Note: This is a repost of my article from yesterday, because I’ve decided to make the feature Tuesday Twitters.
It seems that all of my RPG article ideas are coming from Twitter now. I pointed out that I would be interested in an all-new campaign setting for 4th Edition when @RavynER (of Exchange of Reality) made a very important point: what do I consider an interesting campaign setting?
I quickly came up with a few things that I found important:
- I want there to be some kind of twist to the setting. In the case of 4th Edition, I don’t want a traditional fantasy setting.
- I want it to be built for the system it’s released on. This was a common complaint about Forgotten Realms for 4th Edition, but it’s less to prevent that and more to make sure that it meets it’s potential (from what I read about Eberron, the fact that it was built from the ground up for 3.5 meant that it could utilize the rules as best as any setting could).
- The setting needs to be compelling, but I don’t want information overload – that would overwhelm me and really deter me from the setting.
Then I asked @RavynER what she thought made a good setting:
- “…relatively light metaplot. Enough for ideas, not enough that it crushes the world.”
- “I prefer the stuff that’s filled in to be relatively broad and general, leaving room for the users to add details.”
- “A few pre-existing characters, but nothing too overly detailed; my favorite canonicals are the type I can add personality to.”
- “And selling it by quality and not by the amount of fanservice per supplement. The latter gets old really fast.”
Now I’m turning it over to you: what do you look for in a setting, no matter what your system of choice is?
A Note on Tuesday Twitters: I’ve been using Twitter to ask a lot of general questions lately, and I’ve decided to turn them into a blog feature. As the feature develops, I’ll mostly ask the questions on Sunday or Monday, and then incorporate what other people say into the blog. Follow @allgeektout for #tuesdaytwitters, and you might get linked to!
Icon via Iconspedia.com
My Spirits of Eden campaign setting encapsulates everything I want in a setting:
•Magic is both common and mysterious. There are baubles and trinkets for the common man, yet there are unknowable powers wielded by incredible entities that are only vague rumors in the minds of its inhabitants.
•A multitude of interlinked cultures. I’m tired of one-note medieval settings, but at the same time, I’m also tired of “this is Europeland, Asialand is across the great sea, and we know of only rumors from that strange, mystical place.”
•Supercontinents. I don’t know, I just find them frickin’ cool.
•Deeply religious and superstitious but also has its knowledgeable people and factual things. Religion and superstition played a really big role in the sorts of old cultures that D&D tries to mimic. Yet it almost never shows in the setting.
•Planetary Scale. If we have flying magic ships, we should be able to fly them into space. D&D 4e, I admit, solves this problem pretty much in every canon due to its planar ships and rituals.
What would I like to see in a campaign setting:
-Magic. The world is magic, so don’t just make it earth with magic. Make it a magical world. Rivers floating in the air.
-Move away from the stereotypical races/attitudes. Give me new stuff that is different from what is out there.
Make the campaign setting something different from Generic Fantasy Setting elevntyone. Midnight, for example, has the gods (except one) being barred from the world.
tight, I actually posted my wants yesterday on my blog.
http://tiny.cc/BvrDk
Right now I want intergalactic science fantasy with some transhumanism mixed with miyazaki and warhammer.
Geez, I’m off Twitter for two days and you turn it into a series..
Good post BTW