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Thinker
2010-07-30, 09:41 AM
You all were a big help with the first poll and so I present another topic for your consideration. This one is about the different types of games with regards to settings.


What types of settings are your favorite 3?
What types of settings are your least favorite 3?



I won't be making a giant table of everyone's reply this time, but I will tally and post the results in this post again. It will be a table that simply lists how many of each type people listed.

Edit: Because, on reflection, it probably doesn't actually matter, I am removing question 1: "What types of game settings are there?".

M0rdain
2010-07-30, 09:50 AM
1 - I have only really played a few different settings. Planscape, Forgotten realms, Birthright, Cyberpunk, Superhero.
2 - Planscape, Forgottern realms, superhero
3 - (not so keen mordern) Cyber punk, western, post apocolyptic.

I hope this was the sort of info you were after.

Enguhl
2010-07-30, 09:52 AM
Let's see here...
1) Medieval, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Western, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Magitech, Modern, High-Tech/Future-Tech, Ultra-Tech, Transhuman. That's all I can think of. Except post apocalypse, but that can get squeezed into most of those.

2) High Fantasy, Steampunk, Western.

3) Ultra-Tech, Transhuman, Modern.

Thinker
2010-07-30, 09:59 AM
1 - I have only really played a few different settings. Planscape, Forgotten realms, Birthright, Cyberpunk, Superhero.
2 - Planscape, Forgottern realms, superhero
3 - (not so keen mordern) Cyber punk, western, post apocolyptic.

I hope this was the sort of info you were after.

I was hoping for types of settings, rather than settings themselves. For example, Planescape and Forgotten Realms could be High Fantasy and Medieval Fantasy.

Thanks for your reply and I hope that clarifies a bit.

Dizlag
2010-07-30, 10:00 AM
1. Medieval Fantasy, Victorian Era, Age of Sail, Prehistoric, Western, WWI Era, WWII, Cold War Era, Modern, Alternative History of all those just listed, Superhero, Futuristic, Post-Apocalyptic, Space (gritty - Firefly/Serenity, high fantasy - Star Wars), and many many more!

2. Medieval (D&D all editions, Hackmaster, Savage Worlds' Fantasy / Evernight), Alternative WWII (Savage Worlds' The Day After Ragnarok), and Age of Sail (Savage Worlds' 50 Fathoms)

3. Prehistoric (though OG is hiliarious), Modern (I want to escape when I roleplay, not roleplay in the real world), Victorian Era (though a Victorian Era monster hunting campaign would be the kewls!)

Note on 1. ... all of those "types" of settings and be further enhanced or broken down into "high fantasy" or "gritty" as the DM desires. I hope that's what you were looking for, Thinker.

Dizlag

Edit: correction and clarification

Kurald Galain
2010-07-30, 10:11 AM
(1) that's a job for Wikipedia or TV Tropes.
(2) fantasy, world of darkness, and dystopic future.
(3) westerns, contemporary spy games, and fantasy. I'm listing fantasy twice because there are some really bad fantasy settings out there.

Thinker
2010-07-30, 10:33 AM
(1) that's a job for Wikipedia or TV Tropes.


You're probably right. There are likely too many for that question to matter. I changed the OP. Thanks.

valadil
2010-07-30, 10:48 AM
What types of settings are your favorite 3?
What types of settings are your least favorite 3?



Low fantasy, high fantasy, modern with a twist.
Bland (usually in a game where the GM deems setting unimportant or in a game with a homebrewed world that is not adequately communicated to the PCs), modern realistic/recent history realistic, distant future.

I like fantasy by default. I play other settings to punctuate the fantasy. I was hard pressed to find settings I don't like. It's more a matter of a game being bad than the place it was set in being unappealing.

RufusCorvus
2010-07-30, 10:51 AM
If a setting has even a whiff of steampunk aesthetic, I'll be inclined to check it out (and probably like it, at least a bit). So, Planescape and Eberron, and Iron Kingdoms, I guess. (I know it's the perennial steampunk setting. I've just yet to do more than leaf through the sourcebook.) The more a setting tries to veer away from Ye Olde Fantasie, the more I'm inclined to like it.

As for three I don't like, chief among them is Forgotten Realms. I also dislike Greyhawk, but that's more knee-jerk than anything, since I really don't know much about it. For the third, I don't really know.

Zeta Kai
2010-07-30, 10:53 AM
When we started the Vote Up a Campaign Setting project, the first vote was for the genre. Here was our list of potential options:

Classic/Low Fantasy
Epic/High Fantasy
Arabian Nights/Desert Fantasy
Age of Sail/Pirate Fantasy
Sci-fi Fantasy
Space Opera Science Fiction
Cyberpunk Science Fiction
Modern/Realistic
Western/Frontier
Victorian/Steampunk
Realistic Medieval
Stone Age/Ice Age

My personal favorites are Epic/High Fantasy, Victorian/Steampunk, & Age of Sail/Pirate Fantasy, although I'll play almost anything.

My least favorite are Stone Age/Ice Age, Realistic Medieval, & Western/Frontier, as I generally find the settings to be too limiting & small-scale. Not a lot of options, in my experience, but maybe someone out there could do one right.

Caliphbubba
2010-07-30, 11:16 AM
1. world of darkness, high fantasy, and super-heroes

2. realistic modern warfare, poorly executed sci-fi, and anything under water.

Satyr
2010-07-30, 01:26 PM
"Fantasy" or "Science Fiction" are no a settings. These are genres. Middle-Earth is a setting, as is Eberon, or Westeros (belonging to the Fantasy genre).

There are about as many different genres of RPGs as of any other media of fiction genres. If you can tell a story as a movie, book, or what other medium you could think of.
However, the vast majority of fantasy settings belong to various subgenres of fantasy.

It's probably also a question which setting is the best, when many RPGs are just based on books, comics or movies and it's kind of hard to differentiate between original RPG settings and settings with attached RPGs (like Westeros or Middle-Earth). Especially because some settings are awesome in themselves when attached to roleplaying games (the fate of the various Middle Earth RPGs might inidcate that Tolkien's creation as influential as it is might not work well for RPGs.

However, I guess everybody has his favorites - and a few settings he or she cannot stand.

My two favorites are:

Aventuria, of The Dark Eye. Why? Because of its friendly overkill - it is probably the world's most thoroughly described setting ever, with sourcebooks for regions which are nearly unpopulated and still get more source book coverage than whole other continents. Yes, this intense coverage creates very little free spaces for own imaginations but it also creates a very familiar framework and an unmatched feeling of depth. And yes, it is a German game, so most of you have probably not heard about it or could do anything with my recommendation. Besides, the rules are terrible.

And The Real World, various time spans, of the real world. Why? Because there is no fictional setting ever which is as familiar, intense, and sometimes really surprising as the real world. Besides, unlike fiction, reality doesn't need to make sense, which can be refreshing from time to time, and the familiarity is nice and there is no way any fictional setting will ever have the depth and sometimes meaningfulness of the real world.

Yes, there are various others I really like, Midnight is pretty awesome, Glorantha is impressive, the works of H.P. Lovecraft work surprisingly better as RPGs than as the original fiction, but few are as much as fun for me as a good piece of historical speculative fiction.

There are few settings I really cannot stand; there are a few I don't find particularly interesting, but there is one I should mention because it is that bad:
Seventh Sea. It's not only terrible dull when compared to the historical period it is based on. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to waste any money on this crap, because the setting information found on wikipedia on the 17th /early 18th century are endlessly more interesting and entertaining. Hell, Cardinal Richelieu alone is more interesting than the whole setting. Okay, boring alone does not make a setting really bad, just boring. What makes me want to hit the authors of the game is constant string of bad national stereotypes and just plain racism which turns the whole game into one very uncomfortable mess.

Thinker
2010-07-30, 02:03 PM
"Fantasy" or "Science Fiction" are no a settings. These are genres. Middle-Earth is a setting, as is Eberon, or Westeros (belonging to the Fantasy genre).
Thank you for your input. I used the phrase "type of setting" rather than "genre" intentionally. A medieval setting describes a type of setting without implying a specific genre. People are free to answer as they interpret these questions without long posts explaining why people are wrong.

oxybe
2010-07-30, 02:49 PM
top 3 fav and least 3 fav?

there's no real hard list for me. in all honesty i'm getting sick of the "pseudo-medieval-europe... WITH MAGIC" settings that most people set their D&D games in. the fact that these worlds rarely ever seem to evolve and rather stay in a state of... stuff happens but nothing really changes... it's always going to be stuck in a medieval period without any real advancement in the last 1000 years or more as far as the way of life is concerned bores me. they also reuse tropes i'm far too used to. few of these settings manage to light a real fire under me and just tend to... blend together with the other ones i've played.

as far as D&D settings are concerned my fav 2 are Dark Sun & Eberron, Dark Sun for it's crapsack world unique presentation of the D&D tropes and conventions and Eberron for it's treatment of magic in a way i can believe.

i'm on the fence when it comes to modern settings, it really comes down to the tone of the game and which elements the GM seems to focus on. "historical" games i try to steer clear of since i don't care to learn about the living conditions of a fishminer in Europe during the mid-1200's. or whatever.

i like the sci-fi settings as long as they don't try to focus too much on the science part of by drowning the player in technobabble. a setting like the one of Dr.Who where you get to experience spaceships, laser rifles, and all the goodies of the future... IN SPAAAAAAACE! while keeping the technobabble down to "vigorously bang it with this rubber mallet while i point my sonic screwdriver at it and ring this bell" i like. something like star trek where you need to "inverse the polarity of the flux capacitor and...." just makes my eyes roll. i think this (http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=231)"Hark! A Vagrant" can describe my view better. i don't care much about the science behind it, i just want to experience it.

the overall thing is as long as the setting is presented in a reasonable fashion that doesn't place a burden on the player and the group is decent, i'll play it or at least try it.

nyjastul69
2010-07-30, 02:58 PM
1. High Fantasy, Western, Post Apocalyptic

2. Space Opera, Modern, Oriental

unimaginable
2010-07-30, 02:59 PM
I try to max out the graphics, as much as the available hardware can handle.

(vivid storytelling but only to the extent that nobody is bored by it)



... k, seriously, homebrew based mostly on Planescape with some Greyhawk influences.

Elfin
2010-07-30, 03:20 PM
1. High fantasy, medieval fantasy, Dark Ages fantasy (or anything that's a "points-of-light" setting)
2. Steampunk (Eberron being the exception), science fiction, basically anything modern.

Zaydos
2010-07-30, 03:42 PM
Not much outside of fantasy experience (except Star Wars which the gamebook defined as Space Fantasy) but my favorites are Medieval Fantasy leaning towards High Fantasy and the heroic quest (although most games I've played in have bogged down as some player decided it was more important to get teh lootz and to stab teh monsters/peasants or the DM has forgotten what the quest is after 1 adventure). I've only played a hard sci-fi game once and I liked it and I enjoy Star Wars (I spent time as a Star Wars geek) although I'd prefer a pure sci-fi game to it.

My least favorite is Modern/Modern Fantasy. I want to explore worlds wildly different from ours.

Lord Vampyre
2010-07-30, 06:03 PM
My favorite types of settings are Fantasy (D&D homebrew), Science Fiction (Star Wars), and Horror (CoC).

My least favorite types of settings are Superhero, ones that mix SciFi with Fantasy (Rifts and Shadowrun), and general modern settings.

Aroka
2010-07-30, 06:38 PM
1.
Fantastical/mythological history: Not historical fantasy, but fantasy with the characteristics of history, in the style of Glorantha, Artesia's Known World, Rokugan, or The Riddle of Steel's Weyrth.
Near-future cyberpunk scifi: Covers everything from Shadowrun to CP2020 to GITS to Bubblegum Crisis to Transhuman Space.
Horror: Zombie apocalypse, Ravenloft, or Lovecraft Country, horror settings share... if not traits, then themes.

2.
Silly: Paranoia, Kobolds Ate My Baby, Hackmaster, etc. I can't really stand them. They make fine comics, but I wouldn't play in them.
Western: Never was very interested in them. I wouldn't be opposed to playing one.
Modern: They're not bad, but I really can't think of any setting types I actively don't want to play, aside from the silly.

Ormur
2010-08-01, 02:59 AM
I've only played D&D properly but that itself includes a lot of possible settings.

The ones I feel like I'd want to play or DM based on literature, other media or just the feel I think it would have are:
An urban pseudo-renaissance setting; a pseudo-Victorian setting possibly, steam-punk where I could play gentlemen with pith helmets; a modern or cyber-punk setting with some twists, I'd really love to play in some alternative universe where society and technology evolved similarly but not identically; the traditional epic high fantasy; an exotic but populated plane hopping setting that was very large in scope.

There aren't many I wouldn't want to play in but some don't seem very appealing:
Space opera settings, as much as I like Sci-Fi I just can't imagine planet hopping in an ultra high-tech setting being very fun; dungeon crawl as a setting, clearing a small cleverly designed dungeon of monsters can be fun but a whole campaign that was nothing but a string of encounters would be excruciatingly boring; a low-magic, low population, wilderness setting, I want cultures and intrigue.

Yora
2010-08-01, 06:36 AM
+3 Iron Age Sword and Sorcery
+2 Post-Cyberpunk
+1 Wuxia

-1 Galactic Federation Sci-Fi (idealistic, clean, well organized, 40.000 inhabited planets, ...)
-2 Superhero
-3 Steampunk


1.
Fantastical/mythological history: Not historical fantasy, but fantasy with the characteristics of history, in the style of Glorantha, Artesia's Known World, Rokugan, or The Riddle of Steel's Weyrth.
Near-future cyberpunk scifi: Covers everything from Shadowrun to CP2020 to GITS to Bubblegum Crisis to Transhuman Space.
Horror: Zombie apocalypse, Ravenloft, or Lovecraft Country, horror settings share... if not traits, then themes.
I like what you like. :smallbiggrin:

Zeta Kai
2010-08-01, 01:06 PM
Post-Cyberpunk

What is that, exactly?

Aroka
2010-08-01, 01:20 PM
What is that, exactly?

It's literally what it says: cyberpunk after cyberpunk. Cyberpunk beyond the mirrorshades. William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Maximum Overdrive) is pretty much the definition of cyberpunk. Post-cyberpunk abandons the cowboy stuff and "cool" surface in favor of substance: Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, for instance, and William Gibson's own Bridge trilogy (Virtual Light, Idory, All Tomorrow's Parties).

Wikipedia can tell you more - I'm not going to bother writing about the markers of the styles when it's already been done.

Morph Bark
2010-08-01, 01:50 PM
I prefer above all a setting that combines multiple genres, such as those from the list Zeta Kai posted. I generally don't like something purely realistic or too over-the-top magical/technological, because it is either boring/bland/too familiar or too complicated and far-fetched.

I'd love a combination of Desert Fantasy, Pirate Fantasy, Western and/or Oriental and perhaps Steampunk/Cyberpunk, and as such I am trying to slowly build my current campaign setting to that. Personally, I also think a Stone Age/Ice Age setting could be rather interesting with small bits of magic or technology applied (especially if said technology is an extension of Stone/Ice Age technology somehow).

Aroka
2010-08-01, 02:13 PM
I like what you like. :smallbiggrin:

The Motoko avatar suggested as much!

Well, I suppose it doesn't suggest the low fantasy stuff so much. Or the horror...

Yora
2010-08-01, 02:51 PM
What is that, exactly?

Basically "Post-Cyberpunk (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PostCyberPunk)" is "Cyberpunk" without the Punk.
You have the megacorps, neural implants, cyborgs, emp-weapons, and all the gadgets, but without a breakdown of society and public order.
Totalitarian governments and corrupt burocracy are still very common, but I think generally stories focus more on sub-urban middle-class people who try to make the best of living as part of the system, instead of outcast rebelling against The Man.

I think some good examples would be Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed, Metal Gear Solid, System Shock 2, I, Robot, and possibly Half-Life 1.

Ormur
2010-08-02, 12:23 AM
Transmetropolitan probably falls under post-cyberpunk too. I'd love to capture the feel of that comic in role playing.

potatocubed
2010-08-02, 07:48 AM
1. 'Kitchen sink' settings. (As in, they include everything but.)
2. Science fiction settings.

That's pretty much it.

Vantharion
2010-08-02, 01:26 PM
I personally love Victorian/Steampunk. I enjoy more diverse environments and I don't have any problem with Scifi.
I strictly dislike 'Gibbering Monstrosity' Horror such as CoC, but I do enjoy MacGyver style RPGs mixed with light anxiety or survival horror- (Island Troll Tribes/Minecraft/Generic Survivor games) I’m currently working on a Light/Darkness game that revolves around Survival/Low Horror.

Usually what matters to me is how well the world/environment is built. The problems I have with generic DND setting is how unsettling the balances of humanity vs everything else is. I’ve also grown fairly jaded to it with the level of predictability each archetype offers.