Majoru Oakheart
Adventurer
I actually think it does the reverse. It empowers the DMs to use the areas that aren't mentioned without stepping on canon.3catcircus said:
What do the Dalelands look like 100 years in the future? We don't know. Maybe there is a small village called "Samville" in the northern area where goblins live and a beholder is in charge. That's what's cool about it, *I* get to decide.
If they tell me the top 100 NPCs in the region with motivations and titles, give me a detailed map of all the roads and the landmarks, and give me a list of the laws and customs....well, there's no room for MY ideas in the equation.
There needs to be a minimum amount of information, I admit. However, minimum can be pretty low. For instance, the country of Ket in Greyhawk hasn't EVER had more than 3 pages of information written about it, officially. That's what makes it fun to take the information that has been given and figure out the details.
I'd be perfectly fine with the minimum being something like: "Since the Spellplague, Neverwinter has fallen on hard times, the population has decreased dramatically. It is very much a city in ruin. However, the current leader, John Smith a paladin of some renown has been trying to pick up the pieces and has organized the population as best as he could. The city has been attacked by monsters for a couple of decades now, but they continue to survive, if just barely."
That gives me a good basis for running a campaign there with a starting point. It tells me the THEME of a place and lets me come up with the details myself.
