Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 5917715" data-attributes="member: 11999">I think that D&D should absolutely have a core setting that is lightly detailed in the DMG and/or PHB.  It provides a ready-made context for new players to set their adventures, and also provides an example for DMs who wish to build their own settings.I've been playing and DMing for 25 years, and while I've toyed around with creating my own setting several times, I find that I can't be bothered.  I've played in a number of homebrewed worlds, and frankly 99% of them aren't appreciably different from Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Mystara, or any other medieval fantasy setting.  Different names, different maps, same general feel.  It often seems that only the DM really enjoys it while the players wish the DM could just stick with names that they can remember and pronounce.A lightly-detailed setting gives a nice framework for new or busy DMs to get started but still make it their own.  Much like the core rules themselves.Having come at it from both angles, it's far easier to ignore some names and default setting information in the core books when using another setting than it is to have to invent that stuff.  DMs shouldn't have to buy another book just so that some DMs don't have to ignore a few pages of default setting spread.The implied setting of 4e (Nentir Vale) was an example of applying the "Points of Light" philosophy of setting design.  It was used to create a coherent, default story context in which to place the myriad of monsters and magic that D&D has lifted from a variety of literary and mythological sources.The fact that 4e has this implied setting in no way forced anything upon the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, or Dark Sun.  That designers at WotC chose to do so is another matter entirely.  The Forgotten Realms has become such an incoherent kitchen-sink fantasy setting that most of the core 4e concepts could have been dropped in as minor elements without another Realms-shattering event.  These elements were added to Eberron fairly unintrusively.  They took a different approach with Dark Sun; since they were resetting the timeline they did a bit of re-imagining of the setting and used some new core 4e elements where they thought they would fit in.  After all, they did more or less cut the whole divine power source from the setting.The Nentir Vale is to 4e what The World of Greyhawk is to AD&D.  It's a setting crafted to highlight the D&D game system for which it was designed.  It provides a context for adventures and campaigns and shows how game concepts can be integrated with the world.  A number of "traditional" D&D game elements have distinct origins in the World of Greyhawk:  druids, drow, named spells, artifacts, named magic items, The Great Wheel cosmology, the dual-axis alignment system, and more.  They've been a part of the game for so long (and have always been a part of AD&D) that they were generally part of any new settings created for the game.I dislike many things about 4e, but the core setting is one of the things that they absolutely nailed, in my opinion.</blockquote>

Verification