What Do You Want For Yrth

[martinl]

Originally Posted by naloth

The problem I've had with Yrth is that I can generally pick a real point in history, add a few elements (perhaps magic, other races), and have a very similar feel. It's also easier to explain historic settings then trying the explain the Yrth setting. For Yrth to be more appealing it would need more of a theme, preferably one that's easy to convey.

This is my problem for gritty games. Earth (and Harn for that matter) just does it better.

But this:

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

The big problem with Yrth for me is that real-world conflicts since 1986 (when it was first written up) have made in a problematic setting to play in. It heavily features variant mediaeval Christianity and Islam

is a big danger in high fantasy. When serious magic starts flying around beside real world active religions you have theological implications I prefer just to avoid.

[David Johansen]

Perhaps developing another continent could address some of the issues people have while leaving Ytarria as is?

One thought about a silk road. What if it was under ground? Tunnels beneath the ocean floor.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by David Johansen

Perhaps developing another continent could address some of the issues people have while leaving Ytarria as is?

You might as well just have a different setting and ignore Yrth entirely in that case.

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by Anthony

You might as well just have a different setting and ignore Yrth entirely in that case.

Well, yes and no. Consider ericthered's campaign: it could be thought of as a variant of Yrth, or it could be thought of as the Yrth 1100 campaign but focused on another continent (the story about the elves and the orcs is still there, but he's using a different map and mix of races). Yes, as long as the two never interact, they might as well be on separate worlds. And once they start interacting in earnest, Yttaria will forever be changed. But if they're set on different worlds, there's no chance of the Yttarian equivalent of Marco Polo or Christopher Columbus, or the inverse: First Contact stories that lead to larger changes in the future, but not quite yet.

And there is that common bit of backstory, the elves and orcs and the Banestorm.

[Michael Cule]

What I'd like I'm never going to get but there's no harm in dreaming.

1) MEGALOS: an updated (post-demon Emperor) vision of the Big Corrupt Empire. I can't see any way that the fall of the Old Bastard doesn't lead to civil war: the Templars are never going to admit to what their Grand Master did without a fight. The Empire may still be split (though I doubt it) but it would definitely be badly wounded in the process. The Great Crusade got put off: but by now there are probably people calling for its renewal.

Stuff about the noble families, the local cultures. Perhaps a brief outline campaign about working for the new Emperor (or perhaps even Empress in these enlightened times...) as troubleshooters.

2) SAHUD: Now don't all throw things. I like Sahud not for silliness but for a chance to do things that aren't standard but are flavourful. A spirit based magic system is needed for it. Also the effects of Illumination on Yrth.

3) HUNTING THE STORM: A book for the agents of the Ministry of Serendipity and its counterparts. As near to an ILLUMINATI campaign as Yrth comes.

4) Books of Cities and other locations.

5) A campaign. Or three.

[SteamBub]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

3) HUNTING THE STORM: A book for the agents of the Ministry of Serendipity and its counterparts. As near to an ILLUMINATI campaign as Yrth comes.

That sounds really fun, I can even see a section of that dedicated to running from the Ministry of Serendipity as a fresh Banestormer. Most likely won't end well.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

I'd love to see additional continents added, like a Pseudo-Africa situated just south of the Maelstrom.

Other continents really don't fire me up in that setting: there are already a half dozen or more cultures I'd like to see the full interactions between.

But what I really think would be useful would be Dungeon Fantasy: Banestorm, a guidebook about how to plan and run a Dungeon Fantasy campaign on Yrth.
-Defining the role of Dungeon-crawlers in various Ytarrian societies.
-Justifying Clerical and Druidic Magic in the otherwise mechanically agnostic world of Yrth.
-Fantasy Monsters unique to Yrth (or imported from worlds like Gabrook and Loren'dil)

This could be overdone, but I bet a single book would do really well. I'd personally think a section on the classic "dungeon" types of Yrth would do well.

I'd love an exploration of the Djinn Lands, maybe with a few cities, notable Djinn lords and their houses.

I'd love this, possibly more than any other area. How do they interact with each other? what do they do? this area could use a lot more flesh on its bones.

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

What I'd like I'm never going to get but there's no harm in dreaming.

1) MEGALOS: an updated (post-demon Emperor) vision of the Big Corrupt Empire. I can't see any way that the fall of the Old Bastard doesn't lead to civil war: the Templars are never going to admit to what their Grand Master did without a fight. The Empire may still be split (though I doubt it) but it would definitely be badly wounded in the process. The Great Crusade got put off: but by now there are probably people calling for its renewal.

Stuff about the noble families, the local cultures. Perhaps a brief outline campaign about working for the new Emperor (or perhaps even Empress in these enlightened times...) as troubleshooters.

I'd second this, but I struggled to get through the stuff on megalos that was in the book. Perhaps I need to go back and read it again. Perhaps I just don't like corrupt empires. Perhaps a tighter map treatment would do it more justice.

For some reason, the hark-wood book on caithess lands was much more captivating for me than the 4e book. If you can pull off something like the first part of that book for Megalos, I'd like it. But Gazetteers are hard to make interesting.

2) SAHUD: Now don't all throw things. I like Sahud not for silliness but for a chance to do things that aren't standard but are flavourful. A spirit based magic system is needed for it. Also the effects of Illumination on Yrth.

Agreed. Sahud could stand to be elevated. There is a lot of potential there. Though see my thoughts about Gazetteers.

3) HUNTING THE STORM: A book for the agents of the Ministry of Serendipity and its counterparts. As near to an ILLUMINATI campaign as Yrth comes.

This is part of what makes Yrth unique. Actually, this feels like a great place to make a low tech version of action!

Originally Posted by mhd

The thing that would get me to try Yrth would basically have to be an equivalent to Warhammer's "Enemy Within" campaign. An adventure or adventure "path" that contains a good setting introduction and takes you places.

Most of the time I like settings rather than adventures. For some reason, Yrth seems flipped. I've never played a Harkwood campaign, but the setup of the adventure gave me lots of ideas of how to run other things. The trick is to give the adventure writer enough leeway to make the political and cultural things work.

Originally Posted by tbone

* More variety within non-human cultures/societies (and, for fun, a greater selection of personal names for non-humans).

* Suggestions for what each race might "do" in the campaign. (The example I used: We all know Elves are artful and protect nature, and Dwarves are they guys you go to for fine stone and metal craftsmanship, but Gnomes do... what? What would you expect to ask from them, or trade with them, etc.?)

* Similarly, we learn a bit about things like Elvish religion, but (to stick with that example) what does that cause Elves to do? What are their rituals, ceremonies, holidays, etc.? Outside of religion, too: What are Elves' marriage customs, festivals, funerals, etc. all about?

Banestorm: Elves. I'd buy that book. Yeah, that would be an awesome supplement.

* More physical features, beyond just the big deserts and forests! Interesting canyons and mountain passes, a rough city map or two, places of historic (and adventuring) note...

That doesn't have to be Yrth based, but fantastic locations are always fun...

* More all-out storylines that play up cross-dimensional travel and displaced other-time adventurers. That potential is what's most uniquely Banestorm; maybe it's time for the series to unleash it.

Yes, this is currently left in the background, I'd love to see it put into focus.

* More land! Ytarria feels a wee crowded; if it were possible, blowing up the map a bit and opening up more wide-open spots for GMs to play with is something I'd go for. The same for whole new continents...

Actually, Ytarria is stupidly large and sparsely populated: you could put things in the middle of existing places without messing anything up at all. I think Caithess is the size of Texas or something like that.

[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Proteus

That said, it might be useful for fantasy publications to briefly but specifically call out to Yrth and other potential settings, by offering some specific ideas on how, say, incantation magic might fit into Megalos' wizarding culture, or the Technomancer timeline, or the world of Roma Arcana. A few paragraphs here and there would provide good intra-line advertising, spur the imagination of new players/GMs intimidated by the Erector set that is GURPS' rules set, and offer good brainstorming fodder in general.

That's a really solid idea. Incorporating a magic system into existing worlds. Yep, I like it.

But what I'd really like is a generic GURPS Worlds of Fantasy (or, even better yet, GWoF 1, with sequels): something along the lines of Infinite Worlds, Lands out of Time, or Zombies: Day One. Offer several sketches of campaign worlds, each with enough crunch and fluff to appeal to the various wings of the player base, with enough detail to offer some compatibility between different groups' interpretations (and sharing of personal inventions via blogs, etc.) while still allowing room for a referee's own tinkering.

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

Maybe a different approach entirely? Treat Yrth as simply the first of a line of fantasy settings within the other Infinite Worlds metasetting?

I hate to say it, but yeah. What I want isn't so much more Yrth is more fantastic worked settings that give truly new ideas. Something Gurps seemed to have done a lot of during the transition to 4e but has slowly moved away from.

[ericthered]

I realized a supplement that isn't Yrth but would still be awesome:

Action: Low-tech. Action is just an awesome system. I'd love to see its principles applied to low tech settings. I also think it would be a huge benefit for Yrth.

[acrosome]

A Tredroy update would be on my wish list, but only if it includes a decent map. And, hell, include maps and a gazetteer of a 100-mile radius or so around the city, too.

Something similar for Megalos the City, I suppose.

Heck, while I'm dreaming, a mapset of Ytarria, with much more detail. Like, Harn/Atlas Kelestia level of detail. Commissioning it from one of the masters at cartographersguild.com would be a good way to go- Daelin comes to mind but there a a lot of excellent artists there. I have discussed this elsewhere. A great opportunity to be definitive about Ytarria, and show that the nomad lands, orclands, etc., are really much larger and complex than previously presented.

Yes, some sort of interesting campaign. I'm good at bitching about other people's work, but I'm personally pretty damned hidebound myself.

Expansion of the 'wild' areas in a gazetteer. One could be for the nomad lands, one for the orclands, etc. Heck, even Zarak. Including detailed maps. (Sort of a running theme, that.)

I have no interest whatsoever in alternate magic systems.

I also agree that "the crusades transplanted to a place with magic" is a bit limiting in scope. As I said on the other thread, the real ideal for me would be completely rebooting with the banestorm major in 700AD or so. Maybe with a gnostic church ascendant and other kewlness. Or maybe even a bit earlier. But anyway- the intent is that interesting but now essentially extinct belief systems and cultures could be evolved over 1400 years or so. Zoroastrianism. The Harsha Empire. Manicheanism. Tang China. Syncretic Hellenistic Empires. The frikkin Vikings! Other Gothic cultures, while we're at it. The Maya. Shugendo. The Avars and the Persians. The Khazar Khaganate. Yazdanism. The Sao and Axum from Africa. Tocharians. Picts.

If you want to keep modern religious politics to a minimum, have the banestorm major predate Islam, and generally try to keep to extinct or nearly extinct/marginalized cultures and belief systems. Islam is relatively monolithic anyway, and thus less interesting from a gaming point of view than frex a gnostic/coptic church schism. Wouldn't that be wild for crusading? And for that matter keep Christianity generally less successful so that there are many more surviving Indo-European polytheistic influences. (Thus the gnostic stuff.)

If you really wanted to keep in nonpolitical you could posit the banestorm major in 4000BC or so, and develop your own polytheistic religions based on the proto-ido-european pantheon.

[David Johansen]

The fun thing about the Banestorm concept is that any of those could be possible. Maybe what we need is an alternate Banestorms issue of Pyramid.

And I'm a big map lover. I've got a few rough sketch maps from the campaign that inspired Ashcroft Undone. It started out as a campaign but people kept dropping out and sessions were sporadic so I rarely had the same players for more than two or three sessions but I was trying to keep the storyline on track. So I wound up with a narrative that wasn't focussed on the player characters, they mostly wound up being spectators as it worked.