I'm reaching out to the community for some advice. I'm looking for an established campaign setting that has a large number of "something " worth exploring, (ie. find all the lost sites of x, visit all the major temples, retrace the historical exploits of those one guys) and a lot of fluff to read along the way. I'd prefer one where any looming danger is able to be circumnavigated without effecting the setting details too much. Any suggestions?
The reason is that I need to reboot my Journal game. I've done a few more entries with the Journal RPG, and it is a lot of fun. The problem I've run into is that I leaned into my love of fantasy tropes too hard. I wanted to lead a campaign that was focused on the joy of travel, instead in entry 1 I set up an epic fantasy style tale. Needless to say daily entries with that hanging over the character's head have a certain tone to them. I want "Travels With Thaddeus" not "The Epic Of Thaddeus ".
Saturday, September 15, 2018
I'm reaching out to the community for some advice. I'm looking for an established campaign setting that has a large number of "something " worth exploring, (ie. find all the lost sites of x, visit all the major temples, retrace the historical exploits of those one guys) and a lot of fluff to read along the way. I'd prefer one where any looming danger is able to be circumnavigated without effecting the setting details too much. Any suggestions?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You want an old fashioned hex crawl? Everything being a discovery?
ReplyDelete📍
ReplyDeleteHot Springs Island?
ReplyDeleteMonster Island for Mythras/Runequest 6. You could visit all the serpent folk cities to learn about sorcery, or find all the lost tombs, or hunt through the jungles after rumours of your missing friend/relative/associate/accountant-who-ripped-you-off or whatever. It's pretty open, and the low fantasy swords&sorcery vibe should keep the epic feeling at bay.
ReplyDelete📌
ReplyDeleteQuagmire! From B/X, and Barrowmaze
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite books are survival stories, similar to "The Martian". This seems extremely difficult to make into a solitaire RPG, but not a solitaire board game! Writing down why your character does what or keeping it all in your head is up to you.
ReplyDeleteA few games I'm looking at are:
Robinson Crusoe
Mage Knight
Terraforming Mars
Firefly
https://www.warehouseofweird.co.uk/blog/13-best-solo-board-games-uk-2018/
I'll focus on Hexcrawls. These do not have overt goals, like visit all the temples, but they have a lot going on so you should be able to add your own goal.
ReplyDeleteLand of Nod (NOD zine through Lulu):
http://matt-landofnod.blogspot.com/p/nod.html
Zines containing a (continental? greater than continental?) hexcrawl with brief description of something in the hex, like a village or a situation.
Hex Crawl Classics (also from Land of Nod):
Review at: http://www.howardandrewjones.com/reviews/hex-crawl-chronicles
Series of linked areas. Link below is to pathfinder version, but also comes in Swords and Wizardry flavor. 7 issues (I think)
https://froggodgames.com/frogs/product/hex-crawl-chronicles-1-the-winter-woods-pathfinder-pdf/
Wilderlands of High Fantasy (and other works):
Simple two sentence description of hexes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderlands_of_High_Fantasy
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1018/Wilderlands-of-High-Fantasy?it=1
Treasure Vaults of Zadabad:
Search through some vaults
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/141819/The-Treasure-Vaults-of-Zadabad
I want to get Carcosa, but I have not, so I can not offer any more than what the blurb says:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=97686&test_epoch=0
Also, Spencer Salyer already recommended Hot Spring Island. It comes as both a GM guide as well as a Field Guide (FULL OF FLAVOR!). I second this recommendation.
ReplyDeleteDolmenwood is also popular now. I've only checked out the first zine, but from what I can tell it's a smaller hex crawl, though chock full of good, weird stuff (if that appeals to you). Carcosa is good, too, but also weird. I'm assuming you're already familiar with Red Tide and An Echo Resounding.
ReplyDeleteThe Midderlands is another
ReplyDeleteHow about the Oregon Trail card game and writing up a journal entry/scene for every round?
ReplyDeleteOperation Unfathomable has various factions and temples to various God's, lots of stuff happening, lots of wondrous scenery and will definitely twist you out of a typical fantasy rut.
ReplyDeleteI like Carcosa a lot. But many of it's hex descriptions are bland.
ReplyDeleteTwo Oozes
A city of 500
If you want Gonzo science fantasy, I should also recommend Islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence and Anomalous Subsurface Environment.
Thank you all for the great suggestions. Operation Unfathomable looks particularly awesome, and is now on my list of things to add to my library. In the end I've decided to go with Pathfinder's Inner Sea region. The wealth of resource on the region without any storyline and the degree to which it has been fleshed out ended up being the clincher.
ReplyDelete