Good "generic" campaign setting

The Wilderlands re-release. All you really need is the Player's Guide to the Wilderlands, although the City State of the Invicible Overlord re-issue adds a lot. IMHO, all that the box set really adds to the Player's Guide are long lists of possible encounters, which can be fun but are hardly necessary.
 

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Thurbane said:
It's odd, but I'd only heard bad things about Kalamar in the past...

Kalamar is much less "fantastic" than many popular settings in that most of its economics, social systems, and the like are modeled on real world theory. Logic is anathema to a large number of fantasy roleplayers, I've discovered. For those who truly dig an attempt at verisimilitude, however, it's the bomb :D
 

jdrakeh said:
Logic is anathema to a large number of fantasy roleplayers, I've discovered.

I think it's less that than logic in a fantasy setting is often found to be "not worth the trouble." If logic and real world economics, social systems, etc. work is done behind the scenes, that's good. If it adds to my workload as a DM, then I only want enough to not break my player's suspension of disbelief. Any more than that I don't find worth the effort (although that much is completely worth the effort).
 

Glyfair said:
If logic and real world economics, social systems, etc. work is done behind the scenes, that's good.

In my experience, a vast majority of gamers rally against logic implemented in this manner, as well ;)

If it adds to my workload as a DM, then I only want enough to not break my player's suspension of disbelief.

Generally I agree. The good news is that I haven't found too many games that overdo logic (that said, Rolemaster comes to mind, as it has taken logic to some absurd extremes that border on satire).
 

jdrakeh said:
In my experience, a vast majority of gamers rally against logic implemented in this manner, as well ;)

Wait, one other thing for me is when it reduces the fun of the setting. Glorantha fits the bill to me. It used to be a fun setting. The amateur social scientists and anthropologists (and a few professionals) took over the settings feel and it lost the fun factor.
 

Glyfair said:
It used to be a fun setting.

And for many folks, it still is. But I digress. . . .

The amateur social scientists and anthropologists (and a few professionals) took over the settings feel and it lost the fun factor.

This is the phenomena that I was talking about. IME, for a lot of fantasy roleplayers, "more believeable" equals "less fun" -- or in other words "Logic is anathema to a large number of fantasy roleplayers" ;)
 

jdrakeh said:
This is the phenomena that I was talking about. IME, for a lot of fantasy roleplayers, "more believeable" equals "less fun" -- or in other words "Logic is anathema to a large number of fantasy roleplayers" ;)

I think it's less a reaction to logic, and more a reaction to "overthinking."

To use my example of Glorantha (because it is my example of something I consider now overthought): Apple Lane is one of the classic modules of any RPG system. It has everything needed to introduce players to the game; a coming of age adventure, a town adventure and a dungeon crawl adventure. I adapted it to D&D to run my first 3E adventure.

However, Greg has now decided that as Sartar has developed that it doesn't "make sense" or fit in Glorantha. He's come up with a tribal area where Apple Lane doesn't make sense. Effectively it's been "retconned" because it doesn't make sense to exist in the setting, even though it's an iconic element of it. That's overthinking.
 

loki44 said:
Seconding both The Wilderlands and Harn, but they are very different. Harn is extremely detailed in terms of history, culture, economics, you name it, but it isn't D&D specific. The Wilderlands are extremely rich in plot hooks and cover the gamut of possible locales but the development of the land is left largely to the individual DM.
This is ironic as you are playing in a campaign world called "The wilderlands of Harn" :p
 


Actually, if he doesn't have a "plot" worked out yet (arc, whatever) I'd suggest just using the Red Hand of Doom (a module). It has a "world" (just a Vale about 200 by 100 miles or something).

Reasons:
* Quickish read -- 128 pages total.
* Comes with a plot/adventure (from levels 6-12) that is _really_ quite good (and different).
* Fair bit of on-line support (maps, etc.) for free.

The module itself is a bit difficult to run (not a dungeon stomp) but very doable with the experiance of running the game from levels 1-5...

Mark
 

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