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Jul 15, 2012 -- 11:59AM, MechaPilot wrote:

Like a fantasy version of Scream.

"...I told you never to bother me while I'm cleaning my room!"

Yah...about the different themes, some quarters say that the split of the playerbase along so many different campaigns was one of the things that helped bring down TSR.  Now, I'm not saying that that is true, nor am I saying it's false -- I think it probably helped, but didn't do it alone -- but there -is- a certain amount of consideration due because of it (and, of course, depending on WotC's publishing costs and pricing schema).  But it does ring somewhat true to me that if you give each place its -own- setting, you will split the base beyond its ability to support all those writers.  I think 3-5 is the sweet spot, and the most popular -have- to be among them (Eberron, Realms, Hard Fun seem to be the main three, and Ravenloft takes #4 most likely but -could- be linked with Planescape, thus freeing up slot #5).  Anything else should likely be a small not-often-supported 'Campaign Setting' standalone at most -or- add these 'other places' into existing settings, perhaps as 'other continents' (for Faerun) or the lands not really fleshed out (Eberron), or even linked with Planescape -- an opportunity I really don't think should be passed up.

Just thoughts.

I'm in the "different" camp.  I want them all to be very unique.  I don't want a universal D&D cosmos, mythos, or whatever.  I want it clearly stated in the core books, to the Players - Don't expect everything available for D&D to be in every setting and I want it clearly stated to the DM's - You don't have to use everything in every setting and in fact, you shouldn't as that's just overkill except in the most weird and gonzo of settings.

I want to see the "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to every setting die - and die a horrible, horrible death.  The more uniqueness you can throw on a setting the more likely I will be to actually like it and perhaps even - gasp - buy it!

Of course, there should be a typical D&D "everything and the kitchen sink" setting for those that like that sort of thing too - not trying to shut anyone down - I just don't see the point of more than one of them.

Jul 15, 2012 -- 11:13AM, edwin_su wrote:

Personaly i would like to see the difrences between campaign settings become bigger, and with the modular aproach they talk about this should be posible.

for example cosmolegy could be difrent from one campaign to the next, the campaign setting would say which cosmolegy is the standard cosmolegy for that campaign. Ofcourse you can change this to any cosmolegy you want, but published adventures for the campaign setting would assume the cosmolegy that was mentioned as the standard in the campaign setting.

example would be the player races, a campaign setting might list playable races with a rating of common, uncommon, rare.

common: these are major races in the campaign setting, the setting has lots of fluff about them and their lands, and players might often encounter NPS's of these races. and the campaign setting might provice specific themes, backgrounds, equipment and other features for these races.

uncommon: these are minor races in the campaign they are mentioned to exist but the campaign setting does not provide a lot of fluff and player options for these races.

rare: basicly any player race not mentioned in the campaign setting. ( if a player plays one of these races the Dm would have to totaly design now this race fits into the campaign)   

To encourage different settings, the “Core Compendium” (a single book to purchase that combines the DMG and PH) can encourage the players (both DM and adventurers) to group the Core races into common, uncommon, rare, and nonexistent. That way, the players think about which races set the mood for the setting (common), which are exotic background (uncommon), which are mysterious/fascinating/frightening/unknown (rare).

The Core Compendium itself shouldnt rate the races because each setting will differ, but should encourage to players to rate these races, to pick-and-choose among the core options to sculpt, organize, and build their world.