Dungeon Fantasy Non-Lawsuit Historical Books

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I meant for GURPS campaigns. We don't actually have very many rules for legal drama, a little in Mysteries, and a little in Social Engineering, and really nothing about period ones.

The ones here tended to involve spirited arguments featuring axes.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by Anders

That's why God gave us Google Translate.

You must be referring to the Old Testament God, the New Testament God was too caring and just to have created Google Translate....

[Harald387]

Originally Posted by b-dog

I would like to request some Dungeon Fantasy books that use non-lawsuit historical books. For example, there could be a desert setting complete with a monotheistic god (who for lawsuit purposes) is not based on any real world god or religion (wink wink nod nod…). It could seem superficially like GURPS Arabian Nights but the god and religion and the monsters and cultures would be lawsuit free. Or maybe there could be something like GURPS Silk Road with cultures and religions that seem very similar to real world religions and cultures but from a legal standpoint they are not.

Religious myth and folklore aren't intellectual property, and nobody is going to "sue" SJG over publishing GURPS rules that treat a real-world religion or culture well (or poorly).

However, giving that sort of material a treatment that remains respectful to the source in a way that doesn't alienate and offend the real people who follow that belief structure is something that the gaming industry as a whole has failed horribly at in the past. Getting it right is hard*, getting it wrong is easy, and the consequences of getting it wrong are a PR nightmare. I'm really not surprised that the DF line and the DFRPG stick with the generic instead of trying to dance around that third rail.

*I think I did a good job with the work I've done for the Nordlond setting, but I'd seriously question the judgment of anyone who said I was the best choice to write 'Dungeon Fantasy RPG: Desert Adventures' with a true-to-life Middle Eastern flavor, for instance. At a minimum I'd want a consultant and a really good sensitivity reader, and even then I'd expect my efforts to be inadequate.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Harald387

I'd seriously question the judgment of anyone who said I was the best choice to write 'Dungeon Fantasy RPG: Desert Adventures' with a true-to-life Middle Eastern flavor, for instance.[/SIZE]

Amusingly enough, my Neveri horse archers were based on the nomadic peoples in and around Turkey, and to the east. I hired a Turkish artist. And the initial sketch I got back was a tall English looking woman trying to shoot a longbow from a modern racehorse*. It's hard to do right period. :-)


*We fixed it.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by Harald387

*I think I did a good job with the work I've done for the Nordlond setting, but I'd seriously question the judgment of anyone who said I was the best choice to write 'Dungeon Fantasy RPG: Desert Adventures' with a true-to-life Middle Eastern flavor, for instance. At a minimum I'd want a consultant and a really good sensitivity reader, and even then I'd expect my efforts to be inadequate.

And sometimes success is simply impossible (overconstrained). Gary Gygax was a devout Christian for example, and yet his attempts to include things from his own religion wound up turning off other Christians to such an extent that some of us/them straight-up prefer to just ignore everything Gygax wrote about religion and stick to pure speculative fantasy religions like the various Sorcerer-King cults from Dark Sun. (And my Baatezu and Tanar'ri are basically extraterrestrial munchkins who went crazy with magical and biological augmentations--they have a religion but it's not more "real" than anyone else's.)

You just can't win at this game. Someone is going to be repulsed by what you write.

[restlessgriffin]

Originally Posted by b-dog

I would like to request some Dungeon Fantasy books that use non-lawsuit historical books. For example, there could be a desert setting complete with a monotheistic god (who for lawsuit purposes) is not based on any real world god or religion (wink wink nod nod…)...

I'm not sure what you're getting at. You could always adapt sections of GURPS Banestorm and just change the names. Of course, there's the issue of how to handle clerics.

[b-dog]

OK, instead of lawsuits then write something that won’t offend those that live to be offended. For example, instead of Buddha there could be a prophet called the “enlightened one” which is of course not Buddha but extremely similar to Buddha.

In any case, I think there is a place between the extremes of pure historical background and gonzo fantasy background. This could be like Nordland but include the rest of the Earth. I still say GURPS Silk Road should be the background setting and then add a lot of cool fantasy things that are appropriate to the area where it is set. I like Nordland but I feel Norse settings have already been done so I would like a more exotic setting.

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by b-dog

In any case, I think there is a place between the extremes of pure historical background and gonzo fantasy background. This could be like Nordland but include the rest of the Earth. I still say GURPS Silk Road should be the background setting and then add a lot of cool fantasy things that are appropriate to the area where it is set. I like Nordland but I feel Norse settings have already been done so I would like a more exotic setting.

What's stopping you from using an existing setting like Dark Sun? It has tons of callbacks to real world cultures.

[Harald387]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Amusingly enough, my Neveri horse archers were based on the nomadic peoples in and around Turkey, and to the east. I hired a Turkish artist. And the initial sketch I got back was a tall English looking woman trying to shoot a longbow from a modern racehorse*. It's hard to do right period. :-)


*We fixed it.

And then I talked you into adding vicious sharp-toothed halflings to that particular mix, which I'm honestly still pretty pleased with.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by b-dog

OK, instead of lawsuits then write something that won’t offend those that live to be offended.

"Don't offend the perpetually offended"? That's unpossible.