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<blockquote data-quote="Wil" data-source="post: 2765939" data-attributes="member: 3502">I'm probably alone in what I like to see, but here goes:1) Usable maps.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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 , &quot;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&quot; then the setting fails in that aspect.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Doing things &quot;just because&quot; doesn't really cut it - even games that use the same base rules (like D&amp;D) can still have ingame explanations for why things work that way.&nbsp; Why are Elves better at magic?&nbsp; Why do priests get different magic?&nbsp; If it's original and well-thought out, it helps me buy into the setting.4) Plenty of adventure hooks.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wil, post: 2765939, member: 3502"] 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. [i]Jovian Chronicles[/i] 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. [i]Exalted[/i] is a good example of this - virtually every paragraph has a small seed for an adventure that can be plucked out and exapnded upon. [/QUOTE]

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