A GURPS Fantasy setting

[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.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Halflings? Okay, I'm still trying to figure out how not to have then The Shire.

My analog of that race was nixies—a water dwelling race, inspired partially by what Tolkien said about Smeagol's boating skill and his growing up in a halfling community along a river. I made them the inventors of grain-based agriculture, beer, and mercantile ventures. Far from being rural, they were the most intensely urbanized people in their world.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Not existing. Adventures should be drop-in for most settings, with only enough background detail to run it.

I think one of the issues with pitching settings to GURPS players as GURPS players tend to be tinkerers. This is a system that revels in being a toolbox, something that drives away the players who like pre-written settings. How can you sell a pre-written setting to a player who likes designing his own magic system?

Presumably SJG would like to expand the numbers of GURPS players beyond the ones that they currently have. Let's say that every current GURPS player is a tinkerer and therefore totally happy not to have any adventures or settings. Well...there are other players and they might like settings and adventures. So maybe publishing settings and adventures might bring in new players. And if you don't like them, you wouldn't have to buy them.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by trooper6

Presumably SJG would like to expand the numbers of GURPS players beyond the ones that they currently have. Let's say that every current GURPS player is a tinkerer and therefore totally happy not to have any adventures or settings. Well...there are other players and they might like settings and adventures. So maybe publishing settings and adventures might bring in new players. And if you don't like them, you wouldn't have to buy them.

Settings and adventures haven't traditionally been big sellers for GURPS, I gather, so there's some market evidence.

[Jürgen Hubert]

What I want to see in a fantasy setting is support for high-powered play. GURPS Banestorm still largely assumes the "gritty heroes" paradigm of the 3rd edition, when the setting was developed. I mean, on p. 183 it describes 250+ character point PCs as "Living Legends" - Dungeon Fantasy starting characters, in other words.

That doesn't mean that high-powered play is required for the setting, but it should be an option, and there should be plenty of things to do for such characters. Consider the setting of the Exalted RPG - the world is vast and diverse enough that there are numerous stories you can tell with "mortal-level" characters, but a group of the Exalted will find numerous challenges as well - just on a larger scope.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by trooper6

Presumably SJG would like to expand the numbers of GURPS players beyond the ones that they currently have. Let's say that every current GURPS player is a tinkerer and therefore totally happy not to have any adventures or settings. Well...there are other players and they might like settings and adventures. So maybe publishing settings and adventures might bring in new players. And if you don't like them, you wouldn't have to buy them.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Settings and adventures haven't traditionally been big sellers for GURPS, I gather, so there's some market evidence.

Realistically a new, big, well-supported setting is only going to happen if Dungeon Fantasy sells like hotcakes, and then it is probably going to be a setting tailored to the assumptions of Dungeon Fantasy.

Dungeon Fantasy is the single biggest success story of GURPS 4E, and if anything can make a new GURPS setting viable, it's this line.

[sir_pudding]

Noting that while not a fanasty setting, I am running a game set in a published GURPS setting, The Madness Dossier, and I've done so in the past a few times (Yrth, IST, Reign of Steel, Transhuman Space, Roma Arcana and probably some that I've forgotten). Personally, I don't need a hugely developed setting, and the length of GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier is adequate nor am I opposed (obviously) to running GURPS games in published settings, even though I've run at least as many GURPS games in original settings.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Settings and adventures haven't traditionally been big sellers for GURPS, I gather, so there's some market evidence.

As Jürgen alludes to, the Dungeon Fantasy box set isn't something they've done before and they have specifically said they want to get new players. And some of those new players might want adventures...I mean...they are putting two adventures into the box set, so it looks like they are considering doing new things that are different than only what the existing fan base has as their preferences.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Anyway, to me, a good setting needs to have lots of races, divine and arcane magic...

As someone bored and bewildered in equal measure by the 'conventional fantasy' model I am curious why you think that these things are important.

What do you think is the difference between lots of races and one or two races with multiple cultures?

Is the specific divine/ arcane split important or will any division between magical styles work?

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

You should have elves, dwarves, centaurs etc, and they should have neat names like elves, dwarves, and centaurs . . . .

Why these specifically? How much could they be changed before they stopped being right?

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Also monsters and such. Plenty of monsters. Gotta have those to. All your favorites like orks, goblins and dragons and demons and such...

Again why these? Also most of them seem to be sentient, is this an important feature of the setting?

[Jürgen Hubert]

The thing about these generic "D&Desque fantasy tropes" - elves, dwarves, dragons, wizards, etc. - is that they are familiar to most players. You don't need to explain them much, because most players will already have some notions about these tropes.

You can ignore these tropes and try to come up with something different original - but the more you strive for that, the more will you have to explain to your players, or else your players will have to read up on more and more setting details until they can play characters from that setting convincingly.

And not everyone has time for that.