Brancalonia is a Low Fantasy third party campaing setting for Dungeons & Dragons set in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Italy, the settings basic rules are detailed below:
- Low (But Widespread) Magic
- Light-Hearted Tone
- Tragedy and Comedy
- Hoe and Sword
- No Money for Special Effects
- Likelihood
- Brawly Fantasy
- Grandguinolesque
Describing itself as "Spaghetti Fantasy", Brancalonia is a world of Low Fantasy with a light-hearted tone, an emphasis on tragicomedy, abundant black comedy, abundant (but non-lethal) brawls and a focus on the endlessly smart-arsed lower-classes of society. Even your players are assumed by default to be "loveable rogues" who work as less-than-reputable sellswords and troubleshooters for hire; this is a world in which your adventurers are earthy, foul-mouthed mercenaries or bawdy witches, not shining noble knights or aloof, sagacious wizards.
Contains examples of:
- All Monks Know Kung-Fu: The monks of Brancalonia are based on European ones instead of martial arts using ones, still, they do use hand to hand combat, albeit in a "bar brawl" way, there's also a sublcass based on the Swiss Guard that use halberds
- Big Eater: Mogrants, one of their racial skills gives them bonuses to skill checks after eating
- The Bard: in Brancalonia they have two class kits: the harlequin and the Guappo, a wandering folk musician
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Miraculist Priest class kit is based on Fantastic Catholicism.
- Dragon Hoard: The dragons of Brancalonia are somewhat more ostentatious
about their wealth than in other settings. - Fantasy Counterpart Map: Brancalonia is essentially Italy turned 90 degrees clockwise
- Lovable Rogue: All the player characters are based on this archetype to some extent.
- Low Fantasy: Whilst magic abounds in the world of Brancalonia, it is widespread rather than high-reaching,, and the focus is more on the down-to-earth antics of mercenaries and knaves than grand quests or terrible monsters.
- The Magic Goes Away: Various titbits of lore suggest that the world was once more fantastical, with powerful magic and terrible monsters stalking the land, but the magic has largely drained away to the point that modern characters can only reach level 6 (of 20). The Guiscards actively seek to dig out relics from this "lost age" to compensate for their own personal dearth of powers.
- Magic Potion: The Mountaineer Barbarian Subclass replaces their Rage ability with crafting special brews which have various effects, at max level they can use two potions at once
- Massive Race Selection: Playable races include:
- Humans: Pretty self explanatory.
- Gifted: The Gifted are a Human Subspecies with some basic skill in magic
- Morgants: A race of Giants, friendly folk with great strength with large appetites
- Sylvans: Another Human Subspecies with wild hair and a bond with nature, They're based on traditional Italian myths of "the Hairy Men of the Forest".
- Marionettes: animate marionettes based on Pinnochio.
- Malebranche: The local Tiefling analogue, the Malebranche are former Devils who sacrificed their malevolence and powers for freedom because they didn't want to be capital E evil anymore.
- Wolfcats: Cat Folk based on Puss in Boots.
- The Nonexistent: Living Clothes who are powered by belief.
- Pantegan: A race of Rat Men.
- Odd Friendship: The local Fantastic Catholicism church has this with the Malebranche, that's due to their Ascended Demon status described above.
- Power Crutch: The Guiscard, a mage class kit boosts his magic power with various magical trinkets.
- Shout-Out: The signature Morgant character is visibly based on Bud Spencer.
