What's the Worst RPG or Setting That's Actually Popular?

Dumarest · June 07, 2017, 12:13:12 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;966861There's a reason my current Wild West campaign started in 1875 and will likely finish around 1883.

The PCs are currently in late 1878, and they're already realizing that Dodge has hit its peak and is starting its transition into being Not The West Anymore.

Yeah, personally I would not have set a Wild West game in Dodge City. Too far east and too settled for my taste.

hedgehobbit · June 07, 2017, 01:10:13 PM

Quote from: AsenRG;966865And now Pundit, of all people, expressed how I feel about lots of commercially successful settings:D!

That makes sense. Successful settings are likely to be Thempark style settings that combine different time periods and regions together to support the widest variety of character types and adventures possible, thus appealing to the widest audience possible.

Strict historical settings are less appealing to play in because nothing of significance, and nothing surprising, can ever happen. It's like playing in Star Wars where your PCs sit on the sidelines watching Luke save the galaxy.

Nexus · June 07, 2017, 01:34:21 PM

cue Black Vulmea in 3..2...1...

AsenRG · June 07, 2017, 07:25:01 PM

Quote from: hedgehobbit;966921That makes sense. Successful settings are likely to be Thempark style settings that combine different time periods and regions together to support the widest variety of character types and adventures possible, thus appealing to the widest audience possible.

Strict historical settings are less appealing to play in because nothing of significance, and nothing surprising, can ever happen. It's like playing in Star Wars where your PCs sit on the sidelines watching Luke save the galaxy.

The first part is true.
The second part is BS. But the perception that it's true is the actual reason why strict historical settings aren't as popular as they ought to be!

DavetheLost · June 07, 2017, 09:13:32 PM

Quote from: hedgehobbit;966921Strict historical settings are less appealing to play in because nothing of significance, and nothing surprising, can ever happen. It's like playing in Star Wars where your PCs sit on the sidelines watching Luke save the galaxy.

Many fantasy settings fall into this as well. Hyperborea, Middle Earth, the Young Kingdoms, Barsoom, the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Krynn, all have their histories already mapped out. What is the point of a Stormbringer campiagn when you know Elric is going to sound the Horn of Fate and destroy the world anyway?

There is absolutely no reason that a strictly historical campaign has to remain strictly historical once play begins. In any game as soon as the PCs take action they begin to change the world. Maybe in a significant way, maybe not, but begin to change the world they do.

3rik · June 09, 2017, 04:10:11 PM

Quote from: Omega;966850
Quote from: 3rik;966466The notion that the invention and proliferation of barbed wire was what truly tamed the Wild West IMHO makes sense as well.

ooh barbed wire! Mean stuff. One of my brothers accidentally ran full tilt into some concealed by tall grass and ow! that wasnt fun!

I didn't make it up, nor was I joking:

QuoteBarbed wire is often cited by historians as the invention that truly tamed the West. Herding large numbers of cattle on open terrain required significant manpower just to catch strays, but with an inexpensive method to divide, sub-divide and allocate parcels of land to control the movement of cattle, the need for a vast labor force became unnecessary. By the beginning of the 20th century the need for significant numbers of cowboys was not necessary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbed_wire#In_the_American_West

crkrueger · June 09, 2017, 09:12:36 PM

Yeah, the Winchester '73 might be the Gun That Won the West, but Barbed Wire is the invention that killed the Wild West, even more so than the railroad and telegraph. Literally strangled it to death.

But any setting with a "future history" whether Middle-Earth or Dodge City, becomes alt-history the second PCs hit the ground, like Clash said. Or put it this way, they should.

3rik · June 09, 2017, 09:41:48 PM

The era from, say, the California Gold Rush upto and including the Civil War also feels quite western-y to me. Is that really not considered part of The Wild West?

Omega · June 09, 2017, 10:43:48 PM

Quote from: 3rik;967405I didn't make it up, nor was I joking:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbed_wire#In_the_American_West

What the hell made you think I was insinuating you were making it up?

AaronBrown99 · June 10, 2017, 12:12:08 AM

Quote from: 3rik;967452The era from, say, the California Gold Rush upto and including the Civil War also feels quite western-y to me. Is that really not considered part of The Wild West?

I think that period was the "Gold Rush", of course they may overlap.

crkrueger · June 10, 2017, 04:02:50 AM

I usually just say back half of the century, so 1850-1900, which would include the Gold Rush and Civil War, but technically the span is much narrower, like 1865 to 1890.

jeff37923 · June 10, 2017, 09:53:00 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;967480I usually just say back half of the century, so 1850-1900, which would include the Gold Rush and Civil War, but technically the span is much narrower, like 1865 to 1890.

I think that it is significant to note that the Wild West Era did only last for about 25 years, but a tremendous amount of United States national identity comes from that 25 year period.

3rik · June 10, 2017, 06:04:56 PM

Quote from: Omega;967459What the hell made you think I was insinuating you were making it up?

Language barrier? I wasn't sure you were taking it entirely seriously, is all.

Dumarest · June 10, 2017, 11:15:32 PM

Quote from: jeff37923;967526I think that it is significant to note that the Wild West Era did only last for about 25 years, but a tremendous amount of United States national identity comes from that 25 year period.

I'm not sure the Wild West era is over yet. Have you seen the craziness on our freeways?

crkrueger · June 11, 2017, 12:29:34 AM

Quote from: Dumarest;967645I'm not sure the Wild West era is over yet. Have you seen the craziness on our freeways?

Heh, there certainly is some of that still floating around, especially some of the "take the law into your own hands" approach of the Vigilance Committees, and groups like the El Monte Boys. You see that "Wild West Spirit" in a lot of rural California, not to mention Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, etc.