Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

These are first associations, that come to mind, when someone asks a question related with fantasy. Knights, wizards, elves, dwarves and orcs. These are commonplace in our history and popular culture so it is only natural when someone mentions fantasy that you see it like this.
If D&D is any indicator; looking at number of books they published on classes and races I wouldn’t say they exhausted everything. And I’m just talking about 2nd edition. Then there are 3 - 3.5 edition books that made their own spin of things. Then we mustn’t forget 3rd party publishing and now there is Pathfinder that also made tons of books with their own spin of things (and there are 3rd party for Pathfinder).

I think they got bored of them. Or to make it more specific their customers would get bored so they needed to make it fresh to keep their clients. Why would I buy Paladin book #3? Is there something groundbreaking and new in it that it is necessary to have it? If you eat pizza all the time you will soon be fed up and will acquire taste for something different. Same goes with everything else we consume. Even rpgs.

This is what I would describe as having or experiencing “visual saturation”. You become sick of seeing knights, peasants and dragons and now you are looking for something else. So you play around with feudal Japan, Arabian nights, Ancient Greece or Rome for example.




As you can see before I even posted there were already people stating opinions similar to mine. You must remember that different culture usually doesn’t change the structure of the story. Mostly what is changed is the visual input. And that is only the outer layer.

Visually knight, viking, samurai and roman legionary look different from one another but still they all fill the same role. They can have different background but in their core they are same. They are warriors. You can change the name but warrior still remains a warrior.



Few years ago I had epiphany. To give it context my group usually plays few different campaigns at the same time. To avoid burnout and allowing GMs to plan their games every few weeks GM would finish a story arc for his game and other GM would step in from where his campaing stopped. So we switching between game campaigns (sometimes even game systems).

One day it just clicked to me that we could play any of those particular stories, change the culture and visuals while the story in its core would remain the same.




I’ll give you an example, of what I'm talking about, from popular culture.

https://cdn3.artstation.com/p/assets...jpg?1443930654 If for have time placing this scene it is reimaging of opening scene of New Hope.


Imagine Star Wars in Feudal Japan.

Japan is under civil war. Spies of Rebel Forces, opposing the Shogun, have stolen plans detailing structural weakness to the Death Star, a heavily armed and armored castle placed on strategic position enabling it to attack, and lay siege on any of multiple adjacent regions. Princess Leia, in possession of those plans, is taking shelter in castle that is currently under siege by shogunate forces led by Darth Vader. Before the castle falls she gives the plans to her two retainers R2-D2 and C-3PO and sends them to Tatooine province.
On their way two retainers are unfortunately captured by slavers and sold to rice farmer Owen Lars. Luke Skywalker, Owen’s nephew, overhears two retainers one day and hears them talking about how they need to find a person called Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke wonders if she is referring to Ben Kenobi, a hermit and ronin who lives nearby…

Obi-Wan tells Luke of his days as a Jedi, who were a faction of former shogunate peacekeepers ...

Han Solo is river smuggler. .. Jabba is local yakuza boss… Millennium Falcon is fastest river ship… Chewbacca is from china and only Han Solo knows Chinese… Imperial Forces burn down city of Alderaan...


As you can see nothing in basic structure changed from the original movie. Same goes for Dungeon Fantasy. You don’t need 400 classes based on different cultures. You only need to figure out how to play dungeon fantasy in particular theme.



Out there exists books written on every common setting and theme known. Hell, there are multiple books written on same theme. So there is no reason for Dungeon Fantasy to make culture books. You can read other rpgs and historical books for that. And if you think this is tasking and doing unnecessary research just remember when you are reading any GURPS book you are also doing research and learning about that specific world. So there is no difference.

And what is great about GURPS is that it allows you to use those books for setting and adapt it to this system. And if you want to stay GURPS purist you even have GURPS book line that pretty much already covered all common settings you can think of (Age of Napoleon, Arabian Nights, Atlantis, Aztecs, Banestorm, Camelot, Celtic Myth, China, Egypt, Greece, Ice Age, Imperial Rome, Japan, Middle Ages, Old West, Robin Hood, Russia, Swachbucklers, Vikings).

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

b-dog,

You are talking about pruning DF, not adding to it. DF already contains everything you say you want here; just shape the specific game into the aesthetic you want and go. If you really want published source material, there is 3e Arabian Nights, but even that is a little setting-heavy for DF unless you really know absolutely nothing at all about the genre and just need to skim the high points, IMHO.

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

What is wrong with wanting some aesthetic books? For me, I really enjoy interesting details and touches. Not everything has to be about gaming mechanics.

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

Does that require a DF specific book? If it's aesthetics you're after, 3e Arabian Nights or Aztecs would still provide a sense of those aesthetics.

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

Nothing. They just aren't Dungeon Fantasy.

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

I'm with Railstar and Anthony, b-dog. Dungeon Fantasy is not the only Fantasy out there, and using the DF books as a resource does not automatically make a game into a DF game; conversely, using a setting book in a DF game does not automatically make it a non-DF game. Use the slew of 3e setting books and even books in the history section of the public library's non-fiction shelves (to quote Conan the Librarian*, "Don't you know the Dewey Decimal System?") to help flesh out your game for the feel; that's what they're there for.

Far too often I see people who think "Dungeon Fantasy is the only fantasy", or that using a DF resource (such as Allies or Summoners) means the whole game is centered around kick-in-the-door hack-and-slash when it's not. The fact is the DF books are written in a cultural-agnostic manner; the cultures applied come from outside the DF line.

That said, an Egyptian, Hindi, or Chinese-flavored dungeon would be a nice touch visually. Books dedicated those those cultures, however, are not necessarily going to be Dungeon Fantasy books; at most, they'll have sections for how to apply the culture to DF, another section for how to apply it to Action!, a third to sci-fi settings, etc.






* from UHF, a movie starring Weird Al Yankovik and that guy who went on to play Kramer in Seinfeld. Pure classic stuff in that movie. I recommend everyone see it at least once.

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

What if the culture DF just distilled down all of the useful stuff for DF adventuring? Like this is what a town in an Arabian Nights setting is like, this is what the store that the PCs buy stuff from is like, this is what the mosque where you get cured is like, this is what the Dungeons might be like, these are the things likely found in dungeons in this culture these are,the monsters and treasures and so on. Then you can whip up an adventure in a,new culture rapidly.

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

Nothing is wrong with it, but you aren't playing DF at that point.

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

Well, firstly, there are no details for Town aside from it being Town and you buy/sell stuff there. Want DF-arabia? Call Town al-somethingia. Arabia is a desert; want DF arabia dungeon? Make it sandy and hot. Df has no culture so that is a moot point. Your DF Arabia book now consists of two sentences. That's probably another reason there aee no DF "culture" books.

Re: I wonder when DF will do non-European fantasy
 

Your DF and my DF are radically different beasts.