/Xena were on the air.

Same here. Of course, I only knew to pick up Moorcock's Elric books and Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser books because they were mentioned prominently in my 1st-edition Deities and Demigods. Of course, so was Lovecraft's Cthulhu "mythos", but I didn't want any part of that!

I've just acquired the Fantasy Masterworks' complete Conan series...

Great material, but two warnings: (1) the first volume is chock full of typos, and (2) the second volume starts with the one Robert E. Howard Conan tale that reads like a terrible pastiche of the "real" Robert E. Howard.

Tolkien - I use his monsters a lot, but more as Moorcockian 'chaos beastmen' (some Warhammer influence there too - Warhammer obviously borrows massively from Moorcock).

What Tolkien monsters make good Moorcockian Chaos Beastmen?

 

[mmadsen]

We play outside in the sand. True, it's not so grim, but damn, it's gritty.

Unlike Padme Amidala.

(Sorry.)

 

[mmadsen]

Dragonlance on Ice. I am not kidding. (tundra/arctic campaign with heavy dragonlance and dark sun influences)

I can see the tundra as analogous to Dark Sun's deserts -- it is a stretch though -- but I'm having trouble seeing what a Dragonlance/Dark Sun hybrid would look like.

 

[Desdichado]

(Groan!)

Although, mmadsen, I have to admit I thought of that too.

But listen to that line carefully next time you see the movie: I don't think he's saying "Not like you" I think he's saying "Not like here."

Either way, that line was pretty bad...

 

[S'mon]

Same here. Of course, I only knew to pick up Moorcock's Elric books and Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser books because they were mentioned prominently in my 1st-edition Deities and Demigods. Of course, so was Lovecraft's Cthulhu "mythos", but I didn't want any part of that!


Great material, but two warnings: (1) the first volume is chock full of typos, and (2) the second volume starts with the one Robert E. Howard Conan tale that reads like a terrible pastiche of the "real" Robert E. Howard.


What Tolkien monsters make good Moorcockian Chaos Beastmen?

Well, orcs, of course! And trolls/ogres. It all depends on the description really. Eg I use slitheren and call them 'ratlike beastmen", quaggoths are "big white furry beastmen"; the weakest beastmen just have human warrior type stats - 1d8 hp, Toughness feat, ST 12 etc, but may have goat or bat heads, one eye, tentacles growing from their chests, etcetera.

Thanks for the heads-up re the Conan series!

 

[Alcamtar]

I'm probably just being cynical, but I get the feeling that some of these influences appear to be a little too "trendy" to come across as totally sincere.

It's cool to look to old fantasy fiction for inspiration, but honestly, are we all influenced as much by it as this thread makes out versus more contemporary influences? I mean sources that aren't "fantasy high brow", because they're not in novels. For example, I think some computer games such as Planescape: Torment or even gaming supplements such as Skullport have as much to offer to a D&D game in terms of inspiration and style as The King of Elfland's Daughter, but it seems tres chic to cite Moorcock, Lovecraft or Howard instead. And yes, I have read a few of their books and do appreciate their work and ideas...

I'm not having a go at anyone in particular, just airing a view on this thread in general...

I think you're being cynical. Seriously, I find Dunsany and Lovecraft and Tolkien and Howard to be *packed* with the sort of flavor I prefer in a story. OTOH, a lot of modern novels I pick up are mediocre at best... even the bestsellers. I know *someone* must like them but personally I usually like the older stuff better.

I don't really consider that highbrow though... Howard and Lovecraft were *pulp* authors -- the very definition of lowbrow in their day. It's just a matter of taste.

I'm not saying that I'm not influenced by anything modern, of course! There have been some very cool movies, novels, and games, But in the end, I prefer the old fashioned feel, both in literature and in my games. I think that's why I continue to like older editions of D&D -- 3E has a very modern/edgy (dare I say "trendy"?) feel to it IMO and captures modern fiction well, while OD&D captured the literature that was current 30 years ago. The older stuff is less edgy and dark, and more light and fairy-ish, less complex shades of grey and more simplistic bold bright colors. If you know what I mean... it's hard to explain.

But yes, Moorcock and Tolkien and Howard and Dunsay and Vance is EXACTLY what I want my game to be like, with no traces of Xena or Buffy or Robert Jordan and definitely no Planescape. But that's just me. It's not that they don't have anything to offer, they just aren't my preference.

Mike

 

[S'mon]

I'm not saying that I'm not influenced by anything modern, of course! There have been some very cool movies, novels, and games, But in the end, I prefer the old fashioned feel, both in literature and in my games. I think that's why I continue to like older editions of D&D -- 3E has a very modern/edgy (dare I say "trendy"?) feel to it IMO and captures modern fiction well, while OD&D captured the literature that was current 30 years ago. The older stuff is less edgy and dark, and more light and fairy-ish, less complex shades of grey and more simplistic bold bright colors. If you know what I mean... it's hard to explain.

But yes, Moorcock and Tolkien and Howard and Dunsay and Vance is EXACTLY what I want my game to be like, with no traces of Xena or Buffy or Robert Jordan and definitely no Planescape. But that's just me. It's not that they don't have anything to offer, they just aren't my preference.

Mike

I haven't played PC RPGs (except Diablo and a freeware game called Ancient Domains of Mystery which is tres cool) or read the more recent fantasy authors - getting very conservative in my old age (29!), so they can't be an influence - BTW Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant & Mirror of her Dreams/Man Rides Through series are an influence I missed menioning, for a grim flavour in epic settings.

I'm a big Buffy fan and will watch Xena/Herc if I catch them (though I can't stand the really silly eps) but I have trouble imaging what a D&D game influenced by those shows would look like. Buffy's moral ambiguity/complex moral choices is a familiar theme in my game, but I've been running the campaign since '86 and that was there from the start. Xena/Herc give me a bit of a nauseous feeling if I imagine them creeping into my game.
If anything, sf shows have had more influence - I based a deity-level time-travel scenario on the STTNG ep 'Yesterday's Enterprise', Thrin (Upper_Krust) had to travel back 13000 years to prevent his enemies changing the past and wiping him from existence - and I like Andromeda's theme of trying to rebuild civilisation from the ruins of a dark age.

Who uses Xena/Herc as campaign influence? What do your campaigns look like? What about Buffy?

 

[Carnifex]

Well, mines a fair mix of influences, I guess. The flavour is not really classical fantasy, as there are too many 'realistic' and cynical politics going on for that. It also has a somewhat steamptech feeling due to the fact that I've incorporated that into it, (though the players have yet to encounter that much of it) and also something of a steampunk feel in bits; I'm heavily influenced by China Mievilles Perdido Street Station and The Scar, for instance IMC there are Manipulators - biothamaturges who engage in 'fleshtwisting' to make hybrids, better slaves, etc. Not exactly the same as PSS, but the influence is certainly there. Theres also a sinister undertone to the campaign, something I drew a lot from myself but also from Lovecraft as the main horror writer who I have actually read anything by; the mysteries of the shadow-creatures, adn the sheer insane incomprehensibility of the once Elder Gods who still retain a fraction of their former poer and plot and gibber and spawn in dark corners of existence.

Tolkien influences? Not really that much. I mean, of course, this is fantasy, even if I'm deliberately trying not to be influenced by Tolkein, to do something completely different, I am by definition therefore being influenced by him I dunno though, I just don't like his stuff that much, and haven't drawn much from it other than certain basic fantasy concepts.

Planescape, as my most beloved non-homebrew setting, has its influences, and I intend for at least a few trips to the planes and plenty of outer-planar influences. I'd say I'm also influenced by the crpg Planescape: Torment, an awesome game if ever there was one.