Campaign Settings——What do you really like (or possibly want) to see?

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Campaign Settings——What do you really like (or possibly want) to see?

[I was certain that I saw a thread on this some time after the Pet Peeves one, but I can't find it.]

To start off with, these:

Urban Settings:

I love settings where there are very large, very engrossing cities within it. These are where everything happens; trade, entertainment, adventure, politics, etc. A lot of the time my cities are somewhat advance and are where technology truly shines.

Technology Integrated into Settings:

This is where more advance technology isn't just there or relics from a lost time or some such. But where they are nicely integrated into the setting, and the culture, people, etc. weave the technology in nicely.

Lived in But Mysterious:

This essentially means the setting feels like there is a history there, but it doesn't whack you over the head with a 10 pound tome full of it. You discover/see the history by playing through the setting.

However I have to modify Urban Settings by stating it as Settled Settings, the difference being that Urban Settings can have a lot of unsettled land between them (i.e. can be "points of light") whereas Settled Settings have a lot of people living in between places you can call "urban". The Settled Setting can still have large areas of unsettled space, but their purpose is to be unexplored and full of nature.

Others of mine:
Modern cities: I've become enamored of the way the civilization of now looks. Both ancient villages and futuristic cities don't do it for me. Sub-urbs and less-urban areas are okay, but the houses should be modern, more especially on the inside than outside.

Safe and stable: I'm going against a lot of gamer grain (as I see it) here, but I like my settings to be rather safe to live in and have few threats. The former because if I'm going to portray someone who lives in that setting it's really hard to do if I wouldn't want to live there myself. The latter because I'm a "Saturday morning cartoon bumbling villain" brat.

Less restraint: Magic in sci-fi. Modern tech in fantasy. I like a setting where the walls of genre have big, gaping holes in them. I also like the Rule of Cool: if something seems cool then it makes a lot more sense to me in a game than a careful detailing of an exact fit. A willingness to understand that a game shouldn't be about teaching anthropology or climitology.

Doesn't take itself seriously: Not necessarily comedy, but an understanding that story doesn't have to be about reality but about what we wish reality was.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well since mine was already put up above (tis sigil_beguiler on the WotC forum). I will add that:

Less restraint: Magic in sci-fi. Modern tech in fantasy. I like a setting where the walls of genre have big, gaping holes in them. I also like the Rule of Cool: if something seems cool then it makes a lot more sense to me in a game than a careful detailing of an exact fit. A willingness to understand that a game shouldn't be about teaching anthropology or climitology.

Is also great, and what I was semi getting at with technology in the setting.

Also, thought of another:

Interesting Locals:

Lets see settings that don't look like Europe or Russia, lets see settings that are different and varied with interesting architectural, natural and supernatural features to it.

Some examples:
-Desert Swamps: Where a desert has been overun by swamp-land so the crest of grey dunes surround swamps that have massive pits of quick sand and ocassionaly swallow how villages.
-Ley Lines that cause the entire environment both natural and man-made to twist to confirm to it, so a whole section of forest where all leaves and branches are twisted towards the path of the Ley Line
-Huge monolithic black pillars of stone that litter the landscape from an ancient city, these now are the literal pillars of the modern cities that dot the land.

Stuff like that.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

I have to agree with Interesting Locals. I tend to consider it a version of Less Restraint, since the more interesting the local the more likely it is to fall outside of the sorts of constraints that lead to more mundane places.

 

[JeffB]

That Greyhawk Re-boot that was discussed awhile back

Barring that- I'd like to see The Known World re-done (right)

Otherwise, don't care all that much for new settings- for the first time in many, many years I'm more interested in generic plug & play setting material/modules to throw into a homebrew setting (based off the Nentir Vale in the DMG).