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<blockquote data-quote="Unwise" data-source="post: 7657613" data-attributes="member: 98008">I know full well that I am jaded and unreasonable here, but for me, all settings fall into two categories A) Boringly Generic or B) Short-lived Gimmicks. I am just not sure what they could do to make this grumpy old man happy.&quot;Gimmicks&quot; are often made by either removing something from the setting, e.g. water, gods, humans etc, or ramping up an aspect, undead everywhere, sauron won, post-apocolyptic, higher technology etc. For me, these are briefly interesting, but lose their appeal too quickly to run a long campaign in. Although they are briefly inspiring, I find they limit my options, forcing me to build adventures consistent with that constrained world. I feel that they take away more than they add.&quot;Boring Generic&quot; fantasy realms have a lot going for them. As a DM I can pull anything into it with little explanation. If I come up with any plot I can use it. I don't have to worry about not playing my underwater adventure because it is on Athas, or not running an adventure base on a particular ethnic mythos. On the other side, this campaign as a whole can end up feeling just like the last one. At least more so than in a gimmicky world.My players feel the same, if I say we are playing in Middle-Earth/Kara'Tur/Ancient Greece or something, they will say &quot;oh, so we can't play X, Y or Z?&quot;, they just see it limiting their options. If we play a Ravenloft style game, they soon get sick of undead and gothic monsters and want to see something different.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Unwise, post: 7657613, member: 98008"] I know full well that I am jaded and unreasonable here, but for me, all settings fall into two categories A) Boringly Generic or B) Short-lived Gimmicks. I am just not sure what they could do to make this grumpy old man happy. "Gimmicks" are often made by either removing something from the setting, e.g. water, gods, humans etc, or ramping up an aspect, undead everywhere, sauron won, post-apocolyptic, higher technology etc. For me, these are briefly interesting, but lose their appeal too quickly to run a long campaign in. Although they are briefly inspiring, I find they limit my options, forcing me to build adventures consistent with that constrained world. I feel that they take away more than they add. "Boring Generic" fantasy realms have a lot going for them. As a DM I can pull anything into it with little explanation. If I come up with any plot I can use it. I don't have to worry about not playing my underwater adventure because it is on Athas, or not running an adventure base on a particular ethnic mythos. On the other side, this campaign as a whole can end up feeling just like the last one. At least more so than in a gimmicky world. My players feel the same, if I say we are playing in Middle-Earth/Kara'Tur/Ancient Greece or something, they will say "oh, so we can't play X, Y or Z?", they just see it limiting their options. If we play a Ravenloft style game, they soon get sick of undead and gothic monsters and want to see something different. [/QUOTE]

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