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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nopantsyet" data-source="post: 176212" data-attributes="member: 3109">what would i pay $100 for?what would i pay $100+ for.  here it is, my $100 answer.  i've been working on a campaign setting the past few weeks and the more i get into it the more i realize i have to add.  and it's only the size of  australia...not the whole eurasian continent.every time i work on some part i go through this, i wish i were a cartographer, i wish i were an artist; i wish i knew a dozen languages, could write like herodatus, and imagine like tolkein.here's what i would pay big bucks for:  do it for me.  i mean an extensive and thorough extensive treatment of a highly original campaign setting.  not something that is introducing rules for this and prestige classes for that and eighty seven new spells and thirty three new feats.i mean a set of several matching hardback and softcover volumes of everything about the setting:  geography, climate, politics, history, religion, culture.  with plenty informational flavor text--it must be well written.  don't just show me a timeline.  give me exerpts from histories, legends, and mythologies.  don't just give facts, give npcs (living and dead) versions and opionions.  don't just create a world canon; give me world apocrypha--the more the better.  give me the prophecies of zantar the one-eyed madman who lit his hair on fire and uttered grim foretellings.  give me the unutturable ravings of Stephihah the whore-prophetess.it should include cities of various sizes.  when you're selling a city supplement, it has to be a big city for people to buy it.  not so with the uber-product.  but why not include the village of thorax, so named because it was build in the overturned shell of a gargantuan beetle.not only that, but there must be variety, but on a manageable scale.  FR tries to be everything to everyone.  this should be organic and interesting.it cannot just be about the biggest and best or most representative.  there must be npcs of all levels and types with personality.  include minor flavor details like how the crippled beggar lost his legs in the service of a dark god who then abandoned him despite the dark oaths that were made, and how all of the local churches shun him and will not help him because of that.have a creative theology.  i know the history of humankind has not been so creative in its actual worship, but not all religions have to make sense, have game-real gods, or be a rehash of some known pantheon.  work with morality, what makes evil evil?  why is good usually not as good as it portends to be?  now make that part of the theology.never include the text: "adventure hook."  if you create a thorogh setting, the hooks will come.  but it should include a few adventures the dm can make use of.  not a mega-adventure, it's more the side-quests and mini adventures that break up an otherwise fluid campaign.  but make sure they are not level-dependent--it's easy enough to present multiple scalings of the combat opponents so the adventure can be dropped in at any level.all maps should be in duplicate, one marked version for the dm, and an unmarked version for players.  all in loose-leaf form for easy perusal.  i have so many maps that i would use if only i could remember to get them laminated because they're so damned big and i don't want them to break at the folds.also, it should have lots of loose-leaf art, both full-color and b&w for showing players.  loose leaf so i don't have to crack the binding of the book to show it to the players.all player information should be in its own volume, available separately so the players don't get the eighteen volumes of crunchy bits meant for dms only.and most of all, it cannot be forgotten realms revisited.  (not to bash fr--i'm a fan.)there are some creative settings coming out, but they suffer from too many new prcs and feats that they don't come together as a setting.  this must take setting creation to a whole new level.so what's the difference between doing this all together instead of a series of books?  individual books must have a solid focus; there's no room to include the comprehensiveness as well as  flavor and details that make a campaign setting really work.  also, this stuff should be a good read.  i like FRCS, but it's not a good read.  it suffers from trying to cram too much information into a limited space and you can tell it got cut, abridged, and edited to death.  otoh when i bought my first shadowrun rulebook, i read the first 20 pages over and over; that was short, but it created such a great feel for the setting.granted a campaign setting is not a novel.  but it should contain many of the same elements that we love about fantasy.  reading it should evoke the same wonder that reading a good fantasy novel does.  it should inspire that novel in our minds so we can recreate that sense for our players as they become acquainted with the world through the game.anyway, i'd pay big bucks for that.  hell, if i had the time i'd create that myself.  once again, i applaud you guys who are doing this.</blockquote>

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