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The Importance of Page 33
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<blockquote data-quote="DammitVictor" data-source="post: 8024288" data-attributes="member: 6750908"><p>I suspect that a very large part of this problem is that all of the "official" settings for the past twenty years have been fantasy kitchen sinks, with even the more Arthurian/Tolkiensque <em>Dragonlance</em> and the Gothic <em>Ravenloft</em> being outsourced to third-parties. As much as I bitch about Dragonborn and Tieflings in <em>Dark Sun</em>-- and the sidebar about Divine classes-- it seems like there's a lot less pressure to turn a strongly thematic setting into a kitchen sink than there is to make the existing kitchen sinks broader.</p><p></p><p>But... my problem here is the same as my problem with the Radiant Triangle in <em>Spelljammer</em>: when a setting already has so little identity, those minor exclusions are the only thing that differentiates one from another, the only things those settings <em>have left</em>. When you drink out of the kitchen sink, the only flavor you taste is <em>dishwater</em>; mixing the dishwater out of a dozen different kitchen sinks isn't going to make it taste better.</p><p></p><p>Of course, it's also those little exclusions and those little incompatibilities that made AD&D's classic campaign settings <em>exclusive</em>, and led to their ultimate commercial failure. I can understand WotC's desire to avoid making those same mistakes all over again... but that doesn't mean I have to like it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DammitVictor, post: 8024288, member: 6750908"] I suspect that a very large part of this problem is that all of the "official" settings for the past twenty years have been fantasy kitchen sinks, with even the more Arthurian/Tolkiensque [I]Dragonlance[/I] and the Gothic [I]Ravenloft[/I] being outsourced to third-parties. As much as I bitch about Dragonborn and Tieflings in [I]Dark Sun[/I]-- and the sidebar about Divine classes-- it seems like there's a lot less pressure to turn a strongly thematic setting into a kitchen sink than there is to make the existing kitchen sinks broader. But... my problem here is the same as my problem with the Radiant Triangle in [I]Spelljammer[/I]: when a setting already has so little identity, those minor exclusions are the only thing that differentiates one from another, the only things those settings [I]have left[/I]. When you drink out of the kitchen sink, the only flavor you taste is [I]dishwater[/I]; mixing the dishwater out of a dozen different kitchen sinks isn't going to make it taste better. Of course, it's also those little exclusions and those little incompatibilities that made AD&D's classic campaign settings [I]exclusive[/I], and led to their ultimate commercial failure. I can understand WotC's desire to avoid making those same mistakes all over again... but that doesn't mean I have to like it. [/QUOTE]
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