Dungeon Fantasy World Setting

[DoctorRomulus]

Originally Posted by AOTA

GURPS Cidri now that Steve has the rights back.

Now THAT!! would be something!!!

And it already has Dungeon Fantasy written ALL OVER IT!!! :D

Cidri, Cidri, Cidri !!!

[Astromancer]

The Dungeon Fantasy brand would probably do better with a book or pdf on setting up worlds for Dungeon Fantasy and a couple of pdfs of worked examples.

The first book would be about the problems of building a setting for Dungeon Fantasy. Low tech, hi tech, small kingdoms, big empires, standard medieval European knock off, exotic alternative, and other issues. The second book would do the more conventional options. The third book would hit on more exotic options like the Lowellian Mars with ancient deserts and cannal and alien tombs in dry sea beds. Steampunk variations like archeologists in Egyptian tombs and exploring under the cities of Rome or Paris would be fun. And a Shadow Run cyberpunk take on Dungeon Fantasy as well.

[kmunoz]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Setting books don't seem to do very for GURPS... so not sure we'll ever see one?

I think setting books don't do well for GURPS because people are drawn to GURPS as a builder's kit. Why would you invest energy in a widget-builder's kit and then just buy a pre-packaged widget?

DFRPG, however, is considerably less of a builder's kit than GURPS. It works far more easily right out of the box, without tweaking or selecting options or winnowing rule selections. The sort of player who would be interested in DFRPG is therefore potentially broader than for GURPS. Setting material might appeal to them.

The real question, though, is whether DFRPG is really attracting those sorts of players. I have my doubts, but I have no data, just a sense of the room.

[kmunoz]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The Dungeon Fantasy brand would probably do better with a book or pdf on setting up worlds for Dungeon Fantasy and a couple of pdfs of worked examples.

The first book would be about the problems of building a setting for Dungeon Fantasy. Low tech, hi tech, small kingdoms, big empires, standard medieval European knock off, exotic alternative, and other issues. The second book would do the more conventional options. The third book would hit on more exotic options like the Lowellian Mars with ancient deserts and cannal and alien tombs in dry sea beds. Steampunk variations like archeologists in Egyptian tombs and exploring under the cities of Rome or Paris would be fun. And a Shadow Run cyberpunk take on Dungeon Fantasy as well.

What you're describing sounds an awful lot more like a series of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy products. All of it is waaaay too fiddly for DFRPG.

[DocRailgun]

Isn't the very idea of a setting/game world for DFRPG defeating thw whole purpose of the game, as Kromm seems to have explained it?

As he has mentioned before, DFRPG is a game about dungeon crawling. Anything outside the dungeon is just window dressing - a place to sell loot, a place to get healed, a place to buy equipment. It's not really intended to be much else than that. If you need a role playing setting, wouldn't Dungeon Fantasy or GURPS be a better option? After all, DFRPG and Dungeon Gantasy are two completely different things.

[LoneWolf23k]

Originally Posted by DocRailgun

Isn't the very idea of a setting/game world for DFRPG defeating thw whole purpose of the game, as Kromm seems to have explained it?

As he has mentioned before, DFRPG is a game about dungeon crawling. Anything outside the dungeon is just window dressing - a place to sell loot, a place to get healed, a place to buy equipment. It's not really intended to be much else than that. If you need a role playing setting, wouldn't Dungeon Fantasy or GURPS be a better option? After all, DFRPG and Dungeon Gantasy are two completely different things.

I've honestly never been really clear on where that distinction was supposed to be, beyond the idea that the Box Set is more stripped down, but even so, just because you have a game that's centered entirely around dungeon crawls, doesn't mean you can't have cool fantasy names to drop for the dungeons, the gods, the relics, etc. Cool Generic Fantasy is fine and all, but sometimes it's nice to have context.

After all, just to give one example, the Diablo games have nicely fleshed out lore about the World of Sanctuary, the War of Heaven and Hell, and the rise and fall of various cultures and cities on Sanctuary. Does that mean the Diablo games are anything beyond basic Hack-and-Slash games? Hell No. It just provides a backdrop that's more interesting then "Generic Fantasy Kingdom #3234567"

[Dalin]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

I've honestly never been really clear on where that distinction was supposed to be, beyond the idea that the Box Set is more stripped down, but even so, just because you have a game that's centered entirely around dungeon crawls, doesn't mean you can't have cool fantasy names to drop for the dungeons, the gods, the relics, etc. Cool Generic Fantasy is fine and all, but sometimes it's nice to have context.

I agree. It is very much in-genre to have a world around the dungeons. I jumped into gaming in 1981 and we were all about dungeon crawling, but we definitely had maps of the region and names for cities, towns, villages, important people, etc. Soon thereafter I discovered the folio edition of The World of Greyhawk and I was smitten.

This is a separate issue from whether or not it makes sense for SJG to publish a generic fantasy world as a default DFRPG setting. I don't know enough about the potential market.

[Carnifex]

A while back I suggested using the Castle Defiant area on Yrth as a sandbox for a DFRPG campaign. I think the big complaint I got was there is no divine magic in Yrth, personally I would just hand wave it and say this is Yrth 2, there is divine magic here and move on.