Non-Middle Age "traditional" Fantasy settings

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

What makes the Hero System better than other systems is its flexibility, but that flexibility comes at the cost of standardization.  By not having a defined magic system Fantasy Hero allows you to have any magic system or systems you want.   

 

Yeah the only reason D&D had one fixed magic system is because it was set in Grayhawk and that was the default campaign.  Some DMs such as myself would create their own magic systems, but most just used the fixed "fire and forget" one.  By now there are several different systems for different kinds of casters, but its all presuming one campaign setting or at least one fixed group of spell systems.

 

I recall reading Dragon magazine columns in which Gary Gygax insisted, stridently, that if you didn't play the rules as written exactly, you weren't playing AD&D!  The concept of customization wasn't real strong back in the early 80s.

[tkdguy]

That quote from Gygax was a complete turnaround from his earlier attitude, which actually encouraged customization. By this time, Gygax and Arneson were already on bad terms, and AD&D was written to keep Arneson from receiving royalties from the game, as well as to standardize the game for tournament play. There were also a handful of game designers who published their own games that were variants of D&D, which the folks at TSR didn't take well.

 

As for the topic on hand, a campaign based on the Hellenic period around the time of the Persian Wars appeals to me. The PCs can deal with satraps instead of local barons and fight alonside (or against) cataphracts instead of knights. I know there's an old HERO product about Ancient Greece, but I never got a copy.

Edited August 25 by tkdguy

[Ninja-Bear]

11 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

Yeah the only reason D&D had one fixed magic system is because it was set in Grayhawk and that was the default campaign.  Some DMs such as myself would create their own magic systems, but most just used the fixed "fire and forget" one.  By now there are several different systems for different kinds of casters, but its all presuming one campaign setting or at least one fixed group of spell systems.

 

I recall reading Dragon magazine columns in which Gary Gygax insisted, stridently, that if you didn't play the rules as written exactly, you weren't playing AD&D!  The concept of customization wasn't real strong back in the early 80s.

Well I heard that by the time he was typing that comment he was fighting off competitors to D&D, you know you he had bills to pay. I also heard years after he lost TSR he went back to play the game you want. 
 

The idea of fire and forget as I understand it is just another resource management aspect of the game.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

The idea of fire and forget as I understand it is just another resource management aspect of the game.

 

It probably had something to do with the wargaming origins of the game, but it also came from Gygax' love of the Jack Vance books with that kind of magic system in it.

[Duke Bushido]

 

 

15 hours ago, tkdguy said:

 I know there's an old HERO product about Ancient Greece, but I never got a copy.

 

 

TDKguy-  check your PM box, Sir.

 

 

 

[Old Man]

4 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Well I heard that by the time he was typing that comment he was fighting off competitors to D&D, you know you he had bills to pay. I also heard years after he lost TSR he went back to play the game you want.

 

I get the sense that Gygax' repeated encounters with copyright lawyers and unscrupulous businesspeople turned him into a bit of a monster.  Can't blame him, especially after what the Blumes pulled.

 

Then again, so many successful RPGs have been effectively destroyed through various copyright, licensing, and intellectual property issues.  I feel as though it's actually the norm rather than the exception.  This is why we can't have nice things.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah there are entire books of Hero stuff out on the internet, I talked a while with Jason about it and basically it came down to whack-a-mole, you can get them, but then it pops up somewhere else, and you cannot keep ahead of it.

[Gauntlet]

9 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Yeah there are entire books of Hero stuff out on the internet, I talked a while with Jason about it and basically it came down to whack-a-mole, you can get them, but then it pops up somewhere else, and you cannot keep ahead of it.

 

Are you talking about campaign items?

[Christopher R Taylor]

No, I mean official Hero products, entire ones on pdf

[Tanis Frey]

On 8/20/2024 at 12:09 AM, Gauntlet said:

Have any of you played Ars Magica? It has to have the absolute best magic system of all role-playing games. Of course, in that game the Magi are overwhelmingly more powerful than every other character type.

Ars Magic was the system that Mage the Ascension magic system was based on.  White Wolf bought Ars Magica at one point.

21 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 

Yeah the only reason D&D had one fixed magic system is because it was set in Grayhawk and that was the default campaign.  Some DMs such as myself would create their own magic systems, but most just used the fixed "fire and forget" one.  By now there are several different systems for different kinds of casters, but its all presuming one campaign setting or at least one fixed group of spell systems.

 

I recall reading Dragon magazine columns in which Gary Gygax insisted, stridently, that if you didn't play the rules as written exactly, you weren't playing AD&D!  The concept of customization wasn't real strong back in the early 80s.

2nd AD&D Book of Magic had several alternat magic systems for AD&D.

 

[Stanley Teriaca]

I'm reminded of Space 1899 myself. Deadlands are also interesting (a horror Cowboys and Dragons game) 

[Rich McGee]

On 8/21/2024 at 5:38 PM, Christopher R Taylor said:

At some point, maybe, in the future if I live long enough I want to write a bronze age fantasy game, and Testament will inform a lot of that.  The setting fascinates me, its Conan plus.

Try Jackals from Osprey instead.  Mechanically similar to Chaosium's BRP/Runequest but the setting is has a much stronger pseudo-historical Middle Eastern Bronze Age fantasy feel than Glorantha ever did.  Also definitely fits the OP's requirements - the setting is definitely not just our own historical world with fantasy elements added, nor is it anything like a pseudo-Middle Ages world.

 

Grossly under-appreciated game IMO.  Deserves more exposure than it gets.

 

 

Edited September 7 by Rich McGee
inserted link

[Ninja-Bear]

15 hours ago, Rich McGee said:

Try Jackals from Osprey instead.  Mechanically similar to Chaosium's BRP/Runequest but the setting is has a much stronger pseudo-historical Middle Eastern Bronze Age fantasy feel than Glorantha ever did.  Also definitely fits the OP's requirements - the setting is definitely not just our own historical world with fantasy elements added, nor is it anything like a pseudo-Middle Ages world.

 

Grossly under-appreciated game IMO.  Deserves more exposure than it gets.

 

 

I saw it on the Net and it looked interesting. Glad someone else has actually seen it. Did you happen to run it?

[Rich McGee]

35 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I saw it on the Net and it looked interesting. Glad someone else has actually seen it. Did you happen to run it?

Only two sessions, but it wasn't for lack of interest.  Had a family health crisis and haven't managed to get back to it.  If you're familiar with Chaosium's BRP game engine it feels very natural, and the setting (despite being fairly exotic from a modern POV) is much easier to explain than Glorantha (much as I like it).

 

There was a good series of actual play vids by the author on Youtube at one point, but I don't have them bookmarked. 

[tkdguy]

How about a pseudo-Egyptian setting? D&D has races like Hutaakan (jackal men), Nagpa (vulture men), and Yuan-ti (snake men). They could be called the children of Anubis, Nekhbet, and Apophis (or Wadjet) respectively.