Is too much "kitchen sink" possible?

[Jhaelen]

Definitely!

I think it is extremely difficult to create a kitchen-sink setting without it feeling 'diluted' or 'unfocused'. The best settings are good because they concentrate on what's essential to get the theme across, e.g. Dark Sun.

Eberron is unusual in that it is definitely a kitchen-sink setting, but can still work very well. However a DM using the setting would be well advised to focus on a subset of the available power groups and regions, imho.

 

[Mallus]

As a "kitchen-sink" fan, I think the answer is an unequivocal "yes". Sometimes too much is indeed too much. However, one alternative to paring down the number of fantastical things in a setting is to give it a few unifying elements.

All settings benefit from unifying elements. There needs to be a relatively small list of things the players can get to know. It's a bit of a paradox, but if there's too much to discover about a setting, there might as well be nothing to discover at all. Player/explorers in imaginary places need a manageable amount of detail they can realistically learn. Too much information overload works against that goal.

To employ a crude Star Trek example, while countless alien races exist in the universe, there's one Federation, and it's pretty monolithic (despite the heroic efforts of DS9's writers to muddy it up a little). Likewise, on the antagonists side, there are only a few major players (always the Borg, sometimes the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians).

So while on one hand ST is a textbook "kitchen-sink" universe, it's also defined by a small number of major institutions and conflicts that make it pretty easy for a viewer to get the hang of it.

Note my objection to too much kitchen-sinkiness has nothing to do with the fields of history, anthropological, zoology, social psychology or related whatnot. They're rooted strictly in good advice to authors. You can't expect most readers to digest and manage an overabundance of detail.

 

[Barastrondo]

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.

Yeah, basically this. The possibilities offered by a "kitchen sink" world don't have to mean that you have a kitchen sink specific campaign setting. Earth is a pretty big kitchen sink, but you don't have to put Aztecs and Southern Song Dynasty travelers in a Robin Hood historical game. (Conversely, you might find you enjoy the game just fine even if someone asks to play a Moor.)

I like worlds that approach the kitchen sink mentality (though even then with some limitations; by all means give me six cultures of dwarves instead of six different monoculture races that are all faintly dwarvish), and thematically tight nations or provinces for adventures. If an entire world is too thematically tight, it's just a bit too close to a Planet of Hats for my taste.

 

[Tsyr]

I can't really say "yes" strongly enough. I'm a very firm believer in tightly focused game settings.

Not that Rifts doesn't hold a special place in my heart, but it's definitely not my preferred gaming style.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Not that Rifts doesn't hold a special place in my heart, but it's definitely not my preferred gaming style.

Exactly.

Rifts can be fun. But I wouldn't want all my games to be Rifts.

Kitchen sinks can be fun. But if you do it too much, it loses it's fun.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Not too much kitchen sink - if you choose which dishes you're washing at one time that is....

 

[Skallgrim]

I really think that this is for you and your players to determine. I can easily see (and would probably run, if I had the time for a second campaign) a Lankhmar campaign with one race (Human) and one power source (Martial). Same goes for Conan.

I can also see the appeal of an Eberron or Planescape setting where your Race is just another customizing option, like your clothes, battlecry, and accent. I don't think either is wrong, in any way, unless they conflict with your expectations (or the expectations of your group).

If someone wants to play the "odd man out" with a sketchy/questionable/mistrusted race (say, a Bugbear), it's gonna be hard if the other characters are a Drow, a Kalashtar, a Half-Orc, and a Revenant. If the DM wants to run a "Aaaaah, Monsters!" campaign, having a wizard with Necromancy, a Minotaur Barbarian, a Duergar Battlemind, a Shadar-Kai Assassin, and a Tiefling Warlock is going to pose problems.

See what people want to play, and see if you can develop a setting that will accommodate it, or let people know what your setting can accomodate, and see if you can help them generate characters they will be excited about playing in that settting.

That was a long way of not really answering this question.

 

[Edgewood]

I take the approach that some detail is good if it doesn't directly impact what you want in the campaign. If you try to include the 'kitchen sink" you run into the danger of writing yourself into a corner.

Focus is important in any campaign so that your players become more center stage. Throw everything in there and any theme you try to come up with, will be washed out.