DF in Yrth

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

The (perfectly valid) minimalist reason for running a DF game nominally set on a documented world (Yrth, the Discworld, historical Earth, the Forgotten Realms, whatever) is furniture. In fact, place names, mostly. Where does my barbarian character come from? "The Nomad Lands, somewhere over the Whitehood Mountains" (or "Quirm; he's the son of a local vintner who never wants to see another cask") just sounds cooler than "Umm, somewhere northern and cold and stuff". What's the name of this big corrupt city whose sewers we're exploring? "Megalos, capital of the Empire!" (or "Ankh-Morpork, obviously."). And so on.

How far you expand from there, adding setting-specific politics, species and ethnic relations, and all the rest, is a matter of taste. But "barbarians come from the north, ninja come from the mysterious east, and the city is the only one so it doesn't have a name" is just too simplified for some people.

(And the first reason for using a setting with an existing GURPS sourcebook is that you might actually need game mechanics for something in the setting, every now and again. Plus, settings designed for other games systems may well be flavoured by the mechanics of those systems.)

Maybe I am weird, but I don't find making up place names to be all that difficult compared to designing cultures or plotting out history. When I use a published setting, it is for thematic reasons (so I might choose Yrth to explore rationalized fantasy) and because the conflicts, organizations, and cultures in the setting inspire me with adventure ideas (so I might chose Yrth for Castle Defiance or the Knights Templar).

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by PK

Our current DF game is set in Yrth -- specifically, Araterre. So most of the clerics and holy warriors are Christian, Muslim, etc. The only real social change we made is that "pagan" religions are more common, to keep books like DF7 viable. However, even then, we try to draw gods from real-world religions like Hinduism, Shinto, etc. (Our Cleric of Commerce worships Ganesha, for example.)

Of course, we also threw out the "all casters are the same" in favor of DF's mix of wizards, clerics, druids, etc. -- and doing so has changed little of the setting from our perspective.

If you wrote some articles on using real world religions in DF I would be very interested.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I direct the honourable gentleman to Men at Arms.

It has been a long time since I read that book.

Might be time to do a reread starting with Equal Rights (I never liked The Colour of Magic or The Light Fantastic).

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

See also my notes on using the Discworld as the dungeon world.

And don't forget CONAN, although it's 3rd ed.

[SteamBub]

Pyramid #3/70 Fourth Edition Festival - Destination: Abydos. An article written up by David Pulver that puts the Abydos city into a Dungeon Fantasy setting. If you want to do some undead slaying, DF style in Yrth, then you can go wrong with that.

[scc]

If going for DF style casters, I'd probably push things so that the minor religions, Paganism and the like, are where you go for healing magic and the like, the preserve the central Christianity/Islam conflict.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Maybe I am weird, but I don't find making up place names to be all that difficult compared to designing cultures or plotting out history. When I use a published setting, it is for thematic reasons (so I might choose Yrth to explore rationalized fantasy) and because the conflicts, organizations, and cultures in the setting inspire me with adventure ideas (so I might chose Yrth for Castle Defiance or the Knights Templar).

Fair enough, but putting DF in Yrth requires bending one or the other substantially, and if the goal is an "in-store drop-in DF game" then setting is likely to be reduced to little more than flavor text, anyway.

[quarkstomper]

Another possible setting is our own Jürgen Hubert's Doomed Slayers. It is not GURPS-specific, but it is presented as a general setting which can be ported into a variety of systems. The downside is that this means the setting is sketched out in only the most general way and might not have the detail you want. The upside is that it provides a geographic and cultural framework that you can customize.

Of course, I would recommend it if for no other reason than for the illustrations; but the book really does contain some interesting ideas on making slaying monsters and stealing their treasure a valid career option, even a profession with ethical standards and societal expectations.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by quarkstomper

Another possible setting is our own Jürgen Hubert's Doomed Slayers. It is not GURPS-specific, but it is presented as a general setting which can be ported into a variety of systems. The downside is that this means the setting is sketched out in only the most general way and might not have the detail you want. The upside is that it provides a geographic and cultural framework that you can customize.

Of course, I would recommend it if for no other reason than for the illustrations; but the book really does contain some interesting ideas on making slaying monsters and stealing their treasure a valid career option, even a profession with ethical standards and societal expectations.

Yeah, I have DS; I like it a lot. I was actually thinking of using it even if I use Banestorm so I can hand wave things like Megalos' arms control laws - not very realistic I know, but...DF.

[wellspring]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

If you ignore the cultural and political geography of Yrth, what is the point of setting your game there? It isn't as if there are a ton of dungeons for the setting or something.

I think gesturing vaguely towards an elaborate, well thought-out, and rich setting that you then proceed to completely ignore is VERY much in line with the style of play that DF caters to.

And as for the clerics, etc., how many times has a setting for That Other Game been subjected to an awkward metaplot twist or total retcon to justify new character classes appearing in a setting where they hadn't been before.

In the old martial arts movie Best of the Best, the sequel has an elaborate plot involving the main character's family. Except that a DIFFERENT, totally contradictory plot involving an entirely different family for this character was the linchpin of the first movie. One character tried to raise the subject, and another main character said, "it's a long story, don't ask" and the plot hole having been lampshaded was now ignored.

IMO if you're doing a beer and pretzels dungeon crawl, those kinds of flagrant crimes against setting integrity are part of the appeal.