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What's Next for D&D's Campaign Settings? (And an idea/suggestion for WotC!)
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6223817" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>In terms of what would make the most useful product for players who would use them (and thus actually get purchased)... I believe they should take their cue from Nentir Vale and their Neverwinter campaign setting book. In both cases, you have two relatively small areas wherein a campaign can be focused, and in which you can detail and drop in plot ideas that can actually get used much easier.</p><p></p><p>The problem with "world books" is that these worlds are so spread out... any campaign that begins there will only use like 3% of the information written for the book. It's only if the campaign progresses to the point where the party starts going cross-country that any of that other stuff they've detailed in all these other kingdoms will ever get used.</p><p></p><p>But when you have just a small area your setting book details (a single duchy, an extremely large city and its environs), groups are much more likely to possibly journey across it, and thereby actually coming across all the stuff the writers have included in it. Plus... the smaller size of what you are detailing means you can go much further in depth in terms of specifics-- NPCs, set locations, monster locales, dungeon areas etc.</p><p></p><p>I know my game went ALL OVER the Nentir Vale in my game that I ran-- Fallcrest, Winterhaven, Thunderspire, Hammerfast, Harkenwold, the Trollhaunt, because they were all within several days of each other, and thus stuff that was going on in all those places had an impact on the party or their friends and family.</p><p></p><p>So give me a Furyondy campaign setting book within Greyhawk. Or an Abanasinia campaign setting book within Dragonlance, or a Thrane campaign setting book within Eberron to go along with my Neverwinter campaign setting book within the Forgotten Realms. Much more focused... much more specific... and (for WotC's financials) much more geared towards the total number of campaigns whose levels will remain in the greatest number and use (the 1-10 level range.)</p><p></p><p>And should any particular game outgrow one of these settings (and let's be honest... we're probably only talking like 10% of any campaigns that use these books), make sure the DMs know they can pick up the larger campaign "world books" off of dndclassics.com. So if a game outgrows its Furyondy boundries... then the DM can grab PDF copies of the 2E Grey Box gazeteers for a larger world-view. Because most DMs who would get to that point will probably feel confident enough to adapt a past edition's setting book to their own particular needs.</p><p></p><p>That's my thought at least.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 6223817, member: 7006"] In terms of what would make the most useful product for players who would use them (and thus actually get purchased)... I believe they should take their cue from Nentir Vale and their Neverwinter campaign setting book. In both cases, you have two relatively small areas wherein a campaign can be focused, and in which you can detail and drop in plot ideas that can actually get used much easier. The problem with "world books" is that these worlds are so spread out... any campaign that begins there will only use like 3% of the information written for the book. It's only if the campaign progresses to the point where the party starts going cross-country that any of that other stuff they've detailed in all these other kingdoms will ever get used. But when you have just a small area your setting book details (a single duchy, an extremely large city and its environs), groups are much more likely to possibly journey across it, and thereby actually coming across all the stuff the writers have included in it. Plus... the smaller size of what you are detailing means you can go much further in depth in terms of specifics-- NPCs, set locations, monster locales, dungeon areas etc. I know my game went ALL OVER the Nentir Vale in my game that I ran-- Fallcrest, Winterhaven, Thunderspire, Hammerfast, Harkenwold, the Trollhaunt, because they were all within several days of each other, and thus stuff that was going on in all those places had an impact on the party or their friends and family. So give me a Furyondy campaign setting book within Greyhawk. Or an Abanasinia campaign setting book within Dragonlance, or a Thrane campaign setting book within Eberron to go along with my Neverwinter campaign setting book within the Forgotten Realms. Much more focused... much more specific... and (for WotC's financials) much more geared towards the total number of campaigns whose levels will remain in the greatest number and use (the 1-10 level range.) And should any particular game outgrow one of these settings (and let's be honest... we're probably only talking like 10% of any campaigns that use these books), make sure the DMs know they can pick up the larger campaign "world books" off of dndclassics.com. So if a game outgrows its Furyondy boundries... then the DM can grab PDF copies of the 2E Grey Box gazeteers for a larger world-view. Because most DMs who would get to that point will probably feel confident enough to adapt a past edition's setting book to their own particular needs. That's my thought at least. [/QUOTE]
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