Should Dragon publish mini settings?

[Meloncov]

A think its a horrible idea for several reasons:

Relatively few people wre in the market for a new campaign setting. Dragon has to have articles that apply to as many people as possible.

Juggeling between a dozen 15 page articles to find campaign information would be annoying.

There wouldn't be enough material to run a game in the setting until the series is nearly finished.

 

[BryonD]

A think its a horrible idea for several reasons:

Relatively few people wre in the market for a new campaign setting. Dragon has to have articles that apply to as many people as possible.

Juggeling between a dozen 15 page articles to find campaign information would be annoying.

There wouldn't be enough material to run a game in the setting until the series is nearly finished.

I agree.
Dragon would be the wrong place to do this.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd really prefer generic building blocks in Dungeon that could fit in any campaign world. A Ravenloft insane asylum tweaked for any campaign setting, perhaps, or a famous tavern, etc.

 

[sckeener]

I think some of the posters are forgetting how Forgotten Realms started.

Ed Greenwood's articles were generic, but had enough flavor that they evolved into its own setting. I think that could be done again....

maybe things like this themed for the adventure paths

magic items
alternate class features
prestige classes
feats
organizations
etc
​

 

[BryonD]

I'd really prefer generic building blocks in Dungeon that could fit in any campaign world. A Ravenloft insane asylum tweaked for any campaign setting, perhaps, or a famous tavern, etc.

Yeah, that is a much better approach.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ed Greenwood's articles were generic, but had enough flavor that they evolved into its own setting. I think that could be done again....

And, at the time, the official settings were: Greyhawk, the Known World (not even known as Mystara yet) and Dragonlance had just started.

Carving out space in the Dragon for a NEW setting when there are so many on the shelf or being published by D20 publishers is an invitation for Paizo to get screamed at by half their readers on an ongoing basis.

Generic is a lot better and, except for folks born without a creativity center in their brain, portable to any setting 99.9 percent of the time.

 

[Linus Lennox]

It could be nice actually, if Dragon/Dungeon developed a "generic" setting that was seperate from Greyhawk, in which to set their generic adventures. I like Greyhawk well enough, but it carries as much attachment as FR or Eberron.

But as soon as they start to *develop* it, it isn't generic anymore. That's the trouble with so-called "generic settings".

 

[Vocenoctum]

But as soon as they start to *develop* it, it isn't generic anymore. That's the trouble with so-called "generic settings".

I think the main thing between a true generic setting and the Greyhawk use in Dungeon, is that using Greyhawk's locations and people have other connections throughout the world, when you have a fan of the setting it's easy enough to assume a basic level of information. Using a generic setting you can make self-contained elements that are useful, without having to worry about what other ties you're missing.