D&D General Generic: is it Good or Bad?

Theo R Cwithin · Jan 13, 2020

When I hear "generic," I more or less interpret it to mean "free of canon requirements". In other words, it can be slotted in most anywhere with little headache. I suppose that might mean uninteresting, but I don't think that's necessarily the case. A work can be "generic" and still be evocative, clever, useful, or whatever.

Overall, I consider that a good thing.

Fenris-77 · Jan 13, 2020

The answer is both. Generic is fine if that was the goal. for example, a rule for a generic rules engine that's supposed to be dressed up in different ways depending on genre or whatever. The more targeted and specific the use of that rule (or whatever) is supposed to be the lazier generic looks.

Parmandur · Jan 13, 2020

Depends on context, but for RPGs a decidedly good thing.

Tropes help role-playing. Certainly they are not needed, but most people will get into it easier with hooks they can hang onto, like "I'm Jack Sparrow teaming up with Elvis and Harry Potter tonight Nazi's in the back alleys of Mina's Tirath."

Hence why Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and such are so popular. Also, why Exandria from Critical Role is so good: it is blessedly generic, free of sales gimmicks trying to artificially create a market distinctive.

MonkeezOnFire · Jan 13, 2020

I said it's good as ultimately generic products are the easiest to adapt to home brew campaigns which is useful to me personally.But ultimately I think the edition needs a good balance. Once a generic baseline is established it's overall healthy to start serving wider tastes by offering variations and twists.

If this thread is motivated by the discussion surrounding the announcement of the Wildemount setting then in the interest of balance I think it's a good thing. After all the last two settings we got were Eberron and Ravnica which focus on a more specific aesthetic replicating a later time period through magic and technology.

jayoungr · Jan 13, 2020

It can be a good thing, but when I hear it used, I assume it's meant it in a derogatory sense.

The Crimson Binome · Jan 13, 2020

As with most adjectives, it depends on context. You mention adventures, classes, and campaign settings.

I'm not sure how you can divorce an adventure from its setting. It seems like an adventure would require a lot of assumptions in order to run as intended, and those assumptions wouldn't hold across settings. In that context, a generic adventure is incomplete and not very useful.

A generic class makes even less sense. What kind of abilities could it have, if it doesn't represent anything specific. You need to have some sort of specific thing that you're trying to model, in order to figure out what the class is. A generic class would be impossible.

A generic campaign setting sees much of the same problems as a generic adventure, but moreso. If you aren't giving us specifics, then what's the point? This basically functions as a lack of a concrete campaign setting.

iserith · Jan 13, 2020

I have unspecific feelings about the word "generic."

Parmandur · Jan 13, 2020

Saelorn said:
As with most adjectives, it depends on context. You mention adventures, classes, and campaign settings.

I'm not sure how you can divorce an adventure from its setting. It seems like an adventure would require a lot of assumptions in order to run as intended, and those assumptions wouldn't hold across settings. In that context, a generic adventure is incomplete and not very useful.

A generic class makes even less sense. What kind of abilities could it have, if it doesn't represent anything specific. You need to have some sort of specific thing that you're trying to model, in order to figure out what the class is. A generic class would be impossible.

A generic campaign setting sees much of the same problems as a generic adventure, but moreso. If you aren't giving us specifics, then what's the point? This basically functions as a lack of a concrete campaign setting.

Generic products help tremendously with DM prep time and player buy-in. That's why the most popular products, the most useful products, are ge Eric TTRPG material.