/tg, i wanna know. What would you want in your perfect setting?
>>43593212
>what would you want in your perfect setting
This can go so many ways. You're gonna have to be more specific
OP Here, What do you want in the perfect rule-set as well? I intended it to be a discussion on tabletop mechanics, but I brain farted, so we'll do both.
futanari catgirls
>>43593232
I'm aiming for high fantasy, with some multiverse aspects.
<<43593239
Pls no, no magical realm, not yet
>>43593235
I want it published by SJG and be called "GURPS 4th edition".
Dude, just make a setting. Don't cater to people.
>I fucked up
>>43593239
Plz no
>>43593302
That's a good way to think about it.
What about mechanics? I really like word system magic, so I'm trying to make it as not confusing as possible
Control scheme edits.
>>43593333
Wait, what? What are control scheme edits?
>>43593326
Like Words of Power or Dragon Shouts?
Shits pretty easy. Combine words for different effects.
Okay get this
Shadowrun meets High Fantasy meets spaghetti westerns
>>43593212
Guess...
>>43593357
sort of like dragon shouts, but its efect words and modifyer words
Example:
silent, fire, two target
>>43593326
This is a little bit of a vague clusterfuck of a thread, so let's begin with one thing, let's begin with word magic.
Words have power, the Kabbalah says so, so does the Bible (In the beginning there was the Word), word magic is cool. But what gives these words power? Is language inherently divine? If so, that could be where words get their power. Maybe we speak only a mortal dialect of a true godly tongue.
Maybe words have shapes, and when put together correctly, into strong sounds, they rent the veil and allow certain energies to flow in from the Outside. You can't really control the energies themselves, but you can control which ones come in and how they enter, producing a variety of effects.
>>43593402
Well, what I have on the source of that magic is that you need a battery of sorts. That battery leaks energy, and the words are used to channel that energy productively.
>>43593239
Dammit this was gonna be my joke answer
I like flying mounts like dragons, pegasus and griffons but I don't want them to dominate normal cavalry. I'm fine with just different human ethnicities, can't say I care either way for typical fantasy races.
Really Big Lasers
Little Girls With Universe-Shattering Superpowers
Flashy Outfits
Intergalactic Warships
Animal Companions
Cinematic Hacking
Idols
Undead Who Are Not That Different From Living People
Crystal Harmonics of Some Kind
Unrealistically Powerful Melee Weapons
>>43593439
Where do the batteries come from? Who makes them and what powers them?
If words channel energy, how so? Words must have some impact, maybe via the vibrations they make as sounds themselves - these vibrations are shapes and filters which act upon drawn energy. You'd have a word to draw energy and words to filter and refine that energy into an affect. Maybe one for each, or as many as you'd like.
>>43593291
>finally realizes that all the GURPS trolling is really people trolling and not people speaking well about a Steve Jackson game
Goddamn, I always suspected, but that took me years.
>>43593212
in general, my ideal settings will usually contain not just multiple races, but each race having multiple cultures and ethnicities of their own with decent overlap between racial cultures. (You call them Jews, Elves call theirs Shamat)
Magic and martial (and equivalents) are on fairly equal footing through various means.
Also, lots of diversity, and not the tumblr kind, I mean the sort where everywhere you go there's something interesting and different. Namely because I tend to hate copypasta enemies and palette swaps.
And while I don't mind high fantasy, I do like things to at least "look real". This one's tricky to define, but I guess that is to say: if full plate works well, you don't start drawing magical glow lines on it just because or make parts of it float without the magicky stuff actually doing something on its own besides looking cool.
>>43593212
From the catalogue I thought that was a guy in a plate armoured NBC suit.
>>43593631
>but each race having multiple cultures and ethnicities of their own with decent overlap between racial cultures.
>assuming that cultural diversity applies over instinct for all races intelligent enough to be playable
This would break verisimilitude completely.
>>43593626
Come on, it's easy to spot the difference between "GURPS GURPS GURPS" followed by shitting on all the other systems and "GURPS might fit because A and B, and also you could always read this and that book regardless of system".
>>43593537
The words are sort of a formula to channel the energy, but i haven't thought about the physics of it yet. The batteries themselves are most likely a mineable resource. is that too cliche?
>>43593212
>What would you want in your perfect setting?
While I do use it in table top campaigns, the main reason why I world-build is to play around with concepts I've picked up in in anthropology, history and religionistics: so what I look for is certain degree of depth and believability. I like to play around with religions and magic thinking (without magic being "real" within the world laws) most than anything. And I do enjoy those elements in settings of other people.
But to be honest, the number of things I want is nearly unlimited - anything can be good if executed well. In a sense, I'd really love to see a world build in the opposite way I tend to do it, something done completely top-to-bottom but REALLY well. Something like the settings of Pathologic, or world with the same "feeling" like that of Haibane Renmei.
The list of things I DON'T want is more manageable, so I offer that:
High fantasy of any sorts, basically. I like my Tolkien, but I'm yet to see a good other high-fantasy settings. I'm seriously sick of orcs (even worse, "noble barbarian orcs"), elves and dwarves.
Explicit and extended pseudo-scientific explanations of how magic works. Knowing that this will probably come across as pretentious, it's something I call "Aristotelic" approach to magic and fantasy in general. It's dull as fuck and about as far removed from what makes magical thinking interesting as possible.
Needless combinations of genres. I can't for the love of me figure out what makes people think combining steampunk with cyberpunk is a good idea.
"Videogame logic" of the lore that exists for the sake of creating "epic quests". Includes overuse of prophecies, end-of-the-world-enabling gizmos and artifacts.
Anachronisms in mentality. I don't mind anachronisms in the settings itself, in fact I heavily rely on them, but what I don't like is when the mentality of the word's inhabitants does not reflect the logic of the settings.
>>43593705
I've never played GURPS, why do people love/hate it so much?
>>43593661
Cultures are caused by geography and history.
Do you think elves who have set up in fertile jungle with plenty of resources will have the same culture as elves who live in a dark, temperate forest where the canopy blocks out sunlight, food is sparse, and every animal and other sapient species wants them dead?
At the very least they'll stress different aspects of the same religion. The latter is definitely going to venerate deities of the hunt and war, while the former isn't nearly as likely to do those things when they've never had to fight a day in their life.
>>43593212
Strict social stigma against halfbreeds like half-elves and half-orcs. That many of the different types of halfbreed are infertile and would naturally move towards roles in society where infertility might be benificial.
>>43593710
I suppose it also matters where the energy comes from in the first place. Is it a naturally occurring energy or does it have to be coaxed from somewhere else first?
I think in both cases, if you have 'batteries' as constructed devices with some mineral or jewel or crystal or something acting as a sponge, the rest of the device controlling the flow of the energy via the word formulas, which then focus it into an effect.
A sponge to draw it, a device to store it and a word to use it.
>>43593239
>futanari catgirls
>catgirls
>girls
GTFO with your sick shit, futanari half-fae catboys are infinitely superior.
>>43593252
>>43593239
yes
>>43593909
Ehhh, not that mixed up. More like the multiverse is a series of different fantasy words encapsulated and there are avenues where they overlap.
>>43593847
Why do you have to anthropomorphize everything anon?
That's ridiculous.
>>43593986
that's what it is
it looks retarded/stupid, but it is actually pretty good
>>43594205
oh, ok. Any pdfs of this lying around?
>>43593761
People love it because they played it, and it's a solid system with cool mechanics.
People hate it because they've had a terrible GM or didn't bother actually learning.
People on /tg/ hate it because they saw people dissing GURPS on /tg/ because somebody once posted a funny meme about maths.
>>43593761
On one hand, GURPS is diverse, is designed to be applicable to any concept, setting or style of game, and has soem great splatbooks.
Some people dislike it because they think it lacks flavour or it's jack of all trades approach menas that for virtually any style of game, there's another game out there better suited to it.
Also, some people obnoxiously suggest GURPS as the answer to every "what system should I use for this" question, which obviously gets annoying.
>>43593212
Everything I put into my setting
>>43593235
Everything I wanted to put into my rules.
>>43594497
>much smug, wow
Whats in it?
>>43593212
>barbarians
Not this chill, lovable sidekick type. I mean big, mean, subsistence living, naked, hairy ass berserker motherfuckers that spot you a mile away and come thundering up cock flopping and axe raised to smite your party from the earth.
Noble Dark, low to medium fantasy with some Diesel / Whale Punk elements.
>>43594310
It's to RPG's what Munchkin is to board games.
Perfection.
>>43594532
Everything that makes my narrative dick happy.
>Wild west lands with robots and kobolds
>Pirate infested carribean islands
>Huge bland fantasy land with dull English accents.
>Africaans inspired wastelands being devoured the unraveling world.
>Italian Renaissance/Industrial revolution area lousy with politics, architecture, cooking and backstabbing.
Rules wise
>Rules for non-combat stuff that doesn't just gloss over it in favor of combat.
>Rules for cooking AND eating
>Crunchy strategic combat.
>Mage/Martial balance
>Customizable spells
>Comfy camp mechanics
Now if only I would stop dicking around on /tg/ and finish it.
>>43594670
Yooo, cooking rules! I love cooking rules! Now implementing them, I'm lost on.
When taking a setting, I generally have a single concept which I build around. A complex cosmology and magic system, or replacing a pantheon of gods with millions of invisible demons or cyberpunk-style megacorps turned into fantasy city-states with adventurers as the hackers and runners and stuff. Take one cool idea as a base and build on it.
>>43594748
>Now implementing them, I'm lost on.
Just give them a purpose. In my game I made healing scarce and recovery slow. There's a few things you can do to boost these, but cooking is the fastest and most versatile way. While the other classes are going around slaying monsters and looting dungeons, the chef has to keep an eye out for ingredients. Different ingredients help boost different things.
The better the meal, the better the heal.
>>43594546
Diesel/Whale punk? Just say you want to play a DisHonored campaign.
>>43595023
That too.
Its pretty much my perfect setting. But a Dishonored Campaign implies just in the city / limited focus for gameplay.
I am already building a setting, in fact multiple. But none of them are 'perfect' because each exists in a separate mental space.
If I want a setting that has the feelings of loneliness, isolation, and almost post-apocalyptic usage of technology and scrappy societies, this will inherently have different needs then a setting that is high fantasy.
But what I prefer;
>Interesting cosmologies
>Whacky fucking cultures
>Good magic and magic systems
>Worldbuilding that takes magic/supernatural elements into account
>Settings where the mundane and supernatural mix and one isn't totally overbearing on the other
It's difficult to explain further without just exposition on an existing setting, so I hope that helps.
>>43593365
Soooooo....Wildstar the RPG?
>>43594645
Choke on an arsenic laced cock
No humans
>>43596167
Well, the first half of the post is an extremely accurate comparison.
>>43596080
Remember when everyone was super hype about that? Then it came out and no one gave a fuck about that?
>>43596574
Well I'm playing it now and the bugs that it had before have largely been fixed. It's real problem was it came out at a time when 3-4 other MMOs came out. The market was over saturated and they all did poorly. Pavo leveling is nice, the mechanics IMO are a blast for pve, and housing is an addictive trap.
>inb4 shilling
Time will tell but I personally think out of the MMOs on the market it has the best chance to grow.
>>43593212
>Making a Setting is hard
its not, just put inside the things you like and that won't look misplaced togheter. the rest comes up naturally
>>43593212
I dislike Hobbits, Dwarves and Multiverses.
>>43595492
Check out the Gebusi of Papua New Guinea bro.
Ritualized Homosexuality for the Win!
>>43593212
>>43594015
Because it's roleplay, that's kind of what you do, isn't it?
Or do you prefer any non-human races as basically shallow caricatures and sex-slaves to the mighty human dick?
>>43593212
>Have long list of things I want in setting
>From elements to themes to trope aversions to pet peeves
>Finally find setting that nails EVERYTHING
>It goes above and beyond
>It's obscure as fuck
>It's out of print
>The creator is on his way out
>Going to the grave with him
>No chance of media revival for the setting
>Think it's even more spot fucking on than when it was made
>Nobody cares about it anymore
fuck fuck fuck
>>43601470
What is it.
>>43594877
Cookmancer who heals and buff?
>>43601470
Well, you've got my curiosity peaked.
>>43601504
>>43602396
Old comic from '80's-90's, following fizzled out from few copies printed and author losing interest. It did have 3 RPGs w/ 7 books in 15 years though, burned pretty bright while alive.
Cropped up on 4chan, caught my interest. Written by Nam/Coldwar Vet in the late 70s inspired by vietnam and the coldwar. Described as Tom Clancy inspired by Watershipdown for hard science space opera stealing themes from Asimov and Clark about an artificial race. The focus is military and civil service members as the populace they protect turns against them, their government starts to eat itself, economic sector starts trying to usurp government, foreign powers shift to sociopolitical warfare to undermine what they can't take on conventionally, political martyrs & rebels, corruption at all stages of government makes moves to divide the pie among themselves while fucking over the civilians and soldiers below, a hidden HAL9000 informorph left by the creators tasked with silent overwatch kicks into overtime to keep things in check, telepaths come out of the woodwork as part of the grand experiment, new technology causes an abrupt apocalyptic shift in conventional warfare tactics and M.A.D., ... fuckton of stuff going on more than I can remember with the overall theme of God isn't watching or doesn't care.
I don't have thousands of dollars to buy the comics, nor are there complete scans of the comics. But he accurately wrote about distributed cloud storage/computing, the pitfalls of near-paperless society, advanced composites and optical computing, realistic space warfare, xenoarcheology, etc. One issue he uses "ethnocentric" in the appropriate context and the next writes a parallel of the current War on Terror penned out in the late 70's.
>>43602396
Basically it nailed everything nobody actually gives a fuck about, but is really damned interesting. But people like hack'n'loot over DEFCON everyone loses. Been waiting years for this to be 'rediscovered' though.
>>43602487
Actually, give it a few years and we might have complete scans for a revival. That's where I found it was people trying to finish the scans. But the only people that seem interested though are leftovers of the fandom, die hard science fiction fanatics, and military nuts.
>>43593402
maybe it's just magic, m8
>>43593212
Something simple on the surface with a lot of layers that the players could explore or ignore at their leisure. The BBEG would not monologue too much but may gloat while his minions fight the PCs and even share some back story when they start losing due to frustration. The BBEG himself would be more of an evil genius caster of some type who serves some form of higher entity of great evil and power. The party could explore the world while stopping all his evil plans.
Lots of side quests and PC related NPCs scattered about. There is every type of enemy and region throughout the world so rangers could pick anything and be viable. There would be multiple ways to complete tasks to ensure most party comps are successful. All races have their own civilization can be found somewhere in the world if the party looks for long enough (Even the rare ones like goliath and dragonborn and tiefling.)
And most importantly, all PCs get along well enough not to cause a game to end without a conclusion. Small squabbles are fine but I have seen PCs bicker harshly over nothing and cause sessions to end early and then people quit and the game falls apart. Also no "That Guys". Seems perfect to me.
>>43597137
I'd hire him.
Maybe that's why I haven't been promoted in almost two years.
I tried to create a setting once. Too annoying. I'm just going to have a basic outline for the stories and elements of them and see where it goes.
There's going to be an empire that's part britain-part rome with humans, dwarves and giants. Then at some other point is a mongol/native-american/chinese esqu continent that is united by a Conan rip off.
I'll think of other stuff too.
>>43593212
The World.
>>43593212
You
>>43602723
Pictures like these make me wish I had a group that was actually on the same page for once.
>>43602570
Aw man Albedo was awesome back in the day. I didn't know any of it had been scanned. Hook me up?
>>43604447 cntd
I stopped playing/reading when my family moved to DC my school had all these bomb shelters near it and I realized the whole thing about global annihilation was a real life thing and not a sci fi thing. too scary for light entertainment.
>>43593212
>>43593212
I'm making a 1960-1980's mafia game set in NY and using the five families as a backdrop. I know this sounds al ittle cliche but my group members and I are not from the U.S so this stuff is pretty fresh and interesting for us.
Has anyone tried anything similar in a real day setting? I'm thinking of using the apocalypse world engine (for the first time).
It should be fun; a whole lot of car chases, gambling, boxing matches, bar and bookie brawls, alley way gun battles, and even a bit of political sabotage if they play their cards right.
Would this constitute as an interesting setting for players?
>>43604520
What sort of role are you looking to start the characters in? Setting wise it sounds neat. but personally i care more for the actual 'meat' of the campaign. do you have an initial plot hook for the players?
>>43604547
i was looking to start them off as a small time crew being used by one of the families to try and turn a profit during the race riots. I was thinking that the first arc would involve them being scouted by the Luchese family and trying to establish themselves in the area and look into an intrigue of what the mob plans to do with the ensuing tragedy. Once again if they manage to play it fast and loud and put themselves in the center of things i was thinking of possibly giving them the option to assassinate Malcom X or something like that.
I know alternate history is a very slippery slope but I think it would cool.
>>43604696
I've already scoured some pics to use and so far i'm happy with the setting itself, just need to pen out the proper story.
What is going to drive the players besides greed?
What is the endgame?
How can i tempt them to possibly join the police?
How do i keep it interesting?
These are the questions i'm trying to answer at the moment
>>43604705
I was thinking of making the difficulty pretty punishing too. There aren't any first time players so i was really going to throw them to the wolves on this one.
The only other thing i'm worried about is my New York accents are limited at best.
