What do you want from a campaign setting?

[Wil]

Do others feel this way? What if the organizations are only those of great importance to the campaign setting and presented with adventure seeds, npcs, unique items, and other information that flesh out the organization? What other information would you want in an organization pdf that would tempt you to buy it? Or is such a pdf just not of interest to you at all?

I love having at least a handful of big organizations, particularly if they are unique (or highly tailored) to the campaign world. I definitely wouldn't want to see a vanilla theive's guild or merchant's guild - but organizations like The Guild or the Heptagram from Exalted, SolaPol and the Jovian Intelligence Service from Jovian Chronicles, or the Guild of the Winter Wolf from Tribe 8 are evocative of the setting and I enjoy coming up with adventures to hang off of the hooks they provide. And all of the information you mention is definitely desirable.

Would you prefer organization information to be short and part of another type of pdf? If so what type?

Thanks for your feedback![/QUOTE]

 

[TheYeti1775]

Should the quick play guide be set as an introductory adventure with pre-made characters that help show off the shiny parts of the new setting and rules? Or should it be in another format? What do you want to know from a quick play introductory pdf (short overview of the world, important new rules or concepts, adventure, pre-made characters, etc.)?

Think of it more as something a DM could give a player that has no knowledge of the world or rules and could quickly have a reference without too much.

Something like:
Playable Races: One-liner with different mods from PHB.
Playable Classes: Use the PHB classes only, any classes you have special to the campaign keep in your paid stuff. Add the mods to the PHB stuff.

List of regions: Overall regions not countries per se.
If clerics are semi-normal: List of gods and domains. One-liner of their outlook.

Really your freebie most likely would be a 2-4 pager. If want have each section refer to your campaign guide and it's reference points.

Don't put too much Campaign specific stuff into it, remember it is your hook. If you find yourself a good story hour author like around here, give them some flavor you want into an intro. Let that be your first few pages. Most of the authors around here will jump at the chance. Hell you could make it a small contest with the winner receiving free copies of the full PDF set.

As always just my two coppers worth.

Yeti

 

[TheYeti1775]

This is the plan...



Do others feel this way? What if the organizations are only those of great importance to the campaign setting and presented with adventure seeds, npcs, unique items, and other information that flesh out the organization? What other information would you want in an organization pdf that would tempt you to buy it? Or is such a pdf just not of interest to you at all?

Would you prefer organization information to be short and part of another type of pdf? If so what type?

Thanks for your feedback!

Since a extra pages in a PDF don't matter as much as in printed books, make your organizations in the Main C.S. book to be short paragraph's. Follow up with a 'Complete Guide to Jaldaen World Organizations'. For the hook on these add in specific goals, plot hooks.

 

[jaldaen]

With the various ones out there, what will seperate yours from the rest. You need the hook, without it you create and it goes nowhere.

There is definately a hook and if you look at the books listed in my sig you might just get a clue to what kind of campaign setting I'm putting together.

Anything you would like to share with us now and get more input on? Feel free to email me if you like. As Funeris will tell you, I love emailing all day.

Unfortunately, I can't share much more with you all at the moment, but as soon as I can share (which may be next month sometime) I'll let you all know. Till then I'm just going to keep working out a plan to make this campaign setting the best it can be (and with your feedback it will be).

 

[jaldaen]

Also, just as a suggestion, you could offer everything (once you have enough stuff released) in a big compilation and sell it as a Print-On-Demand book at RPGnow.

That is one of the ideas I'm tossing around... What would you think of a campaign setting subscription idea? You'd pay a flat fee (discounted) for all the products for the campaign setting for a year? With a minimum of one (8-12 page) product released each month? Any other thoughts or ideas about such an option?

Note: You would still be able to buy individual pdfs and ignore the subscription if you wanted to though it'd be cheaper overall with one.

 

[jaldaen]

Another quick question... DO you like your campaign setting material written as if by a character from the setting or by non-partial narrator? Or do you prefer a mixture of the two?

 

[Wil]

I prefer a mixture - subjective first-person narrative followed up by an objective entry. Everything doesn't need first-person narrative - some things just don't warrant it. I'm also partial to well-written, short pieces of game fiction - but I tend to get bored if it spans more than a few paragraphs.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Another quick question... DO you like your campaign setting material written as if by a character from the setting or by non-partial narrator? Or do you prefer a mixture of the two?

Seen both and have like both, though I prefer if you did any first person that it be locals and the the 'Elminister's or Volvo's of the land'. The Softback Dragonlance book (Tan bash cover) did this wonderfully in 2nd Edition. I'll have to search for the right title of it.

Yeti

 

[jaldaen]

I love having at least a handful of big organizations, particularly if they are unique (or highly tailored) to the campaign world. I definitely wouldn't want to see a vanilla theive's guild or merchant's guild

Definately no vanilla organizations planned for the campaign setting... I was thinking of doing organizations grouped by region... any other ways you might want organizations grouped together? Or is by region a good idea?

 

[Gundark]

What do I want from a campaign setting? - chain mail bikinis