What makes a Campaign setting Interesting to You?

[reanjr]

I personally like settings that add something really unique thematically. Ravenloft and Dark Sun top my list.

"Droppings" are also way more useful than fully realized plot hooks. Tell me "King Ardil's trusted advisor Kenth(Human Wiz 4) is often away on travel indicating that he is visiting family" not "King Ardil's trusted advisor Kenth (Human Wiz 4 Str 8 Dex 12 Con ... magic missile, ... of spell storing...) is working for Ardil's rival after his family was kidknapped and is being held for ransom at Bunck's Hill (see map below)..." I like to create my own adventures, but appreciate a great number of little kernels in the text to set me off.

In addition, I like to be able to reference the book easily and never have to think about which book to look in. All geographical information for everything should be in exactly one place, not spread out over settings, supplements and adventures.

The only setting I ever had a problem with too much history was Dragonlance. I think it's mostly fixed now though in 3e.

 

[d20Dwarf]

I don't belong to those people who like settings with one big hook dangling above their head. I know that Midnight is one of the most beloved settings out there, but I could never get into it. It's not only the overwhelming plot, but also the bleak outlook.

Midnight has no plot, it's a setting.

 

[Turjan]

One thing I have forgotten and can not overemphasize: The illustrations should carry the visions over. A single image can start a whole campaign. Just look at all the different images of Rivendell on this page. These are lots of completely different campaigns .

 

[Turjan]

Midnight has no plot, it's a setting.

It's the result of a plot that determined the look of the setting. Better? I don't like it, anyway.

Edit: Before you answer that nearly every setting has a background history, I just repeat my point from above: it's the one-dimensional outlook I don't like. One-dimensional + bleak. That's simply a personal thing .

 

[Wayside]

I personally like settings that add something really unique thematically. Ravenloft and Dark Sun top my list.

I guess I have to go with "unique" too, although the two D&D settings I like are Dark Sun and Birthright, aka fantasy Dune and fantasy Highlander.

 

[reanjr]

I guess I have to go with "unique" too, although the two D&D settings I like are Dark Sun and Birthright, aka fantasy Dune and fantasy Highlander.

Wow. You played Birthright totally differently than me.

 

[Wayside]

Wow. You played Birthright totally differently than me.

Nah, I actually played a hybrid with blood-fueled defiler magic and dragon king scions .

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What to like: that it has ideas - possibly just one idea - both shocking and huge at its core: large enough to spawn endless fractal consequences; simple enough in its essence to be written in a single sentence that gives you shivvers; imposing enough to cast a terrible, endless shadow of implications that scarce need to be hinted at.

This is what I meant by the hook, incidentally.

Midnight's hook is "what if Sauron won?" Exploring the implications of that gives us the Midnight setting.

Dawnforge/Morningstar is (more or less) "what was it like adventuring in the golden age?"

Freeport is "what would a pirate city look like in a D&D world?"

A hook isn't necessary for a setting, but it might be necessary to make the setting standout from the competition. Kalamar, for instance, by all accounts is very well done, but without a hook, it hasn't really stood out in the 3E era despite that.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

In reverse order:

"Too topheavy campaigns". Yes, I find those less satisfying to run not because my players might have read everything-there-is-to-know about the setting, but because it is so firmly and completely detailed. I love to make up things on my own all the time. I need the free form campaign world. A skeleton world is much better for me. I might at a future date be tempted to take out my original Greyhawk Gazetteer (in the brown slightly oversized cardstock double folder as opposed to the box, which I also have).

"What I like." This is a very varied topic. In general, I like good or excellent writing. It has to draw me in and keep my interest. If I find myself reading the setting and sparks start to fly, then that's an excellent sign. If I find myself constantly putting the book down or my attention wandering, then it's not so good. I also enjoy settings with a moderate twist of some sort more than the truly extreme. Players like stretching their limits a bit - but not to an extreme. Example: I enjoyed SkyRealms of Jorune when it came out. It was a marvelous world. But try to get players to read and absorb and play that deep a background? Fuhgeddaboutit.

I also enjoy settings that cover player needs well. My needs as DM include being entertained by the material. My players needs don't. They need to know where they start, what they can do, and where they can buy stuff.

 

[hong]

Places to go to, people to meet, ways to kill them and stuff to take.


Hong "but I can live without the stuff to take" Ooi