You really have to pick and choose which region of Kalamar you're using carefully. They're diverse enough to have different flavors. (The naming conventions also differ from region to region for those having trouble.) Find an area you like and consider it a campaign setting in its own right in a world of connected campaign settings.
I always liked the Reanaaria Bay area, and looking through the old 3e campaign setting book, I was surprised at how PoL-ish it is: city-states instead of broad kingdoms and empires, many stricken by poverty or their own unique problems, so different in forms of government that conquest seems like the only likely way toward unity, and constantly challenged by sea monsters in the bay, pirates and brigands along the coast, and giants in the mountains. It's also one of the more cosmopolitan areas in terms of 'demihuman' integration. While Kalamar itself is either at war with or subjugating dwarves, and Brandobia is at a stalemate with the elves as they encroach on the forests, the Reanaarese settlers learned how to farm and survive from the gnomes, in some cases have trade with the dwarves, and were taught advanced shipbuilding by high elf / eladrin-type explorers. That one area is rich enough for many different campaigns. I also find the vowels easier to stumble over than some of the other "languages."
You have to look at each area as a distinct area for campaigning instead of trying to absorb and adventure in the whole world at once.
I think that this is the biggest hurdle in trying to overcome the level of detail shock in KoK: thinking of it as a whole like the Forgotten Realms... that this whole place is where your adventurers will typically be roaming around during a single campaign. Better to think of it as the entire world that a campaign setting is based on: Toril, the world of Forgotten Realms, also had Al-Qadim, Maztica, and Kara-Tur. The world of Kalamar, Telene, also has Brandobia, Svimohz, Reanaaria, the Young Kingdoms, etc.
Imagine if Forgotten Realms had first appeared with all the geographical, historical, cultural, religious and city information for not just Faerun itself, but also the entire world: Kara-Tur, Maztica, Zakhara, and one of the other unspecified regions of that world. That's what KoK basically is. Svimohzia is an African analog. Reanaaria is an Aegean Sea greek / turkish analog. And so on. That's KoK's biggest problem: they throw an entire planet's worth of information at you all at once, and don't always include the advice to look at one area.
It is perhaps unfortunately named. While the name is consistent with the world's history, in the sense that the empire of Kalamar once dominated much of the known world like the Roman Empire did, it conveys a sense of required cohesion that doesn't suit gaming in that world. Each region is much more distinct than those of many other settings.
I always liked the Reanaaria Bay area, and looking through the old 3e campaign setting book, I was surprised at how PoL-ish it is: city-states instead of broad kingdoms and empires, many stricken by poverty or their own unique problems, so different in forms of government that conquest seems like the only likely way toward unity, and constantly challenged by sea monsters in the bay, pirates and brigands along the coast, and giants in the mountains. It's also one of the more cosmopolitan areas in terms of 'demihuman' integration. While Kalamar itself is either at war with or subjugating dwarves, and Brandobia is at a stalemate with the elves as they encroach on the forests, the Reanaarese settlers learned how to farm and survive from the gnomes, in some cases have trade with the dwarves, and were taught advanced shipbuilding by high elf / eladrin-type explorers. That one area is rich enough for many different campaigns. I also find the vowels easier to stumble over than some of the other "languages."
You have to look at each area as a distinct area for campaigning instead of trying to absorb and adventure in the whole world at once.
I think that this is the biggest hurdle in trying to overcome the level of detail shock in KoK: thinking of it as a whole like the Forgotten Realms... that this whole place is where your adventurers will typically be roaming around during a single campaign. Better to think of it as the entire world that a campaign setting is based on: Toril, the world of Forgotten Realms, also had Al-Qadim, Maztica, and Kara-Tur. The world of Kalamar, Telene, also has Brandobia, Svimohz, Reanaaria, the Young Kingdoms, etc.
Imagine if Forgotten Realms had first appeared with all the geographical, historical, cultural, religious and city information for not just Faerun itself, but also the entire world: Kara-Tur, Maztica, Zakhara, and one of the other unspecified regions of that world. That's what KoK basically is. Svimohzia is an African analog. Reanaaria is an Aegean Sea greek / turkish analog. And so on. That's KoK's biggest problem: they throw an entire planet's worth of information at you all at once, and don't always include the advice to look at one area.
It is perhaps unfortunately named. While the name is consistent with the world's history, in the sense that the empire of Kalamar once dominated much of the known world like the Roman Empire did, it conveys a sense of required cohesion that doesn't suit gaming in that world. Each region is much more distinct than those of many other settings.
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