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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Set" data-source="post: 4523959" data-attributes="member: 41584">1) Settings that seem too 'hopeless.'  I don't mind Scarred Lands, which can get pretty bleak (the LE gods worshippers own like 40% of the continent!), or Dark Sun or whatever, but Ravenloft bugged the hell out of me.  "Okay, you're first level.  There's this lake.  This undead dragon thing pops it's head up and Cloudkill's everyone.  Did anyone live?  Yes?  It breathes again..."  Zombie apocalypse games are my number-one-with-a- bullet, least. favorite. setting. ever. 2) Settings that have fantasy elements, but don't actually seem to integrate them, turning them into 'medieval europe,' only inhabited by a bunch of fantasy races and classes that are incapable of changing society in the slightest.  Oh, we have Continual Light, free and cheap to cast by the *thousands,* and have had that spell for 5,000 years, but everyone still uses torches, even in the kings castle.  Oh, we have elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings, but only the dwarves and elves have their own kingdoms, and they have only one apiece, and they're tiny, reclusive and unimportant compared to the 72 human-run countries on the map, all with alliances and important histories.  Gnomes and Halflings don't even get countries.  They get to live in ghettos in human cities. 3) Settings that are all about one particular storyline / set of characters, and the actions of the party end up being overshadowed by the great doings of the Heroes of the Lance or the Chosen of Mystra or Divis Mal and Caestus Pax. [Some of my favorite settings, btw, succumb to these.  The Realms was a favorite setting for over a decade, and I tirelessly (and timesomely) evangelized all of my Greyhawk-loving friends into playing it, but it wasn't perfect.  Greyhawk quickly became a favorite setting as well, despite falling afoul of my second gripe.  The Aberrant setting is a *huge* favorite despite there being entire so-called 'adventures' written for it that consist of sitting on the sidelines and watching battles between epic characters.  "Ooh, what an 'adventure!'  I got to wave pom-poms!"]</blockquote>

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