RPG settings

[oscar]

Prehistory. I loved the stone age part of Evil Islands. Feeling like a bad ass because you had an obsidian axe and tiger-skin cloak. Humans rely on cunning and good old fashioned muscle to go toe-to-toe with nature instead of technology. Leadership is not yet hereditary, authority is earnt through brave deeds, wisdom and respect. Superstition and shamanism abounds.

Early antiquity. King of Dragon Pass / Glorantha buzz. There's some state development, weapon technology etc but the world is still a very mysterious and mystic place. God kings attended by armies of priests making outrageous sacrifices and build monstrous architecture in the states that have mastered hydraulic great river agriculture, Old Testament hero warriors and vengeful deities, giants still roam the earth as well as strange tattooed barbarians, Odysseus-esque adventures abound. The gods are very real and frequently take human or animal form to exalt, punish or simply find amusement with humans who are mere pawns in the obscure intrigues of the gods. Small bands of mighty yet brutal Yamanaya/Indo-Aryan thunder-worshipping horsemen annihilate entire civilisations, taking dozens of wives each while in the states that have mastered great river agriculture thousands of chariots clash as the gods watch approvingly.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

Antiquity for me... I am absolutely utterly bored with the medieval fantasy crap.

 

[Cryomancer]

More urban fantasy like VtMB please. And steampunk western games too.

 

[Falksi]

Working class northern mining villages from the 1980's

KES the RPG is long overdue.

 

[mondblut]

Forgotten Realms covers all these up to renaissance, and once firearms take over, it's boring anyway.

 

[Bastardchops]

Aboriginal Australia ~2000BC. They're like an IRL fantasy race already.

 

[Night Goat]

• Late antiquity. I feel like people in this era would be more relatable than those in earlier times, having a more modern mindset. A character could plausibly travel to notably different areas to provide variety, and there could be a variety of stories too - political intrigue in the city, or exploring the unknown at the fringes of the empire.
• Space sci-fi. So much potential here left unfulfilled, plus spaceships and aliens are just cool.
• Post-apoc, but not zombies or the generic wasteland of bandits and mutants that's been done to death. I want more far-future, semi-fantasy post-apocalypses like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind or Vampire Hunter D. I would choose Dying Earth type settings if that was an option, but it isn't so post-apoc is the closest thing.

 

[Bad Sector]

Voted cyberpunk, space scifi and postapoc since i like futuristic/scifi settings in general (i assume postapoc here means some futuristic setting instead of alternate history). Though TBH i'd replace "space scifi" with just "scifi" - it doesn't have to be in space or about space (it could be set in another planet but i wouldn't call that "space scifi" if the game doesn't move off said planet - for example Mars War Logs and Technomancer are set on Mars but aren't space scifi). Or add an extra option (in which case i'd replace postapoc with scifi ... yes i'd vote for both "space scifi" and "scifi" :-P).

 

[JarlFrank]

So the question for the most part what does this different setting bring to the table mechanically? Story and narrative are cool but most can be carried over between settings with little effort but how do you capitalize upon not having iron weapons or only having flintlock guns?

There's nothing to say it has to have different mechanics in that regard. Setting is mostly to do with worldbuilding, that's not to say you couldn't design some systems for each of the periods, but I wouldn't think they'd have much to do with weapon use. (excluding tactics) Stone and bronze weapons just lose their edge faster than iron, and flintlock muskets have an abysmal rate of fire, slower than a bow. Not that it would be desirable, but D20 could already compensate for these weapons. Other areas could pick up that creative slack, perhaps magic could be more ritualistic or something.

How to make muskets mechanically interesting:

- have an action point TB system (objectively superior to "one action per turn" systems like D&D)
- make reloading a multi-step process: 1 AP to put cartridge in muzzle, 2 AP to ram it down with the rod, 1 AP to ready the flintlock mechanism
- this means you can start the lengthy reloading process even if you don't have enough AP to finish it in this turn

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So the question for the most part what does this different setting bring to the table mechanically? Story and narrative are cool but most can be carried over between settings with little effort but how do you capitalize upon not having iron weapons or only having flintlock guns?

There's nothing to say it has to have different mechanics in that regard. Setting is mostly to do with worldbuilding, that's not to say you couldn't design some systems for each of the periods, but I wouldn't think they'd have much to do with weapon use. (excluding tactics) Stone and bronze weapons just lose their edge faster than iron, and flintlock muskets have an abysmal rate of fire, slower than a bow. Not that it would be desirable, but D20 could already compensate for these weapons. Other areas could pick up that creative slack, perhaps magic could be more ritualistic or something.

How to make muskets mechanically interesting:
Mod Silent Storm

I mean, if only.

 

[Marat]

Voted cyberpunk, space scifi and postapoc since i like futuristic/scifi settings in general (i assume postapoc here means some futuristic setting instead of alternate history). Though TBH i'd replace "space scifi" with just "scifi" - it doesn't have to be in space or about space (it could be set in another planet but i wouldn't call that "space scifi" if the game doesn't move off said planet - for example Mars War Logs and Technomancer are set on Mars but aren't space scifi). Or add an extra option (in which case i'd replace postapoc with scifi ... yes i'd vote for both "space scifi" and "scifi" :-P).

Space Sci-Fi as in "Space Age Sci-Fi", not necessarily taking place in space. Cyberpunk and (typical) post-apo are also parts of science fiction genre, so I decided to refer to the more conventional futuristic setting as "Space Sci-Fi".

 

[Dodo1610]

The 1600s for the huge variety of weapons from musketeers with sabres to men in heavy steel-plated armour carrying greatswords combine that with the apocalyptic scenery of the 30 years war and you have a great unique setting.

Or contemporary with some horror elements like Parasite Eve or Bloodlines. But please with good weapon customization.

 

[Darth Canoli]

• Prehistoric (nomadic tribes, animism)
• Early Antiquity (Stone/Bronze Age: Egypt, Assyria, Hittites, Sea Peoples)
• Late Antiquity (Hellenistic Period, Persian Empire, Roman Period)Early Medieval (Fall of Roman Empire, Huns, Frankish state, Muslim conquests)
• Late Medieval
• Sci-Fi
• Post-Apo

Prehistoric would be great with some kind of shamanic light magic or basic alchemy, a lot of traps and some hunting that makes sense, like hunting for a mammoth and not having to do any hunting for a long time.
Also being able to set traps on the battlefield and trying to draw your preys or enemies in (for a change although Expeditions conquistadors had some basic traps you could display on the battlefield)

Early/Late antiquity, well, aside from Prelude to Darkness, i can't think of any TB & party based antiquity RPG.

Same for medieval, would be even better with low/scarce magic, imagine a battle brothers combat engine with fewer but more dynamic cities, a good quest design like in Prelude to Darkness/Dark Sun/Fallout/Arcanum and D&D 3.5 based classes or customized like in Wizardry.

Sci-Fi, well, there's Colony Ship, it's a good start, a good (or two) Flash Gordon TB & party-based cRPG would be just great.

Post Apo, Fallout 1 & 2 were great but there's so much more that could be done.

 

[Harry Easter]

Still think the 30 - year wars is the perfect RPG. You have everything: different factions, lots of combat, a chaotic world (read: quests), no morals whatsoever and you can even sprinkle some magic in, thanks to the believes of that time. Be a mercenary, a witch or both!

 

[Thonius]

Time - travel rpg. DUH

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Space Sci fi. How many decent CRPG's use this setting? Not many. The only game I can think of that teamed up actual real time space flight/combat along with traditional RPG world exploration was Space Rogue back in the 80s and nothing similar has been attempted since.

Stellar Tactics might be closest.

 

[fantadomat]

All of them...as long as there is good exploration and writing.

 

[Nutria]

Phantom Doctrine

Unfortunately the setting for it isn't really the Cold War. It's a ripoff of the Bourne Identity movies, which are very much rooted in this century. Phantom Doctrine has some superficial references to the Cold War era but it's really about conspiracy theories.

 

[0sacred]

Early Middle Ages.

No crossbows, and mounted combat is king.

Also less material wealth all around, RPG towns tend to twinkle like fairgrounds.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Thinking about it, I can see some promise in the Absolutist period. Not necessarily because of what was happening on the continent, but because I can see a lot of potential in the English Civil War. Considering a guy was going around proclaiming himself the Witchfinder General, I think that setting shows the opportunity to showcase some interesting situations. Plus the opportunity to add in a bootleg Vincent Price is always a good one in my humble, unbiased opinion.

 

[0sacred]

Plus the opportunity to add in a bootleg Vincent Price is always a good one in my humble, unbiased opinion.

His performance as Matthew Hopkins brought tears of joy to my eyes. A good Witchfinder has to be suave and ruthless, the resulting dialogues could be a feast.

But small chance of that happening in the pozzed world.

 

[Nutria]

• Early Antiquity: A lot of Greek mythology is about guys wandering around the Mediterranean, representing the migrations of Greeks, Phoenicians, Etruscans, etc. It would give you the chance to go to a lot of interesting places and get in fights with interesting people.
• Late Antiquity: The Persian Empire would be a great setting because again, you can can go from Sudan to India to Greece. And your player character could be from any of dozens of nations.
• Late Medieval: Darklands II.
• Renaissance/Reformation: I think you could do something interesting around the time of the Spanish Armada and the Dutch Revolt. Give the player a ship and let them sail around Europe. There are so many true stories from that time that aren't well known that you could just rip them off and not have to invent anything new. I bet Russia would have potential too in this era, but I don't know enough about it.
• Cold War: I think the best chances for doing an RPG set in this time would be in some smaller country. Like trying to survive in Beirut during the 1970s.
• Modern: Forget urban fantasy. Set it in a rural area in the Philippines where bandits infest the jungle... but so do aswangs.

Unfortunately you could never make a game now that was set in the Western Hemisphere or Africa or a Muslim country without offending someone somehow. So ironically, that means those cultures have to be excluded.

 

[buffalo bill]

contemporary period: my dream RPG (that I'd make if I had the skillz) is a traditional roguelike set in J. G. Ballard's High Rise

 

[Reinhardt]

Early Antiquity and Early Medieval with a bit of horror.

 

[kangaxx]

spy RPG

Tried Hammer & Sickle? Phantom Doctrine?

I tried PD and sadly refunded after a couple of hours. Multiple reasons but it just isn't very fun in honesty, especially for £35. Not to mention that it made my PC sound like it was about to take off... for context it handles things like the nuHitman reasonably quietly.