Thursday 26 March 2009

How to Describe a Campaign Setting in Twenty Five Words or Less

Max recently put up a post asking for homebrew campaign setting descriptions of 25 words or less. My effort, in the comments, wasn't very good. It occurred to me that using full sentences was a waste of words, because you have to use inconvenient prepositions and articles. So here's my 25 word Yoon-suin sentenceless breakdown:

Tibet, yak ghosts, ogre magi, mangroves, Nepal, Arabian Nights, Sorcery!, Bengal, invertebrates, topaz, squid men, slug people, opiates, slavery, human sacrifice, dark gods, malaise, magic.

How's that?

11 comments:

  1. That's very clever. I never thought of doing the '25 words or less' exercise this way. It's highly evocative, and I'm going to try it.

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  2. The absence of euro-cliches must make your players very nervous!

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  3. Viriconium: I think it's a useful tester for how interesting a campaign setting will be. For example, I can't even think of 25 words to sum up Krynn. But I could think of maybe 100 for Jorune.

    Kent: They're used to it by now!

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  4. Yours is redolent of corruption and decay, with a grand guignol atmosphere. It sounds intriguing and exciting. Mine is more prosaic. You didn't ask for our own 25 words, but it got me thinking; so, for what it's worth:

    Unease; pain; corruption; decay; fallen gods; moon mages; healers; Eastern Europe; Borderlanders; spirits; Tarot; gypsies; plague; Undead; alchemists; witch hunters; folkloric creatures; seers; oppression; experiments.

    It's really a Rolemaster campaign, not D&D, so I hope it still counts.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Urban adventures, hot, dusty, African?, bandits, more bandits, elves are not to be trusted, someone finds a handgun, time-travelling vampires, moon, secret invasion, Gonchongs!

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  7. Multiple catastrophes temper survivors into flinty men and women who distrust others, and struggle to survive ancient horrors, faltering reality and decaying time, with glory.

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  8. I posted this over at malevolent & benign, but since i follow this blog closer I'll post it here as well:

    Allele;

    In an utopia of magic and genetic engineering a mysterious glow causes mutations wherever it settles. No hunger, no disease, no metallurgy. Enchanted Tentacle +1.


    Essentially the world is a "Labyrinth Lord"/ "Mutant Future"/ "Original Edition Characters" Campaign that makes heavy use of "Creatures of the Wastelands," and house rules to blend it all together.

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  9. Kelvin: As we all know, the only thing better than bandits is more bandits!

    Timeshadows: Nice poetic tones to that one.

    Bluskereem: What every adventurer wants - a tentacle +1.

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  10. Old-school basic. Norse/Celtic/Anglo-Saxon. Cruel elven overlords. Slave raids. Wolf sect. Elder ruins. Battle-beasts. Pit fighter cults. My old world anew.

    I feel quite generic now...

    Word verification: nophifin - a river monster that tries to drown anyone who tries to fish in its stretch of waterway.

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  11. Men and the friends they make millenia hence explore the world after the return of the fairies, magic, and monsters. Not always serious.

    Verification word: Vatsca
    Definition: Italian dish consisting of the stewed bioluminscent organs of deep-sea fish

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