Alternative Lords & Ladies Settings
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Oh in-ter-es-ting! I might keep that on the back burner, then!
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I'll throw my idea in the mix. I had been once (a long time ago) intending to try and make it into a MU.
Superheroes meets Lord and Ladies. A nation led by a JLA-like family of NPCs, supported by 'champions' who are essentially metahumans - which is what PCs would play.
The idea in my original writeup is to have a small kingdom like that surrounded by much larger Empires who'd consume it if it wasn't for the champions' ability to defend it.
Each House would be the equivalent of a generational superhero team with its background, rivalries with and ties to other Houses (think Titans and the Bat-family), specializations in purpose, powers and goals, etc.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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That's a very different take on the usual L&L formula. I kind of like it, even if I don't like Supers servers.
Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
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Reminds me of the Powder Mage setting.
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Sign me the eff up for this. Seriously, it's a fantastic idea and take on both L&L and Supers.
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Take my money.
I also want Magic in my L&L setting. Like real ATLA/ Witcher-style Sorceress (though not Aretuza, because who thought hysterectamies and magic were a good thing).
I'd actually like to see, somewhere where because magic is 'realtively common' like your farmer john type may have magic to deal with animals or the earth ( can you imagine how this would revolutionize food production, if the Farmer knows what the soil can support?
Farm Jon: We grew corn here last year, and beans the year before *does a ritual and in the day following finds that the Fae folk have given him like 12 options of crops that will nitrogenfix the soil, and produce better yields because they have been growing them in the fae realm, and all they ask for it fallow patch in the northwest corner, marked by a few boundary rocks, for an entrance and exist into the Faerie realm.
with a little note reading P.s. Remind your littles to at least knock before coming over the stones. We've had a lot of 'abandoned' human babes, in the past 2 centuries and we can only have so many changelings.
I love the initial posting. That was great.
We also need an L&L setting that allows people to grow and change- characters should be rulers because they're connected, with the /land/ and the people. Mystical rulership is always kinda cool.
As in (The royal person kicks the bucket) and the crow flies from the death chamber down the street... and onto the head of a woman who's cleaning the floors."You're our new queen".
(The maid who moved this kingdom like 6 months ago is confused).
"Yeah the crown picks the ruler, and you apparently are our new queen. It comes with a magic shield so assassins have a hard time killing you, Ma'm. "Also yeah , just give me Blue Rose- Fantasy Age version) THE MU* and I'll be reasonably happy, with some more tweaks to the setting.
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Knight of Crowns: I will ask you a series of questions designed to root out all pretenders to the throne.
Only a true High King will hold the answers in his heart.
What popular television program stars actor Tim Daly?Eliot: What the fuck?
"... you'll find the story doesn’t end how you think, and the most important characters aren’t who you expect.” - Penny 40 to Derek, The Magicians S04E07 ‘The Side Effect’
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@il-volpe WINGS, duh.
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Fucking yes. Every time someone says Friends or Seinfeld was the best sitcom of the '90s, I reply "You apparently have never seen Wings."
Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
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@ominous Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. Tim Daly, Steven Weber, Tony Shaloub, AND Thomas Hayden Church??? Fuck Friends and Seinfeld!
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I'll be honest, the only thing I remember about Wings is Steven Weber doing a killer impersonation of Tony Shaloub's accent during a joke that had something to do with the latter stirring up a daytime talk show's audience against the former.
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As mentioned in the L5R thread... it is hella lords and ladies. Upwards mobility is tricksy, though.
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Please elaborate on how L5R differs from standard L&L fare.
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@ominous It isn't patriarchal in the strictest sense... a rank 5 male that marries a rank 6 female joins her family, and I believe heirs go by birth order, not necessarily gender. There are no restrictions on gender for anything except maybe geisha, but I think there is a male equivalent mentioned somewhere. Also has magic, as someone pointed out above.
The biggest issue is the no-homo vibe. Not that you can't be LGBT, but family honor yadda yadda seppuku. Of course, the whole setting has a sexual repression vibe, so any time you need to be ON, you down-play it. Everyone knows all Scorpions are skanks, but we pretend for the sake of Face. On the other hand, I absolutely will take the extra points for that 'dark secret' flaw, thanks.
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Thank you. And my post wasn't challenge; it was a request, in case you felt I was disputing your claim. The thread is about discussing alternatives, and it helps if people elaborate on what those alternatives involve.
Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
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For me, honestly, the squick arises because I have seen the culture horridly botched. Too often. And it may be worse with the Super-Friends atmosphere that pervades some games.
I think the L5R system is awesome, but you would have to do a lot to avoid orientalism from the players.
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To mirror what @Songtress posted, yeah, I'd be down for a Blue Rose AGE. It hs a lot of advantages over the standard L&L game.
-Structured purpose for the characters: Everyone is working for the benefit and protection of the Kingdom
-Egalitarian Nobility: Nobles are ennobled because of their convictions and commitments to the betterment of the Kingdom, rather than strictly through blood. You have reasonable upwards mobility.
-Diversity of orientations. Blue Rose is made for a diversity of character genders & orientations. Everyone is accepted based on their actions, instead of their sex or how they express themselves. AGE also added in the possibility for trans characters. Dark secrets about the 'real' you can be fun, but they also can become a burden in some games. that becomes overbearing t deal with.
The only caveat would have in regards to a Blue Rose game would be around the Rhydians; intelligent animals that hace the same status and capability as people in the Kingdom. Yes, you can play a wolf, horse, or large cat (about bobcat size) that is intelligent, has telepathy, and can bond with a humanoid. It's really Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar with the serial numbers filed off. I have no issues at all with this.
The problem is...this is MUSH-dom. You're going to get players that want to 'explore' the bonding between a humanoid and a Rhydian, not to be crude about it. All I'm saying is that the staff policing needed to keep the game from becoming ZoophiliaMUSH, might be more hassle than the setting is worth.
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@runescryer said in Alternative Lords & Ladies Settings:
The only caveat would have in regards to a Blue Rose game would be around the Rhydians; intelligent animals that hace the same status and capability as people in the Kingdom. Yes, you can play a wolf, horse, or large cat (about bobcat size) that is intelligent, has telepathy, and can bond with a humanoid. It's really Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar with the serial numbers filed off. I have no issues at all with this.
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Honestly,
while I know where that's going: Rhydan have the other problem of 'not breeding true'. Like they're not a 'species'. They are 'awakened' animals.
So most Rhydan (at least in book lore), seem to simply be plantonic friends with most other beings.Honestly I prefer for the 'Pern/ Valdemar approach'- fully sapient species, who do breed true and are their own thing seperate from other 'animals' . (Because the implications of a cat awakening and then realizing that her new litter are... just cats is too freaking sad) (because that's the thing, in Blue Rose, Rhydan just 'kinda happen'. Unlike Valdemar's Companions [spoiler] are/seem to be reincarnated heralds, at least GroveBorn are[/spoiler] , that do indeed breed true.
If I were to construct a game, I'd take the Pern dragon approach or Valdemar Companion approach- these being are seperate species of being, that once they awaken this changes thier blood and genetics- more akin to the Royal Animals of Jane Linskold's Fire Keeper Saga. (Can you tell I have built worlds in the past and love this genre).
Also drawing it out as a MuSH, I'd just make all Rhydan like Pernese dragon's puppet ( at least until such a time as the player base proves it doesn't become Zoophilia the mush. (ugh)
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One thing that I do feel is valuable in a Lords and Ladies set up is a large population of NPC nobles and society. Then you can have people with social stats or plots influence things, or social pressures be applied, etc, without having to rely on player characters entirely.
Another consideration, for me at least? Player characters almost always have 'above average' stats and skills for good reason but if player characters then make up the entire structure of an inherited noble caste? That starts to create a world in which those of noble birth are inherently superior even if that was not the intention.
I am to be honest a big fan of making that kind of thing based on 'level' of nobility also, if you are a knight/dame? Be really good at stuff! There might well be thousands of NPC gentry and you are one of the people who stand out. Somebody is playing a duke or duchess? Have them given points to be statted like a vaguely kind of competent person because they are going to get plenty of spotlight and agency from their position and power. They do not also need to be a master duellist or peerless tactician or unmatched courtier, actually if they are merely decent at stuff then they have much more reason to want to recruit, retain the loyalty of and have to delegate power to other player characters.
