I would really like to see an Edgar Rice Burroughs book: John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, the Jupiter book, Tarzan, Pellucidar at the earth's core, the moon maid.
That also sounds really strange and wonderful!
What kind of New Setting for Fifth Edition? (Other than old settings)
- Thread starter Tallifer
- Start date
I would really like to see an Edgar Rice Burroughs book: John Carter of Mars, Carson of Venus, the Jupiter book, Tarzan, Pellucidar at the earth's core, the moon maid.
That also sounds really strange and wonderful!
I would like to see something extreme. There are enough kitchen sink settings that are plenty fleshed out. We definitely do not need more.
It's hard for me to really think outside what has already been done.
I'd like to see something with a more focused environment like Dark Sun and a more focused mythology and magic or psionic interaction. I really like the idea of uncovering the past so I would like to see something along those lines. A relatively new world after some kind of recent cataclysm and discovering long forgotten technology and the like.
Something more sci-fantasy would be pretty cool I think. When I say technology I don't mean computers and spaceships. I just mean ancient tools that are essentially 'magical' because the current species can't understand how they work. Something like that, or some setting having to do with maybe an extra-terrestrial invasion, but fantasy style.
It's hard for me to really think outside what has already been done.
I'd like to see something with a more focused environment like Dark Sun and a more focused mythology and magic or psionic interaction. I really like the idea of uncovering the past so I would like to see something along those lines. A relatively new world after some kind of recent cataclysm and discovering long forgotten technology and the like.
Something more sci-fantasy would be pretty cool I think. When I say technology I don't mean computers and spaceships. I just mean ancient tools that are essentially 'magical' because the current species can't understand how they work. Something like that, or some setting having to do with maybe an extra-terrestrial invasion, but fantasy style.
trancejeremy
Adventurer
I'd like to see a Dying Earth style setting.
Like er, Vance's Dying Earth or Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stuff. Or even the Barsoom stuff probably qualifies.
Dark Sun is sort of one, but's almost more a scorched earth setting, focusing on survival.
I really mean just a really old world where civilization has largely collapsed and things are weird and decadent.
That way you could pretty much support everything.
Like er, Vance's Dying Earth or Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stuff. Or even the Barsoom stuff probably qualifies.
Dark Sun is sort of one, but's almost more a scorched earth setting, focusing on survival.
I really mean just a really old world where civilization has largely collapsed and things are weird and decadent.
That way you could pretty much support everything.
steeldragons
Steeliest of the dragons
In my own homebrew world I have a myriad of cultures (based off various known cultures).
But they were not created in a bubble.
You can have "gothic-noire" style games/plots/regions and "high magic South America" with a "high fantasy Arabian-flavored nation" and "european medieval realism", "eastern" philosophy or feudal make-up with "pseudo-rennaissance" levels of technologies all inhabiting the same world....heck, laser blasters and "space/spell ships" if you want.
Sure you can.
But these "ancient tribal peoples" using bone-tipped spears a week (or even a month's) journey from where an "Ottoman"-style empire have guns and flying ships that abuts the "Count's evil-infested realm" on the other side of that hill...just ruffles my feathers.
Develop worlds that "make sense." Where peoples and nations have interaction (or not) and influence each other (or have some reason not to: xenophobia, cultural taboos, varying resources or the competition thereof, generational "hard feelings" from some unforgotten -or ongoing- war/atrocity, etc..). Common ancestries/origins, intertwining histories, complementary (or competing, but not utterly unrelated) religions or pantheons, utterly foreign language branches and disparate levels of technology. How many "hidden valleys" and "lost/forgotten kingdoms" can one world contain?
Yes, obviously, it's a fantasy game of imagination. The answer, technically, is "as many as I want." I understand that.
Yes, you can and should have diversity. Who wants to adventure in a world where everything is the same? blech. What's to explore in a world like that?
But I don't want a setting that looks like or, perhaps more importantly, makes me feel like I'm in Epcot Center.
We just defeated this demi-plane/pocket dimension seeping into our world of vampires and werewolves. Tomorrow? After a night at the inn, you're in the desert sultanate being controlled by a djinn and invaded by sandstorm demons. Two days later, you're swashbuckling on the coast with sidearms...but the desert people never saw a "boom stick" before and the clerics of the sea-faring populace's Ocean God can detect/effect a vampire a mile away...with their solar-powered photon disruptor maces that channel the sun...?
Variety is the spice of life to be sure. And all of these have a place and are/can be great fun. But, trends of the music industry aside, "mash-ups" aren't necessarily the best way to build a "believable" world/setting...imho.
I think the suggestion of "homebrew" as the default with guides and tips for all of the various elements of setting creation is the best idea/way to go.
"DIY/Make your own as you go" should be[come] the norm for those who don't prefer to use an already published world. And really shouldn't be as "daunting" as many seem to feel it is.
Have fun and happy "default setting"-building.
Carry on.
--SD
But they were not created in a bubble.
You can have "gothic-noire" style games/plots/regions and "high magic South America" with a "high fantasy Arabian-flavored nation" and "european medieval realism", "eastern" philosophy or feudal make-up with "pseudo-rennaissance" levels of technologies all inhabiting the same world....heck, laser blasters and "space/spell ships" if you want.
Sure you can.
But these "ancient tribal peoples" using bone-tipped spears a week (or even a month's) journey from where an "Ottoman"-style empire have guns and flying ships that abuts the "Count's evil-infested realm" on the other side of that hill...just ruffles my feathers.
Develop worlds that "make sense." Where peoples and nations have interaction (or not) and influence each other (or have some reason not to: xenophobia, cultural taboos, varying resources or the competition thereof, generational "hard feelings" from some unforgotten -or ongoing- war/atrocity, etc..). Common ancestries/origins, intertwining histories, complementary (or competing, but not utterly unrelated) religions or pantheons, utterly foreign language branches and disparate levels of technology. How many "hidden valleys" and "lost/forgotten kingdoms" can one world contain?
Yes, obviously, it's a fantasy game of imagination. The answer, technically, is "as many as I want." I understand that.
Yes, you can and should have diversity. Who wants to adventure in a world where everything is the same? blech. What's to explore in a world like that?
But I don't want a setting that looks like or, perhaps more importantly, makes me feel like I'm in Epcot Center.
We just defeated this demi-plane/pocket dimension seeping into our world of vampires and werewolves. Tomorrow? After a night at the inn, you're in the desert sultanate being controlled by a djinn and invaded by sandstorm demons. Two days later, you're swashbuckling on the coast with sidearms...but the desert people never saw a "boom stick" before and the clerics of the sea-faring populace's Ocean God can detect/effect a vampire a mile away...with their solar-powered photon disruptor maces that channel the sun...?
Variety is the spice of life to be sure. And all of these have a place and are/can be great fun. But, trends of the music industry aside, "mash-ups" aren't necessarily the best way to build a "believable" world/setting...imho.
I think the suggestion of "homebrew" as the default with guides and tips for all of the various elements of setting creation is the best idea/way to go.
"DIY/Make your own as you go" should be[come] the norm for those who don't prefer to use an already published world. And really shouldn't be as "daunting" as many seem to feel it is.
Have fun and happy "default setting"-building.
Carry on.
--SD
Yora
Legend
The problem with official settings always is, that they are expected to include all the options that the game offers. But I'd like a setting in which it is not the game rules that determine what exists in the world, but that stands on it's own feet and includes only the rules for things that are part of it, and ignores rules for stuff that is not.
But that's for homebrewers and third-party publishers, I guess.
But that's for homebrewers and third-party publishers, I guess.
3E Oriental Adventures by WotC did this. They included Rokugan as a default setting, but Rokugan only used about half the rules presented in the rules chapters of the book.
