Alchemical Baroque and Dungeon Fantasy

[Astromancer]

This is just a suggestion, comment is welcomed though.

If you need a quickie setting for you Dungeon Fantasy game why not use Phill Masters Alchemical Baroque setting? Sure you have to dump his magic system, and that's a shame. But you get a map, languages, and and other goodies in a psudeo-Europe. It's quick easy and readily availible.

I'm not saying this should be official, but it's an easy way to do it.

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[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Sure you have to dump his magic system,

Isn't that like most of the point of the setting? It is a Thaumatology book after all.

languages

This is probably a problem. Unless all the PCs come from the same place, only Wizards, Bards, Clerics, Artificers, and Scholars will be able to talk to anybody else. Or you could introduce a ahistorical "Common" language for Europe, but then you lose the languages. DF as written doesn't really seem to want non-monsters to speak different languages.

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I'm not sure the 16th fairy tale motif really is compatible with Hack-n-slash dungeon delving. The heroes of Alchemical Baroque are slightly roguish but cunning soldiers who solve problems with wit, panache, and musket fire. None of the DF templates can even use guns at all. There are very few of the "standard fantasy" tropes that DF players seem to expect. In short it's not especially, IMO, Metal.

[Blind Mapmaker]

Frankly, if anybody was that desperate for pre-made setting, Banestorm would be a much better fit. Some of the races might not work and the clerics and holy warriors would have to be redone, but it's still more compatible than Alchemical Baroque by a wide margin.

As sir_pudding said the magic system is kind of the point of the setting. And for my part I don't even see it as much as a setting as mode with some general guidelines for world-building and a rather neat idea about religious dogma. The descriptions of whole countries are three or four paragraphs each with no cities, rulers etc. You can call it a setting, but in that case DF is only half a dozen pages short of being a setting.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

Frankly, if anybody was that desperate for pre-made setting, Banestorm would be a much better fit. Some of the races might not work and the clerics and holy warriors would have to be redone, but it's still more compatible than Alchemical Baroque by a wide margin.

As sir_pudding said the magic system is kind of the point of the setting. And for my part I don't even see it as much as a setting as mode with some general guidelines for world-building and a rather neat idea about religious dogma. The descriptions of whole countries are three or four paragraphs each with no cities, rulers etc. You can call it a setting, but in that case DF is only half a dozen pages short of being a setting.

Just take the old Mystara sourcebooks like Principality of Glantri, amend anything too specific to the D&D rule set, and fly with those. Perfectly serviceable and fun.

[CousinX]

It doesn't look like such a good fit on the surface, but I think they could be profitably fused with some work and creativity. First, I'd want to customize the DF templates for the campaign: get rid of the ones that don't really fit (martial artist, ninja, etc), and create lenses that bring the others into genre-compliance (and up to TL4), using the character types in T:AB as a rough guide. Probably drop most the races from DF3 ... the T:AB templates for faeries and ogres are beyond the normal DF starting level, so it's likely that all PCs are human (unless the GM wants to come with cheaper "fey blood" or "half-ogre" templates). Update the gear lists to reflect TL4, and you're set, at least as far as character creation. For the magic system, I'd be inclined to prune back the Wizard a bit, and include the DF9 summoner templates as "alternate wizards."

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Isn't that like most of the point of the setting? It is a Thaumatology book after all.

Well, yes. And also no.

Remember that it was originally a chapter in All-Star Jam 2004 (well, actually, it was originally an idea I kicked around in about 1992, but never mind). The old Ritual Magic system was the best fit for the concept, so I dropped that straight in. So, when Ritual Magic became Path/Book Magic in Thaumatology, I had a ready-done example setting which used it. The fit remains good, but for me personally, it's the fairy-tale/European Enlightenment fantasy stuff that defines it, more than the magic system per se.

If you're going to run dungeon bashes in the setting, I'd want to work with that idea. Lots of fairy-tale whimsy - an almost Alice in Wonderland feel, even - and solving problems with wit, a touch of high explosives or the odd big axe, and a lot of good advice from your cat. Do-able, but somewhat variant from most of the DF books, to be sure.