I am still struggling with how to port German #folklore and folk tales into a good #ttrpg setting. Mechanical translation of the fantastic elements would be the easy part - the more difficult part would be to build a framework for long-running campaigns, since almost all folk tales are basically "one-shot" stories that don't care about further adventures of the protagonists.
Maybe it would be a good idea to develop a "#playtest version" of such a setting, and then develop it further based on player feedback. Such a "playtest version" would have to include:
- Description of supernatural elements in the setting, including creatures and their mechanical design (I am currently inclined towards #BRP as the rules)
- A guide to German culture in a specific time period (I'm currently inclined towards the year 1649)
- Player character options, including supernatural powers
- A "regional gazeteer" for a specific region that is particularly rich in adventuring potential, and which uses both real world history and local legends (any suggestions for which region?)
Once people have actually played with such a setting and came up with their own campaigns, then I could refine it further.
Your thoughts?
@juergen_hubert I have written something slightly similar with basque mythology (https://lagarduña.es/files/Eskubeltz/, in Spanish), and this is what I have done:
1. Compile a list of creatures and people showing up in all those tales.
2. Try to make it coherent (remove redundancies, categorize, etc)
3. See if there are obvious groups showing up (both antagonistic and not)
4. See if I can create coherent groups (both antagonistic and not)
5. Use the tales themselves only as adventures inside this bigger world.
This way, I have a coherent world, filled with mystical and mundane creatures, with a variety of groups working in it.
Writing a campaign is now a lot easier.
@juergen_hubert In a lot of #ttrpg the PCs are itinerants troubleshooters who solves problems that they encounter. The campaign is the thread that connects all the problems encountered.
@juergen_hubert How much are you willing to change the folk tales to fit? I'm running a campaign inspired by French folk stories. There's a lot about trickster fairies, which I replaced with hags. The main villain is a hag coven, and I used some other stories as part of the plot leading up to that, some as side quests, etc. There were also a couple of stories I could connect into a player's backstory. But there's also a lot that I wrote myself, so it's inspired rather than based on folk stories
I am not slavishly committed to converting these tales 1:1. After all, changing tales to make them a better fit for your own audience is one of the pillars of oral folk storytelling.
That being said, I would prioritize filling out the unexplained gaps in the stories over making up new things which do not have a context in those tales.
@juergen_hubert I'm sure you know a lot more of the tales and setting than I do, since you've been doing this for a while but I just used Wikipedia. So you'll be in a better position than me to fill in the gaps more authentically
Is that a problem? There are various RPGs that only ever do single stories.
They are, but longer-running campaigns are more popular.
And perhaps more importantly, is this my personal preference as well.
@juergen_hubert Since I don't know much about #BRP myself, other than its stellar reputation, I would of course be amiss not throwing #GURPS into the ring, not only because it's my favorite system but because of it's flexibility, it would be perfect for such a setting. This milieu also makes me think of the #XFiles TV show, not only because I'm currently 1/2 way thru a re-watch, but also because of it's combination of one-shot, episodic stories intermixed with an over-arching story-line.