Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johansen
Anyhow, you could always just use Middle Earth and watch the pure fans squawk and squeal as priests of Thor throw death spells at beholders. :D
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That's the sort of thing I would totally do! Maybe you had to be there, but back in the late 70s and early 80s, a major part of the charm of FRPGs was throwing in the kitchen sink:
"I read this fantasy novel one time and there's some stuff I want to work in."
"Cool. I skimmed this one my older brother had, called Gor. Also, I just saw Hawk the Slayer and it gave me this idea."
"Awesome! Hey, in history class we just learned about these badass Persian warriors called the Immortals, so I totally want them in the game – only they'll really be immortal!"
"Great, and I'll be putting in this monster my uncle heard about from an old Mohawk guy."
"Guys . . . can we step away from the world-building? I want to talk about my fighter. He's like a half-elf Bruce Lee mixed with Aragorn, and he uses Excalibur."
"Dude, you can't start with an Excalibur. You have to find one, and there are only, like, 20 or something in the world."
"Maybe I can kill a medusa for it?"
Anyway, that's the feel the
DFRPG was going for (okay, maybe not
Gor). You can actually get a good appreciation for what you can do and how far you can go with just implicit world details – mostly ripped off from random myth, legend, folklore, fiction, and even history – by playing a little
NetHack.