How do you use settings/worlds?
- Thread starter Imaro
- Start date
Usually I stick pretty close to what's printed (just dropping a few of my NPCs into the setting, ignoring material I don't have/don't like, etc.), but with my newest PBP I'm not keeping much beyond the map and the cosmology from Eberron.
The Cardinal
First Post
bought settings (esp. D&D stuff): as written, though player actions may change the *future* details of the setting - I never buy settings with meta-plots and/or Über-NPCs
I only use settings that I plagiar... design by myself and with the help of my friends. There's no canon to adhere to. Maps are usually hard to come by, as are detailed histories. However, anecdotes usually abound.
All I want to do with a setting is entertain. When players are interested in contributing, I'll incorporate their input. What I try to give isn't so much a base, it's more like tone, a few motifs, maybe a handful of secondhand recurring themes.
Which isn't to say I skimp on setting details. I invent scads. Some of them are even relevant to the action. And that's a special source of pleasure for me as DM; when I correctly guess which details will end up entertaining my players. When I succeed at separating the wheat from the setting-porn.
I try not to lose sight of the overall objective; providing a night of fun for my friends. Setting fidelity is only a means to that end.
All I want to do with a setting is entertain. When players are interested in contributing, I'll incorporate their input. What I try to give isn't so much a base, it's more like tone, a few motifs, maybe a handful of secondhand recurring themes.
Which isn't to say I skimp on setting details. I invent scads. Some of them are even relevant to the action. And that's a special source of pleasure for me as DM; when I correctly guess which details will end up entertaining my players. When I succeed at separating the wheat from the setting-porn.
I try not to lose sight of the overall objective; providing a night of fun for my friends. Setting fidelity is only a means to that end.
the Jester
Legend
I don't use canned settings, but I have no problem making changes to my homebrew. Often these are caused by the pcs in one way or another; sometimes they aren't.
Raven Crowking
First Post
It wouldn't seem very realistic, IMHO, or very fun if the world didn't change!
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Nothing's sacred. Especially if the players have read the campaign setting.
Woas
First Post
I voted number 3.
For the most part I use just the basics. For example, these days I have been playing Arcana Evolved which comes with a setting/game world: the Diamond Throne. However, we don't use that setting or the history that it involves. But I use all the races, classes and general 'cultural' info (to help people roleplay their characters) and kept much of the same themes from it (dragons and giants are still on unfriendly terms. Sibeccai still "owe" the giants and so forth).
So for me its just a base.
For the most part I use just the basics. For example, these days I have been playing Arcana Evolved which comes with a setting/game world: the Diamond Throne. However, we don't use that setting or the history that it involves. But I use all the races, classes and general 'cultural' info (to help people roleplay their characters) and kept much of the same themes from it (dragons and giants are still on unfriendly terms. Sibeccai still "owe" the giants and so forth).
So for me its just a base.
