So Why Restrict Yourself To Only One Game Setting?

[Diamond Cross]

Why should a group restrict themselves to one world setting?

Why not design something that allows the characters to be able to access different game worlds?

For example, they all live in a tower that can travel to different dimensions.

For me I am currently designing an small city on an entire island that can do this. I call it Dragongaunt.

 

[Agamon]

It was called Spelljammer.

I had a game at one time that made use of Spelljammer, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft and Planescape, plus a couple homebrew settings.

 

[Diamond Cross]

I know about Spelljammer, but I didn't want this to be a thread about that setting.

 

[Shemeska]

They called it Planescape. It was very fun.

 

[jaerdaph]

They called it Ravenloft too. (But once you ended up there, you were trapped by the Dark Powers!)

 

[Marius Delphus]

In a 2E campaign I ran, the characters cleared out, moved into, and occupied a castle which (they discovered the next morning) appeared somewhere new every time a new adventure was about to start.

I called it the Demiplane of Hope and set it in a sort of opposition to the Demiplane of Dread. After all, as hope is much rarer than dread, it was quite fitting that the Demiplane of Hope would be extremely tiny.

The campaign more or less ended in an assault on Hope by a certain Ravenloft Darklord whose machinations always seem to include escaping Dread.

Don't be afraid to design the odd adventure that comes to the characters, of course... the 2E boxed set "Dragon Mountain" had an element of that.

See also the World Serpent Inn, a planar crossroads *not* ruled by the Lady of Pain.

 

[hafrogman]

Why should a group restrict themselves to one world setting?

Because it allows for thematic worlds, and characters grounded in a shared history, geography and reality. The deserts of Athas are a lot less threatening if a world of a million lakes is just through that doorway. The elven freedom fighter from Faerun's Dalelands loses a lot if none of the other characters or NPCs have ever heard of that one world among a million others. The lack of gods in Eberron is much less meaningful if a world ruled by a huge pantheon is just around the corner.

For me I am currently designing an small city on an entire island that can do this. I call it Dragongaunt.

And none of that is to say that your idea isn't cool, viable or interesting in its own right. Because it is. But you asked why restrict yourselves, so that's why. In a way, a universe that features linked worlds is it's own single campaign setting. It allows access to many things, while enforcing universal restrictions on others. The ability to share magic, knowledge and technology across those worlds creates it's own reality. And that can be a fun place to set a game.

It's just not intrisically better or worse than a single world setting.

 

[Umbran]

Why should a group restrict themselves to one world setting?

Why not design something that allows the characters to be able to access different game worlds?

Why not? There's several reasons. I think the most basic...

Well, I'll use an analogy - the color wheel. You can have a color. You can mix a couple of colors together, and make new colors. But if you mix too many together, what do you get? And even, uninteresting brown.

Or, a culinary analogy - if you go to your spice cabinet, and toss every single spice or herb you have into a dish, it isn't likely to come out tasting very good.

Each game world has its own themes and styles. If you toss them all together, though, you don't get the full benefit of any of them, and you can't really explore any of them very deeply. The whole tend to lose coherence, and can end up more than a little silly.

 

[Odhanan]

You might be interested in this thread of the RPGSite. It's about "combating gamer ADD", or discussing the virtues of sticking with a single setting over the course of many campaigns.

Quoting Rob Conley (author of the Majestic Wilderlands) in the first post:

James over at Grognardia has a good post titled Gamer ADD and the Campaign. In it he has a comment.

None of this is to say that I plan to run Dwimmermount forever.

Why not? I answered. I am not being critical of James specifically. I think there is a larger issue.

Look. One of the big gripes I see over and over again it lack of time to do everything you want. I roll my eyes at some of friends who run games that they put a lot of effort into only to ditch everything and start over for the next one.

I am not talking only about the hours before a game; writing up an entire key for a adventure or a 2,000 year history. I know not everybody does or likes doing that. Some do everything by the seat of their pants. What I am including are the hours you spent refereeing.

There are mountains of gold in the stuff that you and your players come up with each session. Stuff there is no way you will get to in the current campaign. Stuff that would make for some great adventure for the NEXT campaign.

That the secret to having a setting with depth. That when you play a genre you stick with the same setting you used before. That you use what you did the LAST campaign as the foundation for the current campaign even if the current campaign is has a completely different focus. And you get the added benefit of happy players who see their actions have an impact on the setting.

You see the secret is that a setting is an entire world. Look at the diversity our planet has in a sphere of roughly 8,000 miles diameter and 75% water. The setting you create can have the same level of diversity. In some distant corner there lurks the place where you can run the sub-genre you want.

And if you can't find a good physical place what about a different time? If you want to use 2nd edition Runequest with it's emphasis on Mythic Heroes then set it in the dawn ages of your world. Use what the player did then as the history of that time. Dragon Pass and the Plains of Prax are not big places as regions go.

For example James Dwimmermount campaign has a backstory about the Thulians (sp?) an ancient powerful magic using race/culture. If he wants to run Runequest 2nd edition then he can hone Dragon Pass/Plains of Prax to fit during a time of their rise. Or perhaps take Stormbringer and set it during their fall.

If all you do is play one shots campaign then make more work for yourself and you miss out one of the most compelling aspects of Roleplaying Games. Their ability to immerse your character in another place and time.

 

[jonesy]

They called it Planescape.

It was called Spelljammer.

They called it Ravenloft too.

Ravenscapejammer?


"After the gnomish Superjammer called Riftwraith enters a mysterious mist at the borders of Wildspace and crashlands on Barovia the crew makes an ill-planned pact of blood with the count Strahd von Zarovich, who's found his way out. Sailing towards the cursed Crimson Sphere of Athas the count calls out his love for the Lady of Pain. As cosmic forces crash together from the rage of the Lady and the forbidden barriers of Athas and the Mists it is the gnomes through their blood who find themselves trapped upon Castle Ravenloft.

And free now to roam the planes of space and spaces of the planes, is the multidimensional pirate captain Strahd the Red."