OnTheBounce wrote:
Stepping outside of the realm of CRPGs onto the tabletop I have to ask, "Remember AD&D Oriental Adventures?" IIRC there was one boxed set - a hot collector's item these days - and about a half-dozen modules. A great, innovative setting, but I think people will invariably go w/Dwarves and Banshees over Korobokuru and Shirokinukatsukami when given a choice.
Remember it, and have it. The Oriental Adventures was a refreshing break, and it's likes have been rarely seen since. Too bad, since some of the mythos would be a good change from the stale
ad nauseum of where it is now.
I've done several campaigns with a Japanese basis in them, and what's a really interesting change of pace is to have a traditional party put into that setting (or vice versa of an oriental party put into a traditional setting). Of course, at some points foreigners would be killed almost without question, so a bit would have to be changed to be more forgiving, but still with the obvious bias that would be inherent along with shop prices, ease with getting in trouble with the law, etc.
I've gotten really jaded with the stereotypical and unimaginative formulas that developers in general have shit out lately. It's usually the Tolkein-esque and cliché high fantasy. Usage of the Outer Planes in PS:T was great, as would be some other locations in AD&D than the overworked Forgotten Realms. I don't have anything against FR, but it's becoming old hat much like DL was. Actually, it would be instead the same old boring places of Faerûn that are getting old hat, and settings carbon-copied from them.
Or for a breath of fresh air, how about a game set in Chult, or haven't any of these hacks ever heard of it? The world is damn huge, and instead of making their own imaginative story in a setting that's half ripped off from the Time of Troubles or from Bob's work, they could be creating a new tale of their own in Chult, Kara-Tur, Al-Qadim, The Hordelands, Maztica, Thay, or what about Netheril?
No, instead it's name-dropping Waterdeep and Icewind Dale. There's been books done to death in those places, and a game located there becomes boring as hell.
