Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the old splintering the fan base chestnut...

Reynard said:

Well designed NPCs and factions have real motivations and modes of operation. Filing serial numbers off complex NPCs and organizations should never be that easy, IMO, otherwise your NPC or organization was so generic as to be meaningless anyway. An adventure in Waterdeep and in Sharn can certainly have the same plot, but it is the details that matter.

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Parmandur said:

Rather, NPCs and organizations that can have their serial numbers filed off or be repurposed are handy to have for Dams prepping from a module. Give enough to run it straight from the book, but not touu much so as to make it unusable for recycling and recombining. It's a fine line, but that is what they are going for in these products.

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Reynard said:

I was more answering from the perspective of whether something like Eberron material con be inserted on the fly, rather than whether generic things can be pulled from it for use elsewhere. Some settings are more specific than others in tone, (sub)genre and other features. These differences are partly due to set dressing, of course, but much comes from the organizations, NPCs and other foundational elements. Those take work to inert and make sure they make sense, I think.

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Parmandur said:

Depends on what level of "making sense" one is going for, I suppose: for most groups in-game usage, not too difficult, I would think.

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Reynard said:

Just by way of example, I am about to start an Eberron campaign. My prep time is limited for a weekly, Fantasy Grounds game so I am using Sunless Citadel to start (the Yawning Portal version). But I really want it to feel like Eberron so I am changing Oakhurst into New Cyre and finding Eberron specific elements to insert into the dungeon, including making the kobold and goblin groups make sense. All that takes work. I could just throw in a war forged here and an airship there, but I don't feel that really captures the feeling of Eberron.

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Parmandur said:

And that's cool, but...most people aren't going to do more than allow Warforged and Artificers, throw in an airship at some point, maybe the party will go to Sharn after Oakhurst (I don't see anything un-Eberron in that town...?).

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Parmandur said:

Eh, mileage may vary there.

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Parmandur said:

Rather, NPCs and organizations that can have their serial numbers filed off or be repurposed are handy to have for Dams prepping from a module. Give enough to run it straight from the book, but not touu much so as to make it unusable for recycling and recombining. It's a fine line, but that is what they are going for in these products.

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Mercule said:

If I didn't care about flavor, I'd just play in the Realms.

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Mercule said:

I agree that should be the goal, and will accept that's probably their target. I just don't think they hit it very well or often.

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