Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="fireinthedust" data-source="post: 5300079" data-attributes="member: 51930">Frankly, this concept baffles me, as a GM and a Player.  I've been in games where the group (other than me) were content with adventures involving fetching water for the blacksmith, or stopping goblins from stealing Mortimer Muffinmasher's left boot (!).  So... not even bandits?  What's the point of class abilities?  Calling yourself a hero?  It's great immersion, but it doesn't count as an RPG: you don't need dice because you're never attempting to do anything of note.  This is the idyllic life of the Shire, for certain, but it's not D&D.If nothing is at stake, there is no drama.  I'm not saying "unleash the Spellplague on the Forgotten Realms" level stuff, but look at a simple D&D story: boy meets girl, boy discovers girl has been taken by evil cultists who will sacrifice her at midnight if they aren't stopped, boy slays cultists, boy gets girl back.bam.Now, if the girl dies the sun will still rise over Sembia.  The point, however, is not the over-arching political realities.  It is the premise of the character "boy".  Who is boy?  Well, boy likes girl.  But what if there was no girl: would there still be a boy?  If girl dies, who is boy?  In theory, for that storyline, boy is nobody, boy ceases to exist.  The Campaign setting is a funny thing.  Forgotten Realms was *everyone*'s setting, and for that reason it was important to add to it.  That's also why so many people were annoyed that it was destroyed without asking them: hundreds of thousands if not millions of fans were not consulted about their special space.However, the reality is that a real campaign setting is simple the environment directly surrounding the player characters at the game table.  The local tavern innkeeper can be more important than the ruler of the nation, simply because they're around more (ergo: make Innkeepers really interesting).     Whether I call it Faerun, or use my own precious "Orvelbocker" setting, it is the environment the players interact with.  In a real campaign, every adventure "creates" the setting, adding to the players' world.  They also systematically destroy the Setting, by killing off characters (monsters, NPC villains, etc.) one die roll at a time.The functional setting, therefore, requires challenge every session.  It's not necessary to re-orbit the moons, or re-name nations; but something about it must be introduced (that was not there before) and risked (that is precious to the heroes) Every. Single. Session.Anyhoo:  OP, I like your ideas for disposable settings.  Might I suggest you have several planets that your heroes travel to magically each scenario (example: the Deathgate Cycle by Weis and Hickman), where it is important for an overall reason for them to change each of these worlds?  Like "the multiverse is out of alignment: only you, using the magical Transportichron, have a hope of changing these unbalancing factors... before it is too late!"If the premise is "destroy the central premise of each 'setting'", then it's part of the setting.</blockquote>

Verification