And yet you haven't responded to a single one of them, except to point out that "2e had a different version of Luigi".
So, since you seem incapable of actually refuting my points, why should I assume my points are incorrect? Just because someone else wrote a bigger book? A Haiku is still a poem, even though the Odyssey exists. So a setting can still be a setting that is put together and useful even in the face of some previous version having more pages written about it.
No. I have not said it can't be run. I've said it isn't enough to be worthwhile as a setting and would be a crapton of work for me to run it. I would literally have to create 99.99% of the setting.
Really? 99.99%? Even if I assume monsters are only 20% of a setting, are you really trying to claim that between the Monster Manual, Boo's Menagerie, and the Monsters of the Multiverse you STILL don't have enough monsters to cover that 20%?
Even with the write up of the Astral Elves, the story of the Gith (from Volos and Multiverse), the Hadozee, the Plasmoids, the Giff, The Thri-kreen (Monster Manual and Astral and Boo's) the tieflings, aasimar... I mean I could list races forever, and you still feel like you only have a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the available races?
You have over 14 example captains, multiple locations in a single city, and multiple plots and challenges, yet you don't even have 1% of a campaign?
I'm not saying there isn't work to be done, you need to figure out a handful of extra NPCs, but other than that? This setting is good to run multiple campaigns in.
No. It's a gate. If it was a door, it would have been called a door.
Right, and a throne shares nothing in common with a chair. Stop being facetious
It does. Did you not read the book or watch the movies?
It was the pool of water Gollum was swimming in when he got caught. I'm sure adventurers from all over Middle-Earth flock to see that pool Gollum was swimming in that one time he got caught, it is practically a national monument, everyone knows about it and it is highly important. It isn't like Gollum being caught hiding in a bush wouldn't have had the exact same outcome for the story.
Oh... wait... it absolutely would have, because the pool of water at the base of the waterfall wasn't notable or special at all. What mattered was Gollum getting caught. It is like claiming the corner of the Prancing Pony is particularly notable, because that's the corner Strider was sitting in.
Lore =/= setting. For example, the descriptions of monsters is not setting, yet it's a large part of the lore. The preferred tactics of monsters is another chunk of lore that is not setting. Only a small fraction of the lore write-up is setting.
So, setting is just what you say it is? And since you claim it doesn't exist and isn't part of the setting, it isn't?
Here is a fun fact, iron exports aren't setting either. It largely doesn't matter if a country is wealthy from iron exports or wheat exports.
Stating the opposite is not demonstrating the opposite. You've made a claim and I dispute it. This is purely opinion based, so...
And yet, I have provided evidence and examples. Meanwhile, you have just "nu'uh".
So, which of us has a stronger position I wonder?
That's not accurate. They strongly impact the quality of the setting. If you have a setting centered around one thing, ships in space, but have super crappy ships in space mechanics, the setting is going to suffer significantly.
So, if I made a Star Wars game, but uses these ship combat rules, then Star Wars is a bad setting? Bold take.