What would it take for you to be interested in a new (not reprint or rehash) setting?

[Jedi_Solo]

A good ad campaign. One that lets me know it is there and why it is different from everything else. This will get me to buy the core book.

I will point to Crothian's "well written and well supported" as what will keep me interested in a setting.

Kind of like a TV show. Get me to sign up for the first couple of episodes with what it's about and why this is different from the others of its kind - then sell it to me in those couple of products to keep me coming back.

 

[blargney the second]

The Order of the Stick setting would be fun!

 

[Dykstrav]

The first thing to attract me to a setting would be excellent adventures, and enough of them that you could mix and match different ones together to form your own campaign arc with them. Something like the Hyskosa's hexad series in Ravenloft. The original Dragonlance adventures. Sell me good aventures first, then sell me a setting based on those adventures.

Second, the setting must have a cohesive focus. I'm sick and tired of seeing mish-mashed settings that try to combine multiple genres and end up doing none of them well. I'm tired of seeing a mix of fantasy and some other genre shoehorned into fantasy. I'm tired of seeing settings that try to give you every option under the sun too- when a setting deliberately tries to be an ubersetting with every option it really shows. This sort of thing makes me think that the setting was designed by marketing people that were too afraid of alienating some sliver of the market rather than game designers. I don't want it Tolkienesque, but I do want to see a strong direction and vision behind the setting.

 

[Alzrius]

It'd have to be different from standard medieval fantasy fare, but not so different as to be off-putting.

It'd also need plenty of support products and modules, but not so much that I felt I couldn't play in the world without just the campaign setting.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I don't necessarily care about ongoing support. It's nice to have, but if a setting's core book stands on its own, and it's got some sort of hook that interests me, I'll get it.

Heck, I only own the core materials for some of my favorite settings, precisely because I didn't feel the need for anything more.

 

[lukelightning]

Personally... It'd have to stay away from Tolkein-esque overtones. No monster cliches like "All orcs are evil, always."

Well, on that topic, a cliche that has started bothering me is that it seems that no monster is evil. Orcs have turned into some sort of noble savage, full of honor.

Sometimes a game needs a clear evil.

 

[Desdichado]

Not much. I like settings. I've picked up several new ones in the last five years or so: Midnight, Dark Legacies, Iron Kingdoms, Eberron, Middle-earth (the Decipher game), Ghostwalk, Sovereign Stone, Wheel of Time, etc..

Picked up a few that were rehashes too: Dark•Matter, Traveller, Warhammer, Star Wars, etc.

 

[Desdichado]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I don't necessarily care about ongoing support. It's nice to have, but if a setting's core book stands on its own, and it's got some sort of hook that interests me, I'll get it.

Heck, I only own the core materials for some of my favorite settings, precisely because I didn't feel the need for anything more.

You may be the minority, but I agree 100%.

 

[Nikroecyst]

Blargeny now that you mention it that would have to be my top favorite to look foraward to as well. I got dibs on playing BELKAR!!!!

 

[dpmcalister]

It'd have to be something dark and gritty; the populous fearful of magic (for setting background reasons); it'd have/use some house/third party rule but the main would be core rules (I can always retro-fit on anything from the non-OGL WotC books I've got that would fit ).

Continual support wouldn't be required (I've access to more scenarios (via Dungeon and bought PDFs, etc.) than I can shake a very big stick at) as long as the main release (detailing the campaign world) was detailed enough. In fact, a one-off release (campaign world only) would, perhaps, be more appealing because I can then "play" wherever I want without worrying that the designer is going to change something (which is the reason I no longer like the Realms as a campaign world).

Of course, my sort of campaign world is so focused as to make it a non-viable proposition for a commercial venture and even less likely as a non-commercial venture.