Payn's Ponderings~ Campaign settings and you?

[payn]

Greetings.

There are numerous campaign settings for untold numbers of TTRPGs. Some, have a single setting that is general to encompass any type of story. Some others, are open world types that can cover a wide spread of genres. Additionally, some bespoke RPGs have specific settings to match a piece of fiction or history and/or tell a particular story via PCs. So, the approach can be disparate in their idea and purpose for a game setting. D&D, even for example, has numerous game settings for its system that offer a lot of different adventure and campaign ideas.

So, short and sweet here; What do you prefer in a campaign setting? Do you like a "kitchen sink" setting? Do you like specific purpose settings? Does it rely on generic vs bespoke RPG design?

I have seen the virtues of a single campaign setting for an RPG. I think it allows a game company to really expand the game options available, without spreading their product and customer base too thin. I think even the #1 D&D has troubles with this aspect in a niche hobby like TTRPGs. I also like hands off approach to a generic system. If its purpose ios to allow you to create any game you want to run, it should also encompass any type of character a player might want to play. However, I also see the benefit of a specific campaign setting for a bespoke RPG. It doesnt make a lot of sense to allow cowboys into a story about space aliens based on a movie that doesnt have cowboys.

Cheers.

 

[Reynard]

Greetings.

There are numerous campaign settings for untold numbers of TTRPGs. Some, have a single setting that is general to encompass any type of story. Some others, are open world types that can cover a wide spread of genres. Additionally, some bespoke RPGs have specific settings to match a piece of fiction or history and/or tell a particular story via PCs. So, the approach can be disparate in their idea and purpose for a game setting. D&D, even for example, has numerous game settings for its system that offer a lot of different adventure and campaign ideas.

So, short and sweet here; What do you prefer in a campaign setting? Do you like a "kitchen sink" setting? Do you like specific purpose settings? Does it rely on generic vs bespoke RPG design?

I have seen the virtues of a single campaign setting for an RPG. I think it allows a game company to really expand the game options available, without spreading their product and customer base too thin. I think even the #1 D&D has troubles with this aspect in a niche hobby like TTRPGs. I also like hands off approach to a generic system. If its purpose ios to allow you to create any game you want to run, it should also encompass any type of character a player might want to play. However, I also see the benefit of a specific campaign setting for a bespoke RPG. It doesnt make a lot of sense to allow cowboys into a story about space aliens based on a movie that doesnt have cowboys.

Cheers.

Star Wars is a perfect RPG setting in my opinion: it has a strong central story, but is also pretty broad in the kinds of stories it can tell, and ultimately it has shallow enough world building that adding some new thing isn't likely to break it. Any setting that can comfortably fit lazer sword wielding samurai wizards alongside world war 2 French resistance fighters, with a side of giant monsters and all kinds of witchy cults, is good by me.

When I run convention games, I aim for similarly shallow but evocative settings to hook the players immediately, but not overburden them with lore or incomprehensibly bespoke elements.

 

[aco175]

My campaign setting is more closed than my world setting. I play Forgotten Realms (FR) right now with my D&D. It is a wide open world with anything that can be found anywhere. All my campaigns have been in the Greater Waterdeep/ Phandalin area of the world. I can say that this is more the 'traditional' style of old D&D that I like. I can close it off to races and monsters I do not want to have in it. This may also leave things open to bring something in if I want as well. The exception to the rule that counters or reinforces the type. "Why is this cleric of Ra showing up?", or "Why is nobody killing this drow with 2 scimitars?"

This also allows me as the DM to work with the players if they want something not PHB for character design or for spells or feats and such. I could always just say "Magic Portal" but having it exist way over there in the world works fine for me.

 

[TiQuinn]

So, short and sweet here; What do you prefer in a campaign setting? Do you like a "kitchen sink" setting? Do you like specific purpose settings? Does it rely on generic vs bespoke RPG design?

Question: what’s an example of a generic RPG versus bespoke RPG, just so I understand the terminology?

In general, I like kitchen sink campaigns that have broad latitude or hooks to loop in other genres but they can still be based on a central theme.

In my mind, generic D&D as a setting can be almost anything but generally it’s still fantasy swords and magic. Ravenloft is still D&D but now it runs the gamut of anything horror - but because of the D&D link, it constrains it to anything “not modern”. Still a lot of room to riff with.

Star Wars is a mix of cosmopolitan planets, rough and tumble planets, and fighting galactic fascists but there’s a lot of range there that if you don’t want to deal with Jedi, you could. Sci-Fi and Western play very well together cause those themes in both genres overlap a lot.

So ultimately, I prefer the constraints to be minimal. A broad genre constraint that allows the DM to hotwire lots of different stories in rather than tell one particular type of story, if that makes sense. Harry Potter, as an example, would be very locked into a specific genre, specific location, and specific rules that I would have a tough time breaking out of.

 

[Retreater]

I don't like using campaign settings. I can't wrap my head around all the details, made up names, distant histories, etc.
I'm a fan of real-world history. It's so immense that I can only understand a part of it. Every fantasy game seems to think that you need a history of 100,000 years. I can't begin to comprehend it or bring it to life for my players.
Worst of all, the players don't seem to care. The story isn't about them. It's not immediately relevant to their mission.
I would rather have a well-detailed town and contained adventure location that the players can explore than seven continents and 100,000 years of irrelevant information.

 

[payn]

Question: what’s an example of a generic RPG versus bespoke RPG, just so I understand the terminology?

Generic would be a system designed to play generic campaigns of a genre. For example, Golarion for Pathfinder is designed to tell any kind of fantasy story. Bladerunner by FL is about recreating the experience of the film characters. It cannot do any sci-fi and/or cyberpunk story because its bespoke in its specificity.

 

[GMMichael]

. . . It's not immediately relevant to their mission.
I would rather have a well-detailed town and contained adventure location that the players can explore than seven continents and 100,000 years of irrelevant information.

That makes the adventure easier to run for the GM, sure.

But you're talking about the difference between, to use a Song of Ice and Fire as an example, a white walker and a zombie, an aurochs and a bison, the Tears of Lys and poison, Winterfell and the king's castle, or the Faceless Men and an assassin guild.

A well-detailed town is an adventure. A well-detailed setting makes adventures.

 

[payn]

I don't like using campaign settings. I can't wrap my head around all the details, made up names, distant histories, etc.
I'm a fan of real-world history. It's so immense that I can only understand a part of it. Every fantasy game seems to think that you need a history of 100,000 years. I can't begin to comprehend it or bring it to life for my players.
Worst of all, the players don't seem to care. The story isn't about them. It's not immediately relevant to their mission.
I would rather have a well-detailed town and contained adventure location that the players can explore than seven continents and 100,000 years of irrelevant information.

It really depends on the player. Im the type that soaks up that 100K years of info about the setting and wants to explore it, as time permits. I know im far out weighed by players that dont care about anything beyond whats on the next session agenda. It is a big part of why ive just given up on world building.

 

[thullgrim]

I’d really like to have an immediately gameable, usable at the table setting. I’ve been looking for a campaign setting to love for a couple years and keep striking out so I continue to use Golarion.

I like the Free Leagues approach in Symbaroum and Coriolis, settings that directly support the kinds of games and stories they are designed to tell. Even the Dragonbane Misty Vale. Unfortunately those settings are inherently limited.

Maybe the answer is something like old Greyhawk or grey box Forgotten Realms with a balance of useable information unburdened by a required understanding and mastery of tons of lore. Something with elements you can use and modify as you need them without running up against other released material later.

I really think I’d want a pantheon I liked, plain language naming conventions, good useable maps for cities, regions, and continents, some factions and a brief timeline. I think with that I could shape a setting to be what I needed it to be.

 

[RuinousPowers]

World building is the gift a DM gives himself.