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<blockquote data-quote="GreatLemur" data-source="post: 3457438" data-attributes="member: 28553">Would you really say that Kindom Hearts achieves the sort of sythesis-of-kitchen-sink-into-coherant-whole result that you're talking about?&nbsp; From what I've seen of those games, they always struck me as a worst-case scenario of When Media Conglomerates Attack!, somehow massaged into good gameplay by some very professional game developers.&nbsp; Conceptually, the whole thing is just unbearable, no matter how good the gameplay is.&nbsp; I ain't particularly a fan of Disney or Squaresoft characters, but I can't get past how completely wrong it seems to combine them, or how illogically it was done.But that's a completely unhelpful tangent from your original question.&nbsp; So, getting back on topic, I'd suggest that the short answer is that, no matter how diverse the content of a setting is, the tone can probably be made somewhat unified (i.e., Eberron is full of every damn spell, class, feat, and monster that WotC has published, but it's all presented in a high-action, pulp/modernist-fantasy kind of way).&nbsp; Also, I feel that internal consistency is hugely important.&nbsp; If different elements of your setting suggest different cosmologies or fundamental rules, you need to find a way to iron out those discrepancies.&nbsp; (I'd call the Marvel and D.C. comics universes pretty glaring examples of internal inconsistency.&nbsp; Things like time travel, alternate realities, the afterlife, the nature of God / the gods / cosmic powers, and even the capabilities of modern technology are presented differently by each individual writer, with very little evidence that the editors try to keep things coherent.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="GreatLemur, post: 3457438, member: 28553"] Would you really say that Kindom Hearts achieves the sort of sythesis-of-kitchen-sink-into-coherant-whole result that you're talking about? From what I've seen of those games, they always struck me as a worst-case scenario of [i]When Media Conglomerates Attack![/i], somehow massaged into good gameplay by some very professional game developers. Conceptually, the whole thing is just unbearable, no matter how good the gameplay is. I ain't particularly a fan of Disney or Squaresoft characters, but I can't get past how completely [i]wrong[/i] it seems to combine them, or how illogically it was done. But that's a completely unhelpful tangent from your original question. So, getting back on topic, I'd suggest that the short answer is that, no matter how diverse the [i]content[/i] of a setting is, the [i]tone[/i] can probably be made somewhat unified (i.e., Eberron is full of every damn spell, class, feat, and monster that WotC has published, but it's all presented in a high-action, pulp/modernist-fantasy kind of way). Also, I feel that internal consistency is hugely important. If different elements of your setting suggest different cosmologies or fundamental rules, you need to find a way to iron out those discrepancies. (I'd call the Marvel and D.C. comics universes pretty glaring examples of internal [i]in[/i]consistency. Things like time travel, alternate realities, the afterlife, the nature of God / the gods / cosmic powers, and even the capabilities of modern technology are presented differently by each individual writer, with very little evidence that the editors try to keep things coherent.) [/QUOTE]

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