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Old 01-03-2020, 07:07 AM   #1
beetle496
 
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Default Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

Please help me with suggestions for small campaign world setting! Specifically, I am looking to place a Tolkienesque milieu in a “pocket universe” of about 25x50 mile rectangle.

I am starting my planning for a Metamorphous Alpha deck for novice players. I want to allow players a choice for a variety of traditional class/race paradigms. I don’t want to do too much handwaving about there being some kind of social and economic stability while still allowing fertile ground for initial adventures.

My initial thinking is that The Isle of Dread or The Keep on the Border Lands might serve well as “The Known World”. I would, of course, rather use a GURPS resource. I don’t have Banestorm but my assumption is that it won’t work too well for me. For all intents and purposes, magic exists, but it is inherent only. The player characters are limited to Knacks and special abilities (but all the fantasy/cinematic stuff is an option). In that kind of world, I would not expect institutions of wizardry to be much of a thing.

Thoughts please?
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Old 01-03-2020, 07:20 AM   #2
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

I would suggest either an island or a secluded valley. Have the PCs discover the world outside on their own - maybe someone from the outside world is shipwrecked there (see Wonder Woman). If you want the PCs who have any magic I suggest Path/Book magic - it's less flashy than most other versions, but it can be powerful nevertheless.
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Old 01-03-2020, 08:47 AM   #3
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

Quote:
Originally Posted by beetle496 View Post
Please help me with suggestions for small campaign world setting! Specifically, I am looking to place a Tolkienesque milieu in a “pocket universe” of about 25x50 mile rectangle.

I am starting my planning for a Metamorphosis Alpha deck for novice players. I want to allow players a choice for a variety of traditional class/race paradigms. I don’t want to do too much handwaving about there being some kind of social and economic stability while still allowing fertile ground for initial adventures.

My initial thinking is that The Isle of Dread or The Keep on the Border Lands might serve well as “The Known World”. I would, of course, rather use a GURPS resource. I don’t have Banestorm but my assumption is that it won’t work too well for me. For all intents and purposes, magic exists, but it is inherent only. The player characters are limited to Knacks and special abilities (but all the fantasy/cinematic stuff is an option). In that kind of world, I would not expect institutions of wizardry to be much of a thing.

Thoughts please?
Is the entire campaign going to be set in the small world, or will this be something like the starting zone for the players, who will eventually move on to a wider world?

By Tolkienesque, do you mean actually following the genre assumptions of Middle Earth, or the more usual elves-dwarves-magic traditional fantasy shorthand?

Anyway, some ideas:

An island, as mentioned. The size you give is pretty close to the size of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Of course, since Gotland was a trading center in the Middle Ages, its history may not be as helpful for an isolated setting...

A floating island in the sky/space/ether - gives you a nice hard boundary, and plenty space to explore later. As a regular island, but the larger world veers into more fantastic territory.

A vast cavern, lit by a chained fire elemental or something. Great if you want to really hammer down on dungeoneering or all your players want to run dwarves.

A walled preserve, like in the anime Haibane Renmei. What's beyond the walls? Who knows? It's safe(ish) here, and walls usually keep the monsters out. Or maybe it isn't, and the walls are to keep the inmates or specimens in. Maybe it's on a Ringworld or Dyson sphere, or a post-apocalyptic hellscape, or a normal fantasy world where it's just one bit of color among many.

A snowglobe on a wizard's desk, preserved by high magic like the city of Kandor. The wizard tweaks things to keep it interesting and more or less stable, whether the inhabitants know it or not.
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Old 01-03-2020, 08:48 AM   #4
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

Have them as part of a group of exiles fly tipped on the island of your choice by their home civilisation - presumably as members of some political or ethnic group that came into disfavour and was disposed of. Possibly they even get dumped there through a gate or portal … they may not be in the same dimension or on the same planet they started from.
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Old 01-03-2020, 09:12 AM   #5
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

Quote:
Originally Posted by beetle496 View Post
I am starting my planning for a Metamorphous Alpha deck for novice players. I want to allow players a choice for a variety of traditional class/race paradigms. I don’t want to do too much handwaving about there being some kind of social and economic stability while still allowing fertile ground for initial adventures.
Do you mean you want it all to make sense so you don't have to handwave anything, or do you mean you don't care about social and economic explanations so you will just handwave those things away?

Quote:
My initial thinking is that The Isle of Dread or The Keep on the Border Lands might serve well as “The Known World”.
The Keep on the Borderlands is too small for your purpose; its wilderness map is only a couple of miles wide. The Isle of Dread, on the other hand, is pretty much exactly the right size, although it follows more of a "lost world" dinosaurs and natives theme instead of a Tolkienesque theme.

The U series of modules (U1, U2, U3) strikes me as a good fit for what you're looking for, if you're willing to entertain a swamp/ocean setting. The Dungeonland/Land Beyond the Magic Mirror pair of modules is almost exactly the size you're looking for if you're willing to run a parody of the Alice stories.

If you can come across a copy of Gary Gygax's Hall of Many Panes, it was a boxed adventure in which the characters go to a series of pocket universes, each with a different theme. You could develop many decks of the ship with that. It's hard to get hold of; I sold mine off some years ago.

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I would, of course, rather use a GURPS resource.
Ah, but one of the selling points of GURPS is that it is easy to use with other game systems' adventures!

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I don’t have Banestorm but my assumption is that it won’t work too well for me.
No, Banestorm is an entire fantasy continent with many different fantasy styles represented.
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Old 01-03-2020, 09:39 AM   #6
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

I think the hardest problem you might face is explaining TL3 and multiple intelligent species in such a small environment. A friend's campaign once was based around a generational prison a la Australia or the labyrinth from Death Gate. Essentially a place of strife kept alive by a constant influx of new prisoners and essential materials from the wardens. Nearly all of the population were born there and had no clue who or what the wardens were. New prisoners were usually treated as invaders, and the various factions were named for the crimes of their parents.
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Old 01-03-2020, 11:09 AM   #7
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

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Originally Posted by Culture20 View Post
I think the hardest problem you might face is explaining TL3 and multiple intelligent species in such a small environment. A friend's campaign once was based around a generational prison a la Australia or the labyrinth from Death Gate. Essentially a place of strife kept alive by a constant influx of new prisoners and essential materials from the wardens. Nearly all of the population were born there and had no clue who or what the wardens were. New prisoners were usually treated as invaders, and the various factions were named for the crimes of their parents.
I've toyed with doing something similar ala Path of Exile. A large island/small continent that's been turned into a prison, the PCs get shipwrecked there and must survive and decide how best to proceed (ostensibly they'd make there way across the land to the Warden's Keep on the opposite side and try to present their case for being freed, however if the PCs decided to become warlords in the prison I'd go that route as well).
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Old 01-03-2020, 01:16 PM   #8
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

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Originally Posted by Apollonian View Post
Is the entire campaign going to be set in the small world, or will this be something like the starting zone for the players, who will eventually move on to a wider world?
It is just the starting zone. I am planning for a few adventures before the players realize the larger setting.
Quote:
By Tolkienesque, do you mean actually following the genre assumptions of Middle Earth, or the more usual elves-dwarves-magic traditional fantasy shorthand?
Very much the latter. The game is for my teenage son and a few of his friends. They all know of D&D, but apparently none of they have played…
Quote:
Anyway, some ideas:
Thanks for all those!

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Originally Posted by Stormcrow View Post
Do you mean you want it all to make sense so you don't have to handwave anything, or do you mean you don't care about social and economic explanations so you will just handwave those things away?
I want it to make enough sense I don’t have to handwave anything. Probably the players will not ask me hard questions about the society and economy. But i want the setting to have enough face validity for me if I were a player.

One problem I think I have is that if there is a town of humans and one of hostiles (e.g., orcs) in that 25x50 mile area (maybe a perpetual river dividing them), given the time span I think I need (300-500 years), it seems certain to me that one side or the other would have been wiped out in a war.

OTOH, I am also not sure that one small area would really support three or four friendly races. This why I am hoping to be reminded of modules that feature distinct cultures in one place. But even that might not help me because, those examples are probably supported by the setting being a border town between two or more large empires.

Quote:
The Keep on the Borderlands is too small for your purpose; its wilderness map is only a couple of miles wide. The Isle of Dread, on the other hand, is pretty much exactly the right size, although it follows more of a "lost world" dinosaurs and natives theme instead of a Tolkienesque theme.

The U series of modules (U1, U2, U3) strikes me as a good fit for what you're looking for, if you're willing to entertain a swamp/ocean setting. The Dungeonland/Land Beyond the Magic Mirror pair of modules is almost exactly the size you're looking for if you're willing to run a parody of the Alice stories.

If you can come across a copy of Gary Gygax's Hall of Many Panes, it was a boxed adventure in which the characters go to a series of pocket universes, each with a different theme. You could develop many decks of the ship with that. It's hard to get hold of; I sold mine off some years ago.
Thanks for all that!

Quote:
Ah, but one of the selling points of GURPS is that it is easy to use with other game systems' adventures!
Exactly! Which is why I am not worried about having to steal a non-GURPS starting location setting.

Quote:
No, Banestorm is an entire fantasy continent with many different fantasy styles represented.
Thanks, that comports with my understanding.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Culture20 View Post
I think the hardest problem you might face is explaining TL3 and multiple intelligent species in such a small environment.
Agreed, this is the crux of the difficulty.

Quote:
A friend's campaign once was based around a generational prison a la Australia or the labyrinth from Death Gate. Essentially a place of strife kept alive by a constant influx of new prisoners and essential materials from the wardens. Nearly all of the population were born there and had no clue who or what the wardens were. New prisoners were usually treated as invaders, and the various factions were named for the crimes of their parents.
I might use this! If nearly all of the population were born there, natives might not even know that they are on a prison world (or that there even are wardens). How did the essential materials arrive? Did some treat them like gifts from the gods?

Last edited by beetle496; 01-06-2020 at 02:06 AM. Reason: spelling typo
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Old 01-03-2020, 01:30 PM   #9
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

Quote:
Originally Posted by beetle496 View Post
I want it to make enough sense I don’t have to handwave anything. Probably the players will not ask me hard questions about the society and economy. But i want the setting to have enough face validity for me if I were a player.
I don't think there's any way you can make this make sense to anyone who asks even modestly probing questions. Such a small area would never evolve past the stage of a simple clan, where everybody knows everybody else and everybody is like everybody else.

You might set up such an area and then introduce the tension suddenly. Maybe humans and elves have been living peacefully together for centuries, but now a tribe of orcs is awakened from cryo-sleep and causing huge problems. Any such conflict cannot be sustained believably in the setting, though.
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Old 01-03-2020, 03:26 PM   #10
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Default Re: Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

Its a pocket dimension, which gives you the excuse for some extreme geography. If you want different species to live in close proximity but remain separate, you need to give them different niches.

For instance, lets say we have an island with a tall mountain riddled with caves in the center. Goblins live in the tight cave tunnels, Humans farm the land, and sea-elves live the reefs around the island. The three factions could have extreme hostility for each other and still survive, because they can't function well on each other's terrain.

Extreme defensive boundaries could work as well.

Population count isn't too terrible. you've got 1,250 square miles. With a population density of 5 per square mile (which isn't atypical of TL3 england), that's 6,000 people. And this is a fantasy pocket dimension, so you should feel free to cheat. It could be a dimension with perfect seasons and a higher grain yield. You could have fertility enchantments. There could be supernatural food sources, especially for the goblins living in the caves.

6,000 people is enough that not everyone will know everyone else, though it will still be a fairly tight set of communities. Its certainly big enough for politics.
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