What setting to use as a base when players have creative powers?

[Mark]

Yeah, that's sort of what I'm thinking, but honestly now that Greyhawk has grown so large...

Well, I was paging through Dungeon mags and the Lands of Mystery poster map fell out. I thought I heard a "ding!" when it landed in my lap.

Tin cup?

You could pick up the Goodman Known Realms.

 

[S'mon]

Greyhawk using only the 1983 box set, or Known World from only X1 Isle of Dread, are both reasonable and traditional possibilities. I think personally I'd go with Greyhawk. But really I think you'd be best off asking your players for ideas. Kingdoms of Kalamar is possible but I found it a bit dull. Forgotten Realms might be a possibility if you're ok with discarding all the novels, metaplot etc beyond whichever starter box you use.

Another idea would be to take a free online setting - Dragonsfoot.org has a whole bunch, the Basic Fantasy RPG site has a couple too.

 

[buzz]

Well, I was paging through Dungeon mags and the Lands of Mystery poster map fell out. I thought I heard a "ding!" when it landed in my lap.

I was planning to do this for my first 4e campaign. The last print issue of Dungeon had a whole-world map o' mystery. I figured I'd slap that down in front of my players and ask them which part of the map looked like a cool place to start.

Anyway, what about just starting with the details in the core books: basic races, pantheon, and planes? Just come up with a world name before you meet with the players.

 

[pallandrome]

heh, this all just screamed Nobilis at me. That was the poster child for player created settings, right there.

 

[GreatLemur]

I was planning to do this for my first 4e campaign. The last print issue of Dungeon had a whole-world map o' mystery. I figured I'd slap that down in front of my players and ask them which part of the map looked like a cool place to start.

That sounds badass.

On a somewhat related note, I just listened to the Rolemonkeys playtest a game called Giants, in which each player adding one city and one geographical feature to a blank map is actually part of character creation. Bam. Instant personal investment and buy-in, and a whole new world swiftly created in broad strokes.

heh, this all just screamed Nobilis at me. That was the poster child for player created settings, right there.

Huh. That's something I did not see in Nobilis, when I was reading through it. How do you mean that, exactly?

 

[Stormborn]

You could do what I currently am, an anything goes last 3.x hurrah set on a world called Mosaic, where over the centuries parts of various worlds have been overlayed on top of one another to create a chaotic landcape and thousands of cultures and races. I set up a city and the surrounding territory as the starting point and told the players they could do whatever they wanted at that point.

 

[scruffygrognard]

Calling all setting critics! I need advice.

My next campaign will feature a lot of player-created stuff; allies, enemies, contacts, background events, and so on. Heck, they might even end up creating countries and historical events, if I can get them to.

What setting would you use as a base for that? Something with a (short!) player's guide or something would be fantastic, they love it when I give them something to work with.

I'd use the Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set. There is a lot of wiggle room for creative character input.

 

[Ry]

Well, one thing I thought would be cool would be to do a 100% OGC campaign so I could use it in my projects. Then I started flipping through Murchad's Legacy, which is freaking COOL. Even thought hte maps aren't OGC, I have a (eerily) similar but sketchy world I used for a few sessions...

 

[jdrakeh]

That's something I did not see in Nobilis, when I was reading through it. How do you mean that, exactly?

All of the Nobles create their own pocket realities that both reflect their nature and overlap with the larger setting.

 

[WayneLigon]

Well, I was paging through Dungeon mags and the Lands of Mystery poster map fell out. I thought I heard a "ding!" when it landed in my lap.

The large 'poster' map they did in the last issue would be perfect for the type of thing you're talking about. So would the world that all the Dungeon Crawl Classics are located in.