System neutral settings (fantasy/historical)

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Llew ap Hywel

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I'm an absolute whore for settings and got to thinking how many system neutral settings are there but more interesting what system are you using?

One that popped to mind is Evil Hats Karthun which I don't have but is advertised as setting neutral although slanted towards Fate/D&D/Savage Worlds.

Any others?
 
I'm always on the lookout for this kind of material, often with an eye to running using GURPS at some point.

There is a Greece inspired set Kos Island which is kind-of based around the real island of Kos.

There is also Drakonheim: City of Bones that was released as a systemless city campaign that later got a Savage Worlds treatment.

Can't say as I've actually done anything with either of them yet...

I also picked up the two-book system neutral treatment of Glorantha for future use.
 
Hârn is system agnostic, even if there is a house system available.

Edit: have used HârnMaster, RuneQuest/Legend, and FATE 2.0
 
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So far we have
Karthun
Kos
Drakonheim: City of Bones
Harn
Tekumel
Freeport.
 
We should add Tekumel to the list.

Strictly speaking, every edition of Tékumel has been published with a specific system.

But you absolutely could (and IMHO should) get Swords & Glory vol. 1 (the systemless Tékumel sourcebook/gazetteer) and use it with whatever system tickles your fancy — though vol. 2 can still give you some pointers (like spell lists for each temple).

One of these days I swear I'll do a Mythras conversion.
 
What, no love for Titan? Nominally the Fighting Fantasy game world. But the paperback I have of the setting is missing any mention of mechanics. It would be no effort at all to drop your favourite system on that one and go adventuring.
 
What, no love for Titan? Nominally the Fighting Fantasy game world. But the paperback I have of the setting is missing any mention of mechanics. It would be no effort at all to drop your favourite system on that one and go adventuring.
It's a push for system neutral but not much and a nice setting.
 
It's a push for system neutral but not much and a nice setting.
It was sold as a regular sized paperback book with no rules material between the covers. I figure that's not a massive jump for system agnostic. Even if the cover blurb trumpets FIGHTING FANTASY!
 
It was sold as a regular sized paperback book with no rules material between the covers. I figure that's not a massive jump for system agnostic. Even if the cover blurb trumpets FIGHTING FANTASY!
Exactly. It's a push because it's marketed specifically for one set of rules but I agree because I could pick it up and use nearly any system with it.

Great book
 
Titan is pretty amazing. I love AFF 2E.

Khaas (the world of Arduin) has a system free world book. It's huge.

On the fringe and not quite system free, but might as well be are Shadow World and Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

When you get down to it, Khass and the Wilderlands are quite similar, with Shadow World not too far off.

Freeport and Blacksand (from Titan) are pretty interchangeable too.
 
I'm not sure if it'd count but Kingdoms of Kalamar in its earliest incarnations was marketed as being usable with any fantasy RPG.
 
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I'm not sure if it'd count but Kingdoms of Kalamar was in its earliest incarnations was marketed as being usable with any fantasy RPG.

Definitely counts. Kalamar was initially a high fantasy answer to Hârn.
 
Is Freeport any good? I've been eyeing the Castles & Crusades and Savage Worlds versions for years now.

It's got some great bits, but there was way too much "this section of the city is stalked at night by a horrible serial killer, here's the grim things he does" and "this section of the city is stalked by a horrible rapist, here's the grim things he does" for me.
 
Strangely enough there are two separate recent threads on this subject on rpg.net right now:


Recommend Some Systemless Fantasy World / City Books?
and https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?808789-non-RPG-setting-books
non-RPG setting books?
(this one covers a lot of science fiction too, but also mentions stuff like the World of Ice and Fire encyclopedia for Game of Thrones, which is almost like an RPG setting book...)

The first thread surprisingly doesn't have much overlap with this one. It mentioned these that I don't see here:

Uresia: Grave of Heaven
Dark Albion
Thieves World (which was "system neutral" in that it was published with stats for a bunch of systems, rather than no systems)
The Guide to Glorantha
All the various Magic: the Gathering art/setting books that detail the fluff behind the game's art
King For a Day
Town of Baldemar
Free City of Haven
Calibar (by Bruce Heard, creator of Mystara)
Flying Buffalo's Citybook series

I can't vouch for all of these - that thread is prone to people posting "I know you said systemless, but this one has stats for one system but they're easy to ignore and it's mostly fluff!" Some of the ones above might fall into that category too and I just couldn't tell.
 
While it's a Savage Worlds game, the setting material for Hellfrost is presented in two books (the Gazetteer and the Atlas of the Frozen North) that are devoid of system information. There's a ton of material in those books for those who'd prefer to use a system other than SW for their frigid fantasy goodness.
 
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