[DF] What's Distinctive About the Default Worlds of DF?

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Greg 1

The question may be unfair because DF never tells us to default to any particular sort of world. But all the same, the GURPS DF game worlds I've seen tend to have similarities. Perhaps the most obvious one is that DF game worlds tend to be much more cosmopolitan than most dungeon fantasy. Due to all the race options for PCs, there tend to be towns where members of all the races live and hang out at the tavern together. A Pixie, an Ogre, an insect person and a half-elemental might easily all be seated at the bar.

So do you think there are distinctive features of the worlds GURPS DF games tend to default to? If so, what would you say they are?

IMHO the question is unanswerable. Even within DF there are a lot of options with 21 main books, 4 monster books, 2 Denizens books, 2 Encounters, and 2 settings Settings. (And there is not counting the monster books, the tangental material, or the stuff in Pyramid)

Then there is the fact that DF is GURPS and can be tweaked and altered to the point one could argue it wasn't DF anymore. GURPS Fantasy and Thaumatology allow mammoth tweaking of magic for example.

[Greg 1]

Originally Posted by maximara

IMHO the question is unanswerable. Even within DF there are a lot of options...

That's why I use the word "default". Certainly, DF is a toolkit and you can use the books for all sorts of different worlds. But when I've seen or read about it actually being played, the games seem to default to a certain kind of world.

I get that you can build a world where the only sentient race is Elves. I'm sure somebody somewhere is doing that. But that's not how I'm seeing the game played.