World ideas that you think are lame
- Thread starter Tinker Gnome
- Start date
Tinker Gnome
Adventurer
Aeolius said:"Waterworld" defined as a world comprised of sailing ships, or do you mean a campaign set entirely beneath the surface of the sea? Yes, I am somewhat biased regarding the matter.
Both
DragonLancer
Hero
I don't like worlds where magic replaces technology. When you start having continual light spells as streetlamps, and speak with dead's are cast at every murder, it really looses the medieval fantasy for me.
I also do wish that settings didn't always come with a gimic. Why can't you have aalmost generic world that doesn't hinge on an ancient artifact, evil overlord or what-have-you?
I also do wish that settings didn't always come with a gimic. Why can't you have aalmost generic world that doesn't hinge on an ancient artifact, evil overlord or what-have-you?
RangerWickett
Legend
Well, . . . I've only played in two campaigns. I've run, like, six. . . . But those were all the same general setting, just different eras of my gaming development (e.g., campaign one had mind flayers and hordes of evil orcs; campaign six has dream monsters created by the mother of dreams, and realistically-designed cultures of oppressed Herethim).
Anyway, I don't know enough to complain. I'm easy to please.
Anyway, I don't know enough to complain. I'm easy to please.
Gothmog
First Post
Things/ideas I think are lame in a campaign world:
1. Magic/tech mix
2. More than one "age" in the last 200 years
3. Scads of magical items lying around for PCs to discover, but that monsters don't use
4. High magic in general
5. Patchwork worlds like FR
6. Magic causing geographical changes, but then it remains in static condition for the rest of eternity in that region. Thats just stupid. I actually liked that Kalamar took real world geogrpahy into account.
7. Entire world "monoculture". Dragonlance was bad about this, and the Realms are to some degree. Basically the majority of the world is at the same tech level, social structure, and belief systems- which simply doesn't happen.
1. Magic/tech mix
2. More than one "age" in the last 200 years
3. Scads of magical items lying around for PCs to discover, but that monsters don't use
4. High magic in general
5. Patchwork worlds like FR
6. Magic causing geographical changes, but then it remains in static condition for the rest of eternity in that region. Thats just stupid. I actually liked that Kalamar took real world geogrpahy into account.
7. Entire world "monoculture". Dragonlance was bad about this, and the Realms are to some degree. Basically the majority of the world is at the same tech level, social structure, and belief systems- which simply doesn't happen.
The only world ideas that I don't care for are those that are based off of novels (possible exception may be the upcoming Black Company RPG). I'll never feel comfortable running a game set in Middle Earth, or in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. There's too much history, too much backstory that is so ensconced in the minds of gamers that to mess with it even a little bit seems to break suspension of disbelief. Dragonlance was another that was pretty much spoiled for me because not only did I have a preconception of the setting based on the books, but the modules that came out afterwards reinforced the notion that players really didn't have much control over outcomes in the world.
Nifft
Penguin Herder
DragonLancer said:
As a counter-point, I dislike worlds that slavishly emulate Medieval Europe. Medieval Europe wasn't a romantic or fun place to be. I don't want to play "Chamberpots & Cholera". I don't want to smell like a garderrobe or have the morality of a cornered, starving rat.
My preference is for worlds that make sense according to their power-level, be that power Technology or Magic or whatever.
I think it's stupid for the PCs to be the first people to ever think of casting Speak with Dead. Seriously.
-- N
Emiricol
Registered User
Worlds where the setting details the gods and their history and interactions in anywhere from one paragraph to two pages.
I mean, seriously. If the gods walk the planet, then the whole history and development of the world ought to be intimately intertwined with the history and cultures of that world.
The 1-page-of-gods-doing-stuff settings *really* get on my nerves. Even worse if they then go on to give each god a 1 or 2 page writeup, with or without stats. I mean, if the friggin deities didn't *do* anything or *impact* much of anything, why waste 60 pages on them?
Edit: And Steampunk. I mean, I don't hate it but it just doesn't interest me at all.
I mean, seriously. If the gods walk the planet, then the whole history and development of the world ought to be intimately intertwined with the history and cultures of that world.
The 1-page-of-gods-doing-stuff settings *really* get on my nerves. Even worse if they then go on to give each god a 1 or 2 page writeup, with or without stats. I mean, if the friggin deities didn't *do* anything or *impact* much of anything, why waste 60 pages on them?
Edit: And Steampunk. I mean, I don't hate it but it just doesn't interest me at all.
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