Your Fantasy Settings And Adventure Preferences

[alex_greene]

What do you guys go for? Do you just go down the worn old "raiding dungeons" road, or do you go for more interesting stories away from the dungeons?

What sorts of adventures do your characters undertake? What are your favourite kinds of stories?

Are you inspired by Elder Scrolls, Skyrim, Game of Thrones or WoW, or do you just use them as an inspiration and think "Oh, dungeon crawls are so much like grinding for coins, so let's have some courtly intrigue or exploration instead" at all? Are sea adventures or long treks in caravans, opening up new Silk Roads and visiting strange new lands, more your thing, or are you more interested in adventures of the members of the Thieves' Guild, parkouring about the city's gambrel rooftops and stealing from the rich?

Tell me about your preferred type of adventures.

 

[Lemnoc]

What do you guys go for? Do you just go down the worn old "raiding dungeons" road, or do you go for more interesting stories away from the dungeons?

At the certain risk of generalizing overmuch, I think there are those who understand that Monsters + Treasure = Experience delivers a certain kind of gaming pleasure, and there are those who chafe at the idea of killing monsters carrying treasure equals any kind of experience. Why would it? Similarly, an ease with understanding the role of classes versus a chafe against the idea that people wouldn't hold *some* chance of doing *something* against *some* obstacle (skills based).

I recall reading some years back where a modern psychologist either agrees with Freud or diverges from him, but that Freud's concepts framed the essential debate. Whether that's accurate or not, I think it's is an adequate descriptor of D&D and its influence on the RPG community. You either accept its frame, or you don't.

....

I don't think this game lends itself to raiding a dungeon for its goodies, because combat is so blasted deadly, and because circumspection and negotiation is called for in nearly every situation. The latter are rewarded, rashly rushing in is actively punished. Once $$$ gain is divorced from monsters, why would you risk life and limb for monsters? It's an important and integral concept.

I can't, for instance, recall a single paragraph in the original AD&D discussing surrender and ransoming—ie, the idea that there might be some negotiation other than death—although I have to say I actively tuned out around 2e or so. But the idea it is actively discussed in all versions of RQ is telling, I think. It admits the limits of heroism. It suggests something beyond hack to death.

In my experience with Runquest, few adventures occurred underground. And "monsters" were broadly available to be PCs. When the Enemy can easily be Us, the Enemy takes on new flavors. The upper world of Glorantha was given immense character, it was bright with possibility. Meanwhile, the lower world of D&D was yielded the coolest monsters. That, I think, defines the difference.

YMMV.

 

[Vile]

I tend to set up a background plot and let the players interact with it how they will. For example, an ancient fantasy setting where an empire invades the players' homeland intent on conquest and assimilation. The players might decide to fight, run away, join the invaders, or do something I'd never have anticipated. Usually the latter is the case, which is why I like to give them a chance to make the story happen.

They may even decide to go kill some monsters and take their treasure. :wink:

 

[Prime_Evil]

I tend to build sandbox environments containing multiple factions with opposing goals and let the characters generate the plots themselves through interaction with the NPCs. Sometimes these develop into games of political intrigue and sometimes they develop into dungeon crawls - it all depends upon the whims of the GM and the tastes of the players during actual play. I'm not a big fan of metaplot-driven campaigns; I prefer to set up a situation that is inherently unstable and let the plot emerge through the interaction of the players with the situation. It's like quantum superposition - the plot could develop in a number of different directions, but it doesn't assume a definite state until it is observed by the players 8)

My tastes in fantasy tend to run towards traditional swords & sorcery action rather than Tolkienesque high fantasy, so the PCs are usually street-level adventurers who could develop into either heroes or villains over time. I don't enforce a specific moral outlook on the characters.

 

[hanszurcher]

I like simple fantasy worlds, lite on mythology/cosmology. I'm a (early) Greyhawk/Lankhmar/Thieves World boy through and through.

I love dungeon crawls. But also like some variety. Don't care for all out sandbox style games but heavy "story" driven games turn me off as well.

 

[Dan True]

I have a tendency to switch. At the moment I am running a Deus Vult campaign, which focuses on the mission of course. Therefore the story and plot takes the lead and the rest of the world becomes a support for this.

The campaigns I tend to enjoy most however, are sandbox campaigns. The best campaign I've run was in D&D 3.5 of all things, where I used the Saltmarsh Sandbox from DMs Guide 2. My players came to the city with a message from the surrounding countryside about Gnoll attacks, and from there they simply tried living their day-to-day lives.. Their primary reason for adventuring was to get rich ... so they could buy a house with a garden (for the Faun), a smithy and a stable for their two beloved pack donkeys. I have never in other games seen such a in-depth character focus as in this campaign. It was wonderful.
Behind the sandbox was an overaching plot of the circumstances that were happening and would unfold over the next year or two... But the players could decide for themselves if they wished to get involved or not, it was mainly political intrigues and the threat of invasion from the gnolls (and their masters) .. this was then mixed with a flair of "Find your forgotten history", as most knowledge of older times had been lost. So in comes a bit of Archaeological dungeoneering

I also tried to run my Eberron campaign as a sandbox in Sharn, but it broke down because of lack of time on my part and some other factors.

When at some point my Deus Vult game ends, which hopefully won't be for quite a bit, I will either run a sandbox Viking or Pirate game. Something that throws the players in a tough situation from the start, and their primary goal is to attain a position where they have food on the table every day - and then later perhaps take their new positions further (gaining a Homestead, founding a colony, etc.)

Generally I hate meta-plots.. I hate "you need to save the world, and you are the only ones who can do it". If I have overarching plot hooks, like an invasion or something equally defining, then I like to give my players choice (join attack, join defense, try to live daily lives, protect community, become refugees etc).

- Dan

 

[Prime_Evil]

Don't care for all out sandbox style games but heavy "story" driven games turn me off as well.

In my own opinion, a successful sandbox game shouldn't leave players totally directionless - it should initially offer the characters a range of possible directions and let them choose the one that appeals to them. The danger in running a sanbox campaign is that the game can lack a strong dramatic structure. One of the duties of a GM when running an open-ended campaign is to provide a sense of a satisfying dramatic progression on the fly. As you might imagine, this isn't always easy to do without coming across as heavy-handed.

The secret to running a successful sandbox campaign is in the background information that you give to the players - this is where you can get away with setting up some meta-plot elements without it seeming like you are railroading the characters. Always set up a situation that it is inherently unstable and that is unlikely to be resolved without a certain degree of mayhem. Make it difficult for the characters to sit on the fence - start the campaign on the cusp of a tipping point where a small group can influence the outcome of major events. Provide several different factions in the setting that the characters can choose to align themselves with and ensure that they have mutually exclusive goals. It's also a good idea to have one or more secret factions up your sleeve whose existence can be revealed as the campaign progresses. These can also be used as a plot device to get things back on track if the campaign seems to be going off the rails.

Personally, I tend to cheat a bit when setting up a sandbox campaign. I tend to offer players roughly four or five possible directions at the beginning of the campaign, but tend to make two or three of them unappealing for one reason or another. This means that I only need to develop the 2-3 options in detail, giving players a sense of meaningful choice but reducing the amount of preparation work that I need to do.

 

[hanszurcher]

...
I can't, for instance, recall a single paragraph in the original AD&D discussing surrender and ransoming—ie, the idea that there might be some negotiation other than death—although I have to say I actively tuned out around 2e or so. But the idea it is actively discussed in all versions of RQ is telling, I think. It admits the limits of heroism. It suggests something beyond hack to death.
...

The section you are looking for is in the AD&D PHB, p. 104 under the heading Negotiation.

AD&D also had rules for Morale (which governed surrender and running away) since Chainmail, I don't know many people who used them though. I preferred the much simpler Moldvay/Cook rules when necessary.

Striking to Subdue was also a fun option, discussed on page 67 of the DMG. Back in 1981 I was trying to subdue just about anything my PC met. It's not just for dragons anymore.

 

[Old timer]

I tend to GM for my group, so my preference for fantasy worlds is usually reflected in what i and my players like/enjoy. As a group will like to do a mix of things games wise, in a sandbox setting. Constants are character in game development, and often plots that end up going epic. As our settings are sandbox, i will set up a small selection of plots for the PCs to become involved with, and simple follow developments from there.
The worlds we prefer to play in are always home brew, and often will have something about them that is different from the normal fantasy/high fantasy norms, examples being only a few classic races or playable non classic races, different world environments, magic tech. I, as the GM, will also flesh out cultures, religions, sorcery schools, the myths of the world, why there is magic, and often my players will also help flesh out the world with their own ideas. This helps create a believable world for us, and as we tend to play campaigns that are long running , gives us plenty of scope. The players can end up kings, or simple have the quiet life after making their wealth through adventuring.

 

[Lemnoc]

Negotiation... Morale... Subdue...
It's not just for dragons anymore.

Yes, I recall all that, sure. And I wouldn't want anything I wrote earlier to be confused as a criticism or disrespect of the game. I loved that game, played it and played it, and I really appreciate the efforts to resurrect the Old School style.

 

[danskmacabre]

I prefer intrigue, city based, political type roleplaying with some combats (or sneaking around and trying to avoid combat) thrown in.
However the people I currently run RPGs for want to play stock standard dungeon bashes and pure adventure, which is fun too I guess.

I do run Elric bi-weekly which is less traditional adventuring, which TBH I prefer as stated earlier.

 

[hanszurcher]

Negotiation... Morale... Subdue...
It's not just for dragons anymore.

Yes, I recall all that, sure. And I wouldn't want anything I wrote earlier to be confused as a criticism or disrespect of the game. I loved that game, played it and played it, and I really appreciate the efforts to resurrect the Old School style.

lol. I don't think anyone would take it that way, at least I didn't.

 

[alex_greene]

Monster 1: "Oh, we're never going to clear all the rubbish out of this room."
Monster 2: "Quick! Here come some adventurers. Let's just swap this sign here that reads 'MAINTENANCE SUPPLIES' for that one over there that reads 'TREASURE ROOM.' They'll never notice the difference."
Monster 3: "LOL Ten years adventuring and they still believe in magic items!"
Omnes: *LOL*

 

[hanszurcher]

...
I also tried to run my Eberron campaign as a sandbox in Sharn, but it broke down because of lack of time on my part and some other factors.
...

A friend recently purchased the Sharn book for me. I have not looked at it yet, nor am I familiar with the Eberron setting. But since I was also thinking about running a Oriental Adventures game...do you think the settings would mate well?

Hearing talk of sandbox campaigns has put me in the mood. Since I'm playing with a new group next month maybe I'll give it a go.

 

[DamonJynx]

As much as I hate to say it, though my players are all intelligent men with an average age of about 35, they are not the best thinkers when it comes to RPG's. They much prefer combat oriented games over intrigue style games. I am working on this with them by running an Elric sandbox campaign where their actions drive the story. Of course there are a number of "dungeons" involved as well, but these are not populated with random monsters generated from tables, rather, their enemies and henchman. I'm actually pretty open minded when it comes to games.

Was your reason for the OP Alex to garner feedback for a project or 2?

 

[Dan True]

A friend recently purchased the Sharn book for me. I have not looked at it yet, nor am I familiar with the Eberron setting. But since I was also thinking about running a Oriental Adventures game...do you think the settings would mate well?

Sharn is a great city for starting out characters in Eberron. It is pretty symbolic of the whole setting, has members or conclaces from just about any power grouping and is a hotbed of intrigue and merchantile disputes and ships or airships goes out to almost any other port in the world.
If you wish to run Oriental adventures, you could use Eberron. The continent of Sarlona (there is a supplement for it: Secrets of Sarlona) is Eberrons oriental pendant. It is a continent dominated by a large empire, ruled by a class of people sharing their bodies with (malign)beings from the Realm of Dreams. It is a very closed society, much a picture on China in the colonial times.

If you have any questions regarding Eberron, feel free to send me a pm. Just so we won't fill up this thread.

- Dan

 

[Redcrow]

The games I GM tend to be a mixture of mystery, intrigue, and short dungeon crawls; though I use the term 'dungeon' loosely as its not always an ancient underground labyrinth of corridors and rooms but can also be used in my game as a descriptor for any sort of structure the PCs need to infiltrate in order to recover a maguffin through force or stealth.

Magic and magic items tend to be fairly rare in my games which I think makes them much more powerful and valuable. Unlike DnD where you can bump into a handful spellcasters while crossing the street or shake any random tree and a magic item falls out. I have a severe dislike for High Magic settings.

PCs in my games don't typically start out as 'adventurers' who actively go out looking to slay monsters and collect their treasure, but are usually just average people trying to survive day-to-day when adventure comes looking for them... and sometimes drags them kicking and screaming into the night. Because the PCs are the stars of the narrative, important things happen around them whether they like it or not. How the players choose to react to these events is what drives the narrative forward and even should they choose inaction that can also have its own enjoyable (for me at least :twisted: ) outcome.

I also like to use a few twists and turns in my games. Things are not always what they seem and there can be a lot of shades of gray rather than simple good and evil.

 

[BluSponge]

Like many here, my adventure campaigns tend to be a mix of exploration, intrigue, a touch of dungeon delving, and roguish urban adventure. The last straight fantasy campaign I ran I described as a mix of David Eddings and George R. R. Martin, though I doubt it really measured up to either one. I either like to keep the group confined to a very small, dense area or encourage them to wander all over the map. These days, I'm more into swashbuckling and sword and sorcery than high fantasy. I've put in the better part of a year developing 17th century Hindoostan as an stomping ground for my Solomon Kane players and had a great time doing it. But I'm definitely looking to take a break once this one winds down – something that requires less research.

For fantasy settings, I guess I prefer old school settings that let me add the twists. I'm *not* a fan of settings that wink and nod around anachronisms. I'm a big fan of Gygax's World of Greyhawk and Epic of Aerth settings, and have been convinced for the last decade that "my next fantasy game" will be set in the latter. I spent five years GMing 7th Sea and have a great fondness for Theah. The pseudo-historical setting of Solomon Kane, with its blend of weird fantasy, swashbuckling and horror is about note perfect for my sensibilities these days. My ideal high fantasy campaign these days would be more akin to Aerth: a high-fantasy mirror of our world with plenty of twists and turns based on mythology. Yes, I love the semi-real world geography and cultures of Aerth – it sets it apart from other Europe with the serial numbers filed off settings (Forgotten Realms, for instance).

For adventure "modules", I prefer location-based adventures with as little "story" as the writer can give me. The only time I generally play through a published adventure is usually the very first adventure in a new campaign. It lets the players get acquainted with the game and the world while I work in the background furiously coloring around the edges. The rest of the time I use them for idea mines and examples of cool ways to harass and scare the hell out of my players. In that sense, I'd prefer adventures to me more toolkit oriented and less amateur fiction writer novel outline. I start to lose interest in published adventures that run over 32 pages. It better have one helluva hook or some fantastic detail at that point.

Tom