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How to make campaign settings less... Tolkien?

Started by BoxCrayonTales, April 09, 2018, 01:38:27 PM

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AsenRG

#105
May 16, 2018, 06:25:56 AM
Quote from: RPGPundit;1039098No, all that stuff is stupid. It's a classic case of mistaking the trappings for the essence.

Yes, indeed:).

As an example, you could have lama-riding PoC PCs use macuahuitls to fight the armies of the invading Empire of Enthropy which wants to stop the sacrifices without which the sun wouldn't rise again, and to this goal, you'd destroy The One Totem without which its emperor couldn't win, despite the temptation of using it themselves.
But you'd still have a LotR knock-off, just with South American trappings:D!
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rawma

#106
May 20, 2018, 01:58:27 PM
Campaign settings are too Tolkien because most people are lazy: players don't want something different than what' they've seen before, it's easier for referees to get a group together for the familiar than the different, and designers tend to follow the well worn paths. It's easy to know how to make a campaign setting less Tolkien, but harder work to stick it out.

One way of making a campaign setting less Tolkien without ditching the non-human fantasy races would be to make it more Tolkien-authentic; the elves, dwarfs and hobbits in Tolkien are very different from the ones in RPGs.

DavetheLost

#107
May 20, 2018, 02:26:45 PM
Quote from: AsenRG;1039374Yes, indeed:).

As an example, you could have lama-riding PoC PCs use macuahuitls to fight the armies of the invading Empire of Enthropy which wants to stop the sacrifices without which the sun wouldn't rise again, and to this goal, you'd destroy The One Totem without which its emperor couldn't win, despite the temptation of using it themselves.
But you'd still have a LotR knock-off, just with South American trappings:D!

Sounds a bit like Prax!  RuneQuest replaced horses with all sorts of alternatives. And didn't end up feeling like Tolkien.
Empire of the Petal Throne pretty much did away with riding animals altogether. Along with elves, dwarfs, orcs ...

RPGPundit

#108
May 22, 2018, 03:00:10 AM
Reminds me of Talisanta. "No elves" was their pitch but they're full of elf-analogues.
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Mike the Mage

#109
May 22, 2018, 03:12:20 AM
Cymrillians?
When change threatens to rule, then the rules are changed

Bradford C. Walker

#110
May 23, 2018, 05:10:42 AM
Make the game Man-only to start.

Make access to Dwarves, Elves, and Hobbits rewards for successful campaign play. That's right, they have to take their Fighter and successfully level that son-of-a-bitch to 9th level, ensure a good Charisma score, and then succeed in either taking a sizable population by force (so future PCs are subjects to their Mannish conquerors) or brokering an alliance (so future PCs are allied peoples)- and to maintain access the players must also maintain the conditions that allow that option.

You can do this for classes, powers, everything that can be selected as an option for a character.
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