The Campaign Builder's Guild

Something I have been k=cooking up is what I call a Game Neutral Setting. It basically has all the fluff and such with none of the rules. The idea is that there are just so many Roleplaying Games in the world and we all have our preferences. Some people like 4th Editon Dungeons and Dragons, other prefer GURPS and other are using their own system cooked up with friends over some soda and snacks.

So the idea is that the GNS gives you a skeleton to hang with, full of ideas, plots, etc. And all the Game Master has to do is spend an afternoon coming up with stats. Here's what I am thinking:

Monsters
For Monsters, what I want to present is a small paragraph describing the monster and a small section on what kinds of abilities you may want to use in your game. For example here is an undead monster from my Wild Elves:

 Elven Temple Guardian
The greatest glory any Elven Warrior can earn is to be laid down on the altar before the high priests of his tribe and sacrificed to the powerful and ancient gods in the hopes to garner favor or to seek repentance. The process requires the high priest to use a broad bladed knife of sharpened obsidian with a carved jade handle. Usually four acolytes hold down the warrior's arms and legs. The Warrior fasts for 3 days and usually dances in a festival to honor the gods all day. The high priest stabs him just between the ribs, below the nipple, and removes the heart in a vicious motion that leaves ribs shattered. He then begins to paint the statues of the gods with the fresh blood.

The warrior's body is embalmed, coated in sacred ointments and blue paint. A golden nail is placed on the forehead and hammered in. 3 days later the warrior rises as an undead guardian of the temple, imbued with strength and agility, he serves as an eternal protection on the sacred domain of the gods.

 Elven Temple Guardians are undead elf warriors with a huge gaping hole in their chest. Unlike zombies, they are fast and brutal capable of running down a deer when commanded by the high priest. They wield spears and short swords and shields. Their flesh is painted blue that gives them divine protection against attacks.


I also want to present new ideas for spells to Game Masters and Players. My favorite part of the Player's Handbook in 3rd Edition was the 20 pages or so of short hand spell descriptions. I want to do something similar, just describing the spell, it's up to the GM and the Players to come up with what level or limitations or damage the spell should handle. For example:

 Fireball A small ember fires from you outstretched hand and explodes in a 20' blast.
 Throw Through Hell A portal opens beneath your target's feet, sucking them up. They are then tortured, burned, and ripped by the terrors of Hell. A second portal opens above where your target was standing and your foe spills out a broken bleeding wretch.

I would also like to do magic items, it'd be a lot like monsters, just describing what the item looks like, where it comes from, and then a small section describing what it would probably do.

What do you think?  

While this may be a good theory, different game systems have rules which support very different styles of game play, which can vastly affect the feel of the encounters and the setting.
For instance, D&D3.x is a relatively balanced system for everyone from levels 2-6, but shifts to Rocket Launcher Tag rather quickly after wards, leaving defensive characters in the dust. D&D4e is the opposite, and has been equated to characters acting as tanks with pistols. These two systems generate very different fights scenes, which greatly affects the mood you may want to convey.

That said, coming up with a setting and assigning the appropriate system could be beneficial. Let's see where this goes.

That's a good point. My goal is to publish this someday. My biggest thing is that I didn't want to write a Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition campaign that wouldn't work well in a 3.5 campaign. I think it also comes down to the fact that some gamers don't even like Dungeons and Dragons preferring the Hero System, or Palladium's system, or other. The idea is that this setting is for the GM who is great with rules not so great with story.

Secondly this setting is not like regular Fantasy settings. It's inspired a lot by the Mayan, Aztec, and Polynesian cultures. Here you're going to find the savage wild elves I mentioned a little above as well as something I'm kicking around of Voodoo Sorcerer Halflings.

This is a setting I've been working on for a long time, sometimes I type stuff up, but mostly I have notes on paper. I'm hoping to hook up a scanner and scan some of my notes.

Some of the settings on the site already are set up this way, and might provide interesting insights for you.

Speaking for myself, the Jade Stage is sort of a GNS-- while a diligent searcher will find at least two custom systems of mechanics specifically designed for the setting around here on the site (and in a few weeks, perhaps a third), they're all auxiliary information. The setting exists independently of them, and you could easily substitute your own if you wanted.

Or, there's things like the work of Salacious_Angel, whose settings seem to have no mechanics associated with them at all. (I know he's fond of FATE System for other things, but I don't know whether or not he endorses it for his own worlds.)

As the_taken points out, there are certain drawbacks as well as advantages to going systemless. If you want to discuss specific issues and potential problems, I'll be glad to chat it over in extensive detail, and I'm sure others will feel the same.

That'd be good to know, what are the potential problems?