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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 6104360" data-attributes="member: 82106">And yet it has been done again and again. I'd also point out that even though many campaign worlds toss in some 'other cultures' they're basically map-edge-fillers more often than not. Exotic locales that the PCs can venture into near the edge of the map so they can have a bit of a romp in the desert, or fantasy Japan, or whatever. Eventually some of the more long-lasting worlds either flesh out some of these areas more, or graft on some secondary setting (as Kara-Tur has been grafted onto various TSR products over the years). Honestly, unless it was supporting a specific game system designed around that milieu I have seen very few settings released that didn't put some sort of fantasy Europe smack in the middle of the map, stick fantasy Arabia off to the lower right, fantasy central Asia somewhere off to the right, etc. The settings that actually DO avoid this tired paradigm are the very ones you label 'trope worlds'. IMHO the real trope world is the setting that is built around one single idea, not around primarily one culture or family of cultures. A world that is perpetually overrun by the undead, a world where wizards run everything, a world that is all ocean, or all desert, etc. Clearly though there are some pretty good settings that fall into this category, they are just ones that aren't extreme. I think the useful measure is more if you could run many different varied adventures and campaigns in a setting where each one could focus on different things. A world which can support that IMHO is not a trope world. OTOH it could very well be YAFE and frankly at this point that's almost as bad. So, I will say this, if fantasy Medieval Europe HAS to appear, stick off on the side of the map and put something else in center place. That would be a welcome change, and it would sure be something for US gamers to deal with, so little exposed to different cultures.</blockquote>

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