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Over the years a lot of Fantasy related material has built up on this site. Most
of the material is broadly useful for a variety of styles of play, to model concepts
suitable for many different settings and characters. Other material presents options,
even sometimes mutually exclusive ones. Still other material represents concrete
examples from specific settings with various ground rules in effect that have influenced
the outcome in ways that may not be applicable to other settings. For the sake of
completion, I also present some options and material that I don't personally use
or care for.
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Due to the sheer breadth of material it seemed prudent to put together some guidance
on what my personal operating assumptions are for a typical High Fantasy campaign
when I am the GM. Now, in the individual cases I might be more or less restrictive
or change things to suit a particular setting or campaign, but the material presented
here would be my likely starting point, the stake in the ground as it were.
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- World of Generica Paradigm:
as described elsewhere on the site (Paradigms),
I use a formalized framework for defining high level concerns applicable to different
styles of campaigns. For High Fantasy, I use the World of Generica
Paradigm sheet as a general template and then lock down specific segments such as
Magic System(s), Races, and so forth within the context of a particular setting.
The Key Notes and point levels described therein summarize my conception of High
Fantasy in the general sense.
- Race Packages: For generic purposes
I fall back on assumptions regarding the existence of the basic Fantasy Races defined
in the various Race Packages presented (those grouped under an "ASSUMED" heading).
However, for specific settings generic Race Packages are generally replaced with
more richly detailed custom Race Packages defining the Races native to those settings.
The various Race Packages under "World of San'Dora" headers represent this type
of outcome. This is one of the most volatile areas from the perspective of a setting's
context.
- Profession
Packages: By and large I'll allow any of the Profession Packages presented
on the site unless they represent concepts not appropriate to a given setting. For
instance, if I'm not using a particular Magic System in a given setting, then any
Package Deals built around that Magic System aren't appropriate to that setting.
I also encourage players to come up with concepts and construct Packages with me
collaboratively if they want to formalize their concept and introduce it to the
campaign setting. As a matter of course I end up creating new complex Packages to
define concepts particular to a setting (though I usually follow the pattern of
designing an abstract / generic Package for root abilities and add it to the generally
usable Packages, and then build the setting specific aspects around the generic
base).
- Character Creation: This sprawling
document presents some high level guidelines for starting characters, such as starting
funds, gear, etc.
- Character
Templates: Leaning on the basic Race Packages and Profession Packages, I
often mix and match them together to quick-gen characters. As the GM I normally
am doing this for NPC's, but the concept is usable for PC's as well. Over the years
I've put together some basic "common combo" Packages that are ready for starting
play using my default point assumptions. I call these "Character Templates" and
present them for general usage. If a setting is using different Races, new Templates
using those Races are generally easy to put together.
- Magic Systems:
I'm very flexible on Magic Systems, and don't have one or two that I repeatedly
reuse. I pick one or more Magic Systems for a given setting as suits the needs of
that setting. However, as a default consideration when doing generic material I
assume that at least the basic various
Vancian Magic Systems, Wizardry,
Sorcery, Animine, and
Dominine, are available. It's a flexible system that supports many different
implementations, and is convenient when converting D&D characters (since this
is what the Magic System was designed to do), and basically allows me to produce
some usable content without being completely vague around magic. This is definitely
an area with a lot of campaign setting context however.
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