Campaign Settings

[Mage]

I am running a Runequest campaign soon, with the first adventure being rune of chaos, but there is a slight porblem. This is as follows:
'What type of world will i set it in?'.

This causes more questions and problems.

As I know, there are two mongoose worlds, plus to licenses.

There is Glorantha and Lankmar. I know of elric and hawkmoon, and will be considering them seperate entities with regard my Runequest campaign, asw they will be run also on seperate occasion.

Actually, as a memo, I may run a game or two of Moorcock stuff at my local con, known as Conclave:
http://www.thegatheringlimerick.com/
This is a fun con run in the west of Ireland, in the city of limerick, but a date has not been set yet, but should be June-August.

Anyhow, getting back to the point, there are inherrant problems with both setting.

Glorantha
PROS - The setting is the classic one, it sounds cool, and there is a very diverse and detailed history, and is a testament of how one's dream of a setting can come to pass.
CONS - It will take time to get to know the setting, how the world works, and there are a lot of books, and they cost money.

Lankmar
PRO - A classic d&d setting (i think), not too many books to get
CON - I have no idea about it, or what makes it special

Other settings
Say I want to use a setting from another game or from a video game, or book. I need to do a lot of work myself for it, and impossible amount, which means bumping back my game until about christmas.
Also, if i do it wrong and the group fizzles out, all my work goes down the toilet. Also, if it is a game of something from a book or something, it stops becoming runequest, doesen't it.
In addition to this, the work goes down the toilet. At least if it was my own material I could do something, otherwise it would be copyright infringement.

My own setting
I have my own idea for a world, but as it is with my own creation, I want to make something good out of it in the future. We all dream of writing books, or seeing it published, but I do not like seeing my material getting ripped off, or stolen. It may be a lot of work, but at the same time once it is finished it is there forever.

Or am I going too painstakingly about this, and should perhaps do it one game at a time?

 

[CruelDespot]

Lankhmar is the setting of the "Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser" stories of Fritz Leiber (1910-1992). Like Elric and Hawkmoon, they are licensed trademarks.

They are some of the great classics of heroic fantasy. The easiest and most fun way to learn about that setting is just to read the books.

Swords And Deviltry
Swords Against Death
Swords in the Mist
Swords Against Wizardry
Swords of Lankhmar
Swords and Ice Magic
The Knight and Knave of Swords

They are great books. So even if you don't choose that setting, it isn't a wasted effort.

 

[Mage]

I'll try and read up on them, but I still ponder...

 

[Kravell]

I'll try and read up on them, but I still ponder...

I'm in the same boat with you. I have the base rules and the adventure.

I looked at Glorantha and I'd need at least another three books to get started and maybe six if I want to be thorough. Not to mention the upcoming region books, modules, and city book.

The Lost Isles, found here:
http://www.sceaptunegames.co.uk/

might be a real option for you if money is tight. For $11 or 9 pounds you get two maps and eighty pages to start a campaign. Seems like a bargain. I'd consider checking it out.

 

[andakitty]

I am in the same state of indecision. It looks like a great opportunity to get a game going again, but I am not satisfied with any of the published worlds. Glorantha is just too...weird..., I don't really care for Lankhmar as presented, I have done Elric. There is just enough rules material that I would house rule in the game as written that I might as well go ahead and use my own setting anyway. So I am waiting for Hawkmoon. If it is like a filled out version of the Chaosium monograph I might use it. Depends on the atmospherics and rules tweaks. If not...

I find I am liking the rules well enough to want to use them. Although I admit a lot of the game is done right, a couple of things I find such a step back I would houserule in any event (but surprisingly, to me, few). The opposed roll rule and combat charts stand out.

So what I may wind up doing is use the rules for a generic sort of fantasy setting (one I have been working on for a while, for BRP, as a pastime and labor of love). If the game attracts attention at a pickup, fine, if not, hey its a hobby, right?

I might start a thread about how to translate the rune magic rules and sorcery into a more 'standard' fantasy magic system. Sometimes it helps to at least organize ones' thoughts to air such ideas in these forums...but first there is Hawkmoon...

 

[weasel_fierce]

I'd give your own creation a shot. Its not like you cant steal rules from glorantha or whatnot

 

[Vagabond]

You could use Moorcock's Million Spheres approach (using Hawkmoon
and/or Elric) and jump from any setting to any setting you want.
There's even a precedence set for going outside "canon" - Moorock
co scripted the Conan comic book stories where Elric paid a visit to
Hyboria

-V

 

[Utgardloki]

My advice is to just take a world and go. You don't really lose anything with wasted work, because whatever you come up with can always be salvaged and canibalized for the next great idea, and you always learn something that will make your next project even better.

(I should take my own advice. I've contemplated running a Glorantha game, converting Drow War, running an Iron Kingdoms game, running a "Runequest Modern" game set in the 1970s, running an "Atomic Kingdoms" game which is Iron Kingdoms advanced to modern-level technology, running a "Spacequest" game of some sort, or even a "Seventh Age" game advancing Glorantha a few thousand years into the future. It would help if I could be more decisive.)

What I suggest you do is do what I did for my first 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons game: I created a homebrew setting, called it "Audor", and at first it was little more than a very few elements:

1. A published module. For Audor, I started with Sunless Citadel.

2. An idea for a theme. For Audor, I selected "Norse Mythos".

3. An idea for a planet. For Audor, I placed it on a planet I had run a previous campaign on, called "Arol". Audor was placed in the northwest corner of the continent, an area that had previously not been defined.

And like Middle Earth, the tale just grew in the telling. I started defining the surrounding kingdoms. When the PCs started interacting with the barons, I started defining the nobility. But in the beginning it was just a tavern, a hole in the ground, a crudely drawn map (traced from the marbled pattern on my bathroom countertop), and a cheap book on Norse Mythology.

Another piece of advice I learned was to think in terms of adventures instead of settings. I have lots of cool ideas for settings (such as a setting in a permanent ice age, for example). But the players will want something to do.

This is why I would consider it worth the work to translate a great D&D adventure arc to Runequest, like Drow War or Witchfire Trilogy. (You can keep the setting or adapt to a new setting, whichever you prefer. I have some interesting ideas for converting Witchfire Trilogy to modern Earth.)

Or, what I often do, is just take a buch of published modules and string them together into a story. I changed the lizardman from Against the Cult of the Reptile God to gnolls, and had them destroy the village of Oakhurst that is defined in Sunless Citadel, and then had the baron from Castle Greyhawk ask the PCs along to investigate what happened.

I think Mongoose Publishing is publishing an adventure arc for Runequest, which would save you some work. (I haven't checked that part of this web site recently.)

 

[beeber]

all good advice from utgardloki!

the thing to remember is to start small. just get the first plot hook in place and let the players run with it. then you'll get to develop the world as you need to.

give the players a map of the starting town, a few miles of surrounding wilderness, and the location or direction toward the hook. the larger the map you give them, the more they'll tend to go exploring to the corners of it. back when i ran my traveller campaign in the early 90s, i gave the players the spinward marches map. they would tend to run around in it, and not show too much interest in the surrounding area. if i had just shrunk the map to say, only 4 subsectors, then they would assume that was where the action is, and use that as their sandbox.

ymmv, of course.

 

[Mage]

Well after reading all these posts, it is good to see I am not alone. I have decided to run the Rune of Chaos Game, and have the game set in glorantha.

Then, in the second scenario, the players will get warped into my own creation world, where nothing is familiar, but they fit in. There will be some of the runequest races in various secluded parts of the planets, as well as new ones, and some stuff do not exist there (like Orcs and Dragonewts) which is not to say the dragonewts won't be on their trail for some reason (I like Dragonewts, so sue me).

@andakitty
Hope Hakwmoon works out well for you, and hope the magic thing works out. Good to see I'm not the only one stuck.

@Vagabond
You have no idea what sort of Pandora's box you have opened! Read above, Glorantha meets my world! Terminator versus Elric!

@Utgardloki
My ideas will be epic, and I am going to run with my world. Iron kingdomes wrecks my head, even though it is cool. Runequest modern 70s eh? I want to be a pimp! How many ages for Glorantha are there? Geeze. Your homebrew sounds cool, and I think I will go with my own myself.
1. Rune of Chaos.
2. Theme.... horror high fantasy
3. I'll run it on a world I have not name yet. Just call it 'project B'. If you saw my other thread, it is about names of fantasy settings, sneaky I am...

@weasel_fierce
Thanks for the encouragement! Though short and sweet, your message was just as important to me!

@ Vagabond
I think I will go with my own world setting. I hope to make my own setting quite successful, living the dream. Runequest modern 70s, awesome! I want to be pimp! Iron kingdoms sounds cool, but the system wrecks my head. I need to come up with a cool original name, thus the other thread as well.
1. Rune of chaos
2. As for a theme - high fantasy sci-fi horror.
3. Then I will run a full campaign.

Hoefully it will grow to great proportions. Adapting to settings sounds like too much work. Going with my own setting seems best for now.

@beeber
That is all taken care for me with Rune of Chaos, but your game sounds mad!

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

Lahkmar is a low magic setting. RUne of Chaos would not fit, as there are no runes.

 

[Mage]

Not thinking of going with Lankmar. Seems to rough a place...

 

[weasel_fierce]

You can always throw lankhmar into another setting

 

[Mage]

Well, using that million spehere thing, I would shamelessly throw my palyers into another world, and just use the published adventure for it. Done it before with 'thulhu, and by gum, i'll do it again!

Blood of Orlanth does look intriguing though.....

 

[soltakss]

The problem with any game world is that game worlds are big and complicated.

If I wanted to run a game in Middle Earth, there are loads of books about it. If I wanted Harry Potter, there are fewer books but still a lot to go through.

It all depends how important it is to have all the background available when you start.

If you want a background booklet for the players so they can read it and know all about the setting, then go for an establisehd background.

However, what I would do is take it one scenario at a time.

Have an idea of the setting, work out where they are going to start, what their backgrounds are, what backgrounds/occupations/species they can have.

Then in the first scenario, introduce some of the local area, important people in the campaign and so on. Then slowly expand things so they see more and more of the world.

That way, you can control, to a certain extent, what they know and how much information you need to generate. If they ask you about such-and-such a place, then you can tell them you'll give them an answer next session, or you can make something up on the spot.

The advantage with using a fleshed out world is that such information is fairly readily available.

So, if someone asks about the Nomads in Prax, that info is out there. If they ask about the Hawk Riders of Gor, that is available. But, you need to have knowledge of the books/setting to be able to tell them what is there.

So, there are advantages and disadvantages to using standard available backgrounds and new backgrounds.

However, even standard backgrounds have the scope of having a lot of work to do. I run standard Glorantha but only use official scenarios 1/3 to 1/2 of the time and write a lot of things up on the fly or between sessions.

Probably the best thing to do is to find out what settings the players want to use and go with that. Of course, if someone has read all the Gor books, for instance, then they might be more of an expert on Gor than you, so you'd have to decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. (Gor being an example, I could have said Xena episodes instead).

So, don't think you have to have everything written before you run a campaign. What is important is:
1. Starting backgrounds/professions
2. A map/description of the starting area
3. An idea of local politics/culture
4. A good starting scenario that introduces an area/culture/setting
5. A number of follow-up scenarios to expand the area/setting
6. A rough idea of what is nearby
7. The willingness to write things up between sessions
8. An ability to wing it/make things up on the fly

Of those, only 1, 4 and 7/8 are really necessary, the rest are nice-to-haves.

So, just go for it, don't worry about the setting too much, it'll develop as you play.

The Glorantha I'm running in now is different to the one I played in before and will be different to the one I play in next. My Gloranthas Vary.

 

[Mage]

I suppose all worlds are big and complicated, and I see what you mean about reading up on stuff. I may just right a brief parahprhase about
the world and its history, and let the players read it, while I have a more detailed one for myself, and detailed info (like the nature of
the gods and creation, etc.) to mysself. May just do my own world after all.
Or possibly set the first scenario in Glorantha, and warp them back and forth from different worlds, like a fantasy stargate game.
Once they ahve a game, like you said, one scenario at a time.
I have a set of races in mind, and am easy about their backgrounds. The setting is already in mind. As I said earlier, the first game will be
the Rune of Chaos suppliment set in Glorantha. I do not think the important NPCs wil get intoduced until later, as they virtually have to blend in to a new world which is totally alien.
I have fleshed out the world a bit, I have in mind, but needs more work. Also, I kind of want to limit what the players know, as I myself will probably not get it finished for some while, and figure out stuff in game as time goes on. It is also a good way of introduing them to my world.
The advantage with using a fleshed out world is that such information is fairly readily available. Glorantha is cool, but there is too much stuff and so many books. Having people who know more about the world than you is bad, I saw this in a wheel of time game. There always is a lot of work...

1. Starting backgrounds/professions - check
2. A map/description of the starting area - check
3. An idea of local politics/culture - idea of it, need to expand on relationship of settlements and types of governent
4. A good starting scenario that introduces an area/culture/setting - first rune of chaos, then something else
5. A number of follow-up scenarios to expand the area/setting - have ideas, but need to do them
6. A rough idea of what is nearby - check
7. The willingness to write things up between sessions - check
8. An ability to wing it/make things up on the fly - check

It sounds like all gloranthas vary...