Anyone play D&D set in RW style settings?

[GenghisDon]

I'm curious if anyone on the board plays campaigns or mini-campaigns set in settings like ancient egypt, the roman or hellenic world, feudal japan, dark ages europe, islamic spain or the like?

If you do or have played such games, how much have you tweaked the game to suit the setting?

Not RW, but do any try fantasy settings not as traditional D&D-like such as the Young Kingdoms (Moorcock's Elric), Nehwon (Leiber's Fafhrd & gray mouser), Hyborian age (REH's conan, with or without d20 conan), Middle Earth, ect?

How have you liked them?

[jackattack]

Not actually, but the 7th Sea setting and background was so derivative of medieval/renaissance Europe that we just started calling the places by their RW equivalent names.

[Novawurmson]

The Pathfinder world (Golarion) is largely a mash-up of meatspace/mythological areas. Off the top of my head: Galt (revolutionary France), Osirian Empire (Egypt), Land of the Lindworm Kings (Nordic), the various areas of Tian (Asia), Mwangi Expanse ("darkest Africa"), and Vudra (India).

[Murg]

Usually I play Forgotten Realms, but I'm getting burned out on the typical high fantasy setting.

I'm planning a campaign that will be set in a Bronze Age low magic custom world. The main plot will be about one tribe going to war with another tribe over possession of a magic dagger. In a high fantasy setting magic daggers are a dime a dozen so this should be a neat switch from the norm.

I'm not gonna skimp on the Bronze Age details either. Most people will live in squalor and be infested with parasites. Food will be scarce and worth killing over in some cases. Police will be nonexistent except in the most "civilized" lands. Modern concepts of equality, justice, and romance will not exist.

It's a shame that pretty much every official setting for D&D has been typical high fantasy. Sure some of them have quirks like Planescape (plane travel) or Eberron (steampunk) but at the end of the day they're still idealized fantasy at the PG-13 level. I think a darker more mature setting has potential.

[Novawurmson]

Golarion is interesting in that the modules generally flirt with darker themes, but leave an "out" for the DM to make it more family friendly if so desired.

[GenghisDon]

thanks for the replies, guys.

derivative worlds are inevitable & perhaps unavoidable. The fantasy version I mentioned all share that with the various D&D ones mentioned to a greater (Hyborea) or lesser extent.

I like some dark & gritty gaming myself, but I'd note that changing the default tech level & culture/mores does not make that kind of game.

One could run breezy, light hearted, swashbuckling ancient worlder adventures, for example.

Good luck with the campaign Murg, it sounds promising, especially to jaded &/or bored gamers.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Rokugan, the oriental adventures campaign setting, is based very heavily in japanese folklore. The terrain is fairly different (continental instead of island nation) but it's othewise pretty similar.

If you take it a step further and make it into a Rokugan campaign, per the rokugan campaign manual published by AEG, it becomes a -very- classical Japan-esque game, according to my admittedly casual understanding of classic japanese culture.

[GenghisDon]

It is indeed. It's quite tight to the source, let added quite a bit as well. It's a fine way to make a campaign world IMO.

The Shohei & Kensai(weapon master) are very japanese based archetypes that rokugan does NOT have, however.

Have you played a Rokugan (light or full) camapign? If so, how did you enjoy it?

[Kelb_Panthera]

It is indeed. It's quite tight to the source, let added quite a bit as well. It's a fine way to make a campaign world IMO.

The Shohei & Kensai(weapon master) are very japanese based archetypes that rokugan does NOT have, however.

Have you played a Rokugan (light or full) camapign? If so, how did you enjoy it?

Haven't had the opportunity to play one yet. I rather think I'd enjoy it though. I'm a bit of a japan-ophile, tbh :smallredface:

Hagakure was a substantial influence on my outlook on life.

[hiryuu]

Usually I play Forgotten Realms, but I'm getting burned out on the typical high fantasy setting.

I'm planning a campaign that will be set in a Bronze Age low magic custom world. The main plot will be about one tribe going to war with another tribe over possession of a magic dagger. In a high fantasy setting magic daggers are a dime a dozen so this should be a neat switch from the norm.

I'm not gonna skimp on the Bronze Age details either. Most people will live in squalor and be infested with parasites. Food will be scarce and worth killing over in some cases. Police will be nonexistent except in the most "civilized" lands. Modern concepts of equality, justice, and romance will not exist.

It's a shame that pretty much every official setting for D&D has been typical high fantasy. Sure some of them have quirks like Planescape (plane travel) or Eberron (steampunk) but at the end of the day they're still idealized fantasy at the PG-13 level. I think a darker more mature setting has potential.

We're doing this right now. It's been a lot of fun. Gods you worship to keep off your back, not a single one is particularly human in appearance, and the alignment scale goes from a thin sliver of "okay" to big chunk of "really evil." And rather than a magic item, the Warblade is scrabbling just to find steel weapons - he tried one, once. The guys he borrowed it from didn't let him keep it, but otherwise it's a Hyborian style setting and again, loads of fun.

But, uhm. Just to let you know. Most bronze age folks didn't live in squalor. This is the time of the Greeks (this is actually the time where they're debating things such as love and justice, especially the concept of social justice; the Bronze Age is the time of the great mythologists and philosophers!), Egyptian empires, and the creation of cuneiform in the Near East. Even the more remote and tribal people knew that you didn't wanna defecate where you dream (in fact, the Greeks were often many times surprised by the cleanliness of barbarians).

You're right, though. There are few to no "police," but social justice is worse. A thief might suddenly discover that he has robbed from ten people, and therefore twenty people want to kill him, the ten he robbed from and the ten who don't want to be robbed.

A lot of cultures have very advanced pottery and even concrete, and uses these technologies to build their houses. Rebar won't actually be invented until shortly after Iron is uncovered, but the idea is there (some cultures will build elaborate mesh constructs and build even two story dwellings).

AronRa is trying to make a totally different point here, but this video is actually quite relevant, which occurs just a little bit after the neolithic age and is the precursor to the Bronze Age (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWjtRFNSl2s).

[Urpriest]

I ran a "classical fantasy" one-shot once, sort of a mashup of Knights of the Round Table and Norse mythology, complete with rescuing a princess and having to joust a black knight who was secretly an Ogre Mage. I even ended up requiring that all magic items have backstories (simple ones generally: the Amulet of Natural Armor is a gift from a thankful Druid Circle, the Ring of Protection was forged by the Dwarves, etc.). It was cute, though it would have been a bit of a headache to come up with a suitable story past the one-shot, due to the limits of the genre.

[hiryuu]

Actually, this reminds me. I once built a setting that was based pretty much entirely on Earth cultures and gave gnomes all the Semitic cultures with the names filed off and gave the dwarves actual Scandinavian cultures and bear cults and such, town center stones and all.

I got a lot of "your gnomes and dwarves are so original and amazing!"

I guess it's true that reality is unrealistic.

Same setting had giant reptilian/tauric bedouins. Freakin' awesome.

[Elvencloud]

I once ran a Ragnarok based campaign. I don't think I could ever top the intro or the players' apprehension to that game. Real places, Norse gods, and the party that just wouldn't quit. We only could start as humans, and the only time we strayed too far out of real life was portals to the realms of Yggdrasil.

[Ranting Fool]

I have sadly stuck with mostly northern Europe type campaigns (with a lot of steampunk/plane hopping madness) simply because it is easier for me to make sure I have lots of little details right. I did a lot of history back in School + College and I hate it when players lose character and spot minor problems "no no those sort of trees don't belong in that climate"

I really am planning on doing a different sort of setting after this current campaign ends (depending on D&D 5 and when that comes out)

[Iamyourking]

Haven't had the opportunity to play one yet. I rather think I'd enjoy it though. I'm a bit of a japan-ophile, tbh :smallredface:

Hagakure was a substantial influence on my outlook on life.

I can't imagine only being right 20% of the time would be a very good thing to strive for. Please let me not be the only one who gets that

More on topic, I've devised a setting that's based off a combination of ancient Israel and Carthage; although I haven't gotten the chance to use it yet.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I can't imagine only being right 20% of the time would be a very good thing to strive for. Please let me not be the only one who gets that

........... :confused:

[Gnorman]

Anchorman reference?

[Novawurmson]

Remembered that a while back I made a setting in which the elves were loosely based on a mix of golden age China+the Roman Empire. Roman arrogance + Chinese Daoist mysticism makes for great imperialist elves.

They were subjugating the peoples around them, some of which were based on real life cultures, particularly an Indian Buddhist/Hindu culture with a much more violent version of the lamas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lama) ("reincarnating" queen of bloodshed and purity).

[GenghisDon]

good stuff, guys:smallsmile: