What do you look for in a campaign setting?

[Mouseferatu]

It's a complicated question, I know, but I'm curious. If you're setting out to choose a campaign setting, what attracts you? (And, for that matter, what turns you off?) If you're roaming the isles at your FLGS and see a new campaign setting, what details help you decide whether to pick it up or not? Do you look for "generic" settings, in which you can play just about any sort of game (i.e. Oerth, Faerun, Scarred Lands), or do you look for a setting with a specific intended mood or type of game (i.e. Ravenloft, Midnight, Dark Sun)? Do you want it to be as "out there" as possible, or do you prefer it cleave pretty tightly to the feel and images of the core rules? How much detail do you look for, and why? And so forth.

Feel free to give examples if necessary to explain why you choose as you do, or to help make a point, but I'd ask people not to challenge other folks' choice of examples. I'm more interested in why you chose Dark Sun then in why you think so-and-so shouldn't have chosen Freeport.

 

[Fenes 2]

Since I customize my settings, or at least the regions I place my campaigns in, heavily, I look for a setting that offers a great variety of regions/themes/possibilities, then fill/modify the particular regions/cultures with sourcebooks of every kind as well as history sources and hoembrew material.

So far the FRCS has accomodated all I wanted.

 

[Kweezil]

Since I run a homebrew game, I look for modular settings where I can pick and choose between the various pieces and use what I like for my games. Citybooks and encounter books (the Foul Locales books are excellent) are a lot more useful than a full integrated setting (13,000 pages or not)

 

[Darth Shoju]

campaign settings

I tend to buy the more generic campaign settings, as I want to get the most use out the product as I can....the most "bang for my buck" in other words. The more "out-there" or specialized settings tend to be a little more hit-or-miss with my players, so I generally like to make those home-brewed so I can give them a setting they want to play (and it lets my imagination run wild ).

 

[Carnifex]

For me, a setting has to have somethign cool about it, something that grabs me and makes me think 'I'm interested in this.' Can vary a lot depending on what the mood I'm in is at the time among other things.

 

[DragonLancer]

Settings

I'll do this based on the published settings that I am familiar with.

Greyhawk: Not realistic enough, and too big. Theres far too many kingdoms and not enough detail. True it is a part of gaming history but thats not enough to draw my interest.

Forgotten Realms: Again far too big and too "magic as tech" in my view. Continual light globes for street lamps...etc, and magic seen as an everyday experience. For me, FR is too high in its fantasy style.

DragonLance: My favourite D&D setting. It has the right level of tech and social structure. Magic isn't too common a sight.
What does it is that the game is built around heroics and not dungeon crawls or magic item hunts. Its a setting for roleplaying.

Ravenloft: Interesting concept but is too restrictive for a campaign setting IMO. Evil is ever present and cannot ever be defeated... the land is the evil. That turns me off, that the characters can't make enough difference.

Dark Sun: A great setting. Different enough that it could hold the players interest despite the harsh differences. Just a shame that TSR killed it by pushing too much metaplot on the setting.

Planescape: Just far too weird for my tastes. It also spoilt the planes. No longer are they the bizarre worlds, they are just somewhere else now. Never got on with it.

Spelljammer: Interesting but didn't have enough scope in the setting IMO. Putting D&D into space was a great idea but not for everyone's tastes.

Scarred Lands: Another great setting. What drew me to this was the greek mythiology feel that it has. The basis behind it is great, although my love of the setting is wearing off a little because too much is being released and its spoiling the mystery of the setting.

 

[D M Zwerg]

1) Viable game mechanics.
2) A historical period (or fantasy version) that I am into.
3) Obvious adventure hooks.
4) (relatively) Easy to run for standard size group.
5) No major rules flaws (aka, consistency).

I have run into a number of games where they have only some of the things I have listed making them miserable to run. A couple of examples:
Valley of the Pharohs - interesting setting, viable rules, NO plot ideas. As I read this game I was more and more excited about running it until I realized ... I had no plot ideas. Of course, this was a long time ago.
Flashing Blades - This system failed for me because combat, as described in the game, took too long if more than two players were present ... I was trying to run with 5.

Games I prefer to run:
HackMaster
Champions
D20 (prefer Kalamar, Wheel of Time, and have another world planned using rules from Star Wars and WoT)
L5R (original)
Deadlands (with slight modification)
Alternity (if you throw gauntlets and "infinite recursion"-type ship rules out the window)
Star Wars (WEG and WoTC versions ... for different reasons )

Now, you might be saying "the thread is about settings, not games and game mechanics". To me, they are closely intertwined. All the games/settings I have mentioned are settings I am into (heroic medieval fantasy, Renaissance ala Dumas, old west ala "Wild, Wild West", the time of the Pharohs, science fiction, superheroes, and feudal kung fu action theater. There are many more games and settings that I am "into", but the list is long.


If am I limited to just d20 settings, I would have to say Kalamar, Wheel of Time, Dragonstar, and Star Wars ... pretty much in that order. If Deryni ever comes out for d20 (rather than Fudge as it is currently slated for) I would have to add that before Wheel of Time. There are alternate mechanics in WoT and SW that make them worth while to me besides being settings I like to run/play.

 

[Hand of Evil]

An angle, something that makes it standout. Mostly back story and plot ideas, the thought that went into the making of it.

Support.

Maps - I like them, a good looking interesting map is a saleing point to me, I think of it as movie poster.

 

[ced1106]

Main problem I have with campaigns is that they're so dry and lacking specifics that, if I'm going to do this much work fleshing it out, I might as well make up my own world.

AFAIK, Scarred Lands is the **only** d20 campaign setting that has enough specifics for me to say "We're not in Kansas anymore" -- and not with its Ghelspad campaign book. The "Wastelands and Wilderness" does more to give the impression of its campaing world in a page of terrain hazards than any campaign book I've read does in a volume.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Desdichado]

I look for alternate rules, most of all. At the end of the day, I'm still more likely to homebrew, but I want to at least have something I can borrow. Right now, Iron Kingdoms is probably the only setting I'd consider playing "out of the box."