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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cryptos" data-source="post: 4522724" data-attributes="member: 58439">The Europe centric settings can sometimes seem repetitive, but really, I've tried Arabian-themed settings and dabbled with Far East elements, and found that working in a D&D-style fantasy genre inevitably leads to European flavor regardless of where you try to place it.  I think it's partially because if you want a full range of choices for characters, you need to introduce a certain cosmopolitan flavor that lends itself to European-style fantasy.  Europe has seen so many cultures and so much history, affected so many other cultures, and is somewhat vaguely defined in terms of how far it extends geographically, that it's a natural fit when you have a bunch of playable races that have to live in the same land together.  You've got to provide the option of having the Elf coming from his culture to team up with the Dwarf coming from his culture, and so on... historically the best analog to this would be Europe.  Whereas Europeans didn't (and don't) always get along, it's plausible that you might encounter a spaniard and a frenchman as you wander the Mediterranean, even if you're not in Spain or France.  For Westerners it's harder to wrap your head around this in the context of the Africa, the Middle or Far East.    True, there's been a lot of war in Europe, but in other parts of the world, the foreigner is almost always in an adversarial position... an outlander, an exploiter, an invader, etc.   It may be stereotypical, but if you want the methodical, stoic, beer-loving "Germans" (dwarves) from the northlands to come down and hang out with the effette, nuanced French (elves), then Europe's your baseline.  Other parts of the world... not so much.  Unless, "You violate a social taboo, and local culture mandates that you are beheaded" is your idea of a good introductory adventure that creates party cohesion.I've read literal translations of the Arabian Nights story ("A Thousand Nights and a Night" - how much more literal can you get?) and played in the Al-Qadim setting... honestly Al-Qadim (while cool) is like playing in an Arabian theme park somewhere in Europe in comparison.Recently, I've been working off and on with a sort of 'compromise' setting that has turned out to be "quasi-Australian" (which I suppose becomes somewhat quasi-European for certain groups culturally) in that the current humans (and halflings) aren't native to the continent, and several generations ago they were dumped there by a European culture that decided to use an island near the continent as a prison colony, with some African and Near East elements in that there have been a lot of collapsed empires and failed civilizations there previously.The best option, probably, is to throw off the historical and cultural contexts entirely, but the danger there is that the setting you create might seem totally alien and not be relatable, or that regardless of your efforts the players will seek to understand the setting in terms that they know, which brings back all the old historical and cultural analogies despite your best efforts.  You also lose a lot of inspirational resources.</blockquote>

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