What makes a role-play setting great for game play? Is it that the setting includes all the traditional tropes? Is it that the setting is totally off the charts and so totally alien that everything is new and unexpected? Or is it that the setting is so very familiar that it seems real because either it is a close facsimile of our own world, or perhaps it's one borrowed from a very popular and well known literary source - such as Middle-earth?
Kitchen sink fantasy: There are many ready-made fantasy worlds that are available from various publishers. Some of the better known are Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms and a number of settings that seem to include everything that occurs in the rule volume. All the creatures and player character races make their appearance as well as anything the referee would like to home-brew and add to their version of the setting. If you like variety, this may seem like a great idea, but it can have issues with consistency and plausibility.
Gonzo and unknown: Settings that contain very few familiar elements can seem overwhelming to players who can take nothing for granted. Such settings suggest the player characters be from someplace else, otherwise they should have a lot of information about their home world which the players don't have. Learning the peculiarities of a new setting can be fun and it can be confusing. A few surprises helps keep things fresh. Finding the right mix of novel and familiar, serious and whimsical is a balancing act which can perhaps be a challenge for some referees.
Altered reality: The idea that there are multi-dimensions and alternative realities between which characters may travel exists in a number of fictional sources and can make for some excellent role-playing. The concept usually includes a world with many familiar elements, but one where a few significant factors are altered allowing for changes to history or politics or dominant species or anything else. A world much like our own, but one where people and dinosaurs co-exist could be one example. Planet of the Apes is an example drawn from the novel by author Pierre Boulle and the movies.
Middle-earth: Perhaps the quintessential inspiration for fantasy world settings, the imaginary world created by J.R.R. Tolkien has had a huge influence on fantasy fiction as well as fantasy role-playing. Many of the tropes Professor Tolkien defined in his body of work have been imported in part or in whole into a number of settings. There have also been a few FRP games written specifically for playing in a licence version of the Middle-earth setting, often including the professor's leading character cast as either NPCs or playable characters.
Games with an inherent setting notably include Empire of the Petal Throne, RuneQuest, and Harnmaster, which are systems designed to play in a detailed and specific setting. These three systems and the world settings they include have provided a devoted fan-base decades of game play. The world settings are usable with other FRP game systems and each of the three has appeared in publications using different game rules.
Kitchen sink fantasy: There are many ready-made fantasy worlds that are available from various publishers. Some of the better known are Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms and a number of settings that seem to include everything that occurs in the rule volume. All the creatures and player character races make their appearance as well as anything the referee would like to home-brew and add to their version of the setting. If you like variety, this may seem like a great idea, but it can have issues with consistency and plausibility.
Gonzo and unknown: Settings that contain very few familiar elements can seem overwhelming to players who can take nothing for granted. Such settings suggest the player characters be from someplace else, otherwise they should have a lot of information about their home world which the players don't have. Learning the peculiarities of a new setting can be fun and it can be confusing. A few surprises helps keep things fresh. Finding the right mix of novel and familiar, serious and whimsical is a balancing act which can perhaps be a challenge for some referees.
Altered reality: The idea that there are multi-dimensions and alternative realities between which characters may travel exists in a number of fictional sources and can make for some excellent role-playing. The concept usually includes a world with many familiar elements, but one where a few significant factors are altered allowing for changes to history or politics or dominant species or anything else. A world much like our own, but one where people and dinosaurs co-exist could be one example. Planet of the Apes is an example drawn from the novel by author Pierre Boulle and the movies.
Middle-earth: Perhaps the quintessential inspiration for fantasy world settings, the imaginary world created by J.R.R. Tolkien has had a huge influence on fantasy fiction as well as fantasy role-playing. Many of the tropes Professor Tolkien defined in his body of work have been imported in part or in whole into a number of settings. There have also been a few FRP games written specifically for playing in a licence version of the Middle-earth setting, often including the professor's leading character cast as either NPCs or playable characters.
Games with an inherent setting notably include Empire of the Petal Throne, RuneQuest, and Harnmaster, which are systems designed to play in a detailed and specific setting. These three systems and the world settings they include have provided a devoted fan-base decades of game play. The world settings are usable with other FRP game systems and each of the three has appeared in publications using different game rules.
Empire of the Petal Throne is a game first published by TSR the year following D&D's release. It is set on the world of Tekumel and includes much information on this setting in addition to an adaptation of the D&D rules to give a Tekumel feel. Created by M.A.R. Barker, a professor of languages, who also wrote novels based on Tekumel. It is an alien world set in a pocket dimension where humans from earth were stranded many centuries ago. Tekumel includes a number of truly alien creatures and is one of the earliest game settings to require referees and players to set aside much of what they know about our reality and assume nothing will be familiar.
RuneQuest is set on Glorantha, a mythological bronze-age lozenge of earth floating on an ocean inside a sphere. Myth and legend is reality on Glorantha and the characters are expected to interact heavily with the political and religious aspects of Gloranthan society as part of play. As the name implies, the magical runes which represent various elements, forms and aspects of the Gloranthan world play a significant part in game play.
The world of Harn is a low magic, fantasy setting with a very real and historical feel about it even though it does provide for including elves and dwarves and magic users. The world of Harn, named after an island continent where the original modules were set, is presented in a rather unique manner as a series of articles, (see image of Harndex above) - many of these predate development and publication of the Harnmaster FRP game. Harnmaster is a game written by the Harn world creator, N. Robin Crossby, to give players a rule system that incorporates the design philosophy and specific unique elements of the Harn setting.
Worlds that have a large body of published lore can seem overwhelming at first. The referee who tries to know everything published regarding the setting prior to running their first game may face a daunting task. Fortunately most settings come with the caveat to "make it your own". Altering some setting aspect, whether done by design or by accident, will not break most settings. Worlds are dynamic places, changes happen and this often adds to the feeling that the fictional world is a real, living place where the unexpected can happen. Players like to know the actions of their characters can change things in a world setting. An unchanging world is a dead world. Following canon so closely that new things, things not recorded in the original material, never happens can stifle the fun of playing the game. Recreating the journey of Frodo and the fellowship has much less appeal than visiting Middle-earth with characters of your own and while noting many anticipated elements, also discovering something new about a world that is mostly familiar yet still contains surprises.
So how much can we change canon and not disappoint players who may be familiar with the published setting material? As with most design it yourself decisions, this is probably a discussion that needs to happen among your player group. Your tolerances for making changes will vary!
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