Two-Sentence D&D Setting Pitches

Taking Zak Smith's lead, here are a few pitches for how WotC can approach old D&D settings for 5e.

Nentir Vale
Rather than being a painfully generic fantasy setting, have the Nentir Vale books be a series of toolkits for creating a custom sandbox campaign, such as cities, forests, underdarks, etc. No two Nentir Vales are the same.

Mystara
Another extremely generic fantasy setting that could be greatly improved by turning the crazy fantasy tropes up to eleven. This would be the setting that appeals to Dungeon Crawl Classics players and Adventure Time fans.

Spelljammer
More sci-fi than fantasy with Moebius and cosmic superhero comics being a main source of inspiration. This is the best opportunity to show that the 5e ruleset can be used for genres other than medieval fantasy and should lead to other settings in unusual genres.

Planescape
The multiverse is a mess of portals, time tunnels and tears from magic spells; jumping from plane to plane requires more luck than intention. Adventures in this setting should feel like a season of Doctor Who with the TARDIS having a completely fucked-up navigation system.

You can play the setting game by following these rules:

Tell WOTC how to renew their settings for 5th Edition in two sentences or less. You have to do at least three settings. Extra points if it seems like something they might actually do.

Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque, vol. 3 Released

In time to make October extra spooky, Jack Shear has released his third volume of resources for running a Gothic-themed RPG and it makes me wish I were not committed to running a cyberpunk campaign. Once again Jack delivers the goods in the form of excellent random tables and setting details that will set your imagination sprinting. He's also thrown in a great deal of inspirational resources.

For shit's sake, he gives a option for bonuses based on phrenology! These are the options you didn't know your game needed but desperately does.

Download the free PDF or buy a hardcopy for the table.

Planet Motherfucker Review

I'm usually not very fond of settings books. Most of them include too many ideas that I find boring or down right stupid, and the good ones usually require too much player commitment. I'd rather run a game than recite imaginary history and cultural facts that the player characters should know.

That is why I'm such a big fan of Jack Shear's various bare-bone settings. By only including the essential details and referencing inspirational material rather than listing pages upon pages of minutia, Jack's settings never fail to get the creative juices going. His newest setting, Planet Motherfucker is no different.

Planet Motherfucker takes place in post-apocalyptic America in which polite society came to a end in 1965. Rising from the ashes is not a depressed wasteland of eschatological existentialism. Instead, we find ourselves in a drug and booze-fueled world in which everything awesome about trash culture has become the norm. Hot rods, killer robots, mutant animals, weird science, voodoo daddys and everyone is sexy as hell. You know all the fun, gonzo stuff found in the Fallout series? It's a game that is just that and nothing else.

Planet Motherfucker is a slim volume, filled with mostly random tables and character templates. It's perfect for use at the table and a complete adventure can easily be improvised on the spot using the random tables. If I have one major criticism, it is that I would love to see more of Jack's vision of this world. He does an excellent job of giving the GM enough information to have his imagination go wild, but Jack is so on point with the craziness that I just want more. A full-blown source book would be a dream come true.

Although PM is advertised as system neutral, it is best paired with Savage Worlds Deluxe, which Jack uses to run his own PM games. The character templates are ready to go SW novice characters and the monster ideas reference creatures that are stated in the Savage Worlds rule book. This makes sense because Savage Worlds is a excellent system for running pulpy, action oriented games. However, I could easily see this setting run in systems like Mutant Future and Apocalypse World with excellent results.

If you're in a rut with the settings you've been using, or you just want a fun setting that anyone can jump into and have a blast with, order a copy of Planet Motherfucker.

PS: Some people have been putting together recommended listening lists for a Planet Motherfuck soundtrack. I have been compiling them and adding my own suggestions to this Spotify playlist.

Marine Space: A Half-Parody Setting of Grim Dark Submarine Adventure

Earlier this year Games Workshop made waves by being a little too adamant about protecting their trademark of the phrase "Space Marine." This lead to no shortage of snarky comments from people in the gaming industry, including one from James Raggi, creator of Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Basically, Raggi mused on creating a setting called Marine Space in which players explore the grim darkness of the ocean depths.

I liked the idea, so I actually threw together a player's guide for the hypothetical setting. I'm not sure if it's a loving parody of WH40K or just an steampunk adaptation. In any case, I think it would be a lot of fun and a good way of running a WH40K game without having to worry about the metric fuckton of lore in the original setting. All you need to know about Marine Space is in the 7 page player's guide.

Marine Space

Jack Shear's Planet Motherfucker released!!!

Jack Shear, who spits out a new intriguing setting practically every day, has released his newest creation Planet Motherfucker on Lulu.com. Celebrate 'Murica and pick up a copy. Use the coupon code FIREWORKS to get 25% off when purchasing this "psychoholic trash culture setting."

Buy it now, patriot!