zanshin
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- Jan 13, 2021
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So following on from the favourite modules thread I thought we might want to discuss our favourite settings for an RPG game and why they do it for us.
I'll kick off with Glorantha. This scores in so many ways for me. A world in which magic is widely available and used by most people. Where the Gods are a real and active presence and to be part of society is to follow them and offer them your power. A world with many genuinely strange beings, with their own myth framed identities, both from earth mythology and truly original. It also has a brilliant variety of settings and concepts- Pavis & the Big Rubble - politics and dungeoneering a plenty; Prax - bronze age wild west; Dragon Pass - bronze age Star wars battle between the rebellion and the evil empire; Dragon Pass - bronze age battle to preserve civilisation and progress against barbarism; Chaos - the ultimate enemy, Moorcock style with a dose of Lovecraft; Chaos the unhealed wound that only the most illuminated can learn from.
What other setting has something like the Morokanthi? Intelligent tapirs that farm and eat human looking (but non sentient and grass eating) herd men, and while disliked are accepted as part of the Praxian cultures ecosystem.
Elves that are more plant than flesh, tied to their woodland at an organic level.
Dwarves that are cogs in the world machine, highly specialised and narrowly focused. No scottish accented ale drinkers these.
Trolls that eat the flesh of sentient beings, are the stuff of darkness and nightmares, but a sometime ally because of their fierce battles against Chaos.
A network of myth that is tied to different cultures and interpreted in their own ways.
So much to explore and enjoy. My longest ever campaign - ten years of play with RQ2 and we only scratched the surface.
I'll kick off with Glorantha. This scores in so many ways for me. A world in which magic is widely available and used by most people. Where the Gods are a real and active presence and to be part of society is to follow them and offer them your power. A world with many genuinely strange beings, with their own myth framed identities, both from earth mythology and truly original. It also has a brilliant variety of settings and concepts- Pavis & the Big Rubble - politics and dungeoneering a plenty; Prax - bronze age wild west; Dragon Pass - bronze age Star wars battle between the rebellion and the evil empire; Dragon Pass - bronze age battle to preserve civilisation and progress against barbarism; Chaos - the ultimate enemy, Moorcock style with a dose of Lovecraft; Chaos the unhealed wound that only the most illuminated can learn from.
What other setting has something like the Morokanthi? Intelligent tapirs that farm and eat human looking (but non sentient and grass eating) herd men, and while disliked are accepted as part of the Praxian cultures ecosystem.
Elves that are more plant than flesh, tied to their woodland at an organic level.
Dwarves that are cogs in the world machine, highly specialised and narrowly focused. No scottish accented ale drinkers these.
Trolls that eat the flesh of sentient beings, are the stuff of darkness and nightmares, but a sometime ally because of their fierce battles against Chaos.
A network of myth that is tied to different cultures and interpreted in their own ways.
So much to explore and enjoy. My longest ever campaign - ten years of play with RQ2 and we only scratched the surface.