Looking for a fantasy game where the rules and setting are designed together for a unique experience.
Some of the better marriages of rules and setting that I've seen are: Pendragon explores the Arthurian stories of Mallory with rules that focus on characters virtues, passions, etc. Sagas of the Icelanders is about the stories of the first Norse settlers on Iceland and portray rules for honor, duels, family bonds etc to emulate those. Both of these are low on fantasy, though.
Or are you interested in totally original/created from scratch settings?
Agree with both of Itachi's recommendations and will add Beyond the Wall.
Pendragon (Le Morte D'Arthur)
Sagas of the Icelanders (Icelandic Sagas)
Empire of the Petal Throne (Tékumel)
RuneQuest 2nd (Glorantha)
Hero Wars/HeroQuest (Glorantha)
Mouse Guard (The Mouse Guard comic books)
Burning Empires (The Iron Empires comic books)
Ars Magica 2nd (a fantasy Europe centered on a community of magicians)
The Nightmare Underneath (a D&D derived game -- mixed with other rules hacked from other games where the PCs go into "dungeons" that are nightmares trying to invade this world)
Earthdawn (a pre-history fantasy world)
Castle Falkenstein (Players play the roles of gallant adventurers, facing the intrigue and derring-do of Victorian adventures such as The Prisoner of Zenda -- but with magic. It uses a card hand mechanic and the idea of an adventurers journal (written by the player) as part of the rules)
That's a list off the top of my head. There will be many more!
EDITED TO ADD: the degree to which each of these games + settings is built specifically to handle the flavor of the world; whether the worlds are original or inspired by other works of fiction; and how fleshed out each setting is creates a matrix and variety I'm not going to try to sort out. (So much of it will come down to taste.) But I think it's a solid list to answer the question and add more.)
Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok. Superheroic Vikings from the sagas. Your powers are bound to futhark runes, and you play them on a playmat. They are also your hit points, and there are no dice.
Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/61356/Swashbucklers-of-the-7-Skies) (with hard copy available from the Evil Hat store). The PDQ rules were updated to what's known as PDQ# explicitly to support the swashbuckling genre. The rules can, however, be divorced from the setting for people who want to build their own, and can be downloaded freely (http://www.atomicsockmonkey.com/freebies/PDQ.pdf). These rules do a nice job of capturing the feel of swashbuckling adventure, duels, ship duels, mysticism and intrigue.
As for the setting, imagine a world that is shaped like a snow globe, one that is thousand of miles across. At the base of the globe is a viscous substance known as the "blue". Nobody knows what's below it, if anything. Above this, as you climb in height, you pass through different "winds" that alternate between blowing clockwise or counterclockwise. Now, if you look on the globe from a top-down, you see the world is divided into seven distinct "skies". There is one in the exact center, and six evenly segmented around the perimeter. These skies rotate about the globe, each having its own physical characteristics and each controlling a season / climate. Throughout the globe at various heights, floating by unknown means, are bowl-shaped islands, each about the size of the combined British Isles. Within the islands are land masses of various sizes, each with its own ocean or sea. The peoples of these islands, each governed by its own unique culture, can construct ships that are able to sail through these seas and beyond into the "skies".
There's so much more I. I really can't begin to cover it all. It is one of my all-time favorite games. It is hands-down my most-played game by now.
Edit with the plug from the Evil Hat website in case I failed to capture the essence of the game above:
"Skyships ply the 7 Skies, soaring from Cloud-Island to Cloud-Island for conquest, espionage, trade, and piracy. Kingdoms clash, cultures collide, and secrets abound. Heroes and villains roam Above the Blue, seeking action, intrigue, adventure, and style. Will you be one of them?"
If you're looking for historical fantasy, there's Vampire: The Dark Ages from back in 1996.
The last book Mark Rein-Hagen worked on for White Wolf, and the last major release before WW jumped the shark.
Ha! Good timing. The Earthdawn 4E Quickstart is LIVE (& free in pdf):
http://www.fasagames.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_102_128_103&products_id=1144
Comments, questions, errata notes? Have At (in this thread):
http://www.fasagames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=394
Over The Edge has a very complete and well-described setting. It can be a lot of fun to play, but has a very nineties feel that's getting long in the tooth. The rules, however, are a brilliant exercise in open-ended simplicity. I've never seen such a streamlined system that ran so we'll without sacrificing a great deal of nuance. OTE sacrifices nothing.
Spellbound Kingdoms is the best game you've never heard of.
Quote from: Dave R;985358Spellbound Kingdoms is the best game you've never heard of.
Ha. I was just about to name that one.
Plus
Agone and
Rêve: The Dream Ouroboros/Rêve de Dragon.
But then I reminded myself that both games may have settings that provide unique experiences but not because of a perfect marriage of setting and rules - rather in spite of the rules which (in both cases) are too crunchy and fiddly and simulative for "onirique", fairy tale-like adventures.
Ars Magica fits the bill.
As does
Blades in the Dark.
And probably
Conspiracy of Shadows.
All three have subsystems that accentuate the most prominent or interesting element of their settings (managing magic guilds, thieves guilds, and chaos cults, respectively).
Beyond the Wall is a good one and the rules are intrinsic to the play. OSR with a low fantasy vibe.
I thought King Arthur Pendragon was the best rules designed to emulate the setting game until I played Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok. FotN is massively designed to have the rules emmulate the setting, right down to its well integrated use of the runes. The game is set during Ragnarok, the world is ending, the Sun and Moon have been devoured, the land is in perpetual darkness and winter, and the characters are heroes worthy of legend. Also the mighty deeds of your last character have a chance to directy benefit your next character.
The One Ring from Cubicle 7 does a good job of modeling heroes in the Tolkien mode. The mechanics for journeys, Fellowships of adventurers, and lots of subtle elements really encourage an approach that is different to D&D and other fantasy. Playing this game feels like playing in Middle Earth in the late Third Age. Note the rules do not really support evil characters nor do they favour a wandering murderhobo approach.
Quote from: DavetheLost;985393I thought King Arthur Pendragon was the best rules designed to emulate the setting game until I played Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok. FotN is massively designed to have the rules emmulate the setting, right down to its well integrated use of the runes. The game is set during Ragnarok, the world is ending, the Sun and Moon have been devoured, the land is in perpetual darkness and winter, and the characters are heroes worthy of legend. Also the mighty deeds of your last character have a chance to directy benefit your next character.
I did not know this game existed until this thread. This morning I did a deep dive into the material... and it seems gorgeous and strange and amazing? It does have that vibe of
Pendragon -- that is, pulling you into the world of the setting to think like the setting rather than using tropes of the past in a modern sensibility?
Have you played it? How did it play? Can you talk any more about the game?
Fate of the Norns has amazing aesthetic and flavorful rules but ultimately felt like a reskinned D&D 3e for us, with too much focus on tactical combats and classes and tracking lots of (very fantastic, almost supers -like) powers. If that's your thing, go for it.
It has very little resemblence to Pendragon, though.
Quote from: Itachi;985412Fate of the Norns has amazing aesthetic and flavorful rules but ultimately felt like a reskinned D&D 3e for us, with too much focus on tactical combats and classes and tracking lots of (very fantastic, almost supers -like) powers...
From my reading about it this morning that's what I was beginning to think.
Quote from: Itachi;985412Fate of the Norns has amazing aesthetic and flavorful rules but ultimately felt like a reskinned D&D 3e for us, with too much focus on tactical combats and classes and tracking powers etc.
Honestly, it has very little resemblence to Pendragon.
I don't think that the intention was to compare them in the sense of mechanics or theme, only that the mechanics embrace the setting.
I've run fate of the Norns quite a bit, including at gen con a couple years ago. You play heroes from Norse sagas, so it is designed to give you an epic feel - you are powerful, and fight huge things. One of the archetypes turns into a 10' vampiric wolf at will, another turns into a 20' bear. You are playing, by default, during the time of Ragnarok. Bear in mind, this is real Mythic style ragnarok - you can go and see where Jormungandr is, you can fight Surtr, etc etc. the sun has literally been eaten and the world is brown into perpetual darkness and winter.
Your character mechanics consists largely of runes - a number in your bag, and a number you can draw. Each of these is bound to an active power (I.e. In combat), a passive power (similar to a feat I would think), and a skill. They also represent your stats (red/body, blue/mind, green/spirit), as the futhark runes are split up into their three aetts.
You play with a playmat where you lay your runes - draw a number of them and lay them out, and this forms the basis of your actions choices - draw the one for power attack, you can power attack, etc. the number you can draw is your Destiny, the number you have is your Essence. Anyhow, you can also play any rune as a Meta - a modifier to another power. So if you draw your red power attack rune and your blue aggressive assault rune, you can do both powers, or you can add a blue meta effect onto power attack (in this case, hit multiple targets with the blue Multi meta), or you can play aggressive assault with the red meta effect (in this case, double the effects with the Red Amplify meta).
The runes are also your hit points, and they can move into the wound track on your playmat, and then you lose access to the active powers they are associated with. So you can lose the ability to power attack because if your wounds.
Choosing your powers for your character is as simple as laying out the runes you draw onto a modified Hnefetafl board.
It has lots and lots of Norse trappings. It doesn't resemble Pendragon at all in theme or mechanics, but definitely in the same space of setting and mechanics being close companions.
Quote from: ChristopherKubasik;985414From my reading about it this morning that's what I was beginning to think.
If it was a reskin, I would argue it's closer to 4e in a good number of ways, thigh I can see why you might think 3e. It's not a reskin at all, but I have myself said if folks like 4e mechanically, they'd probably like fate of the Norns.
Quote from: Raleel;985416If it was a reskin, I would argue it's closer to 4e in a good number of ways, thigh I can see why you might think 3e. It's not a reskin at all, but I have myself said if folks like 4e mechanically, they'd probably like fate of the Norns.
I misread the previous post. I would have said 4e is what I'm seeing as well.
I'm assuming there is some sort of community that you are protecting or fighting for? That is, though battle encounters seem to be the focus of the rune system, there's the bits where people strive to find something or accomplish something... and the battles are the obstacles through that?
I've also found a sample adventure online, so I'll take a look at that.
I'm intrigued because between the art, the battlements, the runes, and all the presentation makes it such a
unique looking game.
And also because the people who love this game
love this game. I've read reviews from people who have been playing it for years and it become their go to game. That I find compelling.
Agree that FotN resembles more 4e. And yeah, regardless of playstyle it's a really neat mesh of setting and rules. With a fantastic setting (it reminds me Dark Souls).
When I compared FotN to Pendragon it was definitely in the space of rules designed to emulate the subject, mechanically they are two very different games.
FotN adventures are at the heroic level. In the Fafnir's Treasure intro adventure, which is published with pre-gen characters and a light version of the rules, the players search for the titular treasure, that of the dragon Fafnir of Volsung saga fame, at the behest of one of the divine champions of either the Aesir or the Jotuns.
The game's classes are mythic archetypes from the sagas. Each has some unique abilities. Players choose which abilities they want for their character by binding abilities from a grid to the runes their character has. Thius two characters from the same archetype can be very different in play.
Combat does resemble superheroes. FotN characters have epic abilities! Combat is very tactically engaging, as which runes you draw each round determine which of your abilities you can employ, and you can also chain runes together to unlock additional effects. When it is not your turn in the initiative order you can still play "interrupt" abilities or abilities that you played during your turn as "contingencies". A contingency is a rune or chain of runes that hold until a particular condition is met at which time it activates and is resolved. You could play a healing ability on an ally with teh contingency of "when he is wounded", or an attack with the contingeny of "when someone comes around that corner" or an attack with contingency of "if someone attacks Bjarki they will be targeted by my attack".
The game is about a lot more than combat, but combat is one of the areas where it differs most from traditional roll the dice RPGs.
When I was first introduced to the game at Carnage I played three sessions of Fafnir's Treasure with the designer, some 16 hours of FotN and had three very different adventures. I felt engaged and immersed in the game for every minute.
If you want to play a game that feels like the myths and sagas you cannot do better than FotN. If you want a game that plays and feels like historical Vikings, or even the Vikings tv series this is not it.
Quote from: ChristopherKubasik;985421I'm assuming there is some sort of community that you are protecting or fighting for? That is, though battle encounters seem to be the focus of the rune system, there's the bits where people strive to find something or accomplish something... and the battles are the obstacles through that?
That is certainly one option. A lot of it, in my mind, is about making a name for yourself. Fame carries, and you may take a side in the coming battle of ragnarok. Odin is looking for allies, Surtr is looking for allies, heck everyone is. The game does a good job of not demonizing the Jotun like has been done in many other games... they are much closer to nature deities.
As Dave says, it's a very different feel of a game. I have no idea how many times I've fielded a question about it that started with "is my Ulfhednar supposed to do X damage in wolf form?" The answer is "yes, and that's rather paltry, wait until he's pulling more than a hundred". It's very Mythic Fantasy Roleplaying.
Quote from: rgrove0172;985308Looking for a fantasy game where the rules and setting are designed together for a unique experience.
d6 Star Wars