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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8781213" data-attributes="member: 18">I don't actually agree at all with the first claim.I've got 30+ years of RPG experience and have introduced new players the whole time.I've seen absolutely no positive evidence that generic settings (or D&D-like systems, for that matter, but that's a separate discussion) are easier for people new to TTRPGs. I've seen significant negative evidence in fact, that they are not. That settings which are in some way distinctive, which have some real conceptual landmarks and "big ideas" are actually easier for truly new-to-TTRPGs players to get to grips with. Now, for experienced players you can make a case that they are, but not for genuinely new players, and it's still a fairly weak case.The success of stuff like WoD, which was highly distinctive, and brought in huge numbers of new-to-RPGs players, as well outshining the then ultra-generic AD&D (the wilder settings like PS and DS were completely eclipsed by the FR in marketing and sales terms, and swamped in number of products) in the 1990s tends to support that, I'd argue. D&D's current success isn't because its default setting is ultra-generic to the point of being boring and forgettable, its in spite of it. Again the success of settings like Exandria (which whilst a kitchen sink, is massively less generic than the Sword Coast) tends to support the idea that being bland and lacking distinctiveness isn't a win.As for genre tropes - that doesn't mean you require or even necessarily benefit from a bland, featureless and undistinctive setting. On the contrary, genre tropes work best when there's stuff to attach them to. The Sword Coast doesn't have many of the most classic and basic fantasy genre tropes in any recognisable form because it's so extremely bland. It was never designed to be bland, of course, it's just that it's the edge component of a larger and more distinctive setting, and was designed to function as part of a whole. By isolating it, WotC created something extremely un-compelling.</blockquote>

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