I guess i have moved into the reseach mode, I don't game all that much anymore I sort of map my own, building ideas but never finish them. I love picking up settings and reading them.
Are there too many settings out there?
- Thread starter johnsemlak
- Start date
Trainz
Explorer
My problem with settings is not wether they are original/attractive enough, but the way they are edited, and the contents.
What I look for in a setting:
Maps. I want maps of every major town/city/village (that has an impact on the setting). This is why, way past, I played in Forgotten Realms. I was fed-up with it, but it was the only setting that provided those maps (in the Forgotten Realms Adventures book). I fell in love with the format of their towns. A template for what's in the town (population, ruler, major products, major temples, mages, thieves guilds, Inns... you know, the crunch), and a map. I have bought Scarred Lands, read it, and put it away because it had mostly none of that. MOst settings don't have that.
Come to think of it, the new Forgotten Realms setting left many of those maps out. Which is why I play homebrew settings. I either make my maps, or use some I get on the net.
When the PC's enter a city, I want to go :"here. that's the town. As you enter the main street, you pass in front of a majestic building. That's the one on the map right there." Now THIS is how my players can immerse themselves in a setting. Description can go a long way, but only so far.
What I don't care for in a setting is it's history. I DO want some history, but when a setting spends 1/4 of it's pages to the history (*sigh*... like scarred lands...), I feel those pages could have been used for more useful stuff like... oh say... MAPS.
OK. Sorry about the Scarred Lands jibe. It might be Just The Thing for some players, it might be the Best Setting Out There, it's just not the thing for me.
Still in LOVE with the new wysiwyg interface !
What I look for in a setting:
Maps. I want maps of every major town/city/village (that has an impact on the setting). This is why, way past, I played in Forgotten Realms. I was fed-up with it, but it was the only setting that provided those maps (in the Forgotten Realms Adventures book). I fell in love with the format of their towns. A template for what's in the town (population, ruler, major products, major temples, mages, thieves guilds, Inns... you know, the crunch), and a map. I have bought Scarred Lands, read it, and put it away because it had mostly none of that. MOst settings don't have that.
Come to think of it, the new Forgotten Realms setting left many of those maps out. Which is why I play homebrew settings. I either make my maps, or use some I get on the net.
When the PC's enter a city, I want to go :"here. that's the town. As you enter the main street, you pass in front of a majestic building. That's the one on the map right there." Now THIS is how my players can immerse themselves in a setting. Description can go a long way, but only so far.
What I don't care for in a setting is it's history. I DO want some history, but when a setting spends 1/4 of it's pages to the history (*sigh*... like scarred lands...), I feel those pages could have been used for more useful stuff like... oh say... MAPS.
OK. Sorry about the Scarred Lands jibe. It might be Just The Thing for some players, it might be the Best Setting Out There, it's just not the thing for me.
Still in LOVE with the new wysiwyg interface !
Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
fusangite said:
Fung it takes me longer and my gaming stores don't let me read their books. Something about "security..."
I guess for me, I don't need THAT many maps. If I need a town, I do something earthshattering and MAKE IT up. (That and I buy stuff that does have maps.
) Btw Trainz, I don't mind if you poke fun at stuff...but do respect the fact I try to be respect towards other people that homebrew. Which I consider a source of much DM burn out IMHO.
Krug,
Well you can thank me too. Otherwise people wouldn't know about the Scarred Lands. And thank Ash for his support too.
Trance,
Perhaps but the thing is how much support do you ACTUALLY need if you got the book that covers the city in detail.
Mouseferatu
Hero
Trainz said:
See, whereas I'm the exact opposite. I want all the major maps, like the basic region and maybe an important city or two, but that's it. To me, if they've mapped every location, they're not leaving me enough freedom to work with. IMO, it's page count wasted, which could have have been more effectively devoted to the stuff that makes a setting truly unqiue...
History and culture.
I want crunch, don't get me wrong. I want new spells, feats, PrCs, core classes, monsters, magic--it's all important, and so long as it fits the world and isn't just thrown in for the heck of it, it's all good. But to me, crunch isn't usually world-specific. When I pick up a setting book, I want to read about the world, its societies, and its history. I want to know what makes this world different. I want to feel it sufficiently that I can properly describe it to my players.
Frankly, if it's got more than the minimum amount of maps required to get by, that's points off in my book.
Different strokes, and all that. We'll just be buying different settings, it seems.
[self-pimpage]
As a quick plug, though, I do hope you'll look into Shadow Branch when it finally comes out. (And yes, folks, I know it's delayed well past I could ever have imagined, but I swear to you it is coming.) It doesn't have very many maps, and it's got lots of page count devoted to history and culture, but I think (in my totally unbiased opinion, of course
), that they're history and culture worth reading. It actually has an impact on the setting, as opposed to being there just to be there. And the crunch is damn cool, too. [/self-pimpage]
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Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
Nice pimage Ari. Btw think you can do that for SLCS: Termana?
I also agree with your feelings that if you get the BROAD stuff out of the way, you have room to develop what you want. But then of course this is why you and I agree so much on what makes the Scarred Lands great. We can do what we want, and SO can our players. Sure iconic NPCs are nice, especially if we feel the PCs are just being drunken louts. But what about stuff like War Colleges or a city like Hollowfaust with it's rich traditions in both necromancy AND spiritual communions? Or even more, the history and culture of the Hornsaw/Broadreach? That to me just screams fun. But again this is probably why I'm happier with the Scarred Lands than say the Realms.
Btw think you can do that for SLCS: Termana?I also agree with your feelings that if you get the BROAD stuff out of the way, you have room to develop what you want. But then of course this is why you and I agree so much on what makes the Scarred Lands great. We can do what we want, and SO can our players. Sure iconic NPCs are nice, especially if we feel the PCs are just being drunken louts. But what about stuff like War Colleges or a city like Hollowfaust with it's rich traditions in both necromancy AND spiritual communions? Or even more, the history and culture of the Hornsaw/Broadreach? That to me just screams fun. But again this is probably why I'm happier with the Scarred Lands than say the Realms.
Mouseferatu
Hero
d4 said:
Thanks.
And yeah, I really liked the idea when I came up with it. I knew I wanted to create a "Delta Green"-style D&D setting (I used to say "Men in Black," but the problem is that MiB has a lot of goofy humor, and Shadow Branch is a very serious setting), with the idea of a secret organization devoted both to hunting monsters and yet also keeping their existance secret from the populace, but I wasn't sure how to justify it. After all, if there was no danger in letting people know, they could just spread the word and have an army to help them. The "power of mortals' belief" idea really seemed to fit the bill. (In the second Shadow Branch book, which is a DM's Companion, we've actually got a sidebar with optional rules for making monsters more powerful in areas where people have learned about them and have begun to believe in Savul again.)
I really hope, when we finally manage to put this monster on shelves (it's a few months away yet), that people like it half as much as I enjoyed creating it. (I know that's a horrible cliche to say, but it's true; SB is my own creation, so I'm really thrilled to have the opportunity to see it published.
)
