Dungeon Fantasy needs a bare-bones setting

[Andrew Hackard]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

You forgot to explain whether or not languages plays as big a role in the campaign as Kromm intended them to. Also, how many of your players created Scholars? How many created characters with Langauge Talent?

Kromm doesn't run my game; I do. If I decide to create a DF-themed world with only a few languages, I'll just take Language Talent out of the templates and replace it with something equivalent, or give the player those points for his own selections.

[nik1979]

Why not revive all those less popular fantasy settings like Mystara, Birthright, Greyhawk, Darksun, Kalamar etc... ? Why make another new setting when there is so much oldies which can be recycled and it is much easier to keep the DF line Generic and Universal?

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

You forgot to explain whether or not languages plays as big a role in the campaign as Kromm intended them to. Also, how many of your players created Scholars? How many created characters with Langauge Talent?

Demonsbane briefly wanted to play a scholar lens, but I think he ran out of points.

No one has created a character with Language Talent.

So it hasn't come up. If it had, I'd add some languages and some language related challenges. Since it hasn't, I haven't.

No one has wanted to play a Bard* or Martial Artist, so I haven't created many challenges specific for them, either. I certainly can do so if it comes up.


* Harald has a Diplomat lens, and he has talked his way out of and into a few problems.

[Gavynn]

Originally Posted by Lupo

I don't think Dungeon Fantasy needs a setting

Well I don't think that is true. Every game requires a setting of some kind. But as with most GURPS products, the settings are largely left to the GM.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Gavynn

Well I don't think that is true. Every game requires a setting of some kind. But as with most GURPS products, the settings are largely left to the GM.

And how will an inexperienced GM cope with that?

Badly!

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

And how will an inexperienced GM cope with that?

Badly!

Could you speak for yourself only please?

When I was an inexperienced GM, I picked up GURPS3e. I had no books whatsoever other than the Basic Book (this was before the Compendia). I was 15 or 16. I didn't have any bestiaries, I didn't have the Fantasy book. I had never even played GURPS or seen it played.

And really? I didn't have a problem creating a Fantasy setting with what I was given. I coped very well, thank you.

I made it a no magic setting because I figured it would be a bit easier. I made a map, some basic background and voila! I had a setting and it worked out well. And I was only 15/16. And I was not a genius.

It isn't that hard.

And as for having enough languages for language talent to be useful as you imagine it, that is your thing. Certainly not mandatory for a fantasy setting for everyone.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by trooper6

I made it a no magic setting because I figured it would be a bit easier. I made a map, some basic background and voila! I had a setting and it worked out well. And I was only 15/16. And I was not a genius.

Indeed. RPGers are, on the whole, an intelligent bunch, but for some reason they really seem to love being spoon-fed stuff.

So SJG makes a game where you can use your imagination to make anything you can dream up, and instead of scurrying off into a corner to start making maps and plans, gamers shout, "Sell us supplements!" So SJG, quite understandably, shrugs and says, "OK."

But really, Dungeon Fantasy doesn't need a default setting, any more than D&D needed a default setting back in the day. It's already built into the rules. Anything that's not in the rules you're expected to make up yourself—and you're supposed to be happy to do it!

Whatever happened to the notion of "hobby gaming," anyway?

[Gavynn]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

And how will an inexperienced GM cope with that?

Badly!

Nah. There are tons of places to draw from, including, as I pointed out Wikipedia if you are looking for Europe with different names.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Gavynn

Nah. There are tons of places to draw from, including, as I pointed out Wikipedia if you are looking for Europe with different names.

What will promot an inexperienced GM to realize that he needs to think about languages before gamestart?

Wikipedia doesn't tell him to. No DF supplment tells him to.

I don't need help as a GM. I'm not an inexperienced GM. I'm just pointing to the fact that inexperienced GMs exist, and that a subset of these will try out DF, and that a subset of this subset will make disastrous decisions, due to the lack of official guidance, if one of their players opts for a Scholar template character and/or a character with the Language Talent Advantage.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Lupo

Simply buy GURPS Banestorm!

It's not for me. I know how to create a medieval European fantasy setting.

It's for inexperienced GMs. So that scholarly characters can be fun to play, the way Kromm intends them to be (since if he didn't intend them to be fun, he wouldn't have put their templates into the PDF).

The reason I suggested pseudo-European is simplicity. Everybody is vaguely familiar with Europe and its history, so that would be a very good place to start, especially with regards to the linguistic emerging from the "fallen empire" situation. Latin (assuming Western Europe) serving both as a scholarly language (ancient documents) and a Lingua Franca among the learned class, with Greek and Arabic being important if you want to be able to read old documents, and about half a dozen lesser scholarly languages that it would be nifty to be able to read if you find books or scrolls as treasure.