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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Elton" data-source="post: 1448873" data-attributes="member: 14486">I'm writing my modules the other way.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  Setting generic doesn't work for the modules I like to write.  I often look to the classics for inspiration.  Classic stories like the Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, tales of history, etc.  Sometimes I go for a particular locale on Earth and write a module around it's mythic history.  That being said, GURPS, Ars Magica, and the 2nd Edition Historical References have converted me to play in the ORIGINAL GENERIC WORLD!  Why is this?  Truth is often stranger than fiction.  I feel that you can have as much fun playing a story out based on intrigue in the Roman Senate, performing acts of Chivalry in King Arthur's Court, calling on the power of faith in God in the Battle of Jericho, Kung-Fu butt-kicking a few demons in Ancient China, or even being Rama and saving Sita.  The modules that I buy should give you enough impetus to play heroes of this sort. I mean think about it.  Earth is the original Generic world.  I can write and publish an interesting adventure around figures of history that can be easily put into an existing campaign world.  Take Julius Caesar and his assassination.  That can be turned into an adventure quite easily.  The Dictator of the Known World is murdered and the player characters must figure out who did it as the Republic crumbles (although in a Magic Roman campaign, Caesar would have used his Magic to destroy the conspirators).  Truth can be stranger than fiction.I can make a published adventure from Cleopatra and Marc Antony, one from Culhwch and Olwen, one from Beowulf (although that already has been done), one from the Ramayana, and even one from Chinese Myth.What I'm getting at is that a Dungeon Crawl is really not all that exciting.  Go in and knock the senses out of some Orcs and other non-humans and take away their squatters' rights at the edge of a sword.  It's cliche, it's boring, and the only motivation is to clear out the dungeon so that future generations can be safe.  Wow, how uninteresting on paper.  Although some DMs had fun with the typical Dungeon Crawl (One DM had a bawl with the Prisoners of the Maze series); on paper the Dungeon Crawl is cliched.  So I'm looking at history for a while now.  I mean, how many mysterious places in the world has a story around them?  All of them.  You can write an entire adventure about a lost city like Angkor Wat or Zimbabwe and with a little work make it fit your campaign.I mean, how hard is it to write adventures about Real Events and Real Places and transport them to your campaign?  Not so hard. We need to stop writing Cliched adventures and start drawing on real history and real places.  There is more stories on Earth than there is in a made up fantasy world to please dozens of Gamers.</blockquote>

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