I've got to say SkyRealms of Jorune. There was just something about that setting, an alien world teaming with bizarre life. Racial conflict between the various strands of humanity. The beginning goal of citizenship and the ensuing moral quandries. The SkyRealms. And most importantly the art and the writing.

I loved the fact, that evil was not a clear cut concept. I loved the ecological undertones of the setting. The enigmatic Shantha and their strange technology. The magic that was part of the fabric of the world.

A world were everything had meaning. Leave your world behind - indeed.

This world more than any other setting has set a blueprint for all my homebrew settings. It made me realize that tone and atmosphere were damn important when creating/running games.

My gaming would be a lot less magical, if I had not discovered Jorune.

What about you folks?

Regards,
David R

The book that has had the most influence on my desire to world-build was my textbook for Physical Geography 101.

Great information about landforms, how they fit together, climate and vegitation models, drainage basins, mountains and contentents and how they form, erosion, tides and currents... I had great fun. In my mind it was a "designing D&D worlds" class.

This is tough to answer. Some who are familiar with me might assume Lord of the Rings would be the obvious answer. But it's not. When it comes right down to it, I'd have to say that the setting that inspired me the most profoundly was Greyhawk. It was the first fantasy RPG setting I was familiar with, having bought the old folio version of it in 1980. Settings that have come since may be more creative, but none have evoked an aura of fantastic verisimilitude like Greyhawk.

For scifi RPGs, the classic Traveller setting of the Imperium was what inspired me the most. Huge, sprawling, and unafraid to show that most planets would be hostile to human life, the Imperium still strikes me as the model for a scifi setting. It can accomodate just about any play style, from swashbuckling planet-hopping to nuts & bolts scifi set on one planet.

I'll second the nod to the geo text. As far as fantasy settings go; in years past the major influence was Lieber's Lankmhar (sp?). The seting I'm working on now is influenced by Howard's Hyborea, Europe during the Rennasance, and prehistoric societies.

Quote from: AosI'll second the nod to the geo text.

It's not really within the parameters of the thread, so maybe I'll start another one dealing with such stuff specifically...

It's hard to narrow it down to just one. I was, tremendously influenced by Tolkien, but also by Frank Herbert. I also read much history and social science and theology. Lately, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about resources and economics, so Guns, Germs, and Steel may be the biggest influence on my world building nowadays.

Two settings that've been inspirational are Tekumel, the setting for the Empire of the Petal Throne, and the Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

The former is meticulously detailed, and is far afield from the pseudo-medieval-Europe paradigm. It seems more like a combination of Aztec and eastern Indian civilizations, set on an alien planet with hostile lifeforms. It may not be to everyone's taste - there is a lot of sex and violence, especially in the dark religions of the setting, there are no horses or any other relatively swift transportation methods, metal is rare, etc. - but it's a fully-realized setting with a lot to offer. I don't think I'd want to run a long campaign in it, but the sheer inventiveness of it is inspiration to try to make my own setting unique.

The latter is a campaign setting in the classic mode. The Wilderlands is a setting that probably resembles a lot of home brews from the 70s and early 80s. Pretty much everything, including the kitchen sink, is in this setting. It's odd, inconsistent, and quintessentially old-school-D&D in flavor. It's the setting of the City State of the Invincible Overlord, which is the quintessential old-school-D&D city, what with its troll bartenders and zombies as wandering monsters. The reason the Wilderlands is inspiring is the utter "wahoo" nature of it all - the setting is designed more for fun than as an exercise in logical and consistent world-building.

The two FRPG settings that have influenced me the most are:

1. The Court of Ardor by Terry Amthor.  Although technically part of ICE's old 'Middle-earth' line of campaign modules, this setting does not really fit into Middle-earth well.  It is, however, a truly inspired setting in its own right.  It is set in an unusual location (a southern jungle region), has interesting cultures (the evil remnants of a Numenorean colony, a culturally sophisticated African-flavoured republic, and a kingdom of transplanted Nordic hedonists), and a really cool evil organisation (a cabal of powerful elves who communicate via Amber-like tarot cards, and who plot the destruction of the sun).  

It provides enough information to get one's imagination going, but is open enough to let a GM put his/her own mark on the setting.  It has an implicit 'epic quest' that can be used or ignored by the GM.  Especially noteworthy: it includes an absolutely gorgeous colour map by Peter Fenlon (and three nice colour city maps).  This slim campaign setting (only 64 pages, although often with super-small font; it would probably be around 120 pages using 'eye-friendly' font) has inspired me since I purchased it in 1982.  (While I greatly admire Amthor's later 'Shadow World' setting for ICE, it never inspired me quite as much as his Ardor.)  

2. The Known World (a.k.a. 'Mystara', although I like the products produced before the name 'Mystara' was added best).  From the 'Grand Duchy of Karameikos' in the Cook Expert set (the version with the Erol Otus cover, published in 1981) and the brief overview of the world in X1 ('Isle of Dread'), to the epic series found in the modules X4 and X5, to the original set of Gazetteers (especially Gaz1 and Gaz3), this paradigmatic 'D&D world' has inspired me whenever I want to come up with a 'classic' setting of my own.  (It's a pity that TSR ruined the setting by advancing a ludicrous meta-plot.  But I wasn't gaming much when that tragedy occured, so the psychological damage is not that bad.)

The fictional worlds that inspired me the most are:

1. Middle-earth
2. Lyonnesse (the trilogy by Jack Vance)
3. Hyboria

Probably the Traveller imperium, because it most required me to build worlds. Mearls river of world concept for similar reasons.

Quote from: Akrasia2. The Known World (a.k.a. 'Mystara', although I like the products produced before the name 'Mystara' was added best).  From the 'Grand Duchy of Karameikos' in the Cook Expert set (the version with the Erol Otus cover, published in 1981) and the brief overview of the world in X1 ('Isle of Dread'), to the epic series found in the modules X4 and X5, to the original set of Gazetteers (especially Gaz1 and Gaz3), this paradigmatic 'D&D world' has inspired me whenever I want to come up with a 'classic' setting of my own.  (It's a pity that TSR ruined the setting by advancing a ludicrous meta-plot.  But I wasn't gaming much when that tragedy occured, so the psychological damage is not that bad.)

Exactly. The Known World still evokes some powerful memories. I have all the Gazetteers. It is still the best trad fantasy setting for me. Only Titan the setting for the Fighting Fantasy series of game books, comes close to making me want to run a very traditional fantasy campaign.

Regards,
David R

Slaine (2000AD), Ash: A Secret History - I like the idea of a effectively non-magical world, but with wonderous artifacts in it. I really dislike how D&D magic makes so many things simple, and it's formula approach to magic. I'm currently working on may campaign setting where magic is not in the hands of the PC's except via items which the GM can control when they get. Arcane like magic is going to only be available through pacts with demons (hence effectively restricted to NPCs), Divine magic not available at all.

@ColonelHardisson

One of my groups was looking at Tekumel for our next campaign this fall. I'm not crazy about the rules but from the bits of the setting I read I really find it intreging. I think I would really like playing in it as it is markedly alien to me, but still seems to remain immediate.  I think it currently has been delagated to 2nd choice by vote, but maybe some day I'll get to try it out. Glad to hear an experienced take on the setting is similar to my first, limited impression.

@ Bagpuss.

You could still handle a divine magic type system that remains a bit less formumatic. Basically get back to just good old prayer with the god answering in some benificial or beligerante way. Perhaps influenced by the actual wording of the prayer, but with the originality of the wording from prayer to prayer potentially playing into it as well. Afterall even G-d must get bored hearing the same thing over and over and over after awhile.

Even arcane can be a little less formumatic without going to artifacts. Sort of similar to a prayer but with a different source for the magic.

I've enjoyed playing in alot of the DnD settings, but the one that made me most want to try out designing my own is Birthright. It's still my favorite commercial campaign setting, and I've been away from here lately working on adapting it to the True20 system (I think I have the arcane/divine magics nailed down finally).

There's no one setting I can name as a direct, major influence.

Official settings like Greyhawk, the Best Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance or Eberron all have a number of flaws thatall made them uninteresting to me, incuding uninterested in reproducing salient, recognizable traits in an otherwise different setting.

Literary settings... the closest is probably the Moorcockin Multiverse and the Young Kingdoms (I've had worlds where communication with Melniboné had happened, even though it was nowhere on the maps).  Vance's Dying Earth and other Fantasy like worlds (not Lyonesse, that came too late) probably has been influential too. Tolkien was probably influential in a minor way, but none of my sttings had such detailed ancient history as did his, nor the looming shadows of ultra powerful quasi divine forces of evil, nor did I ever have immortal elves.
For Cyberpunk games, of course William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Walter Jon Williams were major influences.

Concerning Tékumel : I love that place, I've read some of Barker's fiction and looking forward to getting more.. but as for RPG applications, that's a big no. the RPG sets I've seen for it are definitely completely insufficient to make up a proper RPG experience of the world... and to make a world anything like that detailed would take years of grueling work.

Quote from: blakkieYou could still handle a divine magic type system that remains a bit less formumatic. Basically get back to just good old prayer with the god answering in some benificial or beligerante way.

Ah well in my campaign world the Gods have buggered off and taken magic (arcane and divine) with them because their creations screwed up the world they built for them. The only magical things that remain are powerful items that managed to maintain a spark of magic within them, innately magical creatures (magical beasts, abberations, etc.), and demons. By making pacts with demons, NPC sorcerers and the like can gain access to magic, but usually at the cost of their soul.

I'm using Iron Heroes as the rules system, but that setting gives me a good excuse to be able to adapt existing D&D adventures & monsters without a huge amount of work.