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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DMZ2112" data-source="post: 5458952" data-attributes="member: 78752"> This.  I’d also add Forgotten Realms to the list; I always found the copious lore associated with that place to be daunting. Playing D&D is like writing fanfiction. …Bear with me, this is relevant. The reason why some fandoms have large creative communities and some don’t is that not all fandoms are conducive to filler stories – any setting can spark the imagination, but one has to have a certain empty-space-to-content ratio in order to spark creativity. D&D works the same way.  Setting supplements should give us a map of the major settlement in the area described, and a less-detailed overall map.  The map of the town should be detailed enough that the DM doesn’t have to guess at how one gets from the keep to the docks, or where the market is, or whether there’s another inn after the characters get thrown through the window of their first one.  Similarly, the area map ought to show roads, rivers, forests, and the spatial relationship between important landmarks. The Thieves’ Guild might be behind a rusty steel door at the end of a dark alley in the Wharfs District, or the party may set up camp beside a crystal-clear waterfall and pool that has collected in some mossy ancient ruins, but the DM is already going to go out of his way to describe these details.  The setting materials don’t have to.  What we need to know is how far it is from here to there, whether our feet are going to get wet along the way, and how there and here tie into the larger themes of the setting itself.   Metaplot is the glue that holds a setting together, but we also need to feel like we can ignore it without consequence when necessary.  The Thieves' Guild might be acting in secret against the great wyrm dragon plotting to enslave the entire valley, but that doesn't matter when you're trying to fence a brooch.  The ruins are undoubtedly from an ancient civilization that is relevant to the destiny of the world as a whole, but it's okay for them to just look pretty for one night. It’s the gaps between the landmarks that draw us in, with the help of the DM.  That’s why the ‘points of light’ concept had so much promise, but it’s not just the wilderness between the towns and cities that is untracked, it’s also the wilderness between the dungeons.  Where are the Caves of Chaos?  Somewhere in the Borderlands, presumably.  Where is White Plume Mountain?  In the Great Swamp, south of the hut of Thingizzard (beware her potions!), southeast of the lair of Dragotha, and north of ‘Town.’ Mayor Mayorsson of Town must be a pretty nervous individual.</blockquote>

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