What makes a setting distinctive?

[Finarvyn]

I think there are a few things that make a setting distinctive.

(1) Player options. What classes are allowed, or what type/race options. This tends to define a lot of the mood. For example, a "humans only" REH campaign would feel very different from a "anything from Volo's Guide" 5E game. For a Lord of the Rings game I've made wizards take half of their levels in fighter or thief to create a certain type of campaign. For Lannkhmar I've required half of the levels to be thief.

(2) Monster choice. The type of monsters can give a great feel. Horror games have lots of undead. Tolkien games have orcs and ogres. Egyptian can focus on skeletons and mummies. And so on.

(3) Rules choice. High fantasy allows for a lot more healing, low fantasy limits this. Can be a matter of the number of rests in 5E, or the HP healed per day in Old School games. I suppose one could count number and type of magical items under rules choice. Maybe also whether you run a high level or low level campaign. A Holmes "nobody above level 3" will feel a lot different from an AD&D "are we 16th level yet?" game.

[machfront]

I cannot ague Marv’s broad outlines.

Having said that, I feel the first point (PC archetypes) is the lesser. Reason I say and see it, is, even after all these many long years of playing, reading, watching films….it really always comes back to: sword-swinger and spell-slingers. Heheh.

Sure. One sword-swinger is an urban ne’er-do-well, another is the son of the Captain of the Guard and a veteran of the Troll Wars, and another spent most of his life as a forester on the edges of the wilds of the lands of Chaos.
But I feel, at least with old-school D&D, or Tunnels & Trolls…or even games such as RISUS, or Swords & Six-Siders or Pits & Perils, these differences are covered with both attributes and simple backgrounds.
(But maybe that’s a whole other discussion….likely is…).

Again. Not arguing against. Just a point that, I think, archetypes are a lil but lesser than Monster/danger choices and overall rules that change the flavor (healing potions or convalescence.).

Also, magic, and it’s use/influence.


I’m a huge fan of WhiteBox: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game, and I have, as I did when Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox was in its second and especially short-lived third print Brave Halfling Publishing iteration(s)….enjoyed imagining a campaign, and going through the rules and simply putting soft check marks in pencil next to spells and monsters alone. Heheh.

[tombowings]

I'm not so sure it all comes down to sword swingers and spell slingers. Two ideas that might not clearly fit into those categories are: alchemists and steampunk engineers.

I guess both might be sword slingers with very specialized backgrounds, however. That's something to think about.