Thier Own Fantasy Setting

Neo

Mongoose
I'd really like it if Mongoose were to make and support thier own fantasy setting.

Wizards have Greyhawk, Eberron and Forgotten Realms, Monte has Ptolus, FFG have Midnight etc...etc.. so why not, im sure they'd do an awesome job.

What do you guys think?

Heck I sdon't even suppose it has to be a fantasy setting, just "A" setting that is Quintessentially theirs..
 
Well cool idea except and this is only an opinion what Ive noticed is Mongoose like Green Ronin to the best of my knowlede pride them selves in creating any world friendly books. I see what you saying though and kinda cool except with the amount of worlds out there now the best thing is what they are already doing and supplying us with endless supply of supplements and source books.

BUT!!! for argument sake lets say we wanted a Mongoose world what would you sugest was in it?

I say bring back the explorers feel the whole world has not all been discovered yet and you dont get the world map with the first book.

Second being Mongoose I see it as a high Magic world meets the Dark ages knights and wizards.

Now most worlds these days have a falvor an edge a feature that makes them Uniquie? what would Mongooses be?

Floating islands? that at a point in the day block out the sun from the lands below?

Dragon based world with floating Roosts? and the characters strive to become Riders? ((not Dragon lance remake of course)

Or will it be a world of gate ways Randomly teleported races land in hostile environments and have to fend for themselves this opening the available races quota to anything you can concieve.

As its high Magic does that enclude artifacts? or not aka weapons and so on.

Do we enclude a fighting style system where pending on what style and techniques you know is how capable a fighter you are?

ideas anyone?
 
I kinda like Low to Mid magic myself.. too many years of Forgotten Realsm has High Magicked me out..

Dragons would be a must but Smaug Types, old, unique, named and "Seriously Don't Mess With Me " warning signed outside thier caves.

Elves... tolkien sized preferably as opposed the the elven smurfs of 3.0

Air Ships, Floating islands would be interesting..thoughno doubt harkens back to my love of Spelljammer.

Some wierd geography.. maybe two world existing in the same place on different planes.. one magical one psionic... one being invaded by some dark force and in ruins, lots of enslaved natives, an apocalyptic style kinda ruin the other peacful unsuspecting world. A Magical veil between the two that grows thin in certain places or at certain times or with certain rituals.

Some new races to go with the standard fare.

Some rules for running everything from an inn or farm etc.. upto running a realm but less cheddary than the birthright ones.

character Generation could use some interesting new facets.. pre adventuring events, family characteristics or traits, birth sign bonuses, professional skills and trades.

A non slot/per day crappy Magic system.. like the idea of a skill and feat based magic system myself if someone wants to be a mage they SHOULD have to work at following that path.

A religion/Deity system that doesnt just provide miracles for free but encourages players to play faithfullyin order to recieve divine boons or miracles.

A system for handling Legendary characters (level 20+) that isnt just about makign them supermen a la the Epic Handbook.
um...
 
All right, Neo, stop it right now. Your last post got my mind racing in a hundred different directions and I need to concentrate on my current assignment. :)
 
GregLynch said:
All right, Neo, stop it right now. Your last post got my mind racing in a hundred different directions and I need to concentrate on my current assignment. :)

But Greg.. you know it makes sense :) ;) uh huh :D
 
In fact a skill and feat magical system that is based around a system of spheres.

say the standard Earth, Air, Fire and Water,.. also Life and Death, Light and Shadow, maybe Spirit or Mind.

Each of these spheres represents certain magical effect types i.e Air = movement, fire = damage, agression, water = health, and change etc..

All spells could then be made up by drawing upon those spheres..

A healing spell would be water and light a fireball Fire and Air, a polymorph spell water and life, an animate dead spell air and dark...etc..

Each spell could have a casting DC and the casters strength in the various spheres would provide a casting bonus to thier magecraft or spellweaving whatever you choose to call them checks.

I've always been quite taken by the idea of weaving threads of magical energy from different sources to make spells.. with a system like that you would have your basic spells but have in place asystem that was dynamic, if you wanted a fireball to do more damage you try to weave more fire to it, thereby increasing the casting DC, failure possibly weakening the mage or if fumbled resulting in some magical backlash as all the threads unravel unleashing the magical energy.

Also this way you could more easily have mages specialised in casting certain kinds of magic.

enchanters could be skilled in infusing items with threads and tying them off in order to give them lasting or temporary effects.

crerating golems or constructs, homonculi etc..would simply be a matter of weaving the threads to give artifical life and movement, and the like into the constructed bodies...and tying them off.

Your generalists would be okay at casting a variety of spells but to truly master a sphere a caster would have to specialise and thereby gain access to more powerful spells and effects in there sphere of specialty.

Magic should be taxing.. it should be fatiguing to cast and the more you draw on the spheres for a particular casting the more it should take out of you.. mages should be able to use minor effects often but more useful or potent effects only now and then without resting between in order to remove the fatigue.

Certain areas could be strong in certain spheres and make casting certain magics easier or more diffcult while in them.

I also kinda like the idea of civilisation and magic being alternate sides of a balance.. magic having less effect and being more difficult to use in areas that are more given over to science and civilisation.. magic should be as much about belief as it is skill.


As for DIVINE Magic, I've always wanted players to be required to act like the faithful in order to be granted thier divine powers, miracles should be eartn through service and devotion, pushing the belief and cause of thier gods, vanquishing thier enemies..it should be a proactive system based on rewarding good service.

Perhaps characters could have a Faith rating that provides a bonus to attempts to call on thier god for aid.. gods could provide certain benefits based on thier nature and the diffculty of calling on them could vary based on the characters prayer roll plus thier fath bonus and maybe also modified by the faith modifier of the region they are in..this way the more known and active thier god is in a region the more likely they faithful are to be heard and responded to. This creates a system where players can push thier faith at every turn, if you buiold a temple or convert a village it will increase your gods fiath rating in a region, which in turn makes him more likely to respond to your prayers for aid.

War gods could give combat bonuses to thier faithful, nature gods could bless crops, or promote births, provide healing, or summon animals etc..etc..

what do you think?
 
Ia slo think they could probably get away with a classless system still using the D20 system.

Characters should have a profession (what they did before they became adventurers) and that should provide some skills. The events before they started adventuring should also provide some skill bonuses and a feat or two.

The trouble with classes at the moment is a fighter is a catchall term for someone who fights.. but people who fight are more varied than that. For example a Farmer who learns how to use a sword is vastly different from say someone who has been fighting as a hired mercenary or a slave who was forced to fight for thier life in pit fights.. they should have vastly different natures in skills and bonuses.

Characters could still have levels and need certain amounts of XP to go up, but instead of gaining a level in a class they gain Advancement points (a lot like folks will see in Runequest) which they can use to improve skills they have used or spend (along with cash and time order to learn a new skill), improve a statistics, improve a save or attack bonus, or purchase a Feat. Indeed all class benefits at the moment could quite easily be converted to feats or steps of improveable feats... with a system like this you would have near limitless customisability whereby the kind of character they becomes depends largely upon how they have been roleplaying.
 
I also thing lExpertise in skills should be rewarded with some more tangible benefits... all skills have a base function but maybe some additional benefit that can be gained by having a certain Rank in the skill.
ie
0 ranks = untrained
1=5 ranks = novice (no benefit)
6-10 = Journeyman (some benefit)
11-20 = Adept (some additional benefit)
21-22 = Mastery (some additional benefit)
23+ = Grand Mastery (some final benefit)

Becoming a master may requiring learning under an existing master etc.. and have a cost in gold and maybe an Advancement point but once done you would gain the new title and additional benefit.

For example a Crafter couldnt use the skill with 0 ransk, could use it as listed with between 1-5 ranks, if they train with a journeyman and gain the title when they have between 6-10 ranks they may be able to make better or more durable items, if they imporve their title and become adepts when they have between 11-20 ranks they may be to work faster producing items more quickly, or increasing thier value making works of art, if they learn under and gain the title of Master when they have between 21-22 ranks they may now be able to produce even better items, or work with materials that before they would have had no understanding of and so on... such benefits specific to a skill could be made for every skill and would give certain characters incentive to improve thier skills, work on thier use and so on..and would remove the situation we have at the moment where many skills just dont get used ever..
 
Alignments..where to begin, in D20 games as it stands it is less than useless only coming into play where a handful of spells, a couple of magic item benefits and some prestige class entry requirements are concerned.. it provides absolutely no guage nor incentive for a character to play that particular outlook.

Way I see it a character shouldn't even be able to call himself evil..unless he has acted evil. The whole okay my character is Lawful Evil so ill take my first level of blackguard this time round.. but Bob you've just spent the last 12 adventures aaving the kingdom, not eating small children.. uh yes DM but i didn't really care about the kingdom I was just following the rest of the group..who are obviously my unwitting pawns in some greater..um..yet to be revealed evil scheme mwuhahahahah nonsense....

Alignment should be replaced with Reputation, or in its most simplest form Moral Reputation (a representation of who well they are known by thier actions) it could have a positive (good) or negative (bad) scale, with it providing certain benefits to certain checks based on how high or low it is, in much the same way as Reputation effects diplomacy, information gathering, intimidation etc.. in some games at the moment.

But more than this having a moral reputation of a certain level should provide access to certain Moral Advancements that a character can use advancement points to take once they meet the requirements.. these feat would provide certain specifically "good" or "Bad" type benefits.

In this way if you want to be the baddest of the bad you really need to act it and when you do you will be able to more ably represent such an outlook. People will know that "Vlad the Bad Man" is a defiler of temples and a really unpleasant man because he'll have earned that reputation by acting that way.

Reputation should in no way have any ties to level... as it isnt experience based it is action based. Just because im 20th level i may be more capable but unless I've been particularly good or bad in what i've done during my levels it should have zero influence on how my Moral Reputation is viewed.

Heck if you wanted to expand the system, you could also have,
Regional Reputation Rating (how well known and liked or disliked you are in certain regaions) a good or bad rating in this could provide certain opportunities (join certain groups and factions, power groups) or access to certain regional advancements specific to folk of that area.

Group Reputation (how well the character is regarded in a group..be it a political group, Adventuring Group, Guild, or Factions of some sort) which again could provide access to certain group related advancements based on how good or bad you are viewed in that group.

and finally

Racial Reputation (how good or bad you exemplify your race and how well known and thought of or not you are by your own kind), again a reputation of a certain rating with your race could provide access to certain opooirtunities or advancements open only to those of that race with a positive or negative reputation of whatever amount.

A system likes this rewards you with options..which can ONLY come about by playing your character to represent certain outlooks and beliefs in order to earn them.
 
On the grounds of your alignment thing I agree, I like alignment in that you are lawful good etc etc but I agree you should not be able to select these titles they should be given or awarded as per your reputation scale.

Also with race reputation bonus you should have +s or -s to each race for instance a Elf may get a +2 Racial bonus to reputation scale with faries where with Half Orcs they get a -2.

I say humans will differ from culture to culture country to country.

If we having low to Mid Magic where are we by way of technology?

Dnd did Eborran with high Magic and high technology. What you recon here?

Im not a fan of Gnomes personally and in my games its the Dwarves whom invent and Engineer.

Flying ships? what about trains? I mean lets face it the train came about to move coal and gold from the mines, least that was one of its very practical uses. Im not saying steam power but maybe some alternate power source.
 
rozark69 said:
I say humans will differ from culture to culture country to country.

If we having low to Mid Magic where are we by way of technology?

Dnd did Eborran with high Magic and high technology. What you recon here?

Im not a fan of Gnomes personally and in my games its the Dwarves whom invent and Engineer.

Flying ships? what about trains? I mean lets face it the train came about to move coal and gold from the mines, least that was one of its very practical uses. Im not saying steam power but maybe some alternate power source.

I definitely agree all races not just humans should vary somewhat based on thier regions of origin as people and cultures do vary quite considerably from place to place..and no end of examples of this can be seen in real life.

With regard to technology my personal preference would be 14-1500's level of technology.. think leonardo da vinci, relatively simple machines, basic steam, smelting and basic manufacturing and mass production techniques, alchemy, gunpowder, some basic shot and ball type weapons but armor and edged weapons are still the predominant fare etc.. an Age of Enlightenment/Age of Sail type level.. as opposed to say Eberrons more industrial revolution type level of technology...as such my own preference regarding trains, would be simplistic hand pumped carriages, limited steam vessels maybe as much else wouldn't be viable for that level of technology... but simple airship/dirigibles would be, galleons and other long voyage type ocean going vessels.

The whole magic vs science balance I talk of in previous posts I see more as a belief over knowledge type affair as opposed to a definite magical study vs heavy industry type balance. So places could exist with a happy balance, but others could buy wholesale into one particular belief (magic defines us) or the other (science is the way of the future, magic no longer has a place in a modern world)..as peoples beliefs change so does the potency of one or the other.. in a strong magic beliving region devices may be more likely to malfunction or break down, whereas in a science strong believing society magic may be extremely weak or inaccessible.
 
I think Mongoose's own setting would be a nice stand alone book, but their are imnplicaton. Only Mongooose die hards would go for it, other gamers prefer ones they are familiar with. It would probably take up toomuch resources on the company's behalf. Some people would say they wnat 'X' and why. In this case Mongoose would be better off looking for a licence from something similar to 'x' and do that, as most of the source material is already there.

Good idea, I like it. Just doesen't seem... practical from a business perspective. Not trying to argue with you or provoke you, but thats my two cents. I do agree that it is a nice concept.
 
Mage said:
I think Mongoose's own setting would be a nice stand alone book, but their are imnplicaton. Only Mongooose die hards would go for it, other gamers prefer ones they are familiar with. It would probably take up toomuch resources on the company's behalf. Some people would say they wnat 'X' and why. In this case Mongoose would be better off looking for a licence from something similar to 'x' and do that, as most of the source material is already there.

Good idea, I like it. Just doesen't seem... practical from a business perspective. Not trying to argue with you or provoke you, but thats my two cents. I do agree that it is a nice concept.

It wouldn't take up anymore resources than running an existing line and if anything it would take less, as no needing approval on every project as per liscensed lines, noone exterior to the company who can yay or nay ideas etc..

And anyone who keeps up with the D20 crowd like I do will tell you there have always been a fairly significantly sized portion of it (myself included) that although happy with D20 as is have long hoped for a D20 setting and rulebook that would rebuild and re-do some of the more "controversial" concepts, such as those I speak about and suggest alternatives for on this thread.
 
I not a fan of the idea...

creating a whole new setting eats up a whole slew of resources- writing, art, playtesting. Rules are revised and rewritten and there is no idea of actual sales. Not everyone has the same ideas about their dream setting.
A licensed setting however has the assurance of a pre-existing fanbase, possibly existing art (or screenshots) and even posibbly an existing minaitures range from a previous license holder.

I'm too much of a fan of the B5 range and SST to say it would be great if MP went off with their own setting. You could argue that Infernum was there own setting but there has been no GM screen, modules, sourcebooks etc beyond the initial release.

On alignment, I've been quite a fan of the Pendragon 'traits' idea. Admittedly tied to a knightly ideal but a great way of encouraging role-play to a character type.

Cheers
Mark
 
MarkNorfolk said:
I not a fan of the idea...

creating a whole new setting eats up a whole slew of resources- writing, art, playtesting. Rules are revised and rewritten and there is no idea of actual sales. Not everyone has the same ideas about their dream setting.
A licensed setting however has the assurance of a pre-existing fanbase, possibly existing art (or screenshots) and even posibbly an existing minaitures range from a previous license holder.

I'm too much of a fan of the B5 range and SST to say it would be great if MP went off with their own setting. You could argue that Infernum was there own setting but there has been no GM screen, modules, sourcebooks etc beyond the initial release.

On alignment, I've been quite a fan of the Pendragon 'traits' idea. Admittedly tied to a knightly ideal but a great way of encouraging role-play to a character type.

Cheers
Mark

I think your missing the point a little.. first creating a new setting is no more resource intensive than producing an existing or licensed line..indeed process wise its no different, writer produces the manuscript, manuscript gets playtested, then the editor edits it, then off to layout etc..etc.. though it is also fairly obvious for obvious reasons that licensed lines tend to do well because they aren't regarding "unknown " subject matter...and tend to draw fans by name alone.

Also Were talking RPG's here not wargames and miniature lines, which are entirely different cases and have separate fanbases of thier own.

Also just because a fantasy setting of thier own gets made does not mean that that takes the place of existing lines. So there is no reason why B5 or SST would suffer in any way.. thier longevity as with any other is based on sales and popularity.

I agree more for Infernum would have been nice (also a fan of Pendragon too btw :) )
 
I totally agree with Neos last post and a publisher that already produces a good few product lines anyway the thought that another one will draw away from existing ones is not accurate in my view.

Lets put it like this once more 'If you want a new setting by Mongoose that mongoose does from scratch' then please post your thoughts and ideas to be honest if you disagree then do so I will simply skip over those posts from now the thread started coll in that we venturing ideas as to what the setting might hold.

Thank you kindly.
 
Neo said:
Dragons would be a must but Smaug Types, old, unique, named and "Seriously Don't Mess With Me " warning signed outside thier caves.

Under which would be a suspiciously large number of discarded ketchup bottles!

:lol:

LBH
 
lastbesthope said:
Neo said:
Dragons would be a must but Smaug Types, old, unique, named and "Seriously Don't Mess With Me " warning signed outside thier caves.

Under which would be a suspiciously large number of discarded ketchup bottles!

:lol:

LBH

heh no doubt :)
 
Okay some thoughts on gear

I don't know about anyone else but i've always been a fan of Armour having DR over an AC bonus.. armour doesnt make you less likely to be hit as opposed to less likely to be hurt.

Armour and Weapons should have wear and tear, players should be required to have damage to it repaired now and then in order to stave of a reduction in its effective usability.

Always been a fan of items having differign qualities (with minor benefits and increased durability) likewise with lots of material variety also having effects.

Strength should affect damage but not to hit, Dex should have a bearing on avoiding blows but no on ranged attacks.

Charisma should play a more active part, if it represents personality as it does as personalities have a massive bearing on who we are and what we do... maybe a charisma of a certain raiting grants a certain number of traits... i.e aggressive, creative, brave, thoughtful, modest etc.. and those could bestow some minor bonuses to saves or skills.
 
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