What is Greyhawk?

[Zardnaar]

Dragonlance was far, far better the bigger the more distance it put between itself and the War of the Lance. The novels tended to suck the originality and creativity from any play in that era. There were far more interesting concepts explored further down the road. Unfortunately a large part of the player base kept trying to drag the world back to its original state - a mistake in my view.

Early Dragonlance is the main appeal IMHO. Lost all interest post Dragons of Summer Flame.

5th Age that mystic of whatever may as well be a complete mystery.

Uber dragons and mystics bleah. Total turnoff.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

And the Red Box and all editions afterwards were superior to the original Ravenloft "black box".

 

[Zardnaar]

And the Red Box and all editions afterwards were superior to the original Ravenloft "black box".

Not a Ravenloft fan but definitely lean towards I6 and the red box. Grand Conjunction stuff meh.

Don't really care about Ravenloft one way or another. To make it appeal to me would just alienate Ravenloft fans. Let them sort it out.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Don't really care about Ravenloft one way or another.

To make it appeal to me would just alienate Ravenloft fans.

Let them sort it out.

That middle line is rare wisdom in marketing these days. This rare bit of wisdom is yet another reason i think semi-independant sibling editions is the way forward. Just saying.

 

[Zardnaar]

Don't really care about Ravenloft one way or another.

To make it appeal to me would just alienate Ravenloft fans.

Let them sort it out.

That middle line is rare wisdom in marketing these days. This rare bit of wisdom is yet another reason i think semi-independant sibling editions is the way forward. Just saying.

I don't get Gothic horror it holds 0 appeal.

IDK what Ravenloft fans like so I don't think I'm qualified to have a strong opinion one way or another.

 

[Aldarc]

Really? IME, players couldn't give a tiny rat's petoot about the setting. They really, really don't care.

No! But what about all my years of work writing 500 pages of meticulous homebrew worldbuilding?!

 

[Guest 6801328]

I don't get Gothic horror it holds 0 appeal.

IDK what Ravenloft fans like so I don't think I'm qualified to have a strong opinion one way or another.

And I detested Dragonlance from the day it first came out. (I remember being all excited, and buying the first supplement and thinking "....really?")

So, yeah, no product is going to please everybody.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I understand the point you're making here, but, you're forgetting an important side point. Settings, by and large, are for DM's. The players don't care that much and most of their knowledge of a setting will come from that DM. This is particularly true in smaller settings like, say, Primeval Thule, where, outside of maybe reading the player primer (and that's a BIG maybe), the players know nothing about the setting and, really, don't care that much. The DM, OTOH, is trying to do all these things to bring the setting to life for the players and is likely thinking, at least in the back of the mind sort of way, about the setting every time an adventure is written or whatnot.

Obviously this depends from table to table, but honestly IMO your game is going to be way more fun and you're more likely to tell an interesting story if your players embed their characters into the setting in some way.

I find this especially true for magic casters, who need to get their magic from something, either a god, patron or schooling.

If you have a warlock who just wants to play as "My patron is a demon but has no impact on the story, I know nothing about him, and he's never going to bother us." That is a lot less interesting that a character who needs to keep the source of their powers secret because he knows his patron is secretly an imprisoned god, defeated from the last war etc. etc.

Does that mean the players need/should know all the intricacies, histories and geography of the setting? Nope, just like I don't know everything about every culture or the history of every nation on earth. But just like a real person, a character should know elements of the setting that are relevant to the person their playing, otherwise they are setting themselves up for a less-optimal character story.

 

[Dukey]

Lots and lots of tieflings and dragonborn. All over the place. Just, like, everywhere.

I thought Dragonborn were invented in 3.5e/4e, much later than the start of Greyhawk. Don't you mean half-dragons?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I thought Dragonborn were invented in 3.5e/4e, much later than the start of Greyhawk. Don't you mean half-dragons?

<he was joking>