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Good points. The last bit about compartmentalized defenses and covered walls dovetails with the 1800s development of casemates, which were adopted to prevent mortars with shrapnel shells from hitting defenders from above. ...though I would not want to be on the wall in the top picture if its...

That's an interesting observation. Howard did create a thousands of years deep backstory with the the migrations of his different faux-invented ethnicities. But he also published all his work as short adventure stories in pulp magazines. Hyboria had to be retroactively reconstructed by L...

Yes, that would make sense. I think being vague about the backstory and timeline is the best way to go. It's hard to be all things to all people but if new setting materials were written cleverly enough, while leaving the post-1991 set additions unmentioned, fans of those additions could connect...

The 10,000 years of history thing is indeed a tired fantasy trope (you can blame JRRT for that). But I also think our fixation on progress can overlook just how static pre-modern societies can be. Ancient Egypt had a history of about 3000 years, during which time they remained so culturally...

I would also prefer that the status of the wider world remain hazy. In fact, I would prefer the cosmology and backstory to be made more hazy than it currently is. The halfling lifeshapers that were added after the 1991 set, for example, explain the setting's deep lore in a way that I do not...

Yeah, I have (link for those unfamiliar). It always felt overly rules technical in an unfun way to me--with its create food and water traps--in the same way that 3e is rules heavy in general. I would love to see something similar for 5e. There have been threads about continual flame and magic...

This is the fundamental answer to the OP's question. Walls are useful for a variety of purposes other than security. Wooden palisades would do a lot of those things, but they also need to be replaced every several decades, can be set on fire, lack useful features like parapets, can't be built as...

I would call that 'small', even if it expands later. You raise a good point. If the game takes place in a small region without detailing the wider world but you know about the setting's cosmology and several alternate dimensions, is that 'small' or 'vast'? I guess it depends on how much detail...

Man, I couldn't agree more. A lot of planet-sized settings initially come off as cool and flavorful but then, upon zooming out from the best-described region, one realizes that the cool flavorful part is where Western Europe would be and then there's a poorly concealed East Asia stapled to its...

You're right, published campaign setting books are more what I had in mind when I created the poll. Though I didn't want to focus on them exclusively. I definitely agree with you about the appeal of geographically small but content rich settings. tbh, I'm mildly surprised by the replies so...

Right. For practical purposes, the juiciest detail in a setting is gonna be in the parts that actually see play. Setting that aside, though, do you like the aesthetics of creating a setting the size of the Nentir Vale--without really knowing about the continent, planet, or solar system around...

I was thinking while reading the Can we salvage Toril? thread that I would like the Forgotten Realms setting a lot better if it didn't include Kara-Tur and Al-Qadim, if those settings were each treated as their own thing, and if none of them shared the same world map. While, in the past, I...

Original D&D--being a game that emulates genre fiction, not a self-referential one Basic--the deliberate effort at simplicity; as in the short monster and spell lists AD&D 1E--the class list AD&D 2E--Dark Sun, and generosity in setting publication generally 3.x--man, I'm drawing a blank, I can't...

I'm afraid I skimmed a lot of the other long posts, but responding to the OP: That setup screams post-post-apocalypse to me. There was a horrible disaster, but people are past it now and the world has been rebuilt in the shadow of said apocalypse's consequences. Maybe the undead are only ONE of...

As far as I know, it's just for the DMG.

I find the strangeness and complexity of the great wheel interesting. There are lots of dud planes, but lots of philosophically intriguing ones too. The plane of limbo really comes alive in Planescape Torment with Dakkon's backstory--his unbroken circle of zerthimon bit is, in my opinion, the...

Yeah, punching Nazis is foolish (even accurately identified ones)--it makes it easy for them to play the victim or present false equivalencies. The reason scrupulous non-violence is so effective is because of how easy it makes it for uncommitted and uninterested people to tell who is in the...

I did, I guess. I started reading at page 75 or something after skimming the first ~3 pages and saw @Voadam posted on page 84 (#1680) referring back to the OP's suggested remedial actions for WotC, which then prompted me to go and look the earlier post up. I am usually an obnoxious...

@Dungeonosophy made the following suggestions, for anyone interested. It took me a while to find them, so I imagine others jumping in at this late stage might also want to know. I think they could reasonably adopt some of the suggestions above. Maybe by just noting the specific criticisms that...

There's so much food for thought in this thread. Really excellent discussion. You know, I always used to think the inner planes were silly and pointless. Why bother inventing a place for a game where, if players go to it, they instantly die or, if not, have nothing to do. But you blew my mind...