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<blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8401172" data-attributes="member: 6799660">I would not call Dark Sun, Ravenloft, or even fantasy kitchen sinks like FR and Known World/Mystara dry and dull. At worst they were a step back in the gonzo because they instituted a mindset of 'you choose which one single gonzo environ and rarely if at all deviate from that (unless you do, in which case grab Planescape or Spelljammer, with the specific cultures and assumptions baked into each of them).'Regardless, I think another reason might be some bitter lessons in terms of worldbuilding, scope, and importance. By that, I mean if you and your characters spend 9-10 levels clearing out dungeons and developing a plot of wilderness in Eastern Madeupland, build a keep, recruit some peasantry and knights, and carve out a little fiefdom, well then a bunch of alternate realities indicating that not only is your little neck of the woods not important, but that your whole gameworld is just one of an infinite number of planets of hats is going to make those first 10 levels feel very unimportant. Same for the DM with their intricate worldbuilding and developments of cultures, religions, maps, and so forth. I don't know how universal this is, but with my groups, after a trips up and down the level ladder, we tended to either make campaigns where the gameworld was isolated in the multiverse (or only attached to the inner and outer planes, but not any other Prime Material Planes or other alt-realities where 'normal character races' often dwelled) or made universe-hopping a prime aspect of the campaign theme.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Willie the Duck, post: 8401172, member: 6799660"] I would not call Dark Sun, Ravenloft, or even fantasy kitchen sinks like FR and Known World/Mystara dry and dull. At worst they were a step back in the gonzo because they instituted a mindset of [I]'you choose which one single gonzo environ and rarely if at all deviate from that (unless you do, in which case grab Planescape or Spelljammer, with the specific cultures and assumptions baked into each of them).'[/I] Regardless, I think another reason might be some bitter lessons in terms of worldbuilding, scope, and importance. By that, I mean if you and your characters spend 9-10 levels clearing out dungeons and developing a plot of wilderness in Eastern Madeupland, build a keep, recruit some peasantry and knights, and carve out a little fiefdom, well then a bunch of alternate realities indicating that not only is your little neck of the woods not important, but that your whole gameworld is just one of an infinite number of planets of hats is going to make those first 10 levels feel very unimportant. Same for the DM with their intricate worldbuilding and developments of cultures, religions, maps, and so forth. I don't know how universal this is, but with my groups, after a trips up and down the level ladder, we tended to either make campaigns where the gameworld was isolated in the multiverse (or only attached to the inner and outer planes, but not any other Prime Material Planes or other alt-realities where 'normal character races' often dwelled)[B] or [/B]made universe-hopping a prime aspect of the campaign theme. [/QUOTE]

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