Oh, no… not the tavern again!
When most people first GM, they either use a pre-existing game setting, or adapt a book or movie they enjoyed. Others use a vague basic genre as their setting. The players wander from dungeon to dungeon through a generic fantasy wilderness or a generic post-holocaust wasteland until they get out of Jr. High School . This gets to be mighty boring after awhile, and is (in my cranky old point of view) one of the leading causes of gamer burnout.
One of the most overdone genres is Fantasy. Between “Dungeons & Dragons” being the first role-playing game to make it big, and the enduring popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” books, Fantasy is the genre that most of us started with. The genre conventions are known to most gamers. Elves & Dwarves distrust each other. Halflings make good thieves. Orcs are cannon fodder, and Dragons are the “Boss Monster” at the end of the dungeon. The tavern is where you get the tattered old map from the dying old man. (Cm’on, boys & girls, sing along!) Here’s four things you can do to break out of the mould:
Make the Orcs a race to be feared:
Most players go through Orcs like Chow Yun Fat goes through crowds of bad-guy extras in a John Woo flick. The NPC’s are all afraid of the Orcs for a reason. The players should be too. Make them sneaky. Let them fight dirty. Have them run away when attacked by the PC’s instead of fighting to the last Orc. Then have them attack at night, disemboweling the hireling the party left on watch, and fading away again before the party can get into gear. Just because they’re ugly & evil doesn’t make them stupid or suicidal. This suggestion applies to other genres as well. Interstellar Death Commandos and Waffen SS troops generally aren’t going to be doing human-wave attacks across open ground. That sort of tactic went out of fashion in 1918 in the west, and didn’t last much into the ’50s in Asia.
Make a “good-guy” race into a “bad-guy” race:
Or vice-versa. In John Wick’s “Orkworld” RPG, the players are bronze-age Orks trying to survive in an iron & steel age world. The Elves in this game are powerful Machiavellian sorcerers exiled from an alternate dimension. Another option is to ditch the concept of “good-guy” & “bad-guy” races altogether. After all, not every Muslim drives a car-bomb on his daily commute, nor is every Italian-American a Goodfella. It’s also a nice touch to have the other races as politically fragmented as the humans are. Some games do lip service to this concept by having some sort of Dark Elf tribe hiding in the background and various tribes of Orcs. But why not also have two nations of Wood Elves having a border dispute, or two great Dwarven kingdoms fighting a long cold war over resources & trade routes?
Adjust the level of magic:
In some settings anyone can cast a spell if they take the time to learn it. In others, only certain talented people can learn the ways of sorcery. Likewise, most game worlds you just gesture & mutter in an Ancient Tongue ™ & you get a big Hollywood style special effect. In others your character chants for hours (Again, usually in an Ancient Tongue). This seems to be a constant.) in the dark of the moon, while burning anointed candles & sacrificing a black hen so that your foe meets with a convenient “accident”. “GURPS: Spirits” and “Call of Cthulhu” are good examples of the later approach. Think about this one for a while. It can have a huge effect on your game.
Adjust the level of technology:
Who said Fantasy has to be Swords & Sorcery? “Shadowrun” & “GURPS: Cthulhupunk” mix magic & cyberwear. Terri Windling, Neil Gaiman, and Mercedes Lackey are known for modern day “Urban Fantasy” books. You can also use other time periods for your setting as well. One of my settings is a version of the Thirty-Years War (1618-1648 on Earth) redone with fantasy races & low-key magic. If you’re including gunpowder, it’s best to tone down the magic. Dwarven wheel-lock muskets aren’t much use if the Elves keep blowing up your powder-horn with a Create Fire spell… Repeating crossbows powered by air golems tend to be popular weapons when the magic level is high.
Hopefully these will give you some interesting ideas to spice up your bland Fantasy settings, and maybe strike up some cool plot hooks or clues. (“That’s odd. Our elvish guide claims to be from Eastwood, but she doesn’t know the words to their traditional drinking song, ‘Ah, Gilbereth Ethanol’. Something strange is afoot!”) Look to the evening news for little details that can make the setting more realistic. I’ll write a bit more about doing this in a later column, so just suffice it to say that most any headline can be recycled into your gameworld with a little tweaking. Songs can also be an excellent source of ideas. Most every gamer of my generation has based an adventure on “The Court of the Crimson King” or “Der Kommisar” at one point or another.
