A GURPS Fantasy setting

[(E)]

When it comes to what I like in a setting the most important thing is probably an absence of things I don't like. There are just things that put me right off some settings. It is a bit hard to nail down exactly what these things are though.

American Fantasy seems to have a strong tradition of having modern characters visit fantasy worlds. This is by no means universal or limited to just American Fantasy it just seems to be more common. I don't have the same cultural(?) background so this makes any setting with this feature slightly grating. I like my fantasy worlds distinct and separated.

As for existing worlds that would do well in GURPS, The Gentleman Bastard books, the Tales of the Bard books and the Monster Blood Tattoo books all leap to mind as excellent fantasy worlds with sufficient twists on the standard themes to stand out.
The Gentleman Bastard books are more Renaissance fantasy, while The tales of the Bard covers Gods and Planes. The Monster Blood Tattoo books are something else when it comes to world-building, they are set in an incredibly well thought out world, that is hard to describe easily. A TL4-5 Necro-Georgian-franken-cyber-punk with alchemy, super powers and wonderful illustrations.

When it comes to things I look for in a setting, depth is the big thing. It doesn't matter to me where the depth comes from be it history, language, societal interaction, detailed locations or well described characters.

My current fantasy game world was built from the ground up with a number of clearly stated goals like "For every character archetype there should be a nation that produces said archetype better than other nations" This means if a player goes "I want to play a big guy in heavy armour" I can go "Knight, soldier or warrior, Magical, demonic or manaphobic?"

Another feature of the world is six playable time periods, each one lined up at a different style of play. Mythic, Epic, DF, regular, low fantasy etc.

A bit of a ramble, but the topic is one I find very interesting.

Edit
Other random thoughts
- GURPS Nation stats to compliment City stats
- Individual nation write ups, made with the thought they might get cannibalized by GMs

[The Cardinal]

I would kill for a GURPS line of

Midnight
Dragonstar
or
Scarred Lands

[Frost]

Originally Posted by (E)

When it comes to what I like in a setting the most important thing is probably an absence of things I don't like. There are just things that put me right off some settings. It is a bit hard to nail down exactly what these things are though.

I know where you are coming from, I have as profound and growing dislike for 'conventional' fantasy I.e. most D&D worlds, Banestorm etc. I am not saying that they are bad wrong fun but that they hold no interest for me.

What I want out of a fantasy setting is probably closer to a lot of modern fantasy literature basicly lower magic renaissance low fantasy with occasional shutouts to other genre particularly sword and sorcery, lovecraftian horror, gothic horror amongst others.

You mentioned Scott Lynch's 'Gentleman Bastard' series and I would add things like K J Parker's 'Fencer' series, Paul Kearney's 'Hawkwood' books and even out and out new weird peices such as China Melville's 'Bas-Lag' stories as possible inspiration.

The thing is SJ Games will not (as far as we can tell) licence 'Gentleman Bastard' or 'Bas-Lag'. Licences are expensive the style(s) the books are written in have relatively little penetration (as far as I can tell) into gaming circles and the company is invested in a model of providing tools and frameworks rather than detailed settings.

For exactly the same reasons we are not going to see an in house setting that even makes more of a nod in that direction than Alchemical Baroque did. Given the way SJ Games works I think that as long as the tools and the support are out there I can live with rolling my own.

Rather than just saying that we want SJ Games to come up with a detailed setting like x isn't there more mileage in working out how we get what we want with the resources to hand?

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by (E)

I don't have the same cultural(?) background so this makes any setting with this feature slightly grating. I like my fantasy worlds distinct and separated.

Me too.

Originally Posted by Frost

I have as profound and growing dislike for 'conventional' fantasy I.e. most D&D worlds, Banestorm etc.

I won't judge your perception but to me, Banestorm is mostly "weird", hardly "conventional" and very different to "D&D worlds", if only because its strong degree of weirdness coming from its frame of contemporary science and sci-fi for harboring a sort of fantasy setting with historical, real world themes and tropes mixed in a shambolic way (and I'm talking about the basic foundation of this setting, not specifically about the work done for its later edition).

[kracht]

Originally Posted by demonsbane

to me, Banestorm is mostly "weird", hardly "conventional" and very different to "D&D worlds"

These days I could not say for sure, but in the early Nineties my friends and I felt that Yrth was very different from the fantasy settings we were most used to (various newish (A)D&D settings, WFRP, MERP etc.). The trans-dimensional gimmick and the real world history and cultures made a lot of difference back then.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by demonsbane

I won't judge your perception but to me, Banestorm is mostly "weird", hardly "conventional" and very different to "D&D worlds", if only because its strong degree of weirdness coming from its frame of contemporary science and sci-fi for harboring a sort of fantasy setting with historical, real world themes and tropes mixed in a shambolic way (and I'm talking about the basic foundation of this setting, not specifically about the work done for its later edition).

It always seemed like fairly thin window dressing dumped on top of otherwise fairly straight forward vanilla fantasy. It also wasn't particularly new window dressing various novels and settings had played those kind of tricks before if not in quite that way. Going back to my first experiences pre 4e it seemed that the similarities were more pronounced than the differences.

[OldSam]

Banestorm is not actually bad, but I don't really like it either. The main point for that is the mix of historical religion and culture into the fictional setting. It always felt a little wrong for me, I definitely prefer a clear orientation - a real historical setting or a completely fictional setting.

For me any popular fantasy setting, with a few existing novels (!), would work as long as there is enough room for the typical things like some magic, a few different races, some mythical creatures/monsters etc.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by OldSam

Banestorm is not actually bad, but I don't really like it either. The main point for that is the mix of historical religion and culture into the fictional setting. It always felt a little wrong for me, I definitely prefer a clear orientation - a real historical setting or a completely fictional setting.

For me any popular fantasy setting, with a few existing novels (!), would work as long as there is enough room for the typical things like some magic, a few different races, some mythical creatures/monsters etc.

I actually didn't mind that. What annoyed me about Yrth was that the magic was kind of unmagical. Having magical hotel elevators kind of kills the mood. That said I rather liked Yrth.

One amusing detail they got wrong was having a Megalos embassy in Tredroy. Resident ambassadors did not become the fashion until long after the founding of Megalos. That is a detail of hairsplitting which the writers can be pardoned for missing and in any case it can be explained by more people being brought over by the Banestorm with new ideas.

[hal]

For me to invest in a fantasy world, the game system's magic implications can not violate the world's narrative history. YRTH violates that, primarily due to the evolution of GURPS MAGIC and the inability to separate out the GURPS GRIMOIRE from the classic magic system.

This is largely why my gaming crew since 1986 onwards has largely used either ATLANTIS: THE SECOND AGE background, or HARNWORLD. All other game worlds save that of TRAVELLER or ARMAGEDDON have been home brews. Even Orcslayer, resulted in my having to detail out more of Castle Defiant that for all intents and purposes, it was a home brew.

Have I ever said how much I loathed GURPS BANESTORM?

[kracht]

Originally Posted by hal

For me to invest in a fantasy world, the game system's magic implications can not violate the world's narrative history. YRTH violates that, primarily due to the evolution of GURPS MAGIC and the inability to separate out the GURPS GRIMOIRE from the classic magic system.

I can definitely see your point. If I ever were to GM a game on Yrth again I would probably opt for a lower magic version, perhaps even a different magic system altogether.