Quote from: JesterRaiin;907249Well, there's this saying along the lines that you can bring a horse to the water, but can't force him to drink, or something.

Frankly I see nothing wrong with the fact that people prefer Darksun over hindu-based setting. Or more precisely nothing surprising. Heck, I traveled through Asia, stayed in India for a while, and I'm probably the only male fan of Bollywood movies (also Kolly- and Tolly- FTW) you know, but I wouldn't really pick India-based/inspired setting over simple, plain, "Forgotten Realms"-like fantasy, not to mention Darksun, which is friggin' awesome.

If it was 'preference' we were talking about, I'd agree there's nothing wrong with it.  I'm talking about familiarity.  The world of the Bharata Kingdoms is way less weird or culturally distant than the world of the city-states of Dark Sun.

And the Bharata Kingdoms are awesome! They even have an enormous post-apocalyptic desert filled with monsters and ruined cities.  You know, just like the ones in Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms.

Quote from: RPGPundit;908446If it was 'preference' we were talking about, I'd agree there's nothing wrong with it.  I'm talking about familiarity.  The world of the Bharata Kingdoms is way less weird or culturally distant than the world of the city-states of Dark Sun.

And the Bharata Kingdoms are awesome! They even have an enormous post-apocalyptic desert filled with monsters and ruined cities.  You know, just like the ones in Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms.

Oh, I'm sure it's an interesting place, fun to visit and have some breathtaking adventures. I know it for a fact, because I've been reading a few books of yours and I know you like to work on tiny details while still thinking how those details fit in the Big Picture.

It's just that such earth-influenced settings exist behind door with a sign "here be the road to a world that will probably require from you to study some real-world's history & stuff to enjoy, also, there's the problem that one of your players might actually know truckloads of those lands/cultures/religion so you're prevented from inventing just about any magical shit you want, sorry" nailed to them. These door are locked and the whereabouts of the key are currently unknown.

Now, funny thing is that while exotic settings are almost guaranteed to feature such an obstacle, plenty of other real-world influenced settings aren't free of it too. For example, I know people who won't ever touch anything Viking-themed, be it "Yggdrasil", "Fate of Norns" or even that *.world based game (I can't recall the title) but won't think twice about "some fantasy half-peasants, half-berserkers crossing sea, killing worshipers of other religion and pillaging the shit of their villages" scenarios.

Same goes to Greek/Rome/Slavic... Heck, you name it, certain people are probably still gonna skip it without even reading a few pages.

I don't think it should be approached with reason and logic. It's just how things are - some (majority?) people won't be interested with a setting that implies studying some real-world things (religion, history, etc), while there are massive piles of fantasy worlds that allow you to simply pull things and explanations out of your arse just like that. And yeah, they are gonna happily buy dozens of sourcebooks covering some specifics about said fantasy lands, be it their history, or a society of elven kind.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;908601It's just that such earth-influenced settings exist behind door with a sign

The truth is that there is no door and no sign.  I'm not writing a history book.  I'm running a game.  I can make up whatever magical shit I want.

Quote from: yosemitemike;908655The truth is that there is no door and no sign.  I'm not writing a history book.  I'm running a game.  I can make up whatever magical shit I want.

I agree with what we're allowed to do with the game/setting.

As for door/sign - I simply forgot to add "for certain people" there, but I thought it's obvious from the context.

BTW, same approach is true for certain people who pick up RPGs based on some popular work of fiction. They are afraid to experiment with the setting, because "it would contradict canon". Martin's "ASoIaF" RPG often falls victim of this mindset. I think I recall people avoiding well known places in Star Wars RPG because they were afraid for their players to kill some iconic character like Luke, Vader, or Revan.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;908659I agree with what we're allowed to do with the game/setting.

As for door/sign - I simply forgot to add "for certain people" there, but I thought it's obvious from the context.

BTW, same approach is true for certain people who pick up RPGs based on some popular work of fiction. They are afraid to experiment with the setting, because "it would contradict canon". Martin's "ASoIaF" RPG often falls victim of this mindset. I think I recall people avoiding well known places in Star Wars RPG because they were afraid for their players to kill some iconic character like Luke, Vader, or Revan.

So what you really meant was that some very unreasonable people will complain.  So what?  That's what very unreasonable people do.  The fact that it is based on myth and folklore should thrown any idea of historical accuracy out the window.

People get silly about that sort of thing but there's no actual restriction.  They want to put up a door and s sign but neither is there.

Quote from: yosemitemike;908662So what you really meant was that some very unreasonable people will complain.  So what?  That's what very unreasonable people do.  The fact that it is based on myth and folklore should thrown any idea of historical accuracy out the window.

People get silly about that sort of thing but there's no actual restriction.  They want to put up a door and s sign but neither is there.

Precisely.

Then again, while it should be obvious that one is free to do whatever he/she wants with the game and its setting (it's in the introduction section of almost every core book I know about, ffs!), it seems plenty of people have trouble embracing the idea. And since it's not a rarity, it shouldn't be simply put away, considered irrelevant, "so what" & stuff. At least not when you're attempting to write and sell a game.

Understanding exact reasons behind it would require serious studies, but feel free to explain it in your own way. As far as I'm concerned, the unwillingness to study "source material" to avoid canon contradiction/confusion/making the mistake seems to be the one.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;908665Pr
Understanding exact reasons behind it would require serious studies, but feel free to explain it in your own way. As far as I'm concerned, the unwillingness to study "source material" to avoid canon contradiction/confusion/making the mistake seems to be the one.

I think it's simpler than that.  People just don't want to study.  The rest is just excuses.

Quote from: yosemitemike;908668I think it's simpler than that.  People just don't want to study.  The rest is just excuses.

I think people will happily study things they're actively interested in... like what's on sale at Ikea and where to find Pokemon for their phone fad. But a lot of folks don't really give two shits about the setting they're playing in as long as they can just show up and be entertained (and play Candy Crush on their phone when its not their turn).

Quote from: yosemitemike;908668I think it's simpler than that.  People just don't want to study.  The rest is just excuses.

Some? Most definitely and there's no question about that.

Still... Remember Butcher's signature? "Too many games to play, too little time".

I can picture a guy who says "it's Indian-like setting, so I'll probably gonna have to read Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata and Ramayana, learn about guys with weird names like Maharaja Jaswant Singh, tell the difference between Kshatriyas and Musahars and then teach it to my players who know dick about India, with the exception of the fact they serve spicy food there. Finally I'll have to convince them it's a good idea to play that instead of something else... Forget it, I'm gonna pick Forgotten Realms instead and simply invent shit on the fly".

RPGs are a hobby. It can't get in the way of more important matters, and maaaaaan, life has no shortage of the latter.

Quote from: Simlasa;908671I think people will happily study things they're actively interested in...

If they were actively interested in that sort of thing, they probably would have already studied it.  I do have a player that is very interested in the Golarion setting but by the time I had met him he had already read a lot about it including several novels.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;908601And yeah, they are gonna happily buy dozens of sourcebooks covering some specifics about said fantasy lands, be it their history, or a society of elven kind.

It's even weirder when some of those are practically cut and paste from history books.

Quote from: CRKrueger;908675It's even weirder when some of those are practically cut and paste from history books.

and then never read them.

Quote from: CRKrueger;908675It's even weirder when some of those are practically cut and paste from history books.

Heck, I've seen adventures that strangely resembled certain movie scripts, or video games.

Quote from: CRKrueger;908675It's even weirder when some of those are practically cut and paste from history books.

Yes and no.  In the case of something like AoI or Spears at Dawn I'm willing to spend a modest amount for a condensed reference with sufficient detail for gaming simply because of the convenience factor of not having to wade through the library.  My time spent on this hobby is limited.

I was kind of on the fence about this one, but my interest went up after watching Bahubali a few weeks back with a friend. This thread nudged me enough to order it on ebay. At the very least, I might mine the setting info for use with something else (possibly Godbound, Barbarians of Lemuria, or something else)