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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 8515979" data-attributes="member: 7635">My fear though is that this approach doesn't create a "first door" for people new to the game to walk through. My first D&D was Mystara, though I didn't know it at the time. My friend ran material right out the classic BD&D modules, the Gazetteers, and the Rules Cyclopedia. When it became my turn to DM, I followed his lead. As I grew into AD&D, I expanded with AD&Disms, but my game was solidly founded in that "default setting" for years. I don't think I looked at another published setting until someone turned me on to Ravenloft years later. The multiverse in Marvel makes sense because we've been exposed to it slowly expanding out from a single core reality. We grew from Iron Man to the Avengers, added cosmic, magical, and time travel to stretch the setting farther, and then after Endgame, we finally introduced concepts like Variants, alternate timelines, multiverse magic, etc. Imagine if the first thing you were exposed to the MCU was Captain America First Avenger, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr Strange, and Loki. You'd be lost to see how those elements fit together.  It really helps if you start with Iron Man and work your way up through the concept of super-heroes by following the main through line (the Avengers) to ground the audience and give them a jumping off point. The default setting (be it Mystara, Faerun, Oerth, or just the generic assumptions of the core rules) creates that jumping off point. It sets an expectation and understanding of what D&D is like so that when Spelljammer throws space at us or Dark Sun or Eberron take D&D in wildly different directions, we can say "woah, that's a cool way to do it" knowing what the default way is. Breaking everything down to its base chunks and creating Greyloft may sound cool to us, but I assure you it's a lot to take in when you're still figuring out the basics. You need a bland, boring starter zone to teach the default assumptions before you move on to the weird, esoteric stuff. Now, I'm not against either of your products. A Worldbuilder Guidebook is a great tool for worldbuilding (the 2e one is still one of my favorite books). and a Grand Almanac of D&D Worlds is a product I've been asking for since 2014. But I still think you need a Faerun to act as a starting point for the people who are buying Starter Boxes or PHBs for the first time. Somewhere where the default assumptions of the game aren't challenged. Think of it like this: Beginner: Generic D&D setting (Faerun, Mystara, etc). Hews close to the Core assumptionsIntermediate: Specialized settings (Ravenloft, Theros, Dark Sun, Eberron) settings that change default assumptions about the gameAdvanced: Worldbuilder's Guidebook to create your own setting.</blockquote>

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