Whould you buy a system-free setting?

[malladin]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about the present and potential future of the D20 market (well the RPG market in general, but it's the D20 one that I mostly write for) and was wondering if people would actually buy a setting, assuming you liked it, of course, that didn't have a game system included - it would expect you, I suppose, to convert to whichever generic system you liked best, GURPS, Savage Worlds, a D20 variant, True20, etc. So let me know which of the responses on the thread you think best fits your opinion

 

[Crothian]

Ya, I plan on getting Freeport when it comes out system less

 

[Corsair]

I have no desire to purchase system-less game material. That isn't much different than just buying novels or non-fiction historical books, except somewhat less interesting.

 

[Psion]

I don't know. If it was something of the quality and ease of use of the old Citybooks, I'd be all over it.

But it the book goes off the beaten path very far (and really, why would I be buying a setting if it didn't?), I'd consider the installed game specific support a definite selling point.

Might I suggest that Green Ronin's approach with freeport would be worth emulating?

 

[Aeric]

Assuming you were interested in the setting, would you buy system free products?

Fixed it for you.

I voted that I would want some kind of system in it, even if it wasn't the one I intended to use. If I'm going to stat out all the stuff in the book, I'd at least want a frame of reference to know how powerful stuff should be.

 

[trancejeremy]

The trouble with system free settings, is that rules are help define a setting. And vice-versa.

For instance, if a setting is done based on the D&D rules, then magical healing and even raising from the dead is reasonably common. That sort of thing (and magic rules in general) should have a big effect on a world.

How wounds are handled is another big thing. Does it use hit points, or something more realistic?

 

[EyeontheMountain]

If I were to buy a new setting, which I am not in the market for now, or in the forseeable future, I would want it to be d20. In fact I would love to see a d20 world with a lot of the standard prestige classes assigned niches in the world. I.E. a world built around the d20 ruleset.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ya, I plan on getting Freeport when it comes out system less

Right there with ya.

 

[rgard]

Hi all,

I've been thinking about the present and potential future of the D20 market (well the RPG market in general, but it's the D20 one that I mostly write for) and was wondering if people would actually buy a setting, assuming you liked it, of course, that didn't have a game system included - it would expect you, I suppose, to convert to whichever generic system you liked best, GURPS, Savage Worlds, a D20 variant, True20, etc. So let me know which of the responses on the thread you think best fits your opinion

If I wanted a system-less setting I'll go to my book shelf and pull out books by Robert Howard books, Fritz Leiber, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and others fiction and non-fiction.

Smart-guy answer asside, I think there would some value to a system-less setting, but I'm not sure I'd be a customer for that.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Whimsical]

If I were to buy a new setting, which I am not in the market for now, or in the forseeable future, I would want it to be d20. In fact I would love to see a d20 world with a lot of the standard prestige classes assigned niches in the world. I.E. a world built around the d20 ruleset.

Here 'ya go!

Ptolus is meant to be the d20 System in microcosm. It embodies all that is fundamental to the game, but it does so in the space of a single city. That means there are dungeons to explore as well as townsfolk with whom to interact. There are strange magical mysteries to discover, demons to fight, and even dragons. Ptolus is truly a city of adventure—PCs don't have to leave it to embark on the amazing adventures.
Ptolus is the union of some aspects of real-world medieval Europe (as real as is fun) with the rules and flavor of the d20 System. When I wrote in the Third Edition DMG that merchants might hire wizards to use detect thoughts and see invisibility to deter crime, and that bars might post signs forbidding detection spells so the patrons can relax, I was thinking of Ptolus.
The Ptolus Campaign is the d20 rules with the volume turned all the way up. I created the world with the game rules in mind. The conceits of the game became the conceits of the setting. The feel of the rules was the feel of the city. If the rules suggested that something might happen a lot, then in Ptolus, it happened a lot. The effects of 1st-level spells come as a surprise to no one here. Tangefoot bags, rings of protection, and the druid's animal companion are taken for granted.