Thumbs up to Federation and Empire. I'd also like something for Systems and Planets that sketches how governance influences which systems fall under which governance. For example, I think of Imperial Systems generally expanding under roughly habitable systems, with limited life-support needs or resource devotion (Foundation, Star Wars. Dune, etc.) - The Empire seeks (relatively) low-hanging fruit.
I see Federated systems being more akin to venture firms, seeking to possess high risk environnments on the hope that one will hit big - so, spacesuits, life support, colonization, conquest.
Excellent idea! I think part of D&D’s whopping success is that it’s stayed pretty setting neutral over the years. I also think a highly detailed setting, whilst fun and interesting, ultimately harms a game’s ultimate playability and ability to draw in neophytes (Traveller, Glorantha, Tekumel, to name a few). The idea of creating a governing game system, and then presenting say four or five potential settings is awesome. One of the drawbacks of complete setting neutrality is the ability to create marketable “adventures” that hopefully can somehow be adjusted to fit into any of an infinite number of GM created homebrew type settings. If you were to present several possible settings, even skeletons of settings, supplements/adventures could be marketed with one or another of them in mind.
I don't know. I played D&D for several years before realizing that B/X and AD&D were not compatible systems. If the module said Greyhawk or Mystara or Shadowrun or whatever, I literally never noticed until even later in my time. We always played in whatever vague world or country that was suggested to us, but it was way more important to know if it was in mountains, underground, or in the woods. Dragonlance made us play basically as NPCs in Krynn (which I hated), but the settings of nearly every other place basically magically fit into the DM's homebrew countries.
So for me, I think you could have very specific settings and good refs will make it work.
Thumbs up to Federation and Empire. I'd also like something for Systems and Planets that sketches how governance influences which systems fall under which governance. For example, I think of Imperial Systems generally expanding under roughly habitable systems, with limited life-support needs or resource devotion (Foundation, Star Wars. Dune, etc.) - The Empire seeks (relatively) low-hanging fruit.
ReplyDeleteI see Federated systems being more akin to venture firms, seeking to possess high risk environnments on the hope that one will hit big - so, spacesuits, life support, colonization, conquest.
Excellent idea! I think part of D&D’s whopping success is that it’s stayed pretty setting neutral over the years. I also think a highly detailed setting, whilst fun and interesting, ultimately harms a game’s ultimate playability and ability to draw in neophytes (Traveller, Glorantha, Tekumel, to name a few).
ReplyDeleteThe idea of creating a governing game system, and then presenting say four or five potential settings is awesome.
One of the drawbacks of complete setting neutrality is the ability to create marketable “adventures” that hopefully can somehow be adjusted to fit into any of an infinite number of GM created homebrew type settings.
If you were to present several possible settings, even skeletons of settings, supplements/adventures could be marketed with one or another of them in mind.
I don't know. I played D&D for several years before realizing that B/X and AD&D were not compatible systems. If the module said Greyhawk or Mystara or Shadowrun or whatever, I literally never noticed until even later in my time. We always played in whatever vague world or country that was suggested to us, but it was way more important to know if it was in mountains, underground, or in the woods. Dragonlance made us play basically as NPCs in Krynn (which I hated), but the settings of nearly every other place basically magically fit into the DM's homebrew countries.
DeleteSo for me, I think you could have very specific settings and good refs will make it work.