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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark Plemmons" data-source="post: 1594515" data-attributes="member: 1287">I can't.  Oh, not because they're right, but because they BELIEVE they are right.  It's all a matter of personal preference and taste.Obviously, I disagree with them.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  But "bland" means many different things to many people, so it's hard to give examples of WHY the KoK setting is not bland, unless you know for sure where the other person is coming from.  Maybe they wanted flying ships and armies of dragons ravaging the world, or maybe they don't like Tolkien-esque humanoid races.Personally, I'm a strong believer that while nearly any campaign setting suffices for a single adventure, the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting will continue to be an engaging game world to explore long after the novelty of the "tourist bazaars" wears thin.  I think the fact that this is Kalamar's 10-year anniversary is proof enough of that.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />It's usuable for any kind of medieval fantasy adventure you could desire, and it's based on realism.  So the longer you play in it, the more it feels like a real place.Okay, this is embarrassing.  That was my post about the mileage, but apparently I was having a bad brain day.  (In fact, I've already fixed it.)  The actual setting map is about 3,000 miles across.Well, that was the choice of the creators, but here's my take on it.Most fantasy settings focus heavily on the nonhuman races, leaving the humans as a mostly generic race or relying on exact duplicate human cultures from Earth.  Even then, they're not really emphasized - just kind of tucked away in the back of the book somewhere.  This makes humans dull and, well, bland - to use the term from question #1.However, the humans of Tellene are nearly as different as the humanoid races, and the importance of the humans is the first topic discussed in both the KoK campaign setting sourcebook and the Player's Guide.  The humans have character, they have identity, they have different customs, political alliances, religious beliefs, etc etc etc.  They're really fun to play!Of course, humanoids exist - like the two hobgoblin kingdoms, the dwarven cities, elven cities, gnome protectorates, halfling influence in many human cities, and so on.  But the humans are the bad boys.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />First off, I'd say that it's because it's only been about 1,000 years since the humans first began to spread.  True, they breed and expand faster than most humanoids, but that's still not much time in the grand scheme of things.Also, I personally don't think magical healing should really be that prominent.  Oh, there are good clerics that handle that kind of thing, but they stay pretty busy spreading their religion while fighting their opposition evil religions.  So except for the religion that really focuses on healing the sick, they don't go out and cure every farmer who gets gored by a bull.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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