D&D 5E I'm writing a setting book. What are your preferences?

[Ancalagon]

I'm currently skimming this thread because I'm playing in a Zeitgeist game (pathfinder... I would prefer 5e but it's a pathfinder group). In a most vague way to not spoil with the others, we just dealt with the

Spoiler

giant robot

.

Anyway, the two best setting books I've ever read were Yoon Suin and Dark Matter by Wolfgang Baur (the alternity version). Dark Materials is a very very good setting book in the classical style, extremely well written and inspiring. Yoon Suin is more recent, and perhaps at first a bit more difficult, but it is very inspiring and stimulates the imagination. Its tables allow you to weave a campaign into existence.

I'm currently reading UltraViolet Grasslands, but I'm still digesting it (initial impression quite good).

 

[Shiroiken]

There's two methods that can be used effectively, and I can give an example of each from Greyhawk.

The 1E boxed set was about 64 pages overall IIRC (2 books), a good chunk of which was illustrations. It provides some barebones information about about just about everything: astronomy, geography, flora & fauna, history, races, cultures, states, deities, knighthoods, etc. It provided enough to be a springboard into the setting, but huge gaps existed explicitly for the DM to fill in. It was mostly easy to read (ignore the stupid weather section) and gave a lot of ideas to work with.

The 3E Living Greyhawk book was an encyclopedia, and felt like one when reading it. It provided a TON of detailed information of the setting, expanding greatly upon prior edition works. Using it a DM had a very good understanding of each area/race/etc. However, it really didn't provide any ideas to springboard off of, and so much information sometimes tamped down on potential ideas since it didn't fit with the established canon (to be fair, it was working off fixing 2E's Greyhawk Wars, so it had constraints built in).

The first is shorter and easier for the designer, while providing just enough information for the DM to get started. The second is longer and harder for the designer, but makes the setting itself easier for the DM to use. Given your expected design size, I'd suggest going with the first option.

 

[Weiley31]

So are the Character Themes like classes or are they like the Supernatural Gifts from Mythic Odysseys of Theros?

 

[RangerWickett]

I haven't seen Theros. But they're an extra element of character creation.

You pick a homeland (to help you understand the setting and get suggested character options for that region). Then choose a background and race. There are a few new backgrounds and races. Then choose your character theme and class. There are new archetypes for all of the core classes, plus two new classes.

For example, you might play Kevin de Palma from the nation of Risur, a half-elf Gadgeteer fighter, who has the investigator background and the Spirit Medium character theme.

Or you might play Camila Brajallos from the nation of Ber, an orc paladin who has chosen the Oath of Liberty, with the riven mind background and the Docker character theme.

 

[Haldrik]

Check out the CIA files online. It is excellent for how to give a thumbnail sketch for each nation.

The same outline style can be used for any regional setting.

Here is an example of how the CIA describes France.

cia .gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/fr.html

"France today is one of the most modern countries in the world and is a leader among European nations.

It plays an influential global role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the G-7, the G-20, the EU, and other multilateral organizations. France rejoined NATO's integrated military command structure in 2009, reversing DE GAULLE's 1966 decision to withdraw French forces from NATO.

Since 1958, it has constructed a hybrid presidential-parliamentary governing system resistant to the instabilities experienced in earlier, more purely parliamentary administrations.

In recent decades, its reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the economic integration of Europe, including the introduction of a common currency, the euro, in January 1999.

In the early 21st century, five French overseas entities - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Reunion - became French regions and were made part of France proper."

Also, lots of details, that one would cherrypick according to gaming relevance.

 

[jayoungr]

But if I'm playing D&D, I want support for where I'm playing more than I need more places to play in. Or even stuff I can poach, and a shallow description of more parts of the world doesn't provide poachable depth.

I don't quite get from this what you're looking for in a setting guide, though. If you're a DM, part of the point of a setting guide is to give you information to help you decide where to play, right? You sound like you're going to start reading the guide having already made that decision. Can you clarify?

 

[NotAYakk]

I don't quite get from this what you're looking for in a setting guide, though. If you're a DM, part of the point of a setting guide is to give you information to help you decide where to play, right? You sound like you're going to start reading the guide having already made that decision. Can you clarify?

The point of a setting guide is to save me work where I'm going to play the game.

I don't first pick "I'm going to play on world X" then decide where in world X I want to play, which is what you seem to be describing.

I'm looking for a setting that has stuff to help me run a game in that setting. I don't need a shallow description of 50 places I'm not going to be playing the game in. With that shallow description of 50 places, I might pick one of them -- and then the other 49 shallow descriptions are distant background fluff. 98% of the book is now less useful.

And the 2% I'm playing in, well, all I have is a shallow description of the area.

A book that spent 20% of its content doing a shallow description of the world, then took 1 to 3 areas and gave a deep description, would mean when I play in those 1 to 3 areas I have more help from the book. The fact that the 98% of the world I'm not playing in has an even shallower description isn't, in a sense, my problem. If a king falls in a faraway kingdom, and nobody is playing a PC there, does he make a sound?

I'm not talking about an adventure in the highly detailed area. But I'm talking NPCs to interact with, connections between those NPCs, rumours and plot hooks, crisis that could develop, how that interacts with other higher detailed areas, maps of points of interest, factions and rivalries.

I'd have to assume Players will read it as well; so less "Alice is planning on killing the King" and more "Alice is ambitious. There are some who think she has connections to the underdark or unseelee courts" (which could be true or false!) and "If the King is assassinated, what could happen".

Or heck, potential Dungeon World style "fronts" that a DM could pick up for an area.

 

[jayoungr]

The point of a setting guide is to save me work where I'm going to play the game.

I don't first pick "I'm going to play on world X" then decide where in world X I want to play, which is what you seem to be describing.

Apologies, but I'm still confused: if you (as the DM) don't choose where on world X you're going to play, then who does?

 

[77IM]

My favorite setting book is Blades in the Dark.

I would say, and I say this to everyone creating a setting: Focus on what the PCs see. The people they meet, the places they go, the things they find. "Behind the scenes" stuff, like history, politics and traditions, is mostly irrelevant. That stuff only matters to the extent that the it informs the people/places/things that the PCs interact with.

So my prefecence is for a setting book to be little more than a giant pile of interactive elements (people/places/things), tied together by adventure hooks.