D&D General Settings of Hope vs Settings of Despair

[bloodtide]

I do both, it is one of the reason I run around five games or so. I can have a mix of Hope and Despair.

I have one Spelljammer game of each. One Classic Space Shawbucklers Western with Crystal Spheres full of hope...and Giant Space Hamsters. The other is pure Despair, with a crew of drow in Dark Sphere Invasion Force.

There two alone give me what I think is a nice balance.

 

[Piperken]

...I cannot decide which tone I want to opt for next when I start my new game. I was considering Hope, as my last game was Ravenloft and full of Despair. However, as stated prior, the Recent World Events have made me feel less charitable to the notion that people are good and evil is a glitch in the system...the idea that most people in a setting wouldn't be xenophobic greedy, or merely apathetic shouldn't be hard to believe either. On the other, I don't know if I could stand another spin through a setting where most people act like jerks, whether they intend to be or not.

I'm looking for people's thoughts on the matter. Which tone do you prefer, how do you run it, and have the Recent World Events changed your take on the tone of your game...

I'm currently rewatching the Arcane series right now; still in the first season, but it is a struggle compared to the first time. It's an animation, yet I am not in the mood.

I feel in this post you recognize a current state you may be in; this is a good thing. If you feel like you have a grasp of it, then I'd advise taking concrete steps in concert with your playing group (if there is one in your situation) to find things that alleviate this heaviness you describe.

This could be by deciding to take a break; avoid work (e.g. rpgs that are overwhelmingly so) that magnifies it for you. It might be, turning to specific rpg games with specific themes to counteract that heaviness. Consider and be plain spoken about it; again, if a group is involved, they'll empathize and be willing to compromise for you.

If you like to read, read books with stuff you find fascinating. Try to do more activities you find brings levity for you.

It is very easy to let the cynic come to rule every part of life; it wants to do that and can be very debilitating.

 

[Tonguez]

Even in the depths of grim dark despair, people can find small victories, acts of perseverance, friendship and humanity that bring hope that life is worth living and that people can overcome the darkness .

Warhammer Fantasy is a great setting

 

[Scribe]

Even in the depths of grim dark despair, people can find small victories, acts of perseverance, friendship and humanity that bring hope that life is worth living and that people can overcome the darkness .

And then apply those lessons, gained through roleplay, to the real world.

The lesson of grimdark.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Despair in the cover but hope in the core. It is like being a soldier in the WWII, even if you know the nazis are going to be defeated you will be living in a hell during several years. Even if you return to home your soul will suffer several scars.

In the begining the evil lords are ruling, but he will not sit in the throne for always. He has got power and authority but the true leadership is a different thing, and later or sooner he will challenge the wrong enemy. If he is not enough wise to detect and fix internal troubles his domain will be affected and this can be used by his enemies against him.

Even if the evil lords are defeated, this will be not without sacrifice, and after the fight you have saved all you could but it hasn't been enough to save everybody and some innocents have been lost. The recovered freedom hasn't been free.

 

[Hussar]

I elevator pitched a campaign a while ago based on The Wandering Village, if you’ve played that game. The village of the PCs is on the back of a massive creature created by the dying planet to destroy the cancerous dungeon growths that are killing the planet.

The players asked how they could fix the planet and I said they couldn’t. The planet was dying and all they could do was stave off the inevitable. They noped hard out of the campaign. The idea of a campaign where your actions were essentially futile was far too bleak.

I love the concept but if I pitch it again I have to figure out how to inject hope into the game.

 

[Celebrim]

A setting of Hope is premised on the idea that, despite all its flaws and problems, things are fundamentally Good. Most people are kind, systems work as intended, and Evil is an aberration rather than a natural state. Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Dragonlance, despite having a multitude of problems, villains, and conflicts, still hover on the idea that most of its people are kind, hardworking and fair, its rulers are wise and even handed, and if good people stand firm, evil will not win. It's an optimistic view of society, one where heroism is in defense of the good in the world. "There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for".

What's really ironic about this paragraph is Middle Earth is a setting of despair, where things are not fundamentally good, and in fact it is a world of darkness and hopelessness and greed and evil is the prevalent state of the world. Tolkien describes his world as "fighting the long defeat". It's precisely because Middle Earth is a setting of despair, that tending the little bit of good in it and acting on hope is such a valiant act of rebellion against the prevailing tide of evil.

People tend to forget in that bright spark of hope just how freakishly dark Tolkien's setting and story actually is. The triumph at the end is what he calls a "eucatastrophe" - unearned and unreasonable victory that happens in the midst of darkness.

As Tolkien is one of my primary influences, that's the setting that I go for. You resist despite the fact that there is no rational reason to believe you can win, not because this is a cotton candy world with occasional sour spots.

However, as stated prior, the Recent World Events have made me feel less charitable to the notion that people are good and evil is a glitch in the system.

I think that the idea that you can study history to avoid making the mistakes of the past is trite and unwarranted optimism. But, I do think one value of studying history is it will cure you of the idea that people are good and evil is a glitch in the system.

 

[Gimby]

It’s why when I’m reading an entry in Forgotten Realms about Silverymoon (which I was doing recently), I was struck by how much I didn’t like the picture perfect fairy tale, “everything is awesome” setting of the city. It’s too perfect for me to ever honestly consider using it as-is in a game. I had the same issue with Ravenloft. At some level, people have to live there, the sun does rise and at some point, the Darklord will be defeated at least for awhile. A true Grimdark setting will just never be in the cards for me any more than a true Disney-fied Magic Kingdom where everything is happiness and light will be.

For what it's worth, the last time I ran Ravenloft as part of Curse of Strahd I played up the unreality of the place and made it more theatrical - as written, only a small subset of the people there are actually "real" and the whole setup is there for the Dark Powers to torment the major players. It took a bit for the players to work it out, but they then leant into the whole thing. Essentially, not worrying about Ravenloft feeling real is fine, because in character, it's not really real.

 

[TheSword]

Using that standard I also stand firmly into the middle. Though to be honest I apply that to all settings including Forgotten Realms and Eberron. I think it largely comes down to how you play your NPCs.

I prefer to think that everyone considers their kind of people ‘good people’ and that most people don’t consider themselves evil. Excepting some corrupting force of universe stuff.

I do think that a more pragmatic set of NPCs makes the PCs heroics stand out more. Geralt of Rivia’s work is more heroic because he is as like to be cast out by the people he saves as feted. They’re scared, hungry, suspicious, tired and insecure because times is hard and they haven’t got much. They’re not evil though good people still stand out more amongst them for having a sense of hope.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I run my campaign worlds like I see the real world: people are complicated, so are their social systems, and sometimes they do bad things. If history has shown us anything, it's that people can do terrible things even with supposedly good intentions. Often because of supposedly good intentions.

My worlds are also existentialist in that there is no greater destiny, and so your purpose depends entirely on your choices and, to some degree, your luck. The "gods" are just things that have worshippers; some of them have a lot of power but they aren't any better than other people (and some aren't even people. Or sentient).

I find this inherently hopeful, since your destiny is in your own hands!

Quite.

Hope Setting: "We don't need to do anything, the gods will sort it out anyway."

Despair Setting: "There is no point in doing anything, it won't make things any better."

Both of these are harmful ideas.

Balanced setting: "Our actions and decisions make the difference between hope and despair".