The original Blackmoor setting had at least two artifacts of science origin, the crashed starship ala "city of the gods", which is where the clone spell was introduced to d&d from, and the "egg of coot", some sort of renegade AI of unknown origins out to control or destroy everything. When Blackmoor and Greyhawk were combined to form d&d, both locations made it into the setting, and have remained in the editions at least up to 3rd edition.

Quote from: nijineko;856977The original Blackmoor setting had at least two artifacts of science origin, the crashed starship ala "city of the gods", which is where the clone spell was introduced to d&d from, and the "egg of coot", some sort of renegade AI of unknown origins out to control or destroy everything. When Blackmoor and Greyhawk were combined to form d&d, both locations made it into the setting, and have remained in the editions at least up to 3rd edition.

But they were not actually in the "original boxed set", except for a mention of the fearsome "Egg of Coot" in the Foreword.

Quote from: Omega;856385You can also do the reverse. Go from the fantastical to a more grounded and mundane setting. Or near featureless plains, empty worlds, and other things that make back home look great by comparison.

Well, I guess; but that sounds quite a bit more boring, doesn't it?

Quote from: RPGPundit;857814Well, I guess; but that sounds quite a bit more boring, doesn't it?

Depends on how its played. Going from Greyhawk to Battersea England. The fantastical to the mundane. But to the PCs its all strange and your powers may be diminished.

Or can be used to set up feelings of dread or unease.

Or can set up the big reveal that this desolate landscape is the future.

TORG is pretty much all about multi-dimensional coming to Earth and how it impacts the PCs. It can be a bit of a shock tansiting from the Living Land to the Nippon Tech zones or even going to the home cosms. And it can be played the other way, going from those cosms to mundane earth.

Quote from: Omega;857829Depends on how its played. Going from Greyhawk to Battersea England. The fantastical to the mundane. But to the PCs its all strange and your powers may be diminished.

I don't really see the awesome here.  Yeah, sure, it's all strange to the PCs, but it's still just as routine and mundane (in every sense of the word) to the players.

(Note that I'm not saying an RPG in the mundane world can't be awesome.  It absolutely can.  I just have doubts about the idea that, after starting out in an awesome fantasy game, you can then make it even better by taking away the fantasy elements.)

Quote from: Omega;857829Or can be used to set up feelings of dread or unease.

I can see this one, although I'd expect it to be more on the level of "OMG!  My character just got hit with the nerf bat!  How will he cope without his full abilities?" rather than focusing on things being strange and different.

Quote from: Omega;857829TORG is pretty much all about multi-dimensional coming to Earth and how it impacts the PCs. It can be a bit of a shock tansiting from the Living Land to the Nippon Tech zones or even going to the home cosms. And it can be played the other way, going from those cosms to mundane earth.

Definitely a shock for the characters, sure, but, in my (admittedly somewhat limited) experience with Torg, I can't recall the changes from one cosm to the next ever having a significant impact on the players.

Quote from: nDervish;857864I don't really see the awesome here.  Yeah, sure, it's all strange to the PCs, but it's still just as routine and mundane (in every sense of the word) to the players.

Dragon 100. The City Beyond the Gate does exactly that. The PCs end up gated to the major island in the Boating Lake of Battersea Park, London. With "luck" much mayhem ensues as they explore London.

Quote from: Omega;857829Depends on how its played. Going from Greyhawk to Battersea England. The fantastical to the mundane.

Have you been to Battersea recently? These days like most of London it has more of a Mos Eisley Cantina vibe. Battersea ca 1985 in City Beyond the Gate (or 1995 - it was the post-97 immigration policy changed London), yes.

Quote from: rawma;857066But they were not actually in the "original boxed set", except for a mention of the fearsome "Egg of Coot" in the Foreword.

The original boxed set consisted of three booklets, so no, technically you are correct in that it was not included in the box. the second supplement booklet was the Blackmoor setting material. my boxed set has all seven books in it, but that's probably because my dad stored them in the box as he acquired them. ^^

Judges Guild published a trilogy of 'Portals' scenarios by Rudy Kraft:

Portals of Torsh - a world in which lizard men have the human role and iron is scarce (but guess what the portals are made of ...)

Portals of Irontooth - an iron-rich world, focusing on a region with special iron-fanged creatures

Portals of Twilight - Halfworld, one face always day, another ever night, a twilight realm between

Quote from: nijineko;857964The original boxed set consisted of three booklets, so no, technically you are correct in that it was not included in the box.

It's more than that; there was no intrinsic setting in the 70s, not in OD&D or even AD&D, except everything and the kitchen sink that the books implied (even beyond the fair use line). (Also, the adventure in Blackmoor didn't have a crashed spaceship, although it did have science fiction elements.) Settings for all campaigns to share were really a later development.

Quote from: rawma;858269(Also, the adventure in Blackmoor didn't have a crashed spaceship, although it did have science fiction elements.) Settings for all campaigns to share were really a later development.

No crashed ship. But definitely aliens with advanced tech.

QuoteStephen the Rock. Is not from the world of Blackmoor at all, but rather is an intelligent humanoid from another world or dimension.

QuoteThe High Priest (Rock) must report to a hovering satellite station

QuoteCommunications Module: An interstellar radio with entertainment and instructional modules

Quote from: rawma;858269It's more than that; there was no intrinsic setting in the 70s, not in OD&D or even AD&D, except everything and the kitchen sink that the books implied (even beyond the fair use line). (Also, the adventure in Blackmoor didn't have a crashed spaceship, although it did have science fiction elements.) Settings for all campaigns to share were really a later development.

That is not quite correct. Arneson's campaign was quite distinct in both setting and content, and had been running for many years before he meet Gygax and they both contributed places and people to the shared setting. "The city of the gods" adventure was where the crashed spaceship was revealed in Blackmoor. A lot of early elements were only had by actually meeting and gaming with them in person, and were only later published into some form or another.

In any case,I didn't reread my od&d booklets before posting so if I'm miss-remembering details, I apologize. I have a lot of old stuff and it gets jumbled in my head sometimes.

Quote from: nijineko;858314That is not quite correct. Arneson's campaign was quite distinct in both setting and content, and had been running for many years before he meet Gygax and they both contributed places and people to the shared setting. "The city of the gods" adventure was where the crashed spaceship was revealed in Blackmoor. A lot of early elements were only had by actually meeting and gaming with them in person, and were only later published into some form or another.

They're not in the original boxed set if they weren't even published until well into the 80s or later. It's a huge misrepresentation of 70s D&D to suggest that there was a common setting with crashed spaceships and multiple parallel worlds; even things actually in the rules didn't exist in every campaign. Shared settings were a later thing.

Quote from: rawma;858727They're not in the original boxed set if they weren't even published until well into the 80s or later. It's a huge misrepresentation of 70s D&D to suggest that there was a common setting with crashed spaceships and multiple parallel worlds; even things actually in the rules didn't exist in every campaign. Shared settings were a later thing.

I might be more productive if the two of you agreed on whether you were restricting your discussion to published D&D material as rawma is doing or including unpublished material like the house campaigns of Gygax or Arneson as nijenko seems to be doing.

Shared settings certainly existed from the beginning and OD&D included Martians (or Barsoomians to be technically correct). However, published shared settings were definitely a later thing.

Arneson's The First Fantasy Campaign was published in 1977 by The Judges Guild.