 June 20, 2013 - 3:28am | interesting blog: http://damianov.wordpress.com/2007/07/20/five-dream-settings-star-frontiers/ Just so you know the 5 dream settings in no particular order are: Star Frotniers Space 1889 Call of Cthulu Thieves World Gama World His honorable mentions: http://damianov.wordpress.com/2007/07/28/five-dream-settings-honorable-mentions/ http://damianov.wordpress.com/2007/07/29/five-dream-settings-honorable-mentions-part-2/ I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 20, 2013 - 3:31am | Even though he does not ascribe a ranking to the 5 I like to think that since he thought of and posted Star Frontiers First when he posed the question that in all likelihood SF would be at the top of his list. I rather like his final list though I dont see how you would create a MMO out of Call of Cathulu and work in the insanity that is almost inevitable. Is the point of the game to play until your character is locked up or kills itself? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 June 20, 2013 - 6:05am | Yes. As I recall, all of Lovecraft's Cthuhlu protagonists endup going mad or killing themselves to keep from going mad, or were killed by the creatures. So it's not so much "if" they go mad or die, but when and how, and whether they complete the mission or not. Of course, it all becomes an incurable obsession, so that they have to keep facing it until they go mad or die. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 20, 2013 - 10:04am | Upon further reflection I dont think I agree with the blogger about cthulu being a dream setting on two counts: 1). I think this would be massively complicated to turn into a MMO. 2). It would be more of a nightmare then a dream. ;) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 June 20, 2013 - 5:50pm | Everyone has their own dreams I guess. Actually I can see CoC begin a dream setting from the point of view of the designer/developer because there is so much wild and crazy stuff you can do. I've never actually played the RPG, although I know one of the guys who helped write the original version of the game and many of the early supplements (including an Origins Best Roleplaying Suppliment of the Year award) and have heard stories of games run by the original main creator, Sandy Peterson. So I can't speak to the insanity aspect of it from a game mechanic perspective but that's what sanitoriums and the "Cloud Memory" spell are for.  Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
June 20, 2013 - 7:46pm | One of the Cthulhu games focuses extensively on a sanity mechanic. I don't remember which. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 21, 2013 - 3:17am | One of the Cthulhu games focuses extensively on a sanity mechanic. I don't remember which.
I've never plaid so all my info on it is 2nda hand. Though i remember checking out some raffim miniatures for CoC - each character had 3 miniatures. The first was the character as the appear everyday or at the start of an adventure. The 2nd was the character beginning to loose it and the third was the character having lost it. On the having lost it : one was holding a revolver to its head, one was in a straight jacket, the nun had ripped most of her clothes off, and etc. Its a good looking line of miniatues and i figured the three portrayal of the same character had something to do with a game mechanic or feature. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 21, 2013 - 4:21am | There is definitely a sanity mechanic but it basically works like mental hit points (at least in the original version of the Arkham Horror board game that I'm very familiar with, I'm sure the RPG is similar). You can lose them but there are also ways to "heal" them, although it's probably harder in the RPG. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 June 21, 2013 - 5:52am | My five dream setting are (sorry ahead of time for all the obscure references): Gamma World - An outlandish post-apocalyptic science-fantasy, where I - as the Referee - can make-up all sorts of strange and unusual mutants and high-tech items (ideally, with a retro sci-fi look) for the characters to find and figure-out. No Mad Max or Fallout stuff here - just Kamandi-styled adventure! The mutants form Gandahar (Light Years - a french animated movie) help flavor what my mutant NPCs look like. Carcosa - A strange and unusual setting for classic D&D. The human cultures are left open for interpretation, so GMs have room to make-up their own stuff. Although, humans were the color-coded labrats to a long-dead race of intergalactic Snakemen, and now they are vermin on a primordial alien planet. There are no gods, save for the Cthulhu Mythos. Magic is highly elaborate, creepy and offers little or no quick-fix-effects - this is not for kids or immature adults, and when handled right, they can make for some scary and dramatic scenes. The whole setting is strange and wonderful! Another french animated movie called The Savage Planet (Fantastic Planet) help flavor how alien this world is to me. Cyberpunk 2020 - Like Shadowrun, but with a lot less JRR Tolkien, and a lot more Patrick Nagel! The only issue I have is the Humanity system - If your CP characters have a shared of humanity in them, you have no idea what makes cyberpunk "cyberpunk", as CP characters are shallow, self-interested anti-heroes who see the act of adding body apps as a form of self-improvement. It is street-level action game, Hackers (the '95 movie) and a retro-'80s fashion-show rolled into one awesome package! Necromunda - I could not give a damn about the rest of the WH40k universe or the included rules, but I really this sub-setting for role-playing! It is a mix of cyberpunk, westerns, and liberal amounts of Judge Dredd, all done in John Blanche's gothic-punk style! The original Confrontation game (from WD mag) really opens the setting for a lot more possibilities then the published setting. Warlords of the Galaxy - OK, this is a setting of my own design. Basically this is a mash-up of Masters of the Universe (the classic mini-comics, not that gay-ass cartoon), the Barsoom Saga, and every '80s Sword & Sorcery cartoon & movie. It is a war-ravaged galaxy, where barbarians have some use of fantastic technology from the past. Travel is done by airships and large "Stargate"-styled portals, with worlds having one-sided cultures & environments (like in Star Trek & Star Wars, respectfully). Swords used alongside laser pistols, personal force-fields in place of body armor, gratuitous violence & eye-candy, hammy dialog & one-liners, and characters ripped form Frank Frazetta pin-ups highlights this setting. "Campy" or "over the top" would be putting it too lightly - this setting strides to go so above and beyond that, even John Waters would insist that I should tone it down a smidge! So, what are everyone else's dream setting, and why? |
June 21, 2013 - 8:51am | Props to Malcadon for bringing up Necromunda, I would give it an honorable mention. 1.) STAR FRONTIERS! Did you expect anything else from me? 2.) Aliens vs Pedator but more aliens of the first two movies and any movie with Predators in it other than the Antarctica one. 3.)Space 1889 and any similar colonial Victorian sci fi setting especially the pre -steam setting of the novel "His Magesty's Dragon" 4.) Witch Hunter but more like Solomon Cane and less like the Witch Hunter RPG setting and definetly flush the Witch Hunter rule set as it sucks sathar droppings. 5. I sort of run out of dream settings at 4 but the setting that Gygax put together for Dangerous Journeys called Aerth. Is just fabulous with five dralasite thumbs up. Mix it with a dose of the Flintlocke universe (table top war game) and sprinkle that setting with demi humans and that setting would rock. Imagine a setting based on an alternate earth done by gygax with the same attention to detail he displayed over pole arms in AD&D. The maps are fabulous and every single nation the 7 continents (including Altlantis) about 3/4 ti 1.5 of a column of detail. Then there is a map for the inner earth (hollow world) inhabitted by dinos and cave men where our continents become their oceans and our oceans become their continents. And there is a map of the counter realm of fairy. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
