RPG Settings

[Nightfall]

I like the Scarred Lands. We got a megaplot, but I wish I had had more input on the novel series. Otherwise meh.

 

[JVisgaitis]

ETA?

This year hopefully. We were thinking 4e was coming up and were nervous. We have a couple non-RPG related projects we are working on and then its the Primer. No one wants it done more then me, believe me.

 

[Nightfall]

*knows that goes* You start one thing, then start something else but don't finish the other..yeah it all goes to heck real fast.

 

[megamania]

well if you want a published setting and no metaplot try out eberron, they have stated that there will be no metaplot, so I kinda feel like I can have my cake and eat it to.

I play a lot of Eberron and I'm not so sure I would agree with there being no metaplot there.

Each of the books released have possibly planet / society changing events listed. Just look at the Quori and the switch from darkness to light that WILL happen soon.

 

[megamania]

Forget meta-plots. Give me a detailed history and means and motivations for the major players. This way I can see where things may go, even world changing things, but can use them as I see fit in the campaign.

Eberron is trying to do this but some the possibilities could change the game world so much that it would no longer use cannon stuff published.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Metaplots is one of the main reasons why I don't like published settings.

I don't hate metaplot with the fire of a thousand suns or anything, but its absence is one of the reasons I like Eberron - and Keith Baker's being so active in the fan community really helps add that insight into what the designers intended, even though Eberron's still being supported.

Best of both worlds, really.

I do get the original post, though. A "dead" setting is a stable setting . . . it's nice to know no-one will ever officially screw up what your games do.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Things like the turning of the age for the Quori aren't metaplot, though, unless and until Wizards of the Coast publishes a book set in a year other than 998 YK and announces that the turning of the age has occurred.

 

[evildmguy]

And maybe the idea is that I won't be "competing" with anyone on what the world is anymore. It's mine and only mine. I can still find ideas for it on the web but I won't have to worry about anything shiny and new from a publisher.

I also agree that getting motivation on the major players and spelling it out, instead of crunch and some vague rumors about what they might be doing would be a lot better.

Again, going back to Dark Sun, they totally LIED about what the Dragon was in the main boxed set. The descriptions have it as an angry beast but it has a high INT! Further, they talk about how it ravages the land, destroying everything in its path. That's one of those true but false things and given what else they said, makes it more false.

Knowing the story behind the dragon has made it so much more interesting and viable to go back to main boxed set and set a campaign then. Knowing the story behind all of the characters has made them all more real, even if it also made them more messed up.

Again, it's too bad that we can't get that kind of a world in the first place, instead of after fifty products on it are out. Ah, well.

Thanks for all of the replies!

Have a good one! Take care!

edg