Bizzare and Surreal Settings
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How does yall at /tg/ feel about settings that are very surreal in nature and present an alien world for your PCs?
>>43735991
I'm all about that shit. My ideal setting is a mix of Lovecraft's Dreamworld and Lieber's Lankhmar, with the weirdness cranked all the way up.
I also made a random generator for surreal location descriptions. Check 'em:
>liminal vault below slumbering jungle
>phosphorescent cenotaph amid sacred crags
>resplendent tomb beneath petrified crags
>prismatic shrine hidden within sulphurous mountains
>burned hall hidden within verdant sea
>burned cenotaph beside verdant crags
>illusory hall beyond flowering coast
>stone prison within benighted coast
>prismatic spire beside ancient wasteland
>>43735991
>How does yall at /tg/ feel about settings that are very surreal in nature and present an alien world for your PCs?
Enjoyment is the combination of familiarity and novelty.
I would love a surreal and bizarre setting, but the more surreal it was, the more normal I would want my character to be.
I want to be John Crichton lost among the alien setting.
On the flipside, if the setting is near modern day, I want my character to be as special as is reasonably possible: alien, paranormal, magical, Bruce Lee, etc.
I do not want to play a Slice of Life as Average Joe.
I also do not want to play a crystalline hivemind plasma navigating the fleshwrought shoggoth carapaces of the 6th dimensional hierarchy of undulating harmonics.
Why not?
Because I don't want to have to earn a Chemistry degree to understand the social skills.
>>43735991
You gain Brouzouf
>>43735991
One day I would like to develop a system/setting for running something like this. Basically an unholy mix of Dreamlands, SMT Nocturne, The Void and Planescape with players having philosophy/dreamwork based powers.
>>43736243
Why would a normal person be in the setting?
I like lots of "surreal" settings. I think they're best when they operate on their own internal logic, not being random, but simply strange to a "normal" perspective.
>>43735991
>Space Funeral
Awwwyisss, it's too late for you!
>>43736172
>My ideal setting is a mix of Lovecraft's Dreamworld and Lieber's Lankhmar
>>43737296
One day I would like to develop a system/setting for running something like this. Basically an unholy mix of Dreamlands, SMT Nocturne, The Void and Planescape with players having philosophy/dreamwork based powers.
...do you two have roll20 accounts or something I could contact you with for a potential game?
>>43739473
Sorry, no. I just like to brainstorm stuff like this. To be honest, I'm not even sure that a game like that would work, and if it did, it would probably require players of a really specific mindset/background. Dumping some art for inspiration.
do you smoke weed Dracula?
>>43739683
> it would probably require players of a really specific mindset/background
is this thread not composed of such players? But oh well
>>43739781
True, but in order to develop something that can actually be played as a game, and not just devolve into freeform storytelling (although there's nothing wrong with that, albeit it works better with rl people/drugs), there needs to be some playtesting, and it's difficult to pitch something like this to potential players.
>>43739781
Also, the Dreamlands are highly underrated in comparison to Lovecraft's cosmic stuff. I think there is a CoC module for running it, but I'm not sure CoC rules/characters are actually a great fit for such a world.
>>43739109
>Why would a normal person be in the setting?
The mechanism of the normal person being in the setting can vary.
The examples are many.
The important thing is to have a viewpoint character or a character, anchored in normalcy, to help link the player to the foreign setting.
Consider the last example in my post, having a completely foreign setting where the player is playing a character completely immersed in that setting, the player is expected to behave naturally in an unnatural setting.
It's difficult enough to navigate a foreign setting.
It much more difficult to navigate a foreign setting as if you were a native.
It's not impossible by any means, but it is more difficult and not intuitive.
>Okay, so I'm a fifth level purple multifaceted plasma core and the delegate is a mauve cephalopod helix, so I assert topwise and wibble rather than wobble to achieve harmonic dissonance?
>Roll against your chemical interaction on the social reaction chart, remember to use your ph modifier.
>>43739754
How did these thing work again?
Something about them being actually super light and eating from their feet?
>>43740571
No idea desu, I just love Barlowe's art.
