What do you want from a campaign setting?

[jaldaen]

What would the chapter layout of your ultimate campaign setting book look like? What are the neccessary elements of the book (unique rules, geography, history, organizations, npc's, current events, introductory adventure, etc...)? Which elements do you prefer a setting focus on? Do you prefer to have a campaign setting book that deals in generalities of the setting and allows you to fill in the details to your liking or do you prefer a setting that details specifics and has a define storyline? Do you prefer a campaign setting that is stand alone or one that can be integrated into other campaign settings and allows for both campaign length and side-trek adventures? Do you prefer a campaign setting book that includes clearly deliniated players' (focused on new rules and includes general setting information) and GMs' sections (focused on running a campaign and includes adventure hooks, npc's and their plots, ect)? Or do you prefer having sidebars with campaign hooks, rumors, etc... in player focused chapters?

Would you be interested in a setting "almanac" laying out the important events and short adventure ideas for a year's worth of setting time (ala Mystara's Poor Wizard's Almanac)? If interested, should the first year be part of the campaign setting book (with increased cost), or as a seperate product? Also what would you want from such a book? If not interested, why and what might make such a book worth-while? What about shorter quarterly updates to the setting laying out a few months worth of events and adventure possibilities for the setting? Would you be more or less inclined to buy such a product?

Do you buy campaign settings as a player? If so, what makes you pick up a setting? If not, what would make you pick up a setting?

Any other ideas or suggestions on what you want from a campaign setting? I'm all ears... and I'm likely to impliment a few ideas in a future products ;-)

 

[Crothian]

Creativity

That's all I want. I like a variety of campaign settings and I don't want them all to be the same. By asking for more just places limits on the setting and I like to see what people come up with without such limits.

 

[diaglo]

bare bones glossography but with plenty o' maps.

 

[Vascant]

For me anyways:
It isn't the Book that causes me to purchase a Campaign Setting, it is what the publisher does afterwards. 90% of the settings released are what I refer to as Fire and Forget. They publish a setting and never support them. Granted I have ran Greyhawk since the dawn of time but I do purchase every FR product because if I ever do change, why not switch to perhaps the most supported setting ever created.

Example: The Waterdeep book just recently released by WotC.

Web Support: Before and After the products release.
Additional Spin offs: Novel

Another example of a well done setting:

Shackled City, yes I know this is an AP but if you back up one step it is also a setting for an entire campaign. Good web support played a key here, which started half way thru it.

Monte Cook is now using the web for his upcoming Setting book, again Web Support is outstanding.


For me, this tells me a lot about a publisher and if the publisher is actually trying to give me value for my dollar. They also seem to understand gaming then perhaps most others because they are trying to give me what I need for their products rather then just getting my cash and then vanishing to another product line. This is perhaps the main reason I will never purchase things from like MGP, there is no support for their products.

 

[Psion]

Let me answer the querry with this:

One or more interesting central, well-integrated, driving conflicts.

That's far from the only thing a campaign setting needs. But it's the one element that seems to be the most frequently missed element that kills my interest in a setting for its absence.

Don't get me wrong here; I am not saying I want a set out story or metaplot. In fact, I generally like those to be minimal and flexible if present at all. What I want is fodder for good stories and adventure ideas, as well as character backgrounds. I really don't like the gonzo "here's some monsters and some organizations and some classes, go ahead and let your players bumble around and make up some adventures using them" approach.

 

[Wil]

I'm probably alone in what I like to see, but here goes:

1) Usable maps. They don't need to be photorealistic or 100% accurate (i.e., I don't need to know how many feet it is from the capital to the furthest outpost) but the maps need to give me an idea of where the major points of interest are and where they are in relation to each other. Some detail maps of important campaign locations are a must as well.

2) Information that gives a good idea how the general populace lives their day to day existence. It doesn't have to be uber-detailed or filled with all kinds of specialized terminology, but if I come away from reading the setting saying , "Well, I know all about the gods and every battle between nations X and Y for the last 10,000 years, but I have no idea how a peasant lives" then the setting fails in that aspect. Jovian Chronicles when it first came out was a prime example of this - the societies and the technology were cool, but there was no sense of how the average citizen lived.

3) Meaningful cosmology/metaphysics. Doing things "just because" doesn't really cut it - even games that use the same base rules (like D&D) can still have ingame explanations for why things work that way. Why are Elves better at magic? Why do priests get different magic? If it's original and well-thought out, it helps me buy into the setting.

4) Plenty of adventure hooks. They can be part of the flavor text or explcitly in sidebars or something, but I like to see that each element of a campaign has some potential for being turned into an adventure hook. Exalted is a good example of this - virtually every paragraph has a small seed for an adventure that can be plucked out and exapnded upon.

 

[Miln]

I'm probably alone in what I like to see, but here goes:

1) Usable maps
2) Information that gives a good idea how the general populace lives their day to day existence.
3) Meaningful cosmology/metaphysics.
4) Plenty of adventure hooks.

That pretty well sums up my list. So, Wil, I guess you are not alone.

 

[Gansk]

What would the chapter layout of your ultimate campaign setting book look like? What are the neccessary elements of the book (unique rules, geography, history, organizations, npc's, current events, introductory adventure, etc...)?

The current events and intro adventure can be separate products, but only if more than one adventure is promised (should probably deliver on at least three adventures). All of the rest is necessary in the main book.

Which elements do you prefer a setting focus on?

I like geography, organizations, & npc's. After that I prefer economics and culture to history, unique rules, and current events. Each region should have its own flavor and population distribution (both monsters and NPC's).

Do you prefer to have a campaign setting book that deals in generalities of the setting and allows you to fill in the details to your liking or do you prefer a setting that details specifics and has a define storyline?

I want as much detail as possible without a storyline. The cities and NPC's can be very specific, but give me an opportunity to decide what they will do.

Do you prefer a campaign setting that is stand alone or one that can be integrated into other campaign settings and allows for both campaign length and side-trek adventures?

I would like the adventures to be portable to other settings, which imposes a limit on unique rules. If the setting has too much crunch, that is going to come out in the adventures and will make it less portable. As many adventures as possible, both campaign length and side-trek.

Do you prefer a campaign setting book that includes clearly deliniated players' (focused on new rules and includes general setting information) and GMs' sections (focused on running a campaign and includes adventure hooks, npc's and their plots, ect)? Or do you prefer having sidebars with campaign hooks, rumors, etc... in player focused chapters?

I prefer separate products, but once again if there are too many unique rules to entice the players, then the adventures will also be too unique to use in other settings.

Would you be interested in a setting "almanac" laying out the important events and short adventure ideas for a year's worth of setting time (ala Mystara's Poor Wizard's Almanac)? If interested, should the first year be part of the campaign setting book (with increased cost), or as a seperate product? Also what would you want from such a book? If not interested, why and what might make such a book worth-while? What about shorter quarterly updates to the setting laying out a few months worth of events and adventure possibilities for the setting? Would you be more or less inclined to buy such a product?

This is less interesting than a whole bunch of adventures, but not without its merits. It should be a separate product, and should focus on regional-level events rather than earth-shaking, cataclysmic wars or natural disasters, etc. Usually the adventures do the talking for what happens in a given region, but if the product was cheap enough, it could substitute with a ton of adventure hooks.

 

[Phaedrus]

I'll echo what Wil said, and add that I want flavor over crunch. I'm not a big fan of the obligatory feats and prestige classes. Not that I'm against them, necessarily, but we've already got more than we can use in a lifetime (although I find that substitution levels are pretty cool...). So if you MUST add them, make them distinctive to the world--there must be a good reason why they are included.

I'm a map nut. The more the better.

 

[jaldaen]

For me anyways:
It isn't the Book that causes me to purchase a Campaign Setting, it is what the publisher does afterwards... For me, this tells me a lot about a publisher and if the publisher is actually trying to give me value for my dollar. They also seem to understand gaming then perhaps most others because they are trying to give me what I need for their products rather then just getting my cash and then vanishing to another product line. This is perhaps the main reason I will never purchase things from like MGP, there is no support for their products.

So what follow-up products do you prefer for a campaign setting (locales, regions, adventures)? How often would you want follow-up materials produced? Would one game supplement per quarter be enough (with short monthly web enhancements put out to tide fans over until the next supplement comes out)? Would you be more likely to buy a campaign setting that promises follow-up products even before the campaign setting comes out?

What about others? Any comments, questions, or suggestions in regards to campaign setting follow through?