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<blockquote data-quote="buzz" data-source="post: 3439380" data-attributes="member: 6777">I think the theater metaphor will only serve to confuse things.To use two concrete examples, BD&amp;D's Keep on the Borderlands and 3e's Sunless Citadel both limit themselves to detailing a) the dungeon and b) the town next to it, with a little bit of info on what you might encounter en route between the two. I'm probably not alone in having run these without any larger context specified. That a huge number of adventures produced both by fans and publishers for D&amp;D over the decades are similarly macro-context-agnostic is probably also telling.So, the questions are:1. What, if anything, do these adventures gain by being placed in a larger setting? We know they can be played as-is, so the argument has to be that placing them in a setting adds some value.2. Is the town next to the dungeon &quot;setting&quot; or &quot;adventure&quot;?My answers would be: 1) Not much, unless the setting contains mechanical elements, e.g., you can be a warforged paladin as well as a dwarf paladin; 2) it's part of the adventure, and is not &quot;setting&quot;.My answer to #1 would probably only change if the purpose of the adventure was adapted to specifically highlight the setting in some way, i.e., served as a tool for its exploration. E.g., scenarios for Runequest and HeroQuest set in Glorantha obviously have interacting with that setting's rich history and mythology as a priority. Like I was saying to Reynard, having exploration as a priority makes a big difference in this discussion.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="buzz, post: 3439380, member: 6777"] I think the theater metaphor will only serve to confuse things. To use two concrete examples, BD&D's [i]Keep on the Borderlands[/i] and 3e's [i]Sunless Citadel[/i] both limit themselves to detailing a) the dungeon and b) the town next to it, with a little bit of info on what you might encounter en route between the two. I'm probably not alone in having run these without any larger context specified. That a huge number of adventures produced both by fans and publishers for D&D over the decades are similarly macro-context-agnostic is probably also telling. So, the questions are: 1. What, if anything, do these adventures gain by being placed in a larger setting? We know they can be played as-is, so the argument has to be that placing them in a setting adds some value. 2. Is the town next to the dungeon "setting" or "adventure"? My answers would be: 1) Not much, unless the setting contains mechanical elements, e.g., you can be a warforged paladin as well as a dwarf paladin; 2) it's part of the adventure, and is not "setting". My answer to #1 would probably only change if the purpose of the adventure was adapted to specifically highlight the setting in some way, i.e., served as a tool for its exploration. E.g., scenarios for [I]Runequest[/I] and [I]HeroQuest[/I] set in Glorantha obviously have interacting with that setting's rich history and mythology as a priority. Like I was saying to Reynard, having exploration as a priority makes a big difference in this discussion. [/QUOTE]

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