Read #4750 last night

[Glyfair]

Because the "Evil Villain's Out to Conquer the World and We've Got to Stop Him" setting has been done to death. It's OLD!Folks want something new.

Something like the "Well, The Evil Villain's Been Roundly Trounced, But The World's Still in a Horrid Mess, So I Guess We Get to Put the Place Back Together" setting. The big bad's been thoroughly whomped, you now get to go and put things aright again. And it won't be easy.

Besides, once the Evil Villain's been discombobulated, what else is there to do? Kinda hard to find a plot line to replace the old one. Might as well pack it in and start a new campaign.

But, if the Evil Villain got his (but good) beforethe game started, the new heroes start out afresh.

My thoughts on the matter.

I like this. If I was running a campign like this one of the themes would deal with occasionally teasing the villian making returning in someway or another (cliches #4-23). One of the long term goals the heros can end up achieving is finding out that there is NO way that the villain can return. He's gone forever.

A little bit of what the players expect, a little of bit of what they don't.

Glyfair of Glamis

 

[I'm A Banana]

What about an evil that can never be beaten.

Challenged? Yes. Faught? Yes. Destroyed in localized areas? Maybe for a time.

But as long as dark thoughts linger on the edges of humanity, the true villain will never be layed to waste.

You cannot win. You can only try. You can never obliterate all the evil from the world.

Ever.

That's one of the big themes of my submitted world. There's others, of course. Many.

 

[Numion]

What about an evil that can never be beaten.

Challenged? Yes. Faught? Yes. Destroyed in localized areas? Maybe for a time.

But as long as dark thoughts linger on the edges of humanity, the true villain will never be layed to waste.

You cannot win. You can only try. You can never obliterate all the evil from the world.

Ever.

That's one of the big themes of my submitted world. There's others, of course. Many.

But, but.. they've already published Cthulhu D20

 

[Staffan]

Why iceplanets don't work...

Ice planets are bad because they seriously cut down on the cheesecake potential in the illustrations

 

[Tuerny]

Yes, but the ice planet will *always* be cold adding advantages in other areas. ;-)

 

[Irysangel]

Please.

Like cheesecake potential has ever stopped artists from putting scantily clad wenches on the cover of anything.

Instead of a silk/metal/chain bikini, they give them a fur one. See? Easy.

 

[Rexfelis]

anything can work

Saying an iceworld or a flying island world or a world where orcs are the dominant species won't/can't work is too general a statement. Anything CAN work, but it boils down to a good story well told.

You can find plenty of examples of this in movies and novels. "Oh, another book about a detective hunting down a serial killer...this has been told to death and won't work."...yet inventive writers still find a way compose a compelling story with the same old premise, and sometimes they even throw in a genuine twist.

I hope this holds true for those setting proposals selected for the next round...whenever the heck they get around to announcing it! Whoever said that anticipation is better than receiving the payoff was full of hot air.

 

[Norris]

What about an evil that can never be beaten.

Challenged? Yes. Fought? Yes. Destroyed in localized areas? Maybe for a time.

But as long as dark thoughts linger on the edges of humanity, the true villain will never be layed to waste.

You cannot win. You can only try. You can never obliterate all the evil from the world.

Ever.

That's one of the big themes of my submitted world. There's others, of course. Many.

This is probably one of the best distillations of what a setting HAS to have... a continuing enemy / evil/ nemesis. Lord of The Rings kinda flops once you destroy the Ring. It needs an enemy that can't be totally conquered. Look at the continuing real world settings Ireland. Israel. Each side believes it is right and won't give up or compromise (at least not enough).

But then again, 20 years ago, I would have included the US-Soviet conflict... with no way it could ever be resolved. And now look... its gone!

Anyway, my hypothesis is that they'll start calling prospective winners next Friday (that would be August 9). If they aren't home, they'll just trash the proposal and go on to the next one.

If they have a long list, they could keep calling new names over the weekend.

 

[2WS-Steve]

I doubt they'll trash the submissions for people who aren't home. John Tynes, Monte Cook, Bruce Cordell, etc. etc. will all be at GenCon....

 

[alsih2o]

Anyway, my hypothesis is that they'll start calling prospective winners next Friday (that would be August 9). If they aren't home, they'll just trash the proposal and go on to the next one.

If they have a long list, they could keep calling new names over the weekend.

i see this as a little ridiculous, i would assume that they are smart enuf to know that most of the folks worth hiring are not sitting around doing naught during normal work hours....