D&D General Why did you pick your campaign setting?

[TwoSix]

Am I the only one that finds it odd that some people only play in one campaign setting all the time?

No matter the variant type of play, there's some group that does it, so I don't find it odd, per se. It does run counter to my normal play experience, though.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

No matter the variant type of play, there's some group that does it, so I don't find it odd, per se. It does run counter to my normal play experience, though.

I probably could've worded that better. I don't mean to imply that it's odd for people who are happy doing that. It just seems odd to me as someone who's used multiple campaign settings for different campaigns or adventures. D&D has a lot of variety to offer. I just can't imagine myself playing in the same sandbox for 10/20/40+ years. Was just wondering if anyone else felt the same way about it.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I probably could've worded that better. I don't mean to imply that it's odd for people who are happy doing that. It just seems odd to me as someone who's used multiple campaign settings for different campaigns or adventures. D&D has a lot of variety to offer. I just can't imagine myself playing in the same sandbox for 10/20/40+ years. Was just wondering if anyone else felt the same way about it.

I don't find it strange at all. I can see somebody spending lots of time in those really big well detailed settings. You can easily spend multiple campaigns in different parts of the Flanaess, Faerun and Mystara, and still have plenty of things you haven't seen.

 

[Voadam]

I probably could've worded that better. I don't mean to imply that it's odd for people who are happy doing that. It just seems odd to me as someone who's used multiple campaign settings for different campaigns or adventures. D&D has a lot of variety to offer. I just can't imagine myself playing in the same sandbox for 10/20/40+ years. Was just wondering if anyone else felt the same way about it.

Most campaign settings have hugely diverse types of areas that can accommodate many different types of adventures and it is often not hard to modify an adventure to fit a specific setting or campaign.

 

[TwoSix]

I probably could've worded that better. I don't mean to imply that it's odd for people who are happy doing that. It just seems odd to me as someone who's used multiple campaign settings for different campaigns or adventures. D&D has a lot of variety to offer. I just can't imagine myself playing in the same sandbox for 10/20/40+ years. Was just wondering if anyone else felt the same way about it.

Oh, I definitely feel the same way. I generally don't like games to run much more than 25-30 sessions. I can't imagine playing in the same world with the same character for 5-10 years, like some people here do.

 

[Minigiant]

Homebrew.

All the PHB races and Classes are fully integrated and active in it.

 

[Lanefan]

Homebrew. Designing a setting from the ground up is fun to do (if a bit tedious at times), and once I'm done I'm not bound to anyone else's lore or canon etc. other than what gets established through play and exploration. I also leave lots of "blank space" such that if a new element or idea arises long after the campaign starts, I can still fit it in.

One lesson I have learned in designing/running homebrew settings, though: history is important. Sure from the players' point of view the PCs might be just exploring some abandoned ruin somewhere, but if you-as-DM/designer have at least some idea in your mind of what that ruin used to be, why it was built there, and how/why it got to be in the condition it's in now, it can really help in grounding the setting and making it all just that much more - for lack of a better term - "real-feeling"; as this depth of history will almost certainly come across in how/what you narrate. Further, if you're lucky and the players/PCs start proactively asking these questions you've got the info ready and aren't left making it up on the spot.

 

[Lanefan]

Oh, I definitely feel the same way. I generally don't like games to run much more than 25-30 sessions. I can't imagine playing in the same world with the same character for 5-10 years, like some people here do.

Same world for ten years? Sure.

Same interweaving story arc(s) for ten years? Sure.

Same character for ten years? No. Turn 'em over. Cycle 'em in and out. A character in and of itself often only has so much story in it, after which it's time to move on; never mind that for my own part I tend to get bored playing the same character for too long continuous.

 

[TwoSix]

Same world for ten years? Sure.

Same interweaving story arc(s) for ten years? Sure.

Same character for ten years? No. Turn 'em over. Cycle 'em in and out. A character in and of itself often only has so much story in it, after which it's time to move on; never mind that for my own part I tend to get bored playing the same character for too long continuous.

I generally wouldn't have a problem staying in the same general world for longer periods of time, but we have so many different people wanting to DM that we can't. I guess we could IF we could agree on one shared world, but I don't think anyone in our group is interested in trying.

 

[Lanefan]

I generally wouldn't have a problem staying in the same general world for longer periods of time, but we have so many different people wanting to DM that we can't. I guess we could IF we could agree on one shared world, but I don't think anyone in our group is interested in trying.

Yeah, a truly shared world maybe wouldn't be nearly as much fun for the DMs-as-players, in that much of the exploration piece would be made redundant - unless the world was hard-line segmented such that one DM gets this bit, one gets this, etc. but that kind of defeats the purpose of a shared world.