How are published settings designed?

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Another example of a published setting: Ultima Forsan. This is an Italian Savage Worlds’ product, translated into English in 2015 (a little roughly in spots). The core concept of Ultima Forsan is clear and intriguing, to me anyway: the Black Death of the 1340s was not a natural disease but a form of zombie plague, transforming its victims into ravenous undead. As a result, realms and societies tottered all across Eurasia and Africa in the century after. Much of those continents became a wilderness haunted by zombies and other fell beings. But now, in the Macabre Renaissance (1514), states and civilizations are expanding again, aided by new Da Vinci-esque technology.

So, from my perspective the setting has three main elements: (1) information about the plague itself, what it is, and what effect it has; (2) a description of Europe and the Mediterranean basin in 1514, tracing the new outlines of states; and (3) material on the new fantasy technology. The book does not handle all three of these equally well.

Ultima Forsan is best at explaining and detailing what the plague is and how it will work in play. The disease is the result of infection with a substance called Atrament; death from it leads to revival as a (usually) mindless zombie who then feeds on the living, passing on the infection. But things are a good deal more complex than that; the rules set out various types of undead, including animals that have been infected (which rarely happens). Further, over the century and a half since the plague’s arrival, some humans have adapted to it, becoming Tainted—immune carriers of Atrament. In appearance rather like weak vampires without much in the way of powers, they cannot be infected with plague, but on death turn into particularly horrific undead, called Possessed. In some regions normal humans expel such individuals; in others they are shunned as lepers might have been; while a few realms (like Hungary, one of the most powerful states) are dominated by the Tainted.

All of this material (and I’m obviously leaving a lot of details out) is cool and well-worked-out. The book could have organized it a bit better, though. A glossary would have helped, since there are a fair number of ‘technical’ terms linked to the plague that are important to the game. A final section on the secrets of the plague ends up repeating a fair amount of information that’s already appeared, without adding a great deal more. I’m not sure why it’s a separate section at all, unless the idea was that players could see the earlier parts of the book but not the latter.

The book also provides a good overview of the setting. It deals briefly and evocatively with the near-collapse of civilization as the plague and its army of zombies spread and the subsequent century-long ‘Darkest Age.’ It also divides territories into three eminently-gameable types: ‘fiefs’ (i.e. civilized regions under the control of humanity), wilderness, and the ‘cities of sorrow.’ The last are major towns like Rome and Venice which are now largely abandoned to the restless dead, though a few scavengers may haunt them as well. This perhaps strains credulity, since plague zombies break down naturally over time, and after 150 years one would think such centers would be largely free of them. But ‘cities of sorrow’ are a neat idea and pretty clearly the game’s main equivalent to dungeons.

But, when Ultima Forsan turns to tracing the new states and societies of the Macabre Renaissance, it becomes less successful, IMO. It’s fairly clear that the game was intended to be set in Italy; it’s described first and in somewhat more depth than elsewhere. Most of the geographical section, though, is a very quick survey of some 23 different states (one, the New Swiss Confederation, gets left out). These get about a page each (some a good deal less) and as a result we don’t really learn that much about them which a g.m. could use at the table. Generally the book notes the ruler’s name, maybe a bit about the realm’s history, and some notes about important organizations in it. The latter are reinforced in the character-generation chapter, since players can usually take membership in them as a professional edge. Oddly, we get this information for the Swiss organizations, though there’s no geographical writeup for that region. Normally there is also some mention of the current level of threat from the undead in each realm. But overall the descriptions are pretty thin and a lot of interesting ideas are barely mentioned (e.g. a death-worshipping cult that is now the power behind the throne in Coptic Egypt).

I’m not really sure what the text should have done about this issue. Since the political and social geography of Eurasia has been remade by the plague, it makes sense to include some notes on what the major states are. But treating so many in such summary form doesn’t give a lot of usable information for developing your own campaign. I think it might have been more helpful to explore one region in a good deal more depth—say Italy—then give moderate coverage to immediately surrounding areas, and less to peripheral ones.

Ultima Forsan is weakest in explaining the new fantastical technology of its era. There are some rules for it folded into character creation and the ‘edges,’ which help define what p.c.s can do with it. But the book has very little information on what technology is more widely available, including things p.c.s can’t manufacture themselves but others might (or have). The picture that is presented is eclectic and seems more focused on cool items than on thinking about the effects of the tech on the world. So, for instance, it’s clear from the sample adventure that there are flying ships. How does that affect trade? Or warfare? One could say that the game is more ‘gonzo’ in its orientation, so such questions are irrelevant. But IMO players generally will exploit any new piece of technology available to them, often in unpredictable ways, so it’s important for games to think this sort of thing out in advance.
 
It seems to me that game designers trying to adapt settings from books, movies, TV, etc. can face a variety of challenges, depending on what they are working with.

If the setting in its original form is the work of one writer, and the body of material is not too extensive, then adapting it to game form can be fairly straightforward. Examples might be, say, Moorcock's Elric material, or Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. It's a matter of reading through (or watching, or whatever) the source, extracting the relevant information, and summarizing it or repackaging it in a format that is useful for gaming. This will of course mean dealing with any contradictions in the source material--at least ones that can't be finessed. The task gets harder, I suppose, if the adapter also has to create a rules-system to fit the setting.

On the other hand, some settings are huge in terms of the body of material that expresses them and are the product of many different writers who may have rather variant views of what the setting is like. Star Wars and Star Trek would be prime examples--there are lots of TV episodes, movies, books, comics, etc. set in these universes. The source material was created over decades, with significant changes and shifts, and by a host of writers or other creators. Wading through all of that and deciding what will go into the game setting and what will not must be a big task, especially since whatever decision you make is likely to alienate at least part of the fandom.
 
Perceforest is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 explains the nature of the actual Perceforest text. It’s a sprawling medieval epic but the set up is simple enough. Britain was ruled by sorcerer-knights. The oppressed people appealed to Alexander the Great for liberation. He sent two of his generals, the brothers Perceforest and Gadifer, to accomplish the task. They succeed and become king of England and Scotland (“The Twin Kingdoms”) respectively. A golden age of chivalry ensues. Then tragedy strikes. Gadifer is gored and crippled by a supernatural giant boar. Perceforest is overcome by depression on hearing of Alexander’s death. Since political health is linked to sacred kingship evil starts to reassert itself, not least in an attempted comeback by the surviving sorcerer-knights. Enter the PCs ….

Chapter Two is a brief guide to the world beyond Britain.

Chapter Three is a gazetteer of places for the PCs to go and people to meet in Britain. All are based on the epic itself and are weird and wonderful, it’s this chapter which conveys the spirit of place. Essentially if this Britain is somewhere one is minded to explore Perceforest might be the game for the reader. If not, it’s best left on the shelf. The key game element that the designer introduces in this chapter is the Forest. The Forest is not just landscape it is a semi-sentient NPC. It did not wish to be invaded by Alexander’s armies. It’s malign, it hates the PCs and is actively fighting back. In many ways The Forest, its monsters and its allies are both the location and actor that make Perceforest a dynamic setting. The good guys are the colonisers and the bad guys are the colonised. One can make as much or as little of that as one wants.

Chapter 4 is Character Generation, allowing one to make Mythras characters from the setting.

Chapter 5 is Rules, little additions to Mythras that are particularly relevant to the setting such as jousting and hunting (stories tend to begin with a tournament or a hunt).

Chapter 6 is the Domain (Vill) rules. The key innovation here is that the Domain is a character, generated by the player, locked in a life-and-death struggle with The Forest, which wishes to extirpate its civilising influence. An entire campaign could be run with the Vill as a scenario generator. There are traditional domain management rules included - but they are entirely optional.

Chapter 7 is Adventures, based on the Perceforest epic. These are presented in the form of outlines and hooks rather than fully developed scenarios (there are no maps, for instance.)

I've just learned that Perceforest is now more easily available in the U.S. Drivethru is selling the .pdf for $15 and the .pdf + hardback bundle for $35, which given the exchange rate is cheaper than the £35 bundle offered by Aeon in the U.K. I also don't think that Aeon will sell the .pdf alone.
 
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