How did you experience the WotC Setting Search

[Carnifex]

I kinda watched the setting search drift by from a distance, as I had no particular interest in the extensive effort required for a reworking my favourite homebrew for a rather unlikely chance at a win. The whole thing struck me as a nice idea although I would have preferred a more interesting setting with less of an emphasis on shoehorning *everything* D&D into one normal-sized world, and the rather patchwork and unco-ordinated end result. I do like bits of the ideas behind Eberron but overall I just can't get excited about it and find the text and writing rather bland.

 

[Henry]

Canasta and Gin? My GOD, that's too much information for me!!!!

 

[diaglo]

i had a blast at Gen Con Indy 03 going to all the seminars and talks about the setting searches and the announcements of what to expect in Eberron.

also got to hang out with Rich Burlew.



the Howard the Duck setting i thought was the funniest one the WotC crew brought up as original but not what they wanted.

 

[der_kluge]

I went into the whole thing with a big "meh".

I didn't enter. I knew that I wouldn't be able to come up with anything truly original. I'm just not that overly imaginative, really.

 

[drothgery]

I figured entering would only be worth it if I won (I'd've had to take a leave of absense from work to finish the hundred-pager in a reasonable amount of time), and I was very unlikely to win. So I didn't do much more than hash around a few ideas. And, well, Keith put together something that I really like in Eberron.

 

[Mallus]

WELL, THAT WAS SILLY, WASN'T IT?

They're very nice pants...

Plus, it worked for Babar, didn't it?

 

[Mallus]

Hey, you've convinced me anyway. What do those damn geologists know, anyway?

We subscribed to the theory of Inebriated Design...

 

[KaintheSeeker]

My biggest wish out of it (I submitted like 5 concepts in as many weeks and had notes for most of them and enough leave days on the books at the time I wouldn't have had problems sitting down and doing the amount needed in time), is this.

That Wizards would have had a 'look' at the successful ideas they had considered. So those of us who are new to the whole process could ahve gone back and looked at what a 'good layout/presentation' was done. The 1 page entry was the hardest thing to come up with. How do you condense something that would ultimately be a hundred or so pages down to 1 page?

 

[Knight Otu]

I was sorely tempted to enter. I mean, a chance like that is not offered very often. In the end, it was mainly time constraints that kept me out - I figured I would never be able to finish the bigger documents on time, even if I prewrote them (as it happened, the Setting Search took longer than expected, so I might have had the time - but in retrospect, I know any setting I would have submitted would not have won).

Nonetheless, I followed the Search pretty closely. I saw when two runner ups of the top ten where revealed as "Golden Age" settings, and it was obvious to "everyone" that WotC only was interested in that type of setting, and "cheated every one else" by not saying so.

I saw the rumors of the winner being a psionics heavy setting when it was revealed that the Psionics Handbook would be revised.

And not to forget the complaints that Eberron broke the "no technology rule," which of course refers to a suggestion by (I think) Anthony Valterra that basically said "If you have widespread use of gunpowder, you are propably too far."

 

[MarkAHart]

I entered a couple times with different settings. On looking back on the 1-page initial entry, I didn't put the right "feel" to the description -- it was more informational, rather than trying to quickly paint a picture or evoke a feeling. Regardless of whether I wrote the 1-pager the way I did, or as "ad copy," the overall setting I was most pleased with was just not good enough to win...

Reading about the submissions of a few other people, I had a strong feeling that Wizards wanted a setting in which the staples of D&D would still find a place. I read about numerous "no elves" and "no gnomes" settings, but my sense was that these settings were too different to win the contest. My setting was too "traditional" and not original enough. Plus, when you compete against 10,999 other entries, you're competing against a LOT of very, very talented individuals.