As a roleplayer, at which point do you think it is time to move on from game settings and into your own?
Have you ever even thought about it?
I've been thinking lately, and I can't help but come to the comparison of leaving an established game setting (to move to your own) and leaving your family (to live on your own).
I've been roleplaying for eighteen years now, and I moved out of my parents home at a like age...and sticking with the above comparison...yes, I'm chuckling.
Seriously, has anyone here ever get the urge to pack up and move from Ravenloft (or any other setting for that matter) to move to your own setting?
I mean, after you've spent years developing your roleplaying skills, wouldn't emigration be inevitable? The ultimate test of experience by taking that knowledge and applying it in a one-hundred percent original RPG.
Anybody make this "leap of faith" and want to tell us how it went? If so, what did you carry over with you (as in influences, techniques, etc.)?
I'm curious because I've been feelin' some wanderlust lately (the release of 3.5 being somewhat of a catalyst, in retrospect) and I've been spare, spare time busy refurbishing a world (in truth, it's one country
) that I've been half-assed working on for the past five or so years now...If you mean a new system, my answer would be no, not really. Between d20 and (the new) Storyteller system, game rules are about as fast and clean as I think they'll ever get. I do heavily modify and even interchange those rule sets, but I don't seek to write my own, really. I do write new rules for use within the framework of those august systems, though.
As far as homebrewing a whole setting, no again. Between the Creation of Exalted, Ravenloft, Planescape, Eberron, and Greyhawk, every conceivable type of fantasy gaming is covered. The protean nature of Ravenloft and the impossible vastness of Creation however, have inspired me to create many, many of my own settings, though.
And the now protean nature of planes in D&D has impelled me to create lots of planes.
I've been involved in four such RPGs: one involving modern supernatural, one involving Greek mythology, another involving pirates, and the last that we've developed was a pen and paper game for the NHL. All four were playtested amongst both a circle of veteran roleplayers and friends new to the concept (who, btw, really seemed to dig the NHL RPG), but the Greek RPG was quickly abandoned for reasons still unknown. Probally one of those "cool at first but ho-hum in the end" attempts.
I was just wondering if anybody else has made the attempt at leaving the comforts of D&D for something a little more...>word unknown<
It was called Timejump, set in the future and was nomially about space exploration, but went far beyond that. What you need to have with you is a good group. We had all been playing to gether for years, so to expand like this was a natural leap. I don't remember anything of the system (I don't think I ever knew it, didn't need to). I do remeber how we reshaped a good porportion of conquered space.
That's the great thing about having your ownb RPG or world. You can go on world-shattering epic quests and campaigns, without worrying about another suppliment coming out and going completely opposite to what you have going on.
Or until you decided not to buy that next suppliment and say forget the cannon, I'm going my own way. Then the world shattering campign can be anywhere. That's what happened with Ravenloft and myself. I bought the Black Box set, way back in the day when it first came out, and never bought another suppliment, until the 3e version came out. As you can imagine my Ravenloft and what's in that book are practically nothing alike. (I remember thinking, "Rudolph Van Richen? Who's that?" He was in the Black Box version, but looked so pitiful to me there that I never used or considered him again.)
So, my man, the word is, "Go for it!"
Later on I decided to make a new much more focused world. Aka design one from the ground up and have it structured from the begining opposed to just throwing in kingdoms and dungeons wherever I needed them at the time. Saddly I never had much of a chance to play in that world only producing a small mini campaign that lasted six months before impoding.
Now I'm back in Ravenloft and the Realms and revamping the original world with a friend, rebuilding it from scratch.
I like homebrew worlds and I like established worlds. Each has their advantages. I like being able to go the the pre-made world and know where all the towns are and have a vast supply of NPCs and neighbouring lands and places all ready for me to throw into play. It's nice not to have to do all the work all the time.
But it's also really nice to be able to do whatever you want and have complete creative control.
Babbling just as much.
There's not time where you just outgrow a world entirely and forever, you just might outgrow it fir a time.
It may sound ridiculous coming from a grown man, but it's (the sad) truth.
Ravenloft communities (established RPG communities in general, but RL in particular) are tough to crack (because of reasons mentioned above), and that's a damn bloody shame in my opinion. To the point that I don't actively pitch the various Ravenloft websites (good websites at that, when it comes to effort and user-friendliness) to my players. Am I wrong in this? Maybe, but some of the vets have been to these places, and have chosen to remain guests and keep a tight lip as well. What does that say?
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the 3E version of Ravenloft is a little more...accessible than its previous incarnation (I/we feel), but it's still too tighly wound for my/our liking.
Editing practically every other entry, while fun and self-rewarding, just isn't a luxury I/we have these days. Work, bills, social life and such things is simply a higher priority.
I/we won't bail on Ravenloft (never), but I've/we've been thinking about taking an undetermined hiatus...just to let Ravenloft simmer in our brains for a bit in the attempt of getting back to the basics without overstimulating our brains with all the crap (I say this word with all, due, respect) that's been pumping out of Ravenloft HQ of late.
Fed up?
Just short of halfway...and we took a vote.
P.S.: I'm generalizing when I talk about fans screaming canon/non canon. Certainly not everybody that visits messageboards like this are like that, as there are many who will actually help you and your idea out of a jam (THANK YOU!), but they do exist in numbers that are...>lack of word<
Also, you can substitute "established RPG" for anywhere you see "Ravenloft" in the above message. Chalk it "same crap, different pile"...
That's for Ravenloft... my Realms campaign has shifted forward on the timeline 20 years ahead of the setting and there's war-a-brewin'. That said I'm not about to re-write the past just to make my story more convenient.
For the most part I view making all the pieces fit the history as a challenge.
And re-reading my last post, it makes me chuckle. I'm not that bitter about things. My group only recently discussed these things, and I guess I was a little too quick in relaying the meat of that discussion.
We did the twenty year thing with Forgotten Realms as well...twenty-five, actually...funny you said that. It was our way of (trying to) keeping up with the setting that seemed to be moving mach speed across our radar. Most of it was salvaged, as I opted to keep away from political themes (much to my dismay) and movers and shakers type characters, but even then some things, such as the overuse of drow, just tore the setting right from our hands. I had an almost difficult time explaining the lack of drow in our campaign version of the Realms when they had such an impact on practically even freakin' product released! It only "worked out" when I decided to relocated the characters in/to Ravenloft ala old school mist transportation.
Pretty weak solution, I know.
Funny now, but (game-wise?) frustrating then.
Anyway...anybody else?
What's your beef, and what's your solution?
(I don't mind if this thread ventures off-topic. It's a nothing thread to begin with... ;) )
Of course I don't think I've ever taken a home campaign "straight out of the box" anyway. The net result is (probably like just about everyone else) that any of *my* RL excursions is different from the canon RL in at leats some ways (as one example I have had for awhile my own definative take on who the Dark Powers were and what they really wanted). But I've always appreciated the "tightness" of the Ravenloft campaign setting even when I'm making my own modifications. The tighness to me is just another way of saying the NPCs and locations are highly detailed and interconnect and interact in a "logical way" based on their details.
-Eric Gorman
With all the different game systems to pick from I just don’t see any need for someone to create their own system. Just pick the one that best fits what you aim for and run with that.
As for your own domain… well I think any good DM will customize the domain they choose as “home” for their campaigns anyway. I use Ravenloft because I’m more of a dark DM. Another DM I tag team with uses Forgotten Realms since it closest fits his ideal setting. He for instance has his domain consist of a world in which a plague wiped out most horses so horses are valued commodities and create for interesting situations when a horse is encounter. I tend to like to stick to gothic story lines playing the party in the middle of two groups that both appear evil leaving them not knowing where to turn so the Ravenloft setting works perfect with very little change.
Then there’s the “other” setting I have thought up… As a parent with younger players you have to tend to play in a whole different setting altogether. One a little more in the spirit of Snarf Quest… fun and exciting and toned down heavily. Situations I run with “the guys” are not the same as I’d run with “the kids”. I think when you start planning adventures for young players that’s when you can really feel you’ve grown up.
If its about changing from a made setting, to an own setting i did it at the beginning. we bagn palying in a world not so diffenret from Earth and they changed things that it looked more like Ravenloft and Midnight than our own world. Years later i tried to retake in ravenloft (i tried it once before my true first campaign, but didn't work with those players, snif snif), but my players are not up for the type of campaign.
The idea of growing up a system and changing it has not ocurred to me... because my groups have been using around 3 to 4 different systems: ADnD 2nd edition, Heroes Unlimited, Vampire, later a RPG we found in internet called thrash which is kind of anime fighting (and one of my friends was one of the people who added a lot to the system)... and other games of the same companies as the others, we have been messing with systems and testing our own ideas from moment one, and its cool. My first rpg group at least tested with our 4 own system, but as they were too freeform we always returned to the basic.
Actualy i am working (very slowly) in a setting with the modified rule system of Arcana Unearthed (yes this is propaganda :P, AU is great) and hope to test it with my new players (when i take them out of their exalted trip).
Montalve
It was after I started playing Ravenloft.