BRP Poll at Chaosium.com

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Dredj

Besides, has Chaosium ever released a horror setting/scenario that doesn't revolve around the Mythos?

They did two Blood Brothers anthologies of non-Mythos adventures.

I suspect also that they might not want to delve too deeply into horror, as they've licensed BRP for Deadworld, and a new horror setting might impact their Call of Cthulhu sales.

[Dredj]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

They did two Blood Brothers anthologies of non-Mythos adventures.

I suspect also that they might not want to delve too deeply into horror, as they've licensed BRP for Deadworld, and a new horror setting might impact their Call of Cthulhu sales.

I didn't think of that

Argh! We have to wait till next year for Deadworld's release. Oh well, I can buy the whole series on disk and get inundated in the Deadworld universe, by then.
DEADWORLD home page

I looooove zombies!

[danbuter]

I'd like a generic "Greyhawk" style fantasy world. Not anything tied to any book series or license.

[Puck]

The answer could be SharedWorld. And/or one of our own GateWorlds (or several of them, linked), if any are posted...

That would be a lot of fun! Not too much discussion going on over there right now though.

[fmitchell]

Originally Posted by danbuter

I'd like a generic "Greyhawk" style fantasy world. Not anything tied to any book series or license.

I'd rather see a fantasy world that got a reasonable distance away from D&D, one with its own character. Glorantha was a little too strange and convoluted, but maybe something with its own distinct flavor ... or maybe a neglected sub-genre, like:

• Sword and sorcery (admittedly already handled by Conan)
  
• Non-european fantasy (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Arabian Nights, Ancient Greek, Indian, African, Central/South American)
  
• Modern or historical fantasy (e.g. Mythago Wood, Neverwhere, the Lord Darcy series, nearly everything by Tim Powers)
  
• Pre-Tolkien fantasy literature (e.g. Oz, Gormengast, the worlds of Lord Dunsany)

I just get tired of pseudo-medieval Europe with elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.

[NickMiddleton]

Originally Posted by fmitchell

I'd rather see a fantasy world that got a reasonable distance away from D&D, one with its own character. Glorantha was a little too strange and convoluted, but maybe something with its own distinct flavor

The mass market is in broad high fantasy still though, and BRP did do that. Glorantha might well have always had more depth than Greyhawk (and these days spends interminable reams of paper lovingly caressing every minutia of how different it is, *yawn*), but originally it's popularity was that it was a fun and different place to kill things and take their stuf, with a system that actually made trying to kill things feel as risky and heroic as it ought...

I think what BRP needs is a new Glorantha, as Glorantha was in 1978 - somewhere with distinctive flavour, but not opaque and unapproachable. Somewhere that someone who has just read Lord of the Rings, or Conan, or Until they are Hanged could get to grips with quickly, but which DOESN'T feel like Greyhawk / Forgotten Realms-lite...

... or maybe a neglected sub-genre, like:
[*]Sword and sorcery (admittedly already handled by Conan)

And BRP used to do well with Elric! / Stormbringer. But to be fair, S&S is at one end of a sliding scale with Forgotten Realms style High Fantasy at the other and AD&D used to adapt reasonably well between them, and BRP still does. I'd favour something more towards the S&S end of the scale, but I think being too dogmatic about it would restrict it's appeal.

[*]Non-european fantasy (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Arabian Nights, Ancient Greek, Indian, African, Central/South American)

I think these are lovely ideas for supplementary settings, and certainly blending more influence from these non-European sources can add flavour - but as exotic settings from Glorantha onwards have discovered, stray too far from the European paradigm and sales (which are to a largely European descended demographic after all...) aren't so good.

[*]Modern or historical fantasy (e.g. Mythago Wood, Neverwhere, the Lord Darcy series, nearly everything by Tim Powers)

This to me is the obvious direction to take a "revival" of Nephilim, or rather, a revival of Chaosium's interest in modern occult / fantasy gaming (as opposed to Horror)... The challenge is in building a setting that isn't blatantly obviously "Neil Gaiman" the RPG without Gaiman's permission, or Buffy / Angel -lite. I think one could do something building on what was in Nephilim, but it would require such a radical re-imagining that it would be a different game in most respects.
[*]Pre-Tolkien fantasy literature (e.g. Oz, Gormengast, the worlds of Lord Dunsany) [/quote]

Err, Peake was a contemporary of Tolkien's and whilst whilst the publication is separated by a decade, they were written at roughly the same time, against the same backdrop of the late 1930's, World War II and it's immediate aftermath. And if anything, I'd say Peake's creation is in many ways far more modern than Tolkien's... but that's a digression.

These sorts of whimsical, "unconventional" fantasy stories would be a very hard sell these days I fear. But it would be great to see one attempted, and as things like Malcolm Craig's a|state have shown, unconventional settings CAN find an audience.

I just get tired of pseudo-medieval Europe with elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.

I wish there more truly European fantasy settings. What I am tired of is D&D clones, worlds built around the same contradictory assumptions as Greyhawk (there is phenomenal magic eventually accessible to PC's and in the setting - but somehow, the world still looks and develops broadly like medieval Europe...). I actually really like Greyhawk, and I don't actually hate early Forgotten Realms - but we've done these, and don't need yet more copies. Something a bit different, but still accessible would nice...

Since Monte Cook's largely out of RPG design, do you think he'd license the Lands of the Diamond Throne for a BRP conversion? That's a setting that, for all it's origins in a D&D variant has bags more atmosphere and style than most... Ehn, probably wouldn't.

Nick

[RosenMcStern]

Originally Posted by NickMiddleton

I wish there more truly European fantasy settings.

Welcome to the Royal Palace of Frederick II

Okay, okay, I am done advertising

Seriously, a low-magic fantasy and a high-magic fantasy would be good. I have already made a proposal for a low-magic fantasy, but what about the high-magic? Forgotten Realms is already done, Glorantha is out of scope (but look at my other post) so what?

[Greymagius]

If we are tossing out idea for Fantasy worlds with a bit different feel, might I suggest the 'Black Company" books? They had a gritty feel that BRP simulates well, but also had elements of high fantasy. The Mercenary Company theme allows for easy inclusion of adventurer types.

Just a thought,

Grey

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Greymagius

If we are tossing out idea for Fantasy worlds with a bit different feel, might I suggest the 'Black Company" books? They had a gritty feel that BRP simulates well, but also had elements of high fantasy. The Mercenary Company theme allows for easy inclusion of adventurer types.

Just a thought,

Grey

Green Ronin did a pretty solid d20 version of Black Company.

It should be easy to adapt to BRP, but I'm guessing that Chaosium is out of the licensed setting business other than Call of Cthulhu.

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

I'm guessing that Chaosium is out of the licensed setting business other than Call of Cthulhu.

Is Call of Cthulhu a licensed setting? I had the impression H.P. Lovecraft was in the public domain.

From wikipedia:
[quote]All works published before 1923 are public domain in the U.S. However, there is some disagreement over who exactly owns or owned the copyrights and whether the copyrights for the majority of Lovecraft's works published post-1923 — including such prominent pieces as "The Call of Cthulhu" and "At the Mountains of Madness" — have expired as of April 2008.[/QUOTE]

Mongoose is also publishing a Cthulhu-based RPG, "Cthulhu-Tech".

This was somewhat of a sidetrack though...

SGL.