Hot answers tagged settings
19
They give a very good impression of the setting, and they also give a pretty good background for understanding how the rules work.
The game was designed to very closely emulate the fiction of the books (Evil Hat and the author worked closely together for about a decade, and much of Evil Hat's work on developing and refining Fate over the years and multiple ...
15
Things I would emphasize in an Iron Age setting:
Lack of information. In medieval settings, while peasants might know rather little of anything beyond the next town over, scholars at least have a pretty good idea of "the big picture". Just one example: Maps of the continent you're on exist, and while usually being pretty bad as far as scale is concerned, ...
13
In the past, I've developed histories, theologies, and factions with a combination of Microscope and Kingdom.
In the living history I've developed, you can see the records of a game of Microscope which developed the history of the world, and a game of Kingdom, which detailed the factions and history of one of the local towns they lived in. By setting givens ...
12
I like to work like this: I give the basic information to the players. One single page of 8.5 x 11 with all the info they certainly know. I tell them everything that is outstanding. How many moons, color of the sky, name of the main constellations if they are relevant. Any info about the basic religion, main genesis myth everything relevant for the first ...
10
The best fits for this that come to mind are The One Ring and Pendragon 4th Edition. A not quite as good fit would be one of the systems using Glorantha.
The One Ring
Tolkien's world, done quite well by Cubical 7. Set between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, it's intended to be a slowly darkening setting, but it needn't be run as slowly darkening.
...
10
I will answer from three different viewpoints - Learning the Fate system (as that seems to be your primary goal), playing a game of DFRPG, and running a game of DFRPG.
From the perspective of Fate as a general rule system, no, it's definitely not necessary to read the novels before taking a look at the game. Certainly, your understanding of the specific ...
9
There is no smooth, gentle way to introduce players to a truly alien setting. You have three choices as a GM who wants to successfully run an alien setting:
make the players aliens to the setting, and let them explore it. (gentle means of introduction)
make them study up prior to play. (smooth play, but heavy handed)
Play with people who already know the ...
9
I have used Unknown Armies to explore a game of this kind of conspiracy to great effect
Unknown Armies, is a world that posits just this sort of global conspiracy. Starting a street level campaign with the characters member of the government should set up a deliciously x-files like feeling as ... elements of the surreal start to intrude into the "real."
...
9
I've played Dresden Files with no prior knowledge of the setting (or FATE for that matter) and it went just fine. The books provide a fine amount of background to give an understanding of the setting. As a caveat the person running the game was quite familiar with the series but I can point out a couple of things:
1) It's your game, the book for game ...
8
Of the choices that you've put forth, I'd personally go with Delta Green or Esoterrorists.
But I'd have two choices over those.
For a ready-made system, I'd use the Nemesis System. The site that formerly hosted all of the rules discussions and such has disappeared, but you can download the system directly from ArcDream here. It's the system I use to run ...
8
This is a good question, because I think there are a lot of good settings and modules out there that can be used for Dungeon World.
...And I think the answer is really simple. You even hit upon it yourself, pre-made settings would leave little room for leaving blanks and asking questions, So, where there are blanks, ask. Where there aren't, don't.
I ...
7
It's a great idea to get your players involved in building the setting. Make sure that everyone wants to be involved in this stage of course. It can do more harm than good to force people to create something if they aren't feeling it.
The Dresden Files RPG lets players cooperate in building the city they will be playing in. There are City Creation Rules in ...
7
As you're probably aware, copyright law prevents you from publishing a work that has "the exact setting" of another game you don't own the rights to; it's a derivative work, and as a result could expose you to legal action by Eden Studios or C.J. Carella. The idea of supernatural apocalypse and intervention by divine entities, however, has existed long ...
7
Depending on what you mean by Iron Age but I got the impression it was Roman Republic/Empire times: Make them all read Beowulf which is essential reading, De Bello Gallico by Julius Caesar paying attention to the Gauls, and some myths and legends. Of course, Asterix et Obelix are a must read. Film wise, Centurion and Beowulf and Grendel are both well worth ...
7
Speaking from what experience I have, I've found that what you're describing depends more on the person in charge of the game, and the people taking part, then the game itself.
My suggestion would be D&D 3.5, or Pathfinder. Personal preference, really, but I can assure you from personal experience that everything you're asking for can be found in either ...
7
I've only started in my DungeonWorld Campaign, converting Dark Sun for use, so I'm sure this will be modified when I get more experience.
The first thing to do is to look at what the GM is supposed to do, and how this is incompatible with the setting. Another question helped me get that into perspective, How can I encourage players to Spout Lore, ...
7
There is not anything official/published RPG-wise for Un Lun Dun. There is some adaptation of content for Mieville's world of Bas Lag for D&D 3.5e in Dragon Magazine # 352, one of the last "real" Dragon magazines. China Mieville talks a lot about his playing Dungeons & Dragons and how it informed his novel writing.
Un Lun Dun, however, is more ...
7
The following is from the Barsaive Campaign Set, 1st ed.
In this boxed set, The Barsaive Gamemaster Book had the following (pp. 6-8):
"Population
"This section provides estimates for botk the general and area-specific racial composition of Barsaive. These numbers do not describe the total population, which remains uncounted since the Scourge. This ...
6
I'm currently running a game of Conspiracy X.
When the first version of the game came out, the X-Files was at the height of it's popularity and the game and setting reflects that. The game has its own conspiracy background built in, but that could easily be stripped out. The background information on the different government agencies would all still be ...
6
GURPS Black Ops is basically designed to play X-Files. I have played GURPS. I have GMd Black Ops. It, like many GURPS books, is full of setting information the could be adapted to any system. So I think that it could be ported from GURPS 3e (it's native habitat) to GURPS 4e with little effort, if that's the sort of thing you want to do.
In brief, all PCs ...
6
Many tribes in western and central Europe were very superstitious, they had very particular ways of doing things and rarely stepped away from tradition and ritual. Some of these traditions are still paid tribute to even today, like the Green Man festival near where I live (not to be confused with the green man music festival) celebrating the rebirth of the ...
5
Always wanted to do this and never done it - mainly because it's a huge amount of work, and my GMing days are pretty much over. Random bits of advice:
Make sure the players are OK with this approach. It might end up being more talky than a typical adventure. You'' probably end up doing a lot of explaining.
Start the characters young, so they haven't ...
5
It really depends on what your goal with this is, I think.
As I understand it, the joy in playing a tabletop game is twofold. First, you get to be "anything you want to be". If you've always dreamed about being a Necromancer or a Super-Saiyan, you can explore that and pretend for a while that you are. But secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, it ...
5
Well, there's two different contexts in which to take this question. Most D&D games don't really run authentic late Middle Ages, they run a cleaned up, idealized, 20th century infused view of it, where families live in nice little cottages and there's glass in all the windows and there aren't kids dying of disease and starvation all over the place and ...
5
Have you looked at World of Darkness?
For Gumshoe, you might want to take a look at Night's Black Agents for a conspiracy feel. They have a lot of discussion on how to put together a conspiracy, and how to peel the onion layers, as well as rules for handling things like contacts, cover identities and equipment.
Also, GURPS Illuminati is a great resource ...
5
You might want to try an all-Elf game of Burning Wheel. Elves are very Tolkien-esque with a rich lifepath system for character creation and a variety of skill and spell songs (their flavor of magic). Elves also have a Grief emotional attribute that reflects their long-lived existances—when it reaches its limit, characters leave play by either going to the ...
5
I'd highly recommend Shaintar, a Savage Worlds setting.
There's a deep in-game history that you don't have to know to enjoy the setting, but it means that there are lots of evocative current-day details that, when you dig into them more it becomes more fascinating.
The world is the metaphysical battleground of various god-like forces, mostly those on the ...
5
I actually played the game first, and read the books second. I didn’t even read Our World, just Your Story and talking with my GM (who had read the books) gave me a pretty good sense of the series. The rule books, particularly the marginalia, are excellent for getting a feel for the world.
That said, my enjoyment of the game and the style used in the ...
5
You know the game world better than they do, but they'll probably still have ideas about what kind of character they want to play. So: start by asking what kind of characters they want, and then guide them through the places where that character would fit well into the world.
For example, Alice wants to play a sneaky thief, but knows nothing about the ...
4
I also purchased the GM guide through the website although unfortunately it seems as though Patrick has taken it down again. If you're interested try posting on any of the Facebook pages in an effort to stir Patrick into bringing things online again. I know he was also working on the Bestiary and an additional Character Cats book. I don't know if he's ...
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