How Detailed Would Your Ideal Published Campaign Setting Be?

[Mafro]

How much detail would your ideal published campaign setting have? Do you crave as many descriptions, histories, maps, characters, and such as possible or does that hijack your own creativity?

 

[Gothic_Demon]

Eberron really hits the mark for me, describing only a few key characters in detail, and often defining characters as no more than: Bob (Noble 6 / Rogue 1) It continues with nice maps with major setting locations on, but only really covers a bit about what they are like, leaving me to fill in the blanks as I need.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

As much as possible. Those settings are there to do my work for me, so let them to my work for me.

I can always change stuff I don't like, and describe my part of the world however I want, but the detailed approach means that the rest of the map doesn't have to be white spaces with "here there be dragons" on it.

I find that it isn't so much of a problem with fellow players, since even if they read and know the stuff, you can always tell them that everything is subject to the DMs whims, and that their characters won't know most of that stuff, anyway. So if someone whose character never was to (insert name here) and starts complaining about the lack of (insert landmark here) or how (insert NPT here) isn't what he's supposed to be, you can always counter that his character can't know what he is, so his plans or outlooks won't change because of that. And you can also work together with those players who make an effort to give their characters a background that uses the stuff from the books: He gives you a first draft, you tell him what parts he'll have to change because they don't fit into the campaign, and while you're at it look whether his ideas aren't better than the stuff in the books.

It's great, everybody wins.

 

[Seeker95]

Wanted "Other"

My campaign setting needs are the world, not the populace. Maps and History. No NPC stats please. Names will suffice.

 

[Li Shenron]

Ideally, the more detailed the better, but I have to say that in practice when a setting is very detailed (e.g. Forgotten Realms) it's harder for me to prepare/run a game since there is more stuff which I feel I have to keep in mind...

I don't buy the idea of a book that makes you "fill the blanks", e.g. gives you a dungeon, describe some rooms and leave others to be defined by you. Adding or changing I can do anyway, anytime I want, without the need for the book to tell me where and when.

 

[Jhaelen]

Eberron really hits the mark for me, describing only a few key characters in detail, and often defining characters as no more than: Bob (Noble 6 / Rogue 1) It continues with nice maps with major setting locations on, but only really covers a bit about what they are like, leaving me to fill in the blanks as I need.

I agree that ECS was a perfect example regarding the detail of background information. But the maps were not to my liking:
They don't show anything useful and the scale is completely off. The maps in Sharn - City of Towers were also mostly useless.

 

[Flynn]

I would have liked an "Other" category myself. I like maps as they are, generally a large overview map and maybe the occasional local map, but I wouldn't mind a few score NPC stat blocks, if nothing else than to reflect the general population of the world and meet my needs for generic encounters. All I need on the big guys is a capsule, anyway, so that I can design them to my whim, but when a fight breaks out, it's much nicer to have stat blocks already done for me. This is particularly suited for world-specific character types, such as specialist priests, mages and warriors.

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[Imruphel]

My preference is much like Forgotten Realms in Second Edition, lot and lots (and lots of details) but without stat blocks. All I want to know is, say, Imruphel the Lich (NE male Vaasan human lich Necromancer 18), the rest of the stat block I will do myself.

Stat blocks are now too long to be included in campaign-type products. As most of them are wrong anyway I would prefer that the space be taken with stuff I can use in the game in the future.

Oh, and no novels. I hate game world novels unless they explore historical events. I'll advance my own timeline, thank you.

 

[robertsconley]

My question would be what details about a campaign would save you the most time in preparing for a game and be most useful in running a game.

Tons of details could be generated but doesn't mean it would be the most useful or the most pertinent.

 

[WhatGravitas]

I agree that ECS was a perfect example regarding the detail of background information. But the maps were not to my liking:
They don't show anything useful and the scale is completely off. The maps in Sharn - City of Towers were also mostly useless.

Yep. Eberron was text-wise perfect... but I like to have a bunch of maps. Why? Because I only need a short, nice description (like Eberron) to get a feeling, a vibe for the setting, the atmosphere and the general context, but maps... well, nothing can beat a bunch of professionally made maps, because that's hard to do on your own (i.e. I'd like to have a good general map of each country... and a good map of every important city).