Current Fantasy settings that are not England/France/Japan/China inspired?

[GavinRuneblade]

So, curious to know, partly inspired by SkillKoil's blog and being super bored of all the bajillions of Japanese/Chinese settings and weapons, how many currently being developed fantasy RPGs have settings that are not a variation of England/France or Japan/China?

I know GURPS and Rifts were always good about including other cultures. But most of my experience has been with various dnd settings all of which are no longer available. Are there any games currently in development that are worth checking out?

The one I'd love more than anything else would be a really good pre-sargon Sumeria/Babylon/Akkadia setting for a Gilgamesh-inspired campaign.

DnD used to have AlQuadim and Ylarum but those never made it past 2e. Are there any games that did a good job with Zoroastrian (pre-Islam) Persia? Or current games with a Middle-Eastern flavor? The various conan games are a funky thing where they have some Egyptian and some Persian but it is all seen through heavily European eyes. Like Stygia is evil. But I do love almost everything conan. ^.^

I know there are many older games for Greek and Roman settings. Mystara had the Empire of Thyatis and the Millenian Empire, for example. But again, I don't know any still in active development.

Has anyone ever done India/Tibet? The Mahabharata and Ramayana have some awesome magic items and powers. Balance issues to be sure (an Atirathi is a warrior capable of defeating 10,000+ enemies "at once" while a Maharathi is a warrior who can defeat multiple Atirathis at once), but still lots of cool stuff that I've never seen in a game. I swear I remember seeing the cover of a rule book that looked like it was supposed to be India but I can't recall what game it was for.

There's been a few tries at Viking settings, but far too many have images of Vikings with horned helmets and in my "young and stupid" days I defaulted to ignoring those as having been made by ignorant people so probably not worth my time (which ironically made me even more ignorant because those might have had great developers who were capitalizing on the expectations of their target demographic). Were any good? The basic DnD/Mystara book about them has a prominently horned dude so it's one of the few Gazeteers I never bought.

What about the eastern Europe and central asian nations? The cool part-Asian part-Turk part-European part-totally-unique mix that you find in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Stanistan (all the areas near Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Khazakstan, etc)? Usually the only eastern European games are Ravenloft/vampire/Dracula stuff and mostly include guns.

Maztica was a setting for the Americas pre-colonization. But the little excerpts I saw seemed to mishmash the Aztec, Maya, and Incans rather than play up their differences. Never seen a fantasy version of the Olmecs. Mystara's "Atruaghn Clans" is a not horrible look at North American native tribes, but it only hits one style of tribe and misses out on the variety in dress, culture, architecture, government, etc. Every other version I found is post colonial era.

I can't recall any games or settings for pre-colonial Africa other than a few rifts expansions.

The only Caribbean settings I know of are decidedly post colonial and include gun powder. So those are out.

Polynesia? Can't recall that anywhere. Someone has to have made an ocean world campaign that I never found.

The only really heavily "we're different from Earth" settings I've seen are either sci-fi or full of white people with English/French clothing and equipment and architecture. Or like Avatar the Last Airbender, basically Japan/China again. Are there any really alien ones that have a fantasy level of technology?

[Valyar]

Conan, Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of has everything
Pick the place in the world suitable for your preference and play.

[The High Druid]

We're just had a whole season of D&D AL adventures and a book which have a tropical setting rather than the typical knights, castles, etc.

And there's nothing stopping you digging out the old box sets, and using them with 5E. I've pulled a lot of material out of Planescape, and tend to use 2nd Ed Faerun as my setting rather than use the current stuff. If my players ever choose to head off in the right directions, I may end up some use out of Al Qadim, Kara Tur, or Maztica as well.

[The High Druid]

Hmmm, also take a look at the World of Darkness. Can't speak so much for the other books, but when you take a look at the Vampire Clans, the Werewolf Tribes, and the other Changing Breeds there's a lot of diversity among them.

[GavinRuneblade]

We're just had a whole season of D&D AL adventures and a book which have a tropical setting rather than the typical knights, castles, etc.

And there's nothing stopping you digging out the old box sets, and using them with 5E. I've pulled a lot of material out of Planescape, and tend to use 2nd Ed Faerun as my setting rather than use the current stuff. If my players ever choose to head off in the right directions, I may end up some use out of Al Qadim, Kara Tur, or Maztica as well.

I'm actually hoping to try a new game system, but also specifically something still being developed actively. I do have a lot of the older products and I do use them in my 5e games.

Conan, Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of has everything
Pick the place in the world suitable for your preference and play.

Does it actually have rules and background for other cultures? From what I saw it only has a few of the traditional hyperborean settings but it has some plans for other areas in the future. Definitely worth my checking out, thank you! I can't believe I missed this one until now.

[Ken L]

This reminds me of FF X's departure from the fold of the prior games, it was islander based which is why it's held up highly in the lot of FF games.

Recently, Pillars of Eternity : Deadfire, also took this approach, to similar appeal, if you're looking for theme research, I'd highly recommend a play through of it.

Regarding Viking themed.. I recall Steven Lumpkin (@SilentOsiris) running a viking themed short form game. IIRC, it had 'man' and 'woman' actions to illustrate the gender morphology that was prevalent in viking culture, it was hilarious .

" Woman, how dare you question my judgement of the hunt! " - Player rolls manliness check, fails

" You'd make a better hearth keeper than me, for I have hunted many a wild boar in my youth, perhaps you've failed your first hunt for your mother's teat as well? "

[Skillkoil]

Savage Worlds has a Roman/Celtic setting that is pretty frickin cool. Ellspeth knows all about it! She ran it for us and it was AMAZING!

[Nylanfs]

There's the Southlands setting by Kobold Press.

[Skillkoil]

If you are into sci-fi I would recommend Starfinder or there are several different versions of Deadlands that can whet your appetite.

[Valyar]

Does it actually have rules and background for other cultures? From what I saw it only has a few of the traditional hyperborean settings but it has some plans for other areas in the future. Definitely worth my checking out, thank you! I can't believe I missed this one until now.

I wouldn't say rules. This is setting, so each country/nation/region has short summary in the core rulebook and in each sourcebook they are expanded further, giving you full overview of the world. For example the sea nations of Argos and Zingara are given brief overview in the core book, while in Conan the Pirate they get expanded much more - customs, politics, specifics, overall flavor of the place. The oriental-themed Zamora is very well detailed in Conan the Thief.

The mechanics and rules you have are related to those settings - theivery, sailing, mercenary activities, kingdom ruling and etc.

The best in Conan and this revision, is that the setting information not full, it gives you good foundation but leaves to the GM and players to complete. Settings where every corner of the world is documented is a bit limiting for me in certain situations.