Fantasy Campaign Setting: What do you want/not want?

[Elf Witch]

If I am going to buy a new setting I want it to be different than the ones already out there. It is just a reskinned version of other fantasy settings then even the setting junkie that I am makes me skip it.

I think history is very important and plenty of political intrigue and I don't mind a world that can be dark where there is racism and slavery is legal. I also want to see pantheons that are different why does every god of the dead tend to be evil why can't there be a good god of the dead. I like a world with a lot of NPCs but I like what Kingdoms of Kalamar did they don't stat them out so the DM can decide how to use them. There is a lot of reasons why Kingdoms of Kalamar is my favorite setting. One reason is that it has a static timeline it lays out the world and its past and there are tons of hooks for DMs to make the world theirs without worrying about new supplements coming along and changing everything. I also like that instead of a separate pantheon for every race there is only one. And the world is not a kitchen sink the atlas actually looks real and makes sense.

I think one of the biggest mistakes is to try and kitchen sink a fantasy world so that it has something for everyone. I think it is better to focus on one or two things it is a Hyberion age then do a Hyberion age if it is more a renaissance style world pretty much stick with that.

 

[DragonLancer]

Just what would appeal to me.

So what would you like to see in a new fantasy setting?

Generic. I want to be able to add adventures or material from my collection with ease.
Standard core races (humans, elves, dwarves, halfings, gnomes, half elf and half orc).
Dark ages/medieval rather than faux renaissance.
Good mix of terrain areas, from arctic through to desert and jungle.

What would you like not to see there?

No magic as technology.
No flying ships, firearms or steampunk.
No sci-fi technology or monsters.
Avoid adding new races, especially ones which are traditionally monster races.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Hooks - Bluffside was great with hooks, just a little history or odd fact about a place or NPC that can be used (or not) to geminate an adventure. It is not just a descrition of a place, it is something interesting that seeds adventure ideas in the GM and players alike. You just don't have Sleepy Hollow a quite litte hamlet on the borderlands but the Legend of the Headless Horseman.

 

[steenan]

Consistency over detail
I may - and will - add a lot of my own ideas to the setting. It does not have to be detailed, and sometimes even shouldn't, because too much detail does not leave blanks for me to fill. But the setting has to make sense, as already noted by several posters above. If something doesn't fit, or doesn't work as expected, it just shouldn't be there.
This counts for both logical consistency and for stylistic (genre) consistency. In some cases, one can be exchanged for the other. Settings that follow a well-defined genre may handwave some things that the genre usually handwaves.

Plot hooks over background facts
I don't need a lot of data in the setting book. I don't need population numbers, trade routes or five thousand years of history. Instead, the book must tell me what interesting adventures can be placed in given setting. It should only describe people, places and events that may be used to build a story around them.

Conflict and change over status-quo
I don't want a setting that is static, with powerful NPCs that keep it this way. I want a setting that, if I move it ten years forward, will look completely different. I want a setting full of dynamic conflicts, in both local and global scale. One that changes during the time when play begins - and characters can exploit the changes or oppose them.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Specificity. Nothing turns me off to setting material more quickly than hearing about how a world has "something for everyone" or an element can be "dropped right in to anyone's game". I want a setting to have a specific feel, a specific origin, and to be best for a specific style of game.

 

[Hussar]

Just a thought about plot hooks.

One of my absolute favourite RPG resource books is Foul Locales: Urban Blight from Mystic Eye Games. What it is is a series of about 20 adventure locations set in any city - there's a sewer scene, a gambling parlor, an inn, a cemetary, etc. Absolutely fantastic resource that I've used many times. Love it to death.

But, what I love about it is that it's a book that's meant to be used, rather than read. Each section comes with some background, of course, but, it's mostly there just to set the scene for when the PC's arrive.

I guess that's probably most what I want out of a campaign setting. I want a book (or books) that is meant to be used, rather than just read. Far too many setting books spend far too much pagecount on a bunch of inconsequential details that are never going to come up in a campaign. Who cares that the tailor is happily married and has two children? It's not important. Now, if the tailor is a secret cultist and is a serial killer that is turning his victims into a giant quilt? That's what I want.

 

[pogre]

I agree with the sentiment that you cannot please everyone. Get a strong theme you like and build a consistent, detailed world based on this.

If you want to go generic - make your campaign elements modular, so GMs can slide bits and pieces off into their own campaigns.

 

[Daztur]

Hmmmmmm, thinking over it I've only ever bought three setting supplements:
-1ed FR Grey Box.
-2ed Council of Wyrms.
-Vornheim.

The lesson of that I think is to either stuff about dragons to kids who think dragons are awesome or make a setting book that is very useful to people who aren't going to play in your setting. The FR Grey Box is full of stuff to mine for that and Vornheim is basically made with that in mind. Modular bits and pieces are good, stuff that can be mined for ideas are good, and stuff that helps people make their own setting better (Vornheim) are the best here. Because I've got my own setting and I'm never going to buy yours unless I can slot it into mine.

This means that stuff like:
-History except in the sense of cool specific events.
-Attempt to be systematic.
-High concept stuff that's not really tied to specific stealable locations.

Would be mostly useless to me. Don't give a country by country atlas, give a cool town and some vague rumors of cool stuff from distant lands.

 

[AslanC]

That's quite the interesting set of posts. I find use in all and am thankful to see them.

Very mature and well spoken set of posters you are, colour me impressed.

Please, continue.

Oh and...

There's nothing wrong with dwarves... Their eyes are more suited to unlit tunnels and chambers, so in the daytime they wear deep hoods that protect their sensitive eyes.

I am SO using that! Contact me via PM so I can be sure to give you a credit when I publish

 

[Hussar]

I'm not sure Electric Wizard could take credit for that. If you read Terry Pratchett, that's an idea in there. Great minds and all that.