What settings/content I would like to work on?

What settings/content I would like to work on?

It's time for some inane rambling again. My biggest undertaking was the creation of Karilan - my kitchen sink D&D-like setting for GURPS. It's not a conversion of D&D to GURPS, but a conversion of my vision of D&D in GURPS. This is exactly what Mailanka warns you about in his Don't Convert, Create! post; this post should be a mandatory read for anyone who wants to convert something to GURPS. Basically, I've fallen into every possible trap when making it but I was aware of that. Setting is something deeply personal, and such fantasy heartbreakers are a dime a dozen anyway. Now, I do not really see much to add to it, I think I have converted almost every possible D&D concept that I wanted to include, and most of the changes I make in the documents are very minor. The only things that I do nowadays is converting more and more content - monsters, items, spells, abilities - not concepts. This isn't something neccessary for the setting, it's just convenient to have premade things to use. Still, I try to make things generic enough for other people to use as well. So, with Karilan more or less finished, what do I even do now?

Don't worry, I'm still going to keep converting fantasy content - I think I'm addicted to it by now and I cannot really stop. But that's rarely something that requires any creativity - this is just applying GURPS rules. Creating new things is more difficult, at least to me. If it's the other way around for you, then I envy you! Creativity, however, is a skill that can be taught and trained, and there's no way to train yourself without practice. How do you practice? Create stuff.

What stuff? Maybe it's time to make another setting? When you create a world, you have to create many things - technology, equipment, races, factions, etc. I just have to decide what to work on. I love fantasy, but I also love sci-fi, both hard and soft. The hard sci-fi of Orion's Arm fascinates me, but soft sci-fi that's borderline space fantasy (I know that many do not like this term) - like Lensman and similar space operas fascinate me as well. I did try to create a sci-fi setting, and I even ran a few games in it, but most of them didn't go well. But despite that, I have a sci-fi itch that needs to be scratched. So, for now I'm thinking about the two following options:

Option #1 - "Cyberpunk Karilan"

This idea came to me in a fever dream. What if I advance Karilan a few thousand years into the future and let the technology develop to TL9? You are probably familiar with Shadowrun, but unlike Shadowrun, this is going to be a cyberpunk setting where magic existed from the very beginning, not a modern world where magic suddenly came back. So, I would have to account for the existence of magic when thinking about the technological advancement. Some technologies that exist in the real world might not even come to exist due to being unnecessary thanks to magic. I think that this would create something quite unique. A ley line-based Internet equivalent - why not? Production lines that operate on Create Object - why not? Guns that can generate ammunition by using up FP - why not? The downside is that I'd still be tied to many D&D concepts, so my creative juices would not flow unimpeded.

Option #2 - "WH40k knock-off"

To me, sci-fi is difficult to run because many of the future technologies change the society in such ways that it is difficult to even imagine what life would be like in such a world. Drones, backup bodies, mindscan, AI, nanofabricators, WMDs - all this can make many of the traditional adventures simply unneccessary or impossible. But now that I think about it - what I like the most about sci-fi is warfare. Military sci-fi is always full of opportunities for "adventure" - shooting up some bad guys and then blowing something up can be presented in many forms, and it never gets old if you have a variety of things to shoot. GURPS has great support for this kind of gameplay, as it has very satisfying gunplay (that I do not really get to experience in fantasy games), and ultra-tech weaponry is very diverse. The "balance problem" of UT is really overexaggerated my people, in my opinion. Sure, there are some outliers, but nothing that cannot be fixed, especially when you actually create new things instead of using them as-is. As for the rest of "transformative technologies" that I mentioned before - who cares? When you are creating a military space opera, you can simply pick and choose the right technologies to have a desired outcome. GURPS Ultra-Tech is not a gear catalog, but a worldbuilding catalog, and this is where it would shine.

    So, you know the setting about dark future where there's only war? That's right, Warhammer 40k. Here's the thing - I do not really like it much, there are some things that do not appeal to me. But what does appeal to me in it is that it is full of constant warfare that always provides you with missions where you have to shoot stuff on any scale - from personal to Mass Combat. The setting has the built-in "default adventure" that GURPS Space talks about, and everything is built around it.

    Why not make my own military sci-fi setting? I could create my own world with factions and concepts inspired by things from other systems and games without actually converting anything. I have many ideas floating around, but this would probably result is a very soft sci-fi (more of space fantasy) setting with ultra-tech, psionics, magic, demons, elementals, robots, etc. Whatever looks or sounds cool has a chance to become a part of the world, just have to find a reason for it to be in constant war with the rest of the world.

In any case, if I get around to making something new, I will try to write many posts describing why I made things the way I did. This would be a helpful example for others, and also might create some discussion and let me correct mistakes or see things that I haven't seen before.