D&D 5E Does anyone else suffers from setting paralysis?

[Tales and Chronicles]

I am lucky that my players become very invested in my homebrew settings (most of the six current games I run) and love to learn more about it through our playing sessions.

Would some of them consider moving to Canada and play in french?

 

[Magister Ludorum]

We're in Arizona, but I sometimes GM partially in French when I'm drunk (state conditioned learning for the win).

I'm lucky to have some of the same players from back in 1980.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

We're in Arizona, but I sometimes GM partially in French when I'm drunk (state conditioned learning for the win).

I'm lucky to have some of the same players from back in 1980.

I'm happy for you, that's really great. While I complain about the engagement of my players, they are my best friends in the world and a loyal bunch in both life and D&D.

 

[Fenris-77]

This musical settings things happens to me all the time. Not just settings, but also systems. I have so many things I want to run I change my mind constantly.

 

[Shiroiken]

Not really. I've been a Greyhawk fan for a long, long time. While I've incorporated aspects of other settings (I had Mystara on the other side of the world in my 1E campaign), the core of the game has always been Greyhawk.

I'll admit, however, that I have a huge tendency to create settings. I've done about 4 so far that have never seen the light of day, and I've got another one that's floating around in my mind. I might actually try and do something from the one I'm working on now, but it's unlikely.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

This musical settings things happens to me all the time. Not just settings, but also systems. I have so many things I want to run I change my mind constantly.

Oh good lord, you save me another thread. I suffer from this also, but to smaller extent. 5e? 4e? Fantasy AGE? Black Hack? Beyond the wall? I think I have too much time to think/hesitate; at least I cant say that I lack ideas or inspiration!

I also do the same with PC when I play: I'm in great pain when I forced to play the same character for more than 9-10 months.

 

[Lanefan]

I find I had a simple solution to this I have used.

Instead of campaigns having each setting as its own world, I try to make each setting as its own continent on a "super-world".

I've thought about this, but my problem is if I'm going to do a whole new setting I usually want to change up things like astronomy, calendars, and so forth as well as cultural stuff. If every campaign is on the same world this doesn't work so well...

If I want to change things up, see a module/story from another setting I would like to run, I can easily do so.

Just look at the various Empires and cultures of Earth. You can have a wide range of such, even from different historical times, all happening in one's campaign at the same time.

I do that now, all on the same world; and once the PCs got to the point of having easily-accessible long-range travel options they started visiting many of 'em.

It's a big world they're on, and they've only learned about maybe 1/6 of it, but no matter where they go on that world the same two moons will go through their 20 and 80-day cycles and, if you're on the side of the world that can see it, the huge "stationary moon" will still be there in the sky. (it's an artificially-close binary two-planet system tidally locked such that they always present the same faces to each other). If I want to change any of that I've got to permanently put 'em on a different world; and designing a whole new world is something I only want to have to do once per very-long campaign.

 

[Lanefan]

I also do the same with PC when I play: I'm in great pain when I forced to play the same character for more than 9-10 months.

Yeah, I also like to have several PCs on the go and cycle 'em in and out.

That way, when the gonzo chaotic has worn out her welcome after a couple of adventure I can bring in the Goody-good Cleric, and a year later when I get tired of him I can jump to the sodden Dwarven Cleric to the God of Beer, and so forth...

 

[GlassJaw]

I don't have setting paralysis, but I absolutely have a campaign bucket list.

There are some many campaigns I want to run, or at least styles/genres I want to run campaigns in.

 

[atanakar]

That's my problem right there: I cant. Once I start world building, I know I'll spend 100 hours looking at maps, characters images, different pantheon ideas, new races, custom classes, reworking spells etc... I get very anxious with the whole setting thing. I know nobody at my tables cares, but I do, probably too much.

The other option is to create with the help of the players a strong story concept of the type of campaign that will motivate you. After that choose a setting(s) that fits the concept.

Example: During the 2e era we had this idea of ships that could skim10 feet over desert sand. We decided the players would be pirates in an Al-Qadim inspired setting. We used Spelljammer engine rules for the ships. But they couldn't go into space. We called it Pirates of the Red Desert. The most ruthless pirate of the desert was a Raksasha called Djela Dh'oul.

In other words, you need to know what the campaign will be about before you can select a published setting.