It's very tempting, when writing a setting, to want to make every location - town/city/planet - a place that's intrinsically interesting. Real life isn't like that, probably even fantastical settings aren't like that, but otherwise reading them seems a chore: who wants to read about the magically mundane town of Averagestadt where the people live ordinary lives and nothing terribly exciting happens compared to anywhere else. Yet without listing Averagestadt and the like the setting info becomes rather empty.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;507469It's very tempting, when writing a setting, to want to make every location - town/city/planet - a place that's intrinsically interesting. Real life isn't like that, probably even fantastical settings aren't like that, but otherwise reading them seems a chore: who wants to read about the magically mundane town of Averagestadt where the people live ordinary lives and nothing terribly exciting happens compared to anywhere else. Yet without listing Averagestadt and the like the setting info becomes rather empty.

Mundane can still be interesting though. Every community has its challenges, its weirdoes, its secrets, etc. I run a lot of modern games, Most of which are 100% "magically mundane". But I think of my area of focus as a setting. The characters, pubs, and conflicts are all important elements to flesh out even if they don't involve supernatural curses or shapeshifting reptiles.

My advice is to think about how you can make your mundane setting features fun to interact with. They don't have to be so interesting that they lead to adventure, but knowing little details like the inn keeper's affair with the cartwright's gives you fodder to use during play (especially if the Cartwright finds out!)

I frankly enjoy adding detail to settings.

I actually find myself going deeply into areas the players go to; and barely scratch the surface in other places.  But I really enjoy digging into every bleeding neighborhood of my main towns and countries.

I was going to say the same thing as Brendan: "mundane" doesn't necessarily mean "boring", and "boring" itself might actually be a feature of a place. Some places and communities might feel like they're empty and nothing of consequence happens around... maybe that's going to be enough to make the PCs curious, thinking "no place can be THAT boring around here". Or maybe the fact that the place was boring means that you can actually have stuff happen later on for reason X or Y that makes it interesting precisely for that reason, like creating a contrast between "nothing happens" and "all hell breaks lose" that makes the latter even more interesting to explore. Think of Hill Valley in the Back to the Future series of movies. The fact the place is "Averagetown" is what makes it interesting for the purpose of the fantastical events that unfold during the trilogy.

Quote from: Benoist;507495I was going to say the same thing as Brendan: "mundane" doesn't necessarily mean "boring", and "boring" itself might actually be a feature of a place. Some places and communities might feel like they're empty and nothing of consequence happens around... maybe that's going to be enough to make the PCs curious, thinking "no place can be THAT boring around here". Or maybe the fact that the place was boring means that you can actually have stuff happen later on for reason X or Y that makes it interesting precisely for that reason, like creating a contrast between "nothing happens" and "all hell breaks lose" that makes the latter even more interesting to explore. Think of Hill Valley in the Back to the Future series of movies. The fact the place is "Averagetown" is what makes it interesting for the purpose of the fantastical events that unfold during the trilogy.

Any place with a "Biff" in it is going to be fun.

Quote from: Benoist;507495I was going to say the same thing as Brendan: "mundane" doesn't necessarily mean "boring", and "boring" itself might actually be a feature of a place. Some places and communities might feel like they're empty and nothing of consequence happens around... maybe that's going to be enough to make the PCs curious, thinking "no place can be THAT boring around here". Or maybe the fact that the place was boring means that you can actually have stuff happen later on for reason X or Y that makes it interesting precisely for that reason, like creating a contrast between "nothing happens" and "all hell breaks lose" that makes the latter even more interesting to explore. Think of Hill Valley in the Back to the Future series of movies. The fact the place is "Averagetown" is what makes it interesting for the purpose of the fantastical events that unfold during the trilogy.

And sometimes boring and mundane is good; it serves as a haven and as a counterpoint to the craziness of adventuring.

In my current game, the valley the players are in has one good human settlement and castle. Besides that there are greedy dwarves, evil high elves, more evil drow, orcs, goblins, evil humans, and so on and on. The village is like a breath of fresh air and necessary to give some relief and space for the characters between adventures. Plus, the idea that there is this one boring and safe little place in the whole area helps them to care about it and want to defend it.

Quote from: LordVreeg;507514And sometimes boring and mundane is good; it serves as a haven and as a counterpoint to the craziness of adventuring.

Especially when the forces of the PCs' antagonist(s) arrive bearing torches in theirt hands, and murder in their hearts.

A cheap trick, but it never failed me.

I think you should rather aim to make your cities first interesting, then original.

I'd take Malazan Book of the Fallen as a great example here. There are many "ordinary" cities there, but they are narrated with such great care, and all of them has some distinctive flaws/features, that each of them feels rather badass.

And there's a flying dark elven fortress around, if needed.

First lesson of GM prep: Just because it was worth spending 5 paragraphs describing X, it doesn't follow that everything vaguely similar to X is also worth spending 5 paragraphs describing.

Some rooms are empty. Some towns are boring.

Although, with that being said, once you get to the level of town/city/planet, it's difficult to conceive of one being truly boring. (Assuming the planet is populated.) You get 10,000+ people in any particular locale and there's going to be something interesting going on.

I'd say that not every place is interesting all the time. Any place can be interesting. That's why I prefer areas detailed to me in terms of tables, charts, and maps, rather than text blocks.

In the encounter tables, show me what kinds of people are there. In the treasure tables, detail the local currency. I really like knowing what the locals call their coins. I prefer that a setting book look like an almanac, rather than an encyclopedia.

So you have a setting that's a star system. You can't adequately describe every location anyway since at the very least it would take up a million pages.

But not every location will be interesting even though the reader's expectation is to be presented with a setting that is interesting throughout, not just a couple of cities/planets/dungeons. If the setting chapter is too short as a result of not being a million page gazetteer then how does he grasp that setting? How does he get a feel for it?

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;507698So you have a setting that's a star system. You can't adequately describe every location anyway since at the very least it would take up a million pages.

But not every location will be interesting even though the reader's expectation is to be presented with a setting that is interesting throughout, not just a couple of cities/planets/dungeons. If the setting chapter is too short as a result of not being a million page gazetteer then how does he grasp that setting? How does he get a feel for it?

By providing a general description of the ambiance, culture, economic life and whatnot of a sector/duchy/area, the forms of government and law (or lawlessness) of the place, and then providing specific examples that flesh out this general description.

You describe the people, their customs, their lives in broad strokes, the general geography of the place, how people subsist in this place, the types of crops and exchanges they have, the level of tech of the place, and so on.

Then, you give examples of personalities, important people (the Duke, the Bishop of the Church behind him, the leader of the rebels fighting against the Duke to free the people), and not-so-important people as well (a farmer who's very knowledgeable about what lurks in the mountains, a itinerant merchant selling all sorts of fantastic goods on the roads of the Duchy, etc.).

Stuff you can actually use at the game table.

Then for the Gazetteer, you cover the sites of adventure, the main hubs of civilization in the area, where "interesting things" are bound to happen, by definition, and then provide a few examples of "normal, boring" places, like a village subsisting on its trade of lumber, maybe. And then, maybe that "boring" place isn't so boring after all? Maybe the village has some problems with the local elves or plant folk? Maybe they're competing with the local Dwarves of Kazum Athreleb? Whatever the case may be, you can have just a handful of "mundane" examples described in a few lines, and also a set of apparently mundane, yet not-so-mundane, examples that are more obviously ripe for adventure.

You combine all these elements, and you got yourself a setting ready for the game table.