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Message: <blockquote data-quote="trix" data-source="post: 263805" data-attributes="member: 5337">It depends on the aspect and instance in which that origionallity manifests itself.  To say that nothing 'origional' will sell well is too general.To claim that Dark Sun didnt sell well because it was origional and the related psychological ... is bollox.In RPGs, it comes down to how long it takes to build the storyline, how easy it is to convey awe inspiring tranquility/beauty/fear.  I would be playing Dark Sun if it is possible to play/GM at the level of RPGing required.  Which is just about impossible.The more awe inspiring the setting requires awe-inspiring adventures if it is to sell successfully.Regretably, re: Dark Sun, its usually the gladiator type politics.  Its origionallity brutally limits the playability within the world by demanding either extreme role-playing or epic level campaigning of armines - in which case you mightaswell play warhammer/whatever.1) Being Origional and being Alien (which is origional but unplayable) is quite different.2) Being an Awe-inspiring setting (Planescape/Planescape), typically demands awe-inspiring adventures.  This is quite difficult.  GMs are not professional novellists.  The GM cannot give out chapters of behind-the-scenes happenings and intrigue.When it comes to something like spelljammer, it suffers in the same way as Dark Sun.  The setting might brutally limit the playability within the setting.  The justification is the island-effect.  An island within the middle of space is expected to be the horrific dwelling of some enemy/ally.  If the DM mentions it, there is something to slay.The weakness within spelljammer is a magnification of the weaknesses in roleplaying... in general.  One cannot do justice within the spelljammer setting because its the small finer points, the day to day happenings within an intresting world which make it intresting, but are impossible to achieve within a 6 hour gaming session.Those intresting points are achievable within novels, but not in roleplaying.This thread with bearing towards the WotC setting search.  Yes, I'd imagine they'd reject darksun and spelljammer and they dont want a yellow room painted blue.Lets take the worst-case-bland scenario.They would take the realms, kill all the known plot anchors (thay, elminter, sisters, drow, waterdeep, desert, etc, bleh).  They'd replace them with pervasive social structures that change the adventure triggers and continue changing as much as possible.The key point is that one shouldnt be looking at alien worlds, because they're difficult to roleplay.  Instead, their origional anchor would be something that has some pervasive structure in which there are many more adventure triggers.That would make GMing alot easier and improve the players enjoyment within the realm.Spell Jammer has the problem that 'defending the ship', is the same as 'defending the caravan'.   Pillaging the citidel is the same as pillaging... the citidel.The big difference is that being in a 'spelljammer' world one might feel compelled to be space-faring throughout the entire campaign.  That wouldnt have to be so, and infact, its almost silly, but anyway.Enjoy,-Tim</blockquote>

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