Does GURPS need original-setting world books?

[Cybren]

Originally Posted by maximara

The thing is there really weren't "default assumptions of a D&D world" unless you mean add in magic items that shot your game balance to Outer Planes, us plot devices to nullify about half the party's magic, and throw in several things dead set to kill the party regardless of how much sense it made.

D&D worlds all start with the same basic assumptions thanks in part to the rules and thanks in part to expectations from other settings.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Cybren

D&D worlds all start with the same basic assumptions thanks in part to the rules and thanks in part to expectations from other settings.

Actually they didn't start out that way which was my point. If you look at the early D&D and later AD&D modules that eventually became Grayhawk, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, etc they all have several things in common.

1) insanely magic rich compared with the guidelines in the DMG

Even the starter module Keep on the Borderlands was a little free with magic with convoluted plot devices to prevent the low level character to make use of said magic do dads.

Then you had things like White Plume Mountain (S2) which allowed low level parties to get the equivalent of Stormbringer (Blackrazor) to play with.

2) Total messed up power ratios of players to monsters

Queen of the Demonweb Pits (Q1) had a bunch of 10-14 level players going up against a freaking goddess. A quick look at Deities and Demigod should show why this was a majorly bad idea. Other modules were about the same with parties generally so over their head that GMs had to play monster like they all had been hit int he head one too many times.

3) Monetary awards were overly stingy.

In D&D this wasn't a problem but in AD&D1 with its 1000g/week/level advancement requirement it became a major problem. Any GM silly enough to actually follow this rule quickly had problems and none of the D&D worlds reflected this amount of gold going into the economy.

4) Dungeons that were nothing that were little more than step and die fests.

Gygax's three personal creations of Dungeonland (EX1), The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (EX2), and Tomb of Horrors (S1) are the best poster children for this.

5) Gygax was not above ignoring the very rules he wrote

Gygax's "Conan!" article in Dragon #36 is a prime example of this. In AD&D1 at the time Humans could only dual class and one you switched from one class that was it; you could not go back to the class you had stopped progressing in and level it up some more. Yet Gygax's write up of Conan form age of 15 to 70 does exactly this: advancing in both fighter and thief even though he was human. One is left wondering how much of Grayhawk really followed D&D expectations and how much was shoved under the carpet.

[Collective_Restraint]

I'm happy about this but puzzled at the same time. I thought SJ Games declared settings as being on the anti-wish list and yet they released this. Does this mean settings (very, very good ones) have a chance of being published ?

[Gavynn]

Originally Posted by Collective_Restraint

I'm happy about this but puzzled at the same time. I thought SJ Games declared settings as being on the anti-wish list and yet they released this. Does this mean settings (very, very good ones) have a chance of being published ?

Well that is interesting.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Collective_Restraint

I'm happy about this but puzzled at the same time. I thought SJ Games declared settings as being on the anti-wish list and yet they released this. Does this mean settings (very, very good ones) have a chance of being published ?

I don't think it's a question of "good" so much as a question of "short." The anti-wish list says:

Originally Posted by The not-wish list

At this time, the only full-length campaign settings we desire are those we specifically request. If your mind runs in this direction, why not submit a mini-setting for the Hot Spots, Infinite Worlds, Locations, or Space Atlas series?

I draw your attention to the words "full-length." They're not going to accept proposals for big, big setting books, but they're open to shorter works like this and his previous Land Out Of Time.