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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JustinA" data-source="post: 3531104" data-attributes="member: 51618">Actually, no, then you would be wrong, since that completely contradicts the distinction you were trying to draw between "setting creation" and "world building".If I had ever said that, I would be guilty of tautology. In reality, of course, I never said that.But, please, don't let that dissuade you from punching those strawmen around.So you keep insisting with tautological fervor. But, like I said, I'm deeply suspicious of people who try to redefine commonly used terms in order to prove some sort of nebulous and ill-conceived point.Lots of them? Was this meant to be a trick question?Really? Because they would seem to be directly pertinent to anyone running a campaign set in the Border Kingdoms.Are you kidding? Do you never run adventures in rural locations? Or do your PCs never find themselves in buildings when you do so?Let's just take two random facts from the first article you link to:(1) "In Calimshan and Tethyr (and less prevalently elsewhere, as ideas spread from the Sword Coast), windows tend to be rectangular, with rough-cast metal frames crossed diagonally by three or four bars, with small panes of glass leaded into place between the bars."Well, now I know what happens when someone gets defenestrated (which seems to happen at least three times in every campaign I've ever run) or when the PCs want to make a hasty escape out the window.(2) "So glass pieces and fragments of all sizes are sold in markets all across the Realms. Merchants transport these wrapped in oilcloth or scraps of old clothing and laid in layers in wood "presses" of boards bound tightly together with leather straps."Having the PCs act as merchant caravan guards is a cliche for a reason. Now we know what they're guarding.Now, I suspect your answer to this will be: "Can't you just make these types of details up on the fly?" Please feel free to do so. It will give me the opportunity to completely destroy your position yet again.Necessary for what? My personal campaign? Probably not. But, on the other hand, Ed Greenwood isn't writing the column just for me. But do I think that pretty much everything in those columns will be useful to somebody at some point (or would be if they knew the resource existed)? Sure.When you try to switch the focus from what I prep for my personal campaign to what a professional game company preps for their entire consumer base, you're trying to pull a fast one in any case.For example, I have absolutely no plans to include assassins in my current campaign. Does that mean it was "indulgent" of WotC to include an assassin class in the DMG? Of course not. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people have found that assassin class immediately useful in their games.Justin Alexander<a href="http://www.thealexandrian.net" target="_blank">http://www.thealexandrian.net</a></blockquote>

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