Let's make the best fantasy setting ever

[Monte Carlo]

Clearly, my 'Let's Make the Worst Fantasy Setting EVAR' thread was an enormous success and attracted the cream of the forum to contribute. I am still crafting a campaign setting from the wealth of raw material, I shall make it available by the totally non-negotiable October release date.

 

Now it's time to create the Best Fantasy Setting Ever. Seriously.

 

Please post a precis of what its about and what the setting is like, who the player characters would be and maybe who the bad guys are (if, indeed, you choose to have bad guys in the normal meaning of the word). You can be completely revolutionary or cleverly traditional - classic tailoring with a sartorial twist. But it should be compelling, playable and fun. Post ideas for game mechanics, classes, deities, anything.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the floor is yours.

 

Cheers

MC

[Oner]

If you're trying to make the best fantasy game, then don't call the thread setting, punctuality is important for the best setting evar.

 

First off: no weapons that are impractical beyond hope, or armor with groin protectors.

[Monte Carlo]

It should have been called Game / Setting.

 

My mistake, now rectified.

[Oner]

Tank ju.

[HoonDing]

No romances...

[Monte Carlo]

^ No but it has a fully dynamic and meaningful influence system, like the one Sawyer described for TBH (the first time round).

 

That way you might or might not see NPCs develop in the way you might choose.

[Oner]

A "mission" that involves the player planning some magnificent bastardry by giving her teammates orders to execute when how and where she tells them to (Ex: "wait for the others at the castle gates and let the portcullis fall when they go through" - except more cunning).

[Atreides]

The Elves' golden age has come to an end and the remaining Elves are preparing to return to their homeworld Elysium, a paradise so wonderful that no elf ever returns. However for some it is not an easy choice to leave the world they grew up in. The only world they have known.

 

For the Elves that do pass the portal to Elysium, it is disaster as they discover that Elysium is actually a hellish volcanic world. Worse, the portal is one-way and there is no way back or even a way to warn the others. The leaders in Elysium are working on a desperate plan to escape Elysium or at least send warning as more Elves continue to pour through the portal into Elysium.

[Darth InSidious]

^No elves. No, not even one.

 

No elves, no dwarves, no halflings, no magical enchantments of +n, no spells that even remotely resemble magic missile.

Edited August 13, 2009 by Darth InSidious

[Oner]

Based on the above two, how about a quest where in you help the last elves' of the world open a dimensional portal to follow their species to another world (or alternatively, imprison them in a horrific universe. Preferably WH 40k)?

[Darque]

Lovecraftian Cthulhu style horror.

[Atreides]

^No elves. No, not even one.

 

No elves, no dwarves, no halflings, no magical enchantments of +n, no spells that even remotely resemble magic missile.

Ok. No humans either.

[Darth InSidious]

Based on the above two, how about a quest where in you help the last elves' of the world open a dimensional portal to follow their species to another world (or alternatively, imprison them in a horrific universe. Preferably WH 40k)?

Elves are overdone beyond belief. No elves.

 

Why does every fantasy setting need ****ing elves? What's fantastic about pointy eared prats?

 

Ok. No humans either.

Lulz, fail.

Edited August 13, 2009 by Darth InSidious

[Oner]

Complains about elves, then complains about being able to kick them off the world, potentially into a horrible one.

Some people are unpleasable.

[Darth InSidious]

Complains about elves, then complains about being able to kick them off the world, potentially into a horrible one.

Some people are unpleasable.

Hey, if not wanting to see any elves in the setting at all is unpleasable, I'm guilty.

[Atreides]

Humans are just as common as elves in fantasy. Perhaps even more so. It's just the way they're stereotyped that makes them boring.

 

Ok so how about this: The other races have decided to ship the rapidly reproducing Elves into portals to another world. The elves want peace but they are overpopulating the world as it is and things will get worse (sort of like the apologetic fat dude on the airplane who spills over into your seat but can't do anything about it). Since the Culling Wars didn't go to well (ethics fallout and attrition on both sides) the other races have tricked the elves into believing that entering the one-way portals is a fulfillment of their "destiny".

[Monte Carlo]

No elves, dwarves, hobbits... nada.

 

I'm thinking that the player character has grown up in a fortified border monastery that provides protection to local settlers, who are by and large smallholders and subsistence farmers. They have an uneasy relationship with local tribal peoples who Got There First. However, the bitter wars fought between tribals and settlers are over, only the occasional skirmish by hot-heads on either side breaks the peace and this is usually resolved by negotiation between the monastery and the tribal council.

 

The monastery is run by a faintly druidical order who believe that their destiny is to bring some semblance of harmony to the furthest reaches of human existence - that is to say they've deliberately eschewed civilization. Nobody in the monsatery has been East, back to civilization, in near living memory and only the occasional merchant or visiting church elder brings news of the wider world.

 

Depending on your POV, the monastic settlers are either wack-job survivalists or rugged individualists carving a new life. The player only knows what he or she has been taught by the monks.

 

The main external threat are The Beastmen. These primitive humanoids live in the primal forest to the West of the monastery, and have been the enemy of the tribals since antiquity. The tribals fear and respect the Beastmen, and are expert hunters of their kind. The settlers have tried to parley with them, but they do not seem to listen to reason. One legend is that once in a generation a Beastman is born who can take human form, pose as a human and go beserk in their village, slaying everyone and drinking their blood before scurrying back into the woods.

 

Everybody is, in fact, utterly sh*t-scared of the Beastmen and our game begins as the military monks are planning the bi-annual war party into the woods to thin out their population. The monks do not fight fair, they use technology (the monks have ancient weapons not unlike flame throwers), sorcery, trained fighting animals and levies from the tribes to do the dirty work (who are well paid in alcohol and tobacco, which has become a form of currency). The player might be a trainee fighting monk, an adept, a tribal hunter or scout, or a monastic technologist (a frontier armourer / mechanic).

 

The war party returns, having killed a number of beastmen and only sustaining light casualties thanks to superior technology and luck. A feast is held and the senior clerics take the opportunity to invite the tribal elders to join the celebrations. This is held in the Moothall inside the fortified monastery. After a feast and drinking stories are told.

 

However, this is interrupted by the appearance of a giant warrior with jet-black skin and strange orange eyes, wearing armour and weapons never seen before. The tribals are awed, as the man (who is quite friendly and introduces himself as Jhun) closely resembles a character from their folklore, a portent of terrible events to come. Indeed, Jhun implores the humans to flee as the Beastmen are on the march and he has revealed himself to save lives...

 

What happens next?

 

(Memes - The Village, Fallout, The 13th Warrior, Celtic mythos, Beowulf, RuneQuest, Pilgrim Fathers, The Warrior in Jet-and-Gold / Corum / Hawkmoon)

[Darque]

Ok. No humans either.

Lulz, fail.

 

Not really, a setting doesn't have to have humans to work.

 

Take the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor setting from the Magic the Gathering card game. No humans, and was still a very interesting and well developed setting... well, as developed as you can get for a card game.

[Blarghagh]

The entire world is shaped like a castle in the void! Godlike elementals protect the walls from the horrors on all sides!

 

Okay, maybe not.

[alanschu]

Can we call the monastery Candlekeep!

[Monte Carlo]

^ Only as a codename during the TOP SECRET development cycle.

[Monte Carlo]

Right I'm off, up a mountain with no internet access for a bit. Will see y'all later and see how the best fantasy game / setting EVAR is getting on.

 

Should be back by the end of the month.

 

Cheers

MC

[alanschu]

I have a feeling that this one might be worse than the worst one, if only because we're trying :D

[Blank]

You can buy stuff.

Edited August 14, 2009 by Blank

[alanschu]

I'm getting the feeling from what a lot of people criticize on these boards is that we're hoping for a journey/adventure that is a bit less...grandiose than the uber-epic "Saves zee world!" type stuff.

 

No chosen ones, no end of the worlds, but something on a much smaller scale.

 

 

Some things to consider. Do we want a more open ended type game where the PC is a blank slate? Or do we want to allow for a backstory (or a variety of backstories) in hopes of perhaps having a slightly richer character/story out of the deal?