Setting philosophies

[jonesy]

So I found myself in a discussion on the basic philosophy behind the various DnD settings and a thought occurred to me: would it be possible to use a single word to describe them?

Now Planescape and Dragonlance are the fairly obvious ones.
Planescape is quite simply Belief, and the power it holds over everything.
Dragonlance is all about Balance. Whether talking about order vs chaos, good vs evil, devastation vs survival, or neutrality vs everything else, all of Krynn is a balancing act.

But what about the other settings?

 

[RangerWickett]

I think for my setting, it'd be 'Home.' Your homeland is something that affects you perhaps more than anything else, and a lot of 'villains' in my games aren't evil, just defending their homes (in ways that are a little evil). A hero, on the other hand, knows it's time to retire when he finds a home. That's when he can stop adventuring.

 

[NiTessine]

Ravenloft is pretty easy, too. It's 'despair'. You can never, ever defeat the BBEG. The best you can do is prevent him from killing all the villagers, who will then form a mob and chase you out of the town, because one of your number is a hated elf.

 

[lior_shapira]

I think for 'Midnight' (FFG) the word is Hope, evil's already won and things look bad but there are still heroes out there trying to fight back.

 

[Allanon]

Scarred Lands... I'm going with Conflict. Everyone is in conflict, against eachother, the gods, the titans and the titanspawn.

 

[Beale Knight]

For Next Age Heroes it's Discovery. That was the theme from the first set of notes. It's all about going out and discovering what's there beyond the edges of the map, discovering neighbors (some hostile, some friendly) and discovering truth.

 

[lior_shapira]

This is a bit more "iffy" but maybe 'Forgotten Realms' is Wonder, there's always something new to see that you haven't seen before and its quite a high-powered setting

 

[Darklone]

Guess Kalamar is Believability. If that's a word.

 

[Wippit Guud]

Hard to pick one for Greyhawk, but I'll give it a shot with Comprehensive, in that it's the root of the entire game, and has a little something for everyone without focusing on one specific aspect.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

For Forgotten Realms, the word is Elves.