Is too much "kitchen sink" possible?

[Aldarc]

I'm in the process of revising one of my campaign settings. I am trying to incorporate as much materials as I can, so that I as a DM and my players can utilize as many options as possible. But the process (and the DM/player accommodation thread) had me wondering: is it possible for settings to be too much "kitchen sink"? By this I mean, at what point does incorporating the classes, races, and materials from other settings dilute or supersaturate the flavor/world of a campaign setting? How do you as a DM determine the points in which you just have to say "no" to adding anymore materials to a "kitchen sink" style setting? Eberron does "kitchen sink" well, but not every campaign setting can be Eberron.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I think it is possible to overdue the options, or more correctly you end up with one of two problems... either
{a} the world is shaped by the extreme variety and cosmopolitan atmosphere and you have no problem encountering a Troll in the farmers market. This makes it harder to exclaim 'it was a monster!' cause after all it might be the neighbors kid out for a walk.
or
{b} ignore the oddity of the PC and have the populace treat him/her/it as if its normal to have a Troll walk into the city... even tho him/her/it is the first one to do so since the invasion of the Troll King's army last year. This makes playing a Troll less enjoyable as you really are just a human with different stats.

IMC, which is set in Eberron, I apply the "kitchen sink with strings attached" rule. For instance, if you want to play a Dragon-born, no problem. However Dragon-born are all from the barbarian tribes on Argosean and only those exiled or on a religous quest ever leave... so which one are you? And by the way, most human will immediately fear you.
The same goes for any non-Khorviare native race or class. The world is not like the cantina at Mos Eisleys, altho there are some places that are. In many places you will stick out like a Wookie at an Ewok convention.... even when you are human.

When a new race/class is asked for, I figure out where it would logically fit into the world and how others would treat it. That said, at some times I do deny a class, for instance the current game doesn't allow War-Forged, mainly becuase they haven't been rediscovered yet by a group of heroes adventuring in Xendrik. But its possible that the group will be those heroes

So where do I draw the line? Its on a case by case basis on whether I can figure a place for the race/class/option to exist in the game world.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Yes, there can be to much of a kitchen sink mentality.

From a publisher's standpoint, this makes good business sense. More races and classes and countries and ......... makes for more books written and hopefully sold.

From a player's standpoint it is nice as they can play odder concepts, and explore something different from the dozens/hundreds of characters they have played before.

From a DM's standpoint, it can be a real trial. Shoehorning in one-off character concepts can be hard, and can impact the world, especially if a DM like me likes to have some kind of consistency in the world. Like withthe ANthromorphic creatures from Savage Species in 3.5. (to choose a pet peeve) If there is one, there should be more, which means they have to live somewhere and interact with someone and ........ It is a lot of work for a character who may die or be changed out in a couple weeks.

 

[Wormwood]

I'm probably in the minority, but I'd say no.

My "world" is the built upon the skeletal framework of the default 4e Points of Light. I've added my own stamp to it, added power players and over-arching plots, but essentially I've left it as generic as I could in order to enable my players to play just about anything they wish (as long as it's supported in the current rules).

 

[Hussar]

Dice4Hire - in a magical world, why does there need to be more than one? I find including a one off to be quite easy. Far easier than trying to incorporate an entire society into my setting just to accomodate one PC.

On the OP. Can there be too much kitchen sink? Oh sure. Certainly. It depends on what you want for your campaign. If there is a strong theme to the setting, or the setting is there to serve a specific campaign and no others, then there's really no need to have every possible option which can water down the theme signficantly.

OTOH, if you have a setting that you're going to use, and reuse for the foreseeable future, then it's probably ok. You can limit various options through geography if you feel the need. Thus you don't need to detail out Goliath (to pick an example) culture and society if you don't want to. The Goliath character just came in off the boat, or some such thing.

 

[BenBrown]

Oh gods yes. Too much kitchen sink is possible. In my view it's fairly frequent, but I realize others may have a different threshold for tolerance of kitchen-sink-ness.

If you stick too much nifty cool stuff in, it gets overwhelmed by the sheer volume of other nifty cool stuff, and can wind up being neither nifty nor cool.

 

[Crothian]

It depends how it is done. You can have a kitchen sink setting and still have things rare and unique. You don't have to have ever race imaginable living in every city.

 

[Umbran]

I don't think it is a matter of dilution, so much as an .... unfocusing.

A good campaign has themes. If you have too many elements tossed into the mix, you loose focus on particular themes and tropes.

 

[Glyfair]

e to say "no" to adding anymore materials to a "kitchen sink" style setting? Eberron does "kitchen sink" well, but not every campaign setting can be Eberron.

One thing to note is that the intent of the Eberron "kitchen sink" approach was that everything that is in D&D has a place in Eberron, not everything that is in D&D is in Eberron.

What does that mean? It means that if you want to put something from D&D into Eberron, there is a reasonable place for you to place it. It does not mean that everything in D&D exists in every Eberron campaign.

What does that mean in a homebrew? For the DM, that has little direct effect on what you want to add. However, he should generally try to fit in what the players want to add in some fashion. It won't necessarily fit where the player wants it to be, but it means that the general race or class can be from somewhere in Eberron.

 

[1of3]

So, why don't you ask your fellow player what they'd like. Or better yet, sit down with your fellow players and create the basic setting together?