The Gaming Den

Besides Masque of the Red Death, does anyone know of any DnD settings that just take place on Earth?

I ask because a huge stumbling block in fantasy worldbuilding is naming things. Every city and island and noble house has to have its own unique name and by convention the names can't be real-world names (so you can't have the lost Dwarven city of Detroit) or fictional names that are sufficiently well-known (so you can't have the Frodo Mountains). even really detailed settings like Golarion end up feeling kind of empty and hollow. The entire world might only have like 40 languages, or the Big Evil Empire might have only three named cities.

Just having DnD take place on Earth solves the naming problem and bunch of others as well. There are plenty of maps to work with and there's plenty of weird and awesome stuff in history to play around with if you need inspiration. You don't have to make some fictional countries that are basically not-France or not-Russia: you can just be French or Russian (or Ottoman or Irish or Swedish or Mayan) and have endless resources to research your character's culture and background. And of course there is plenty of room for alternate history with the fantasy elements, so you customize the setting to make it more playable or focus on the stuff the group enjoys most.

Honestly, it just seems like a great option that hasn't been explored that much.

Well, D&D Modern...is probably not what you mean.

The Crusades Sourcebook perhaps?

I seem to recall someone reviewing a Cthullu game set in the real world using D&D rules here, but can't remember the title. I could be getting the game system wrong, though.

Loads of Lamentation of the Flame Princess adventures seem to take place on Earth.

Thaluikhain wrote: I seem to recall someone reviewing a Cthullu game set in the real world using D&D rules here, but can't remember the title. I could be getting the game system wrong, though.

Cthulhu Dark Ages

All of Ars Magica is on earth so there stuff should be usable. I assume Vampire Dark Ages would also be usable material.

Urban Arcana was a D20 Modern setting where creatures from unnamed D&D settings were being transported to our world, and only a select few humans were capable of perceiving them and magical spells for what they really were.

Question, how “earthy” are you measuring a setting? REH’s Conan is set on Earth. His Dark Materials is on Earth as well, a setting that is begging for an RPG.

Well, D&D Modern...is probably not what you mean.

You are correct.

Question, how “earthy” are you measuring a setting? REH’s Conan is set on Earth. His Dark Materials is on Earth as well, a setting that is begging for an RPG.

I would say that the deciding factor of "earthiness" for me is really the cultural/historical crossover potential. Conan is nominally set on Earth, but before recorded history, so absolutely nothing is familiar and it might as well just be a classic fantasy setting. Ideally you would want to have things like having John Dee be the greatest English wizard of all time, or getting a job guarding a Habsburg from assassination, or being able to steal the petrified remains of Hernán Cortés so they can't be used in some dark ritual.

Also imho His Dark Materials would make a pretty terrible RPG. You know how in early DnD everyone hated familiars because they were weak and useless and you were penalized if they died? Dark Materials is like that on steroids because everyone has to have a Dæmon companion and if your Dæmon dies you die as well.

Anon_issue wrote:if your Dæmon dies you die as well.

Pretty sure this makes the problem less bad, you're expected to keep playing a penalized character but not a dead one.

Foxwarrior wrote:

Anon_issue wrote:if your Dæmon dies you die as well.

Pretty sure this makes the problem less bad, you're expected to keep playing a penalized character but not a dead one.

Having to make another character in the middle of the campaign is a lot more annoying than an XP penalty.

Anon_issue wrote:(so you can't have the lost Dwarven city of Detroit)

I played in a long-running campaign that started in the city of Orcland, New Zealand.

hogarth wrote:

Anon_issue wrote:(so you can't have the lost Dwarven city of Detroit)

I played in a long-running campaign that started in the city of Orcland, New Zealand.

Please tell me there was at least one Noble Lorde.

You might benefit from one of the etymological maps by Omnimap.

I'd just do "Earth, but myths are real" if you wanted a D&D Earth deal. No "secret prehistory" (like Conan) or secret post apocalypse (like Greyhawk). You can just get books of myths from your local library (or look them up online) if you need adventure inspiration for a specific region...or look at what monsters come from which mythologies and plan accordingly.

Pathfinder beat you to it Kinda

Greyhawk Oearth uses a future North America map I think, but is it acutally post apocalypse Earth in the story?

Hmmm wonder if Adventure time's Land of OOO is a refrench to Oerth

Frank pitched a bunch of campaigns like this in a thread somewhere, but I can't find it for the life of me. I just remember that one was about European peasants crusading against the ice jarls to prevent the little ice age. It was a solid campaign hook.

Thaluikhain wrote:

hogarth wrote:

Anon_issue wrote:(so you can't have the lost Dwarven city of Detroit)

I played in a long-running campaign that started in the city of Orcland, New Zealand.

Please tell me there was at least one Noble Lorde.

Lorde would have been 5 years old at the time.

angelfromanotherpin wrote:You might benefit from one of the etymological maps by Omnimap.

This is great!

The Moon-Moon of cities:

Also I finally looked up Lamentations of the Flame Princess and it is crazy.

Its a D20 retroclone filled with gore, Tomb of Horror style GM dickery/total party kills, and general grimdark weirdness. A few of the modules take place on 17th century earth, but there's also Alice in Wonderland and Willy Wonka parodies, among ... other things:





I'm sure it is good for some people. Just not for me.

Hicks wrote:The Moon-Moon of cities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... lace_names
This happens all the time. If you have fleshed out fantasy languages, at least half of your fictional place names should be two-language mashups that translate to"river river" "hilltop hill" "great desert desert" or similar.

Anon_issue wrote:Besides Masque of the Red Death, does anyone know of any DnD settings that just take place on Earth?

I ask because a huge stumbling block in fantasy worldbuilding is naming things. Every city and island and noble house has to have its own unique name and by convention the names can't be real-world names (so you can't have the lost Dwarven city of Detroit) or fictional names that are sufficiently well-known (so you can't have the Frodo Mountains). even really detailed settings like Golarion end up feeling kind of empty and hollow. The entire world might only have like 40 languages, or the Big Evil Empire might have only three named cities.

Just having DnD take place on Earth solves the naming problem and bunch of others as well. There are plenty of maps to work with and there's plenty of weird and awesome stuff in history to play around with if you need inspiration. You don't have to make some fictional countries that are basically not-France or not-Russia: you can just be French or Russian (or Ottoman or Irish or Swedish or Mayan) and have endless resources to research your character's culture and background. And of course there is plenty of room for alternate history with the fantasy elements, so you customize the setting to make it more playable or focus on the stuff the group enjoys most.

Honestly, it just seems like a great option that hasn't been explored that much.

The AD&D 2E Historical Reference series, HR1-HR7. Seven official books taking place on Earth ranging from the Roman Empire to the Early Modern period. If you ever wanted to know what level of the Patriarch of Jerusalem is, he's a level 15 Priest.

https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Reign_of_Winter

Module 5 goes to earth WWI, and you go kill Rasputin.

Anon_issue wrote:Besides Masque of the Red Death, does anyone know of any DnD settings that just take place on Earth?

I ask because a huge stumbling block in fantasy worldbuilding is naming things. Every city and island and noble house has to have its own unique name and by convention the names can't be real-world names (so you can't have the lost Dwarven city of Detroit) or fictional names that are sufficiently well-known (so you can't have the Frodo Mountains).

I totally do that. Didn't know it was an issue.

Our world map is Earth (scaled down so the Atlantic is only 1000 miles from England to America), but with cities/important locations named after people playing the game, or 80s or 90s pop culture, or cartoons we watched as kids (there is a dwarven city named Bedrock that has a lot of retro-architecture (i.e.-its a place right out of history), the gods are renamed after our old 2E characters, etc.

It also helps knowing what the climate is like in a given place.

Game On,
fbmf

OgreBattle wrote:Greyhawk Oearth uses a future North America map I think, but is it acutally post apocalypse Earth in the story?

I believe it is technically an alternate Earth. In addition to Oerth, there is Earth, Aerth, etc. Elements of Oerth are consistent with the type of apocalypse associated with nuclear war, though I haven't seen anything to imply it was other than magical in nature. The Suel mages targeted the Baklunish empire with 'Invoked Devastation' while they did their part to create Mutually Assured Destruction with 'the Rain of Colorless Fire'.

In terms of words that evoke a sense of realism, using common suffixes to certain words can create a fair number of 'fictional' towns that don't necessarily sound like famous real-world places, but you could probably find some if you look hard enough. Words like 'ford' and 'ton' appear in a lot of town names - picking a 'fantasy name' or geographical feature in front of it isn't terribly difficult. Instead of 'Washington', you can have 'Haverton'. Instead of 'Bradford', you can have 'Caelford'.

If you can find a physical street map of your city, you can directly steal 30-50% of street names - Ten Oak, Canton Hollow, and Fox are just a couple of street names I can think of where I live that can go right on a map as is, or be played with - Ten Oak can become Oakville and Fox could become Foxwood.

Edit - Here's a Link for Knoxville. I don't think it's particularly better or worse than any other town, but if you choose your own town's street names, your players might catch on.