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 06-06-2009, 06:31 PM   #61
pawsplay
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by trooper6 View Post
Just make the tweaks you like to make the world the one you want to play.
Which brings us back to square one: GURPS has limited options for fantasy worlds, many of which are quite different than modern genre fantasy.
pawsplay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2009, 06:40 PM   #62
trooper6
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by pawsplay View Post
Which brings us back to square one: GURPS has limited options for fantasy worlds, many of which are quite different than modern genre fantasy.
I just don't think that's true. First off, rather than "modern genre fantasy" could you say, "Dungeons and Dragons style fantasy"--because not all modern fantasy is like that.

Anyway, you want to play D&D? If you are going really old school you don't even really need a setting. But you want a setting? Yrth Northlands. Northlands also works for Conan. No tweaking necessary. You want King Arthur? Caithness. Swashbuckling? Araterre. Ninjas and Samurai? Sahud. Arabian Nights/Prince of Persia? Al-Haz, Al-Wazif. Gladiators? Megalos? It's all in Banestorm. Pick the sort of game you want and set the game in the appropriate region.

ETA: Civil War--Caithness. Revolution--Araterre. Urban Fantasy--Tredroy or Megalos. Merchant Caravaning? All over. Exploration? Ring Islands. You name it...you can do it. Without tweaking. If you want to have cybernetic mutants in your fantasy...you can do that to.

Last edited by trooper6; 06-06-2009 at 06:45 PM.
trooper6 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2009, 06:42 PM   #63
trooper6
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Or, if you really, really want to play in the Forgotten Realms, use the Forgotten Realms map and source material. It isn't that big of a deal.
trooper6 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2009, 06:48 PM   #64
pawsplay
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by trooper6 View Post
I just don't think that's true. First off, rather than "modern genre fantasy" could you say, "Dungeons and Dragons style fantasy"--because not all modern fantasy is like that.
You seem to be making a lot of assumptions. How about Lord of the Rings? Elric? The Wheel of Time? Those kinds of worlds are very different from Yrth. In fact, I can think of only a handful of Yrth-like novels such as The Spirit Ring, The Deed of Paksennarion, or The Warlock In Spite of Himself.

The issue raised was not whether it's a "big deal." Of course you could run GURPS Forgotten Realms, if you really, really, really wanted to. Of course, adapating it would be a lot of work. The question is what GURPS has to offer that would not be a lot of work. Yrth, Conan, Fantasy II, and so forth cover a fair amount of ground but do not really cover the mainstream of fantasy.

It is much the same issue as with 3e and Supers... you had GURPS IST, and then you had nothing that looked like a conventional super hero universe.

To be clear, Yrth is primarily a high fantasy romance setting with some swords-and-sorcery elements. You can shift genres somewhat by setting the game in different regions, but ultimately it is simply not, for instance, a mythic setting, an epic high fantasy setting, an exotic world setting, or a secret history setting.
pawsplay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-06-2009, 09:31 PM   #65
Stormcrow
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by pawsplay View Post
Which brings us back to square one: GURPS has limited options for fantasy worlds, many of which are quite different than modern genre fantasy.
If you are arguing that GURPS fails because it doesn't have a D&D-style setting, I'm going to disagree with you strongly. There are lots of settings. There is even Dungeon Fantasy, which doesn't require a setting (though it can take one if you want to build or borrow it).

Is the argument that GURPS needs its own Forgotten Realms, with a stream of supplements and adventures set there? Yuck. I wouldn't buy them.

I too find the claim that GURPS lacks quick-to-use settings incomprehensible. I for one appreciate not getting thick books for settings all the time. The time-strapped GM can read a short PDF or section of a book, then make stuff up. Read "Ghost-breakers" from All Star Jam 2004, make a few ghosts and a map of a haunted house or two, then go for it! Read Tales of the Solar Patrol, write up a couple of villians, and start blasting bad guys! What's the problem? You don't have to write a full-length adventure to run a game. Just make it up as you go.

And when you do find an odd moment or two, takes some notes of ideas.

My most successful games are the ones I don't overprepare for.
Stormcrow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-07-2009, 12:40 AM   #66
balzacq
 
balzacq's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Seattle, Washington
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormcrow View Post
I for one appreciate not getting thick books for settings all the time.
Hypothesis:

WotC's greatest marketing coup was convincing the game-buying public that you needed a setting in a thick hardback book (or better yet, many books) to have a good game -- that only a professionally-designed setting was good enough -- that you weren't really playing D&D unless you'd laid out twenty or fifty bucks for Forgotten Realms or Eberron or Ptolus or whatever.
__________________
-- Bryan Lovely

My idea of US foreign policy is three-fold:
If you have nice stuff, we’d like to buy it.
If you have money, we’d like to sell you our stuff.
If you mess with us, we kill you.
balzacq is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-07-2009, 02:41 AM   #67
pawsplay
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormcrow View Post
If you are arguing that GURPS fails because it doesn't have a D&D-style setting, I'm going to disagree with you strongly.
We have already covered that I am not arguing that.

Quote:
There are lots of settings.
Also covered in this discussion as well. There are a number of settings, which are themselves good, but overall, fantasy as it is generally read and enjoyed is not well covered. For instance, there is nothing equivalent to a LOTR type setting of epic high fantasy, moral realism, subtle but powerful magic, close Earth-analog Dark Ages technology, and mythic overtones.
pawsplay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-07-2009, 04:16 AM   #68
DanHoward
 
DanHoward's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by pawsplay View Post
Also covered in this discussion as well. There are a number of settings, which are themselves good, but overall, fantasy as it is generally read and enjoyed is not well covered. For instance, there is nothing equivalent to a LOTR type setting of epic high fantasy, moral realism, subtle but powerful magic, close Earth-analog Dark Ages technology, and mythic overtones.
Why play a sallow imitation of LOTR when you can just use Middle Earth itself? Everything you ever need for roleplaying in Tolkien's world has already been written by ICE.
http://www.ekkaia.org/rpg/rm/icelist.txt
It is a simple matter to convert these to GURPS.

Any attempt to copy Tolkien's world by an unlicensed game company would be met with legal action (at worst) or criticised for being the blatant imitation that it is (at best).

Last edited by DanHoward; 06-07-2009 at 04:39 AM.
DanHoward is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-07-2009, 04:25 AM   #69
DanHoward
 
DanHoward's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by pawsplay View Post
So what if I add cyberware? Still Yrth? What if I change the name of the planet? What if I eliminate orcs?
None of these require a whole book. A single pyramid article for each of the above would cover all that would be needed.

"Cyberware for Yrth"
"New names for Yrth"
"Yrth without Orcs"

The 2 roleplayers who might want to play this sort of game would pay for the magazine and SJ doesn't go broke because the 500 Great-New-Fantasy-Worldbooks he printed only sold 2 copies.

Last edited by DanHoward; 06-07-2009 at 04:32 AM.
DanHoward is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-07-2009, 10:07 AM   #70
trooper6
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
Default Re: Fantasy Setting for GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by pawsplay View Post
Also covered in this discussion as well. There are a number of settings, which are themselves good, but overall, fantasy as it is generally read and enjoyed is not well covered. For instance, there is nothing equivalent to a LOTR type setting of epic high fantasy, moral realism, subtle but powerful magic, close Earth-analog Dark Ages technology, and mythic overtones.
Caithness. That would be exactly where in Yrth you'd go to game that.
trooper6 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
fantasy, setting, yrth

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 04:47 AM.


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