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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 7:38PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Jan 15, 2012
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There's been quite a bit of talk by folks about bringing back this setting or that setting, but quite frankly, the D&D setting are all very similar and generally only brought one or two new things to the game (Dark Sun = Psionics, Hollow World = a hollow world of dinosaurs, Council of Wyrms = playing dragons as PC's, etc.). They share a lot of similar things otherwise (monsters, cosmology, mythos, etc.), so I'm starting to wonder why...? Why have different settings at all? I mean they already took Forgotten Realms and tacked Al-Qadim, Maztica and Kara-Tur onto a single planet, why not stack Hollow World in under that Underdark and slap the Dark Sun and Dragonlance continents on there somewhere too? Ravenloft is just this world's Transylvania. Then there's a secluded island with a spaceport for Spelljammer (not to mention the rest of the solar system) where the folks generally don't interact with the rest of the world for some reason and Planescape is pretty much already built into the D&D cosmos...
You get the idea. All these various concepts can be crammed into a single, unified setting - the D&D setting with the release of D&D Next. The basics of it can be built right into the core books. Basically Wizard could release all the old setting material as low-cost pdf's for those that want the originals, but at the same time for D&D Next, probably onward, there would be only one setting, the D&D setting - it doesn't even need a name beyond that really. So you have your PHB, DMG, MM and now a fourth "core" book - the setting book. Of course, if you want more detail on continent A or B, there's a supplement book for that. If you want more information on these spaceships, there's a supplement book for that as well. If you want more info on the planes - supplement book - you get the idea.
Now they don't necessarily have to actually use all the previous settings/material in this new setting, I wouldn't if it were up to me, but I'd reuse the concepts of those settings so that yes you have tons of Planes of Existence and can travel through them, spelljammer spaceships in the solar system flying to different worlds, several different continents (and even different worlds with different continents as implied by the spelljammer comment) with slightly different feels/themes to give the impression and flavor of the old settings, Psionics from the start, an advanced steampunk (Eberron) planet in the setting, etc. etc. They may even reuse some of the most well known names/places/things from those settings such as Waterdeep, Thri-kreen, Athas is one of the planets in the solar system, Faerun is another, etc.
Would you be on board with such a thing, or is that just going too far for you?
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 8:15PM
#2
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I'd be fine with that - but only because I wouldn't need the setting book in the first place. I'd make my own, regardless of how the official settings are packaged.
It's not that I necessarily dislike the settings. But personally I don't think of D&D as a setting specific game. I read D&D novels, but not to use them as game worlds.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 8:26PM
#3
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Would you be on board with such a thing, or is that just going too far for you?
That's a bit too far for me. Some settings may fit together enough to make that possible, but slapping everything on or in a single planet doesn't seem right to me. Besides, people who want to combine two or more settings can already do that on their own if they wish to.
Why Mechanics-Alignment Integration is Bad
Show
so why even play a fighter if you can play the paladin the exact same way behaviorally and get added power to boot. "Paladin" is about accepting better game-enhancing mechanics at the price of more rigid in game behavior.
Really? So it goes something like this?
Fighter: "I want to be a paladin."
NPC: "Really?"
Fighter: "Yes."
NPC: "Very well." Starts reading from a holy book while still in-character "Do you accept having to choose and stick to the lawful good alignment, eventhough neither of us actually knows that it exists or what it is?"
Fighter: "I do."
NPC: "Do you reject good game balance because you accidentally rolled a high Charisma?"
Fighter: "What?"
NPC: "I don't know what it means either."
Fighter: "Oh. Umm, ok I do."
NPC: "In the name of all that is metagamey and broken, accept these better game enhancing mechanics."
Fighter: "These what?"
NPC: "Just get out there and try to fulfill a million different people's notion of good while not violating and part of any of them."
So the system is designed such that every single hit needs to be described to avoid confusion? Here's a scenario. The players are nudists, everybody in the world are nudists, it's not weird, it's totally normal in this land. They are naked and they fight drakes taking damage throughout, but healing up with surges. Later they meet the guy who raised the drakes.
Part 1: I didn't describe any of the hits. What does he see?
Part 2: Lets say I described the drakes as biting the players, yet they healed up. What does he see?
D20 Modern Toon PC Race.
Mecha Pilot's Skill Challenge Emporium.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 8:44PM
#4
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Date Joined:
May 27, 2012
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Old Forgotten Realms supplements are inadequate for a new edition. To play the Forgotten Realms setting with D&DN rules but in a time period contemporary to one of the older editions would violate canon. Considering that the only respect I have for that ridiculously-high-magic setting is how it plays the arbitrary rules of whatever the current edition is absurdly straight, I don't think it would be fair to take that away from it.
I'm not saying anyone shouldn't feel free to do whatever they want in their home games, of course, but officially published resource material should be held to a slightly higher standard. Unless they do something with time travel, of course.
The metagame is not the game.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 8:56PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Nov 22, 2007
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I don't use the realms at all but I do have a home brew world that mixes everything (spell jammer style play is accessed in the astral plane).
I think that settings are great reference material but I don't use them because as DM I should know the world better than my players and I don't read the novels and have little interest in trying to memorize a world when I can talor my own instead.
Brave Knights of W.T.F. Gryphon Helm Winner.
Edition wars kill players, this will kill Dungeons and Dragons.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 9:05PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Feb 10, 2007
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I think that settings are great reference material but I don't use them because as DM I should know the world better than my players and I don't read the novels and have little interest in trying to memorize a world when I can talor my own instead.
One thing I really hate is when a player tries to tell me how to run my world. I don't use published settings. The last thing I want is some settting lawyer telling me that what I'm doing goes against lore.
Screw their lore I say!!
Theres a lot of things about published game worlds I like but I won't actually use one. I steal things from them all the time though.
For me, world building is half the fun, more than half actually.
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 9:13PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 11, 2009
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I think that settings are great reference material but I don't use them because as DM I should know the world better than my players and I don't read the novels and have little interest in trying to memorize a world when I can talor my own instead.
One thing I really hate is when a player tries to tell me how to run my world. I don't use published settings. The last thing I want is some settting lawyer telling me that what I'm doing goes against lore.
Screw their lore I say!!
Theres a lot of things about published game worlds I like but I won't actually use one. I steal things from them all the time though.
For me, world building is half the fun, more than half actually.
+1
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 9:15PM
#8
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waits for someone to come in and post that they dont have time to make tehir own worlds anymore....
a mask everyone has at least two of, one they wear in public and another they wear in private.....
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 9:18PM
#9
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waits for someone to come in and post that they dont have time to make tehir own worlds anymore....
Like there's a better way to spend time than building worlds.
Well...okay. Pandas and ferrets are more worth it. After that...I'm kinna drawin' a blank here. 
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11 months ago ::
Jul 23, 2012 - 9:19PM
#10
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Date Joined:
May 24, 2012
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waits for someone to come in and post that they dont have time to make tehir own worlds anymore....
:P
Disgruntled ghost of the Knights of W.T.F.
(Keep D&D alive, end the edition wars!)
"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Disclaimer: Most of my posts are based on opinions (and are sometimes humorous, other times inspirational)
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