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Old 11-21-2017, 01:41 PM   #11
JMason
 
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

Pretty much any D&D setting works fine. I've used material for the "Known Lands", "Forgotten Realms", and Pathfinder's "Glorantha" with just a few tweaks to me liking.

The only issues you might have are assumptions on monsters and races. DFRPG Goblins, for example, don't map to Pathfinder's, so you'll either need to ignore the settings assumptions about goblins, or create your own DFRPG version of the PF goblin.
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Old 11-21-2017, 01:54 PM   #12
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

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Originally Posted by JMason View Post
Pretty much any D&D setting works fine. I've used material for the "Known Lands", "Forgotten Realms", and Pathfinder's "Glorantha" with just a few tweaks to me liking.
.
Before somebody takes te right turn at Albequerque trying to get their the current Pathfinder world is "Golarion".

"Glorantha" would take you to the original world of Runequest and that has some pretty eccentric assumptions of its' own even though much dungeon delving was done there (i.e. The Big Rubble and others)
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Old 11-21-2017, 01:58 PM   #13
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

You should make a right turn at Absalom, instead.
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Old 11-21-2017, 01:59 PM   #14
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
Before somebody takes te right turn at Albequerque trying to get their the current Pathfinder world is "Golarion".

"Glorantha" would take you to the original world of Runequest and that has some pretty eccentric assumptions of its' own even though much dungeon delving was done there (i.e. The Big Rubble and others)
D'oh! Yeah, sorry about that. But that just goes to how much the "larger setting" wasn't really important in any of these games. They had a town (or a Keep), and they had troubles from nearby dungeons (or sewers under the town, or old ruins in the woods, or...)
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Old 11-21-2017, 02:11 PM   #15
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

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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.
Honestly, this is where I would start.



1. "Make your characters." Okay, we have five PCs.

2. Now look at what they actually need to make sense: One needs a robber baron in the vicinity, one needs an ogre tribe and a warm southern forest with elves, one needs pirates and tropical hardwood, one needs a place with magic and moabi wood, and one needs bandits and yet more ogres. Three have Code of Honor (Outlaw's); two have Social Stigma (Savage). Okay, so that tells us that a good setting would be subtropical coastal forest like the Kwazulu-Cape coastal forest mosaic. The major settlements are ports, and have the usual temples and guilds, but they're also pretty wild and home to all manner of scum and villainy. This is tolerated by the local rulers in part because they're corrupt and in part because it serves as a counterweight against ogres pushing in from the north and hostile elves to the south.

3. Pick a starting town. Any port will do, but since we have two half-ogres and zero elves or half-elves, let's go with a northerly one. Only the swashbuckler, thief, and wizard are likely to go into town, so we're looking at a rogue-friendly place with a Wizards' Guild presence (and probably a strong Thieves' Guild). Magic items and covert-ops gear will be easy to get; battlefield armor and weapons, not so much.

4. Pick a starting adventure. Everybody has six meals' worth of food, so a day's travel inland should do. They'll spend the morning fighting bandits and the afternoon dodging ogres. Then they'll get to the Forbidden Place, where those villains won't go.

That's all you need. Just let it build up over successive adventures and as new PCs sign on (these guys need a healer!), each dungeon and character background adding places and story elements. Don't worry much about the names of barons or pirate ships or even towns until they actually show up on a quest. At that point, either make something up or ask the players to make something up.
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Old 11-21-2017, 04:26 PM   #16
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

Guess I'm just used to having a lot more background detail before starting a game session.

In the past the default assumption is that every so-called 'one-shot' game session might lead to a campaign. With a campaign my most loyal one or two players like to have maps and interesting cultural details.

Does this mean I should give up on running DF and run typical GURPS 4/e instead?

-OR-

Just go ahead and run one or two DF sessions and not stress out about background universe details?

I did make the investment by buying the box set and the GM screen package. Should at least try to put it to use.

- Ed C.
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Old 11-21-2017, 04:56 PM   #17
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

I think the old Greyhawk setting used for the first AD&D 1e modules is a perfect fit for DFRPG. It has a really cool map and a lot of backstory that meshes well with all the baked-in setting implications of the DFRPG. You should have no trouble finding material for it online.

Not to derail the thread, but the mention of Glorantha made me chuckle, because I am going to use the DFRPG to run some classic Gloranthan modules, including Snake Pipe Hollow and the Big Rubble.
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Old 11-21-2017, 05:22 PM   #18
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

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Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post
Guess I'm just used to having a lot more background detail before starting a game session.

In the past the default assumption is that every so-called 'one-shot' game session might lead to a campaign. With a campaign my most loyal one or two players like to have maps and interesting cultural details.

Does this mean I should give up on running DF and run typical GURPS 4/e instead?

-OR-

Just go ahead and run one or two DF sessions and not stress out about background universe details?

I did make the investment by buying the box set and the GM screen package. Should at least try to put it to use.

- Ed C.
I'd not worry so much about setting at first honestly. Or just use a setting for not-gurps. I have players who seem pretty happy just chewing on random dungeons without any plot whatsoever but your mileage with that may vary.
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Old 11-21-2017, 07:56 PM   #19
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Default Re: Dungeon Fantasy(DF) and regular GURPS 4/e questions (Yrth too)

I would think that Matt Mercer's Tal'Dorei would work well for DFRPG. It was recently released, so there's not huge amount to buy, it relies on default D&D and doesn't really add any rules.

You could substitute DFRPG races, bestiary, and magic in it without issue (IMO). I think the only thing you would have to "convert" would be the small section of magic items/relics. But again...it's almost a generic setting with a nod to D&D.
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Old 11-21-2017, 07:58 PM   #20
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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.

That would make a great Pyramid article or supplement for Banestorm. ;)
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