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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8861649" data-attributes="member: 7006">I would 100% rather have this type of setting book than any other.Curse of Strahd is my favorite 5E setting/adventure book because it is a constrained space with all the primary locations within it defined and filled with stuff.  No matter where the players go, if they come upon an "encounter location" it gives me exactly what the plot hooks are, a map of the area, and a listing of the creatures and events that will occur there.  And almost all of the areas are connected to other areas, and the story of the adventure can and will take the players there-- but there's no one set path to get there... they may find any number of different orders of operations to arrive at these places depending on where they have gone and who they have met.But in addition to that specificity... there is also plenty of blank areas of the map that would allow me to add something there if I wanted to... but that would be entirely my choice.  If I don't, then that area remains empty-- it's not a location that the setting/adventure defines and places on the map as some sort of important landmark but then gives no indication of what it's there for or why the players should be interested in it.  I don't need that kind of stuff.  If you're going to put a village on the map... then detail the village.  If you're going to put a ruined gatehouse on the map, then tell me why it's there and put an encounter there to make it useful to have.  Otherwise... leave the area empty and I can then choose for myself later on "You know... I have this gatehouse encounter from this other product that might be cool and fits the theme of the adventure... maybe I'll place that here on the map!"Another somewhat cool adventure/setting location was Lost Mines of Phandelver.  It had a good number of the locations of the area fleshed out, which I appreciated.  However... they also still included areas like Old Owl Well that were basically a "named" area and gave a basic idea of what you could encounter there and they told us that the story of the adventure recommended the players go there... but then gave us no specifics about it.  An area that could have had a fully fleshed out dungeon, but the adventure didn't supply it.  That's less useful to me.  Me personally... I'd rather they just not include that location at all-- and not make it a location to go to as part of the story of the adventure-- and then let me decide if I want to put something there myself.  And this is exactly why when I ran Lost Mines over the pandemic I also picked up Icespire Peak and the 4E Neverwinter Campaign Setting book... because when you combined all three products together it gave me the much more filled-in setting area that I was looking for.  And that allowed me to have any number of complete locations ready to throw out there as hooks if one of the players mentioned something about wanting to go find 'X'.My current campaign is Mythic Odysseys of Theros... and while I love the Greek-inspired setting and the names, peoples, gods, and concepts of the entire land... the fact that there's really nothing actually fleshed out except for the one starter adventure in the book has made things less than ideal.  Yes, I've collected a whole heap of Greek-inspired material from DMs Guild and tried to adapt older products and articles I own to use as the locations that the setting book mentions and talks about... but they are not designed specifically for the setting and I have to do a lot more jerry-rigging than I would prefer (and a lot of the maps I end up using do not look Greek much at all unfortunately which takes away from of the setting feeling.)  I also find it less than thrilling the fact that I can't seed the adventure the players are currently in with hooks from the stories of other locations on the map because none of those locations are fleshed out and I'm not about to try and fill in that complete and entire map of Theros with "stuff" just on the off-chance the players mention something about them.  So instead... I'm throwing down the railroad tracks in front of the train, only creating locations just prior to the party arriving to them.  Which is less inspiring to me.Give me a smaller area that is completely detailed for the adventure path the book is giving me... and then let me decide if I want to fill it up more just to give it more locations or flavor.  But don't give me areas that are important to the story but then make me have to create them.  I'd just make up my own setting altogether if I wanted to do that.</blockquote>

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