Hi guys, so 1: I'm new here; and 2: I'm a year deep in designing and testing a fantasy RPG set in an era similar in most ways to the Age of Enlightenment on our humble plane, with a healthy divergence from Tolkien and D&D and focus on fast and heavy combat, in-depth character development and deep political roleplay.
I guess what I want to know, is how many true gamers, like you fine travelers, would appreciate a setting of this nature, dealing with a culture on the verge of pan-humanoid tolerance, scientific discovery, and post republic aristocrats around every corner?
I've seen a lot of modern times, post industrial, victorian, futuristic, medieval, etc, but nothing that really captures the optimism and sense of imminent change that the Enlightenment brought, which I feel very well reflects the lurking feeling my generation is feeling. (Although, I'll admit pathfinder seems to fill a post D&D renaissance quite well)
Eitherway, I look forward to see what you lot make of this, and thank you for having me!
P.S.
If you have any questions, I'm vague right now on purpose due to early development, but I'll be happy to answer what I can.
Quote from: WizardofthePress;896749would appreciate a setting of this nature
Hi there. :)
I understand it might not be the answer you're looking for, but here it goes: I don't care what it's about. I care about
how it's done. Go wild, mix furries with buccaneers, add
the Man in the High Castle, drug-based magic and bio-tech, place it all inside skyscrapers of glass and bone floating in the cold space (where no one hears you scream) - as long as it's entertaining, substantial, coherent and at least a bit original, I'll attend the session. ;)
Quote from: JesterRaiin;896752I'll attend the session. ;)
Thanks! And I appreciate that, a lot actually, as that's the way I see it. Which is of course why every mechanical detail is designed from scratch, and I hope to high heaven that it submerges the new players as much as it has the play testers.
Quote from: JesterRaiin;896752Hi there. :)
I understand it might not be the answer you're looking for, but here it goes: I don't care what it's about. I care about how it's done. Go wild, mix furries with buccaneers, add the Man in the High Castle, drug-based magic and bio-tech, place it all inside skyscrapers of glass and bone floating in the cold space (where no one hears you scream) - as long as it's entertaining, substantial, coherent and at least a bit original, I'll attend the session. ;)
Red Steel? :cool:
Theres been a few tries. Usu ally within another system or setting.
TORG had the Orrorsh cosm which was a mix of Victorian horror and British Imperialism.
Call of Cthulhu had I believe Cthulhu by Gaslight.
There was I think a Ravenloft set that did the same?
There was at least one more but I am drawing a blank for what it was called.
Its a popular era for that style of play.
Quote from: Omega;896755Red Steel? :cool:
Heh. A premise of a scenario for upcoming
Myriad Song session, tbh. I'm too poor to own a console. ;)
Quote from: WizardofthePress;896753every mechanical detail is designed from scratch
Wait, wait... Does it mean it's gonna be entirely original mechanics?
Quote from: WizardofthePress;896749I've seen a lot of modern times, post industrial, victorian, futuristic, medieval, etc, but nothing that really captures the optimism and sense of imminent change that the Enlightenment brought, which I feel very well reflects the lurking feeling my generation is feeling.
So kind of like the mood on Star Trek? Optimism about ourselves and the future? Fantasy that shuns the grimdark and superstitions of the past... PCs as scientists and philosphers and firebrands of social progress? Dangerous unforgiving combat rules that encourage talking things out and avoiding violence?
QuoteWait, wait... Does it mean it's gonna be entirely original mechanics?
Indeed, completely from Attributes, resolution requires you to have a full 7 piece dice set, 12 races some classic some and turned over, medium level combat from bottom up, skill growth from use, combat expertise from actual fighting experience, and level progression one it's own to encourage multi-classing (such as Mercenary 1, Politician 2, Mage 1) and to encourage players to think outside of class and so that they can develop skills and combativeness so that level 2s can compete and travel with level 7s.
Mostly my own leg work, but I would remise to not mention I have a small team who help brainstorm and keep me from losing sight of the goal.
There are games set in the enlightenment (Colonial Gothic takes place in the New World during the revolutionary period for example). If that is the period you want to work with, I say go for it. If you bring something gameable and interesting it will work.
I think there is a lot you could do with the baroque period (especially if you are going for a horror angle). I've done a few baroque campaign settings and they've always been fun.
Quote from: Simlasa;896761Fantasy that shuns the grimdark and superstitions of the past... PCs as scientists and philosphers and firebrands of social progress? Dangerous unforgiving combat rules that encourage talking things out and avoiding violence?
Sort of, there are still gods and magic, but the magic to the people is science, allowing them into the discovery of the atom, photography, engines inside factory presses powered by force spelled. I have designed a streamlined combat system that is an eighth (my favourite fraction) the time it takes to resolve combat in modern d20, so violence isn't discouraged. You still play as a band of adventurers, but yes you can play a firebrand for social progress (as one of my play testers is) or a struggling mercenary who was traumatize from the great war and is seeking to build a network to control the city, right underneath the rising republic that's replacing the old aristocracy.
I considered baroque or victorian horror when first began the setting five years ago in D&D, but I wanted to create a more bright and fantastic world during a period of growth. I love horror though, I was sweating at my last Vampire session.
I like optimistic settings, but not so optimistic that one can foresee a complete resolution to the driving conflicts. There's not that much adventuring left to do in Middle Earth after Sauron is defeated without introducing another bad guy or going somewhere else.
I'm also more interested in how you combine disparate goals of the characters you describe into single sessions than in how you streamline combat. But I am optimistic that further details of your game will be interesting.
If I never play another fucking faux-medieval pastiche again, it will be too soon. I have zero interest in that era, it's completely played out for me. I like games that, if they must merely draw from history, rather than actually being historical, are well before (Antiquity) or safely after (Age of Reason).
So more power to you for sidestepped all that Tolkein-esque crap.
Quote from: rawma;896786I'm also more interested in how you combine disparate goals of the characters you describe into single sessions than in how you streamline combat. But I am optimistic that further details of your game will be interesting.
The setting is relatively expansive, from years of play with multiple connected campaigns in D20, so the setting has been touched by so many types of characters. There's a civil rights issue with a former monster race, a transition from feudal empire to a republic, industrial innovation, and continental trade, so there's still dungeons left to plunder from ancient wars and border shifting.
In my current play test I'm introducing the play testers to the setting and each has very different goals, but by putting a hard focus on the old school "power in numbers" cause cars don't exist and giving them a few extra buddies (Companions: Hunter/cook, squire, mount watcher. and system to easily track companions) I want to encourage complex story telling where a couple major conflicts can intersect and bring various point of views into the same focus.
The game, while deep, is designed to help players tell a good story that makes them think and work together to accomplish their collective goals.
Seventh Sea is also inspired by the Enlightenment era although I gather the focus is more on fantasy+swashbuckling than fantasy+Voltaire. Northern Crown is fantasy + 17th century North America, and Tales of Gargentihr also seems to draw from the age of colonialism.
There are also purely historical games for the period but I can't think offhand of any that hit the exact mark you're going for.
To be honest, though, your pitch doesn't excite me thematically. "Pan-humanoid tolerance" and "12 races" sounds to me like you're still working off of D&D tropes, for one thing.
But more important, the fact that you're designing the system from the ground up is a bit of a caution. My advice to you there is: either keep it really, really simple, or reconsider the system and go for an OSR variant or something like Barbarians of Lemuria or Savage Worlds which already has traction. The reason: if you're (arguably) designing a highly original setting, it's good to give your potential audience a baseline of familiarity with the system so that the mechanical expression of the setting is immediately intelligible.
In any case, good luck.
Quote from: Kiero;896798So more power to you for sidestepped all that Tolkein-esque crap.
I must be honest, still elves, dwarves and dragons, cause it started from D&D, but the context is different, and their's a lot more races. And they have complex relationships, despite living together a lot of the time in any place that Adventurers gather. It's a time of scientific discovery, in part thanks to academic wizards.
It's supposed to be if you took middle earth, shook it all up, throw in some current science, then wait a century play D&D, avoid dying of the "magic" plague, wait a few centuries and stop short of victorian, because steampunk does not inspire philosophical angst...
Well, I'm not going for purely historical, and I'm trying now distance myself from the old and new D&D ideal, despite retaining the classic fantasy theme. THe system is more of a result of not being able to find the system that had the right amount of complexity and ease me and my players wanted, and by building it from the ground up, the games we've run show that we can make a complex system that has everything the setting has and connects it, that doesn't drag on and on.
It is a large goal, but the progress we've made so far make me think we can do it. :)
I've long since believed that with a very small number of exceptions, so-called "medieval" fantasy isn't anything of the sort: the level of technology presented in most settings is firmly Renaissance, with a side dish of late 18th century Age of Sail nautical tech.
17th-18th centuries, why not?
Quote from: WizardofthePress;896772Mostly my own leg work, but I would remise to not mention I have a small team who help brainstorm and keep me from losing sight of the goal.
Sir, you've got my attention. ;)
One question. You mention horror being one of ideas you flirted with in the past - did you smuggled it into your setting, or did you abandon it on the way?
Quote from: JesterRaiin;896760Heh. A premise of a scenario for upcoming Myriad Song session, tbh. I'm too poor to own a console. ;)
2e D&D setting during the CD audiotrack craze TSR went through.
You had dog people, turtle people, clockwork people. Political intrigue around every corner. People mutating due to use and addiction to a self replicating mineral thats really the remnants of an evil god. Wrap it in a mix of the Swashbuckling age, Enlightened age and a little American west with a touch of Zorro. Toss in airships, talking spiders as a PC race and then sit back and watch the weirdness.
Quote from: JesterRaiin;896844One question. You mention horror being one of ideas you flirted with in the past - did you smuggled it into your setting, or did you abandon it on the way?
To the contrary, I love a good pirate ghost tale, vast powerful necromancers, voodoo style elf zombies, political vampires, deep amorphous extra-dimensional destruction blob anyone? Paranoia, from drugs, magic, sex (we're nerds, you know what I'm talking about), spells and madness. Necromancers that drain the life from their living victims so that they can cast more or just cerebral horror caused by the imminent threat of unimaginably powerful demons, deities or supernatural entities.
I like a little bit of everything in a campaign, I'm really just trying to create a more modern indepth, but easy in play, general old school fantasy game, I guess, the era was an accident, I started with renaissance, but it evolved into something more political and philosophical in play, without losing it's "Let's kick some butt!" attitude.