Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-20-2017, 09:17 PM   #1
Qoltar
Pike's Pique
 
Qoltar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A.
Default Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

Okay, Hello..

Long time since I have Posted questions.

Saturday I bought a copy of 'Dungeon Fantasy' and now I have lots of questions.

First - Is there background setting or world for Dungeon Fantasy?

2) The sample characters in the GM package - can they be re-worked into 150 point regular GURPS characters?

3) Years ago I bought all of the POD Dungeon Fantasy thin books at either ORIGINS or Gen Con - how much is still the same and can I still use those if I run DF game sessions?

4) Yrth (Banestorm) and Dungeon Fantasy - going back to my first question - Could DF adventure game sessions take place in the world of Yrth?

5) When explaining or describing DF to someone new to it - Should I say its like 'Dungeons & Dragons' or that its very different?

6) Is there a free PDF of the custom character sheets? Or can I use my old blank GURPS 4/e character sheets? (I have a ton or ream of those)

- Ed C.
__________________
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me....


A vote for charity: http://s3.silent-tower.org/TheKlingonVotes/index.html
Qoltar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-20-2017, 11:01 PM   #2
David Johansen
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

The setting is simply that there is a town and there are dungeons.

1. Stripping out 100 points from the characters would probably be mostly attributes and advantages.

2. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy is compatible with GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.

3. Yrth can serve as a setting for Dungeon Fantasy but it was always intended to be a more rational fantasy world so it's not a great fit but there are abandoned dwarven halls in Zarak, and the sewers under Megalos (see Fighters of the Purple Rage for a particularly nasty sewer adventure featuring the six finalists of the arena's grand elimination), the Black Wood could easily work as a dungeon and under ground orc villages in the orc lands also seem usable, see Orc Slayer.

4. Say it's better than Dungeons & Dragons in every conceivable way of course! What other answer were you expecting around here? :D

5. A GURPS character sheet is a GURPS character sheet. Actually, I'm convinced that a blank sheet of paper is the best GURPS character sheet. I tend to type characters up in a word processor because people complain about my handwriting but with blank paper the space for everything is usually the right size.
David Johansen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-20-2017, 11:22 PM   #3
Kromm
GURPS Line Editor
 
Kromm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post

First - Is there background setting or world for Dungeon Fantasy?
No. There's some implied setting (see World of Dungeon Fantasy, Adventurers, p. 4), but ultimately, the game takes place in dungeons that can fit whatever kind of fantasy the GM likes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post

2) The sample characters in the GM package - can they be re-worked into 150 point regular GURPS characters?
If you really want 150-point characters, go ahead. Note that there's nothing "regular" about that value, though . . . even full-on GURPS supports whatever point totals you want, which is why Power Level (p. B487) fills half a page. Personally, I think taking on armies of orcs, standing a chance against dragons, etc. calls for more like 250 points.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post

3) Years ago I bought all of the POD Dungeon Fantasy thin books at either ORIGINS or Gen Con - how much is still the same and can I still use those if I run DF game sessions?
You can use them with a little adaptation. The designer's notes (Pyramid #3/106, pp. 4-9) talk about this some. You'll find a few things have changed names, been rounded off, etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post

4) Yrth (Banestorm) and Dungeon Fantasy - going back to my first question - Could DF adventure game sessions take place in the world of Yrth?
Could it? Sure. Should it? I don't really think that's ideal. Yrth isn't a hack 'n' slash world. It has a lot of social structure and civilization, whereas the implicit assumption of the DFRPG is that the world is largely a hostile and dangerous place outside of towns. Also, you'll find clerics and druids hard to fit into Yrth's assumptions about religion.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post

5) When explaining or describing DF to someone new to it - Should I say its like 'Dungeons & Dragons' or that its very different?
It's close enough. There are actually some fairly important differences under the surface, but it's entirely possible to create a cleric-fighter-thief-wizard party, kill monsters in dungeons, and focus on getting more powerful with cooler feats and spells.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post

6) Is there a free PDF of the custom character sheets? Or can I use my old blank GURPS 4/e character sheets? (I have a ton or ream of those)
I don't believe we've posted a free PDF as yet. I suspect that's just a matter of time. You could use the GURPS one or this Mook-developed one.
__________________
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com>
GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games
My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News]
Kromm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-20-2017, 11:35 PM   #4
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post
Okay, Hello..



4) Yrth (Banestorm) and Dungeon Fantasy - going back to my first question - Could DF adventure game sessions take place in the world of Yrth?

- Ed C.
There are world-building assumptions cooked into DF that would require some adaptation of either or both. For example a standard manichaen polytheism that doesn't exist in vanilla Yrth. By default as I understand it's really intended to let you use GURPS easily with modules intended for D&D and close kin.
David Johnston2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-21-2017, 10:39 AM   #5
Tinman
 
Tinman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: New York City
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post
4) Yrth (Banestorm) and Dungeon Fantasy - going back to my first question - Could DF adventure game sessions take place in the world of Yrth?
I'm running a DF/Banestorm game now & it's been running for 2 years.

For the most-part it works fine. As noted by some, for clerical magic if there's no pantheon, you will have to justify the 'domain' of each cleric when there's only 3 major religions. I say, the cleric is focused on a different aspects of the god that is worshiped.

Other than that, my group has found that having an established map and a rich background to be a lot more of a benefit than drawback.
Tinman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-21-2017, 10:53 AM   #6
sir_pudding
Wielder of Smart Pants
 
sir_pudding's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinman View Post
For the most-part it works fine. As noted by some, for clerical magic if there's no pantheon, you will have to justify the 'domain' of each cleric when there's only 3 major religions. I say, the cleric is focused on a different aspects of the god that is worshiped.
That isn't a problem for Dungeon Fantasy (yet anyway) out of the box. What I think would be a problem (for me, maybe not a lot of others given the previous discussion on this) is the agnosticism of the setting, the canonical wizardry healing, and the clash between a setting that is primarily an attempt to rationalize the tropes of FRPGs and a rule set that seeks to embrace them wholly without examination.

I think that if I had to run Yrth DF I would just get rid of clerics, druids and holy warriors. I would then open up the wizard list to all spells. Holy warriors would be replaced by a mystic profession.

I think rather than try to reconcile the disparate themes of the setting and the campaign style, I would instead use Dungeon Fantasy as way to deconstruct the tropes and examine them in a rationalized frame.
sir_pudding is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-21-2017, 11:52 AM   #7
Kromm
GURPS Line Editor
 
Kromm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

The campaign that directly inspired GURPS Dungeon Fantasy – and through it, the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game – was set in a world designed to support dungeon crawls: It had a trackless central desert, northerly regions held at bay by strings of fortresses, steamy jungle nobody ever returned from, impenetrable mountain ranges, and five sets of unexplored islands. It was in its second age of magic, but remnants of the first age were hidden everywhere: lost jungle pyramids, caves sealed with magical forces, straight-up dungeons . . . even the great cities, supposedly safe and well-engineered, were built upon the ruins of ancient settlements, and their cellars and sewers mingled with dungeons. The magic was giving rise to many monsters. This world was a palimpsest, its new face drawn hastily over a hack 'n' slash realm where might and magic trumped civilization.

Well, one of my secrets is that the campaign itself was the spiritual descendant of not one but two campaigns set on Yrth. I more-or-less saw Yrth the same way, and had the capital-B Banestorm be simply the latest in a long strong of small-b banestorms. Humans were there before . . . and so were other things, and sometimes Things. The latest human religions had social power but not magical power – that resided with the Old Ways. The Old Gods and Elder Gods were both immanent, if subtle; I put GURPS Religion to good use making sure there were real clerics in the world.

So I think Yrth is workable for DF if you're willing to mess with it a bit. You can still use its civilizations and social structures, but it's a lot of fun to have those be a veneer that flakes off once you get very far away from cities and patrolled trade routes. Set the real action of great and supernatural importance in the Blackwoods, Djinn Lands, Great Desert, Orclands, and Ring Islands, and far beneath Zarak, while the political struggles of the civilized kingdoms and empires are just a sideshow – though of course the kings and emperors probably don't see it that way.
__________________
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com>
GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games
My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News]
Kromm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-21-2017, 12:04 PM   #8
Qoltar
Pike's Pique
 
Qoltar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A.
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

Okay, so a few folks are saying that Yrth is an awkward or ill-fitting setting for Dungeon Fantasy.

Can anyone recommend a previously published setting that might fit better for the mood and tone of it?
The setting or world could be by any publisher, heck I might even be able out of print stuff.

Or, here is a thought - Could I use the map of North America in the natural state it was circa 15th or 16th century and turn that into a Dungeon Fantasy setting?

- Ed C.
__________________
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me....


A vote for charity: http://s3.silent-tower.org/TheKlingonVotes/index.html
Qoltar is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-21-2017, 12:16 PM   #9
mlangsdorf
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

I ran my first 30+ sessions of Dungeon Fantasy without a map, more than a sentence or two of background material, or anything else like that. People delved and had fun.

So yes, while you could use a map of North American circa 1380 AD as a basis for a setting, I don't think you need to through that much effort.

Your background can be as simple "There is a Town on the edge of a wilderness." That's all you need before you write a dungeon and come up with some rumors and start playing.
__________________
Read my GURPS blog: http://noschoolgrognard.blogspot.com
mlangsdorf is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 11-21-2017, 01:40 PM   #10
sir_pudding
Wielder of Smart Pants
 
sir_pudding's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

My last GURPS Dungeon Fantasy game was very deliberately set in a world that I was actively improvising, largely as a challenge to myself, and it worked fine.

I think that as far as published settings go, I am really attracted to "The Qanat Pirates of Old Than" in Pyramid #3/64: Pirates and Swashbucklers

As far as North America goes, I have been working on a six-guns and sorcery setting for a megadungeon campaign and it may be my next game.

Last edited by sir_pudding; 11-21-2017 at 05:00 PM.
sir_pudding is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
dungeon fantasy, worldbuilding

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:32 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.