Goodman Games

With Lankhmar and Empire of the East already done, and Dying Earth in the near future, what other Appendix N inspired settings would you like to see?

It's only two books but I feel like Sterling E. Lanier's Hiero novels would make a great campaign setting. Psionic rangers, talking bears, cat people and lost technology. It does have quite a lot of overlap with Empire of the East though (and there are already a few good post-apocalpytic settings for DCC)

In terms of settings that have been tackled before (seeing as both Dying Earth and Lankhmar have been adapted before) any of the 'big' settings would be cool. I would be interesting to see a DCC take on the Hyborian Age, The Young Kingdoms, or Barsoom. Not sure what the legal situation is with those.

Not so much Appendix N inspired, but I feel like DCC could use a good Space Opera setting. There is 'Star Crawl' which fills that void to a certain extent.

Agree about Hiero.

I would like to see Pellucidar and Witch World. Although I don't expect that they will ever be covered officially (because the licensing fees would be steep), Middle Earth and REH's Hyperborea would also be high on my list.

I would like to see Stormbringer/Elric/Hawkmoon (in other words the world of Michael Moorcock).

Barsoom would be cool but I'm pretty sure Modiphius Entertainement has the rights.

It's not appendix N but Discworld by Terry Pratchett would be fun.

Robert Asprin's Myth series and Thieve's World

LurkingPresence wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:12 am Not so much Appendix N inspired, but I feel like DCC could use a good Space Opera setting. There is 'Star Crawl' which fills that void to a certain extent.

Feel obliged to start with: point me to a DCC core settings book with gender-inclusive/balanced language and images, and I will absolutely buy it. Lankhmar lost me at the pictures.

I'm working on a Space Opera game -- well, at least a game with Space Opera potential -- which is paused while I catch up on homeschooling. I'm pulling heavily on ideas & archetypes from Iain Banks' sci-fi novels. His non-Culture novels "The Algebraist" and "Feersum Endjinn" provide the most vivid inspiration, and there are bits from Culture books that also work. One thing I love about Banks, in terms of DCC, is that some really really dark stuff happens in his books and the visual sense of his worlds is amazing. Not so zany as much of the Appendix N stuff, but gorgeous + really twisted material available.

Is ER Eddison in Appendix N? His "Worm Ouroboros" and the Zimiamvia books are similarly gorgeous + warped. He's more Lovecraftian in his racial/gender stuff, IMHO, and one would not want to bring that element over; plus he doesn't have many funky types of creatures. But his stuff is the other corpus I'd considered for building my own campaign. I'm trying to keep him in mind as a resource.

Lastly, Burroughs! His Mars books especially. I saw him mentioned on the DCC website today; he definitely has cool creatures (yay!) along with race/gender stereotypes (boo!) and seems more in line with the main feel of Appendix N than Banks or Ouroboros.

Mat Mobile wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 8:38 am ....
It's not appendix N but Discworld by Terry Pratchett would be fun.

Happiness! A Discworld setting would be grand fun, indeed.

serendipitous wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 3:12 pm

LurkingPresence wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:12 am Not so much Appendix N inspired, but I feel like DCC could use a good Space Opera setting. There is 'Star Crawl' which fills that void to a certain extent.

Feel obliged to start with: point me to a DCC core settings book with gender-inclusive/balanced language and images, and I will absolutely buy it. Lankhmar lost me at the pictures.

I'm working on a Space Opera game -- well, at least a game with Space Opera potential -- which is paused while I catch up on homeschooling. I'm pulling heavily on ideas & archetypes from Iain Banks' sci-fi novels. His non-Culture novels "The Algebraist" and "Feersum Endjinn" provide the most vivid inspiration, and there are bits from Culture books that also work. One thing I love about Banks, in terms of DCC, is that some really really dark stuff happens in his books and the visual sense of his worlds is amazing. Not so zany as much of the Appendix N stuff, but gorgeous + really twisted material available.

Is ER Eddison in Appendix N? His "Worm Ouroboros" and the Zimiamvia books are similarly gorgeous + warped. He's more Lovecraftian in his racial/gender stuff, IMHO, and one would not want to bring that element over; plus he doesn't have many funky types of creatures. But his stuff is the other corpus I'd considered for building my own campaign. I'm trying to keep him in mind as a resource.

Lastly, Burroughs! His Mars books especially. I saw him mentioned on the DCC website today; he definitely has cool creatures (yay!) along with race/gender stereotypes (boo!) and seems more in line with the main feel of Appendix N than Banks or Ouroboros.

I almost mentioned Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros when I saw this thread yesterday, but my only reservation is I think you'd need high level DCC characters to do it justice. I can't imagine a 0-level adventure on Eddison's Middle Earth. It's all climbing unclimbable mountains, riding untamable beasts, and siege warfare. Good stuff, though.

One gender-inclusive setting I think could work would be Joanna Russ's "The Adventures of Alyx" (stories written 1967-1970, so time-wise fitting for Appendix N). Sword & Sorcery with a female protagonist, but the later stories also feature time-travel and alien worlds. Perfect fit for DCC, but probably too few stories to base a whole setting on.

Also, on the subject of gender-inclusive Sword & Sorcery, Samuel Delany's Return to Nevèrÿon series fits the bill, but despite magic and fantastic creatures it's maybe too grounded in material reality to make for a fun RPG campaign.

dustle wrote: ↑Sun Mar 28, 2021 6:49 am ...

I almost mentioned Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros when I saw this thread yesterday, but my only reservation is I think you'd need high level DCC characters to do it justice. I can't imagine a 0-level adventure on Eddison's Middle Earth. It's all climbing unclimbable mountains, riding untamable beasts, and siege warfare. Good stuff, though.

...

Agree. But, in the interests of Vigorous Debate or maybe just Throwing It Out There, Eddison is also stuffed with cannon fodder. Largely invisible cannon fodder, true -- that's just how fodder-y they are -- but I can see an awesome funnel: Eddison just crushes the ordinary folks.

So ... true-to-DCC for 0s, good options for high level, but not much for in between. At least that's a neatly presented package of a problem to solve.

Also: thx for the gender-inclusive recs, which are new to me. Will hunt them down in my have-fun-time this week.

Mat Mobile wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 8:38 am I would like to see Stormbringer/Elric/Hawkmoon (in other words the world of Michael Moorcock).

Barsoom would be cool but I'm pretty sure Modiphius Entertainement has the rights.

Both solid choices, but I suspect that the DCC Purple Planet would be too close to Barsoom for Goodman to bother to support both.

I'd love to see proper DCC support for Elric and Corum.

I think a DCC Amber could be interesting, since the only actual Amber RPG out there is the diceless one.

Robert Aspirin's Myth Series and Thieve's World Series would be on top of my list!

I would love to see a proper Aereth boxed set before they tackle any other settings. But if I had to choose from Appendix N, then Elric's Young Kingdoms.

Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books.

I've considered this for a long time, and at first I thought these books wouldn't really work as a setting for an adventure-based RPG. They're not in Gygax's Appendix N, and then even though Moldvay in his B/X inspirational reading has Peake listed, it's only as one of the "Additional Authors of Fantasy" or something. So it's not like it hasn't been considered, only to be left out of the main list. And I can see why. They're not very action-heavy, for one thing.

Recently I started trying to separate the setting from the characters and plots, though, and I think the setting itself is rich with possibilities. The first two books are set in an ancient, sprawling castle, so big it basically takes up the known world, comprised of strange castes and drenched in rituals no one remembers the origins of. Things have largely fallen into a sort of torpor by the time of the first book (and the action is in how things get uncomfortably shaken up), but keeping the trappings of the setting (giant castle-as-world!) and going back a few generations could make the story possibilities really open up.

Also: the third book reveals that outside the confines of this very large pre-technological castle is an entire futuristic landscape. Interesting adventures could be set in the period after the books, with people from the outside world venturing into the castle as a relic of a bygone age.

Anyway, I doubt we'll ever see anyone do a setting box for this, but thinking about it has given me some interesting ideas for possible future campaigns.

dustle wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:26 am Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books.

I included a nod to these in Curse of Mistwood.

Raven_Crowking wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 8:28 am

dustle wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:26 am Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books.

I included a nod to these in Curse of Mistwood.

I missed that module, though I know your work and your blog; great stuff in general. I'll check out Curse (and Trolls, though I see you're just editor there and not one of the writers?). Thanks for the tip.

David Fisher wrote Trolls. We co-wrote Curse.

You will find a link to The Arwich Grinder in there as well!

dustle wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:26 am Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books.

.....

This (with your whole post) is food for thought. Thanks! Gormenghast wasn't on my mind at all 'til you brought it up.

Raven_Crowking wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 8:28 am I included a nod to these in Curse of Mistwood.

I haven't seen that one, and am off to track it down ...
PS: whoo-hoo, found it here!

Middle-earth.

Robert Lynn Aspirin's "Myth Adventures" or "Thieves' World"!

After we have DE, I don't really need any more. I hope they focus on new DCC core adventures.

Griffith wrote: ↑Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:04 pm Middle-earth.

Free League's Second Edition of The One Ring RPG raised almost 2 million US dollars and funded in 4 minutes. It's dropping this fall so I think it will be quite awhile before anyone else gets the rights to Middle Earth.

I'd love to see a DCC treatment of the Steven Brust books. (Taltos, Jehereg, etc.) Very fun and flashy in style, I think it would fit DCC well. (And, yes I know that these books aren't actually "Appendix N" since they were written well after the 1E DMG. I think they fit that sort of style, however.)

I think I have a copy of Taltos somewhere in my massive paperback collection. I don't recall if I've actually read it!

I've contemplated running old TSR modules with DCC rules. They aren't strictly "Appendix N", but I'd love to see Goodman Games DCC conversions of the OAR series they've done so far.

The Keep on the Borderlands, The Isle of Dread, The Lost City, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, would effing RAWK.

Maybe a reprint of the Punjar book but not huge, leave it to be fleshed out by Judges a good deal. I don't need an Aereth, or even Punjar really, but it could be cool.

Also, Elric, derp. Maybe a Multiverse of Michael Moorcock set rather than an exhaustive detailing of the Young KIngdoms or the world of Hawkmoon.

Outside of Dying Earth and Moorcock, I am happier with stuff that I can just slot in and play than really any adaptations. I prefer to stay away from that sort of stuff.

Thundarr the Barbarian would definitely fit! It could be an MCC/DCC hybrid!

AMLopez wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:51 am Thundarr the Barbarian would definitely fit! It could be an MCC/DCC hybrid!

I just read a thread about Gamma World over at the OD&D proboards, and I thought of Thundarr the Barbarian. It would be so easy to emulate TtB using Gamma World 1st edition, OR MCC!

Use MCC, but introduce a Thundarr setting with background material from the series, also add The Herculoids & Jonny Quest for extra weirdness and Pulp Adventure!