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Message: <blockquote data-quote="William Ronald" data-source="post: 2432156" data-attributes="member: 426">I think it varies, if you are talking about a continent and a country. Trying to characterize a continent's cultures could take 20 or more pages.  (You can of course discuss some common things, such as is done in the FRCS regarding agriculture, life in the Realms, calendars, and  other basics.)  I think most setting books use two to four pages to describe a country --- and a lot of that includes the basics (how Karnnath is different from Breland in Eberron, for example.)I think that "fluff" and "crunch" are both useful, to use some common terms.  I think a DM generally wants to give a feeling of a specific place in a setting.  Mind you, the information on a country or a culture can provide lots of adventuring hooks. So, if I were describing a city state with political intrigue, fencing academies,where courtesy matters greatly and insults often lead to duels, as a designer I have given a few general adventure hooks.  Also, the current WotC settings include very specific adventure hooks.  I really don't see any of the core supplements that have 15 pages on rituals that do not impact the characters in some way.  Probably, if I was going to list the rituals for a religious order, a few paragraphs would suffice.  (As an added hook, I would strongly hint that the rituals have some meaning related to the religious order's history.)Perhaps a good idea for setting books might be to have some things listed which is DM knowledge only.  Not every PC in a setting will know everything about the world --- far from it in the case of most first level characters.  I think that a DM can decide what is in and outside player knowledge.  So, it is likely that most characters in a Forgotten Realms campaign have heard of Elminster -- particulary if they are a wizard or a follower of Mystra.  However, I doubt many PCs would have a clear idea of Elminster's power as detailed by the character stats in the FRCS.I think that a good campaign setting book must try to strike a balance between being a detailed travelogue with every considerable detail (The Cheeses of the Realms) and not giving any feel of  authenticity to a culture or a nation.  (Perhaps the most amusing quote I can remember on this is a remark that if Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Kingdoms had a feel of ancient wonders and horrors, then the nations of John Jakes' Brak the Barbarian seemed to have been put up with cardboard cut outs five minutes before the hero arrived.)</blockquote>

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