Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

I could get down with some DF frontier justice'ing.

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

You could make a Northern Adventures.

Northern mythology is different enough from Classical (D&D) fantasy that many things would be different. But still contain so many similarities that it coould fit right in.

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

Given that Adventurers are already murder-hobo's, I'm pretty sure they're already doing this.

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

So: variants on the musketeer template from Pyramid, and maybe the demolisher for characters who like to run around hurling lit sticks of dynamite. Artificers to make gatling guns and fix locomotives. What else?

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

A lot of the classic fantasy stuff comes from Norse, Celtic, and Germanic sources: Elves, Dwarves, Giants, Trolls, Leprechauns, Selkies, Named Possessions, etc. Mediterranean mythology gave us Centaurs, Satyrs, Mummies, Manticores, Phoenixes, Nymphs, Naiads, Nereids, Dryads, and a few others. Medieval mythology gave us our classic dragons. I forget where our lizard-men came from. So it is more possible to tailor DF to a certain portion of Europe through exclusion rather than inclusion.

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

Yes and no. Thats what I mean by "different enough".

I know D&D (which I equal to classic RPG fantasy) have gathered inspiration from northern sources. But they are not the same.

So instance. Elves would be more Tolkien like and less Faerun like. More mystical. more recluse. More sinister motives. More callous towards humans.

Dwarves would be very magical.

And trolls would also be very different. Both much more magical, more intelligent. Have no regneration but turns to stone in sunlight.



But I agree that it's more of a "narrow focus" instead of "a different world" and exclusion of certain creatures goes a long way to narrow the focus.

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

If SJG would just offer an universal rpg that would made it possible to run such campaigns ... ;-)

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

Good example! There is indeed a lot that could be done with races. Some questions might include:

How do Christians (or the religious groups that represent them) respond to non-humans? Do Elves have souls and can they be saved?

Are Halflings appropriate, or does their non-magical nature make them unlike the little folk of folklore?

What's the relationship between the fae and the divine? Is there a clear line dividing them?

For classes, consider questions like

Cleric: How to make this fantay trope more like a western priest?

Druid: How does this class relate to the celtic nature priests called "druids"?

Holy Warrior: Can only Christians (or adherents of whatever faith represents Christianity) be Holy Warriors? What are appropriate powers for this exclusive religion anyway?

Knight: What's the connection between being a mighty knight and status?

Wizard: How do these relate to the wizards of Western folklore?


I agree that variation accross Europe complicates things a lot. Then again, the Pyramid article covered everything from Japan to India, noting variations.

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

I think that GURPS people think of the DF series as a discreet separate entity from regular fantasy. In DF you can ONLY kill monsters and take their stuff and then exchange the loot in an abstract town. In general fantasy you can have cultures and towns that try to make sense along with monsters and dungeons that have some reason for existing. With GURPS DF there is no way to incorporate things like culture into an easy to use book. If you want to do that you have to do it yourself. There is no continuum between hack and slash DF and a historical fantasy, they are completely separate. If you want to make a dungeon setting in medieval Europe the GURPS writers will not write a book on how to set up a town and how to make the monsters seem like the ones from myths instead of being like in AD&D or Lord of the Rings they will just point you to GURPS Fantasy and then say DO IT YOURSELF! There will be no easy to use book where there are classes that fit into Norse myths and legends along with notes on how towns and dungeons would be like and monsters that fit the Norse myths. DO IT YOURSELf!

Re: (DF) Western Adventures
 

To be fair, there are a lot of different ways to build such a setting … and that's what it would become, a specific setting, rather than a piece of a toolkit. The SJG practice seems to have been to publish settings that were unique to GURPS, rather than being semi-generic fantasy.

This is not the only way to do it, of course. Douglas Cole has been gradually creating a Norse-flavoured setting, via Hall of Judgement, and further forthcoming books.