Licensed settings seem to be more popular than original settings at the moment, but I wouldn't say settings are out of fashion. Licensed settings have the benefit of a known property to draw in new customers so not really surprising that they are doing well. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that a sizable fraction of licensed game materials have sales to general fans of the property in addition to gamers.


Granted I haven't been watching new games all that closely in recent years, but my impression is actually a move away from the settingless tool kit style games that became popular in the late 80s and 90s. Even HERO gave in and started to offer settings before the 5E/6E split. RQ has gone back to its Glorantha roots. RQ offshoot Mythras offers a variety of mythic earth settings.

Quote from: under_score;982097Did they not?  Seems anyone I know that played 2e a lot (which is the edition I started with) owned the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, and Planescape box sets.

Yeah there's a lot internet rumour being treated as fact there, as usual.

Quote from: K Peterson;981997I think you're looking at a rather focused subset of Rpgs.

Look at all the Rpgs that Modiphius produces. All focused on setting. Or Cubicle 7's game lines.

There's an entire gaming world that exists outside of the OSR.

Those games aren't creating new settings though, they are all licensed or reprints of established settings such as mutant chronicles

Seems to me OSR settings are all the rage.

Green Ronin have several settings across different game lines that aren't licensed.
Karthun by evil hat is a system neutral setting.
There's a fair few out there beyond licensed and some are even good.

Quote from: Biscuitician;981891Or am I wrong?

Yes, again.

Quote from: Biscuitician;981891Have people had their fill of new settings?

Not if they are original and show some merit for Actual Play.

Quote from: Biscuitician;981891Games these days seem to be more toolkit than a setting proposition. Whether it's an OSR toolkit, or something like Stars Without Number.

Some games are reul sets and can stand alone without a setting. However, they often want one or more settings to use in the game.

Quote from: Biscuitician;981891Have people had their fill of new settings?

Games companies haven't. If you have a setting of your own then you can control it, produce supplements for it and expand it. Using someone else's setting means that you are dependent on them, they might pull a licence or stop supporting a setting.

Players haven't. I think that people would use a new setting, if only as fodder for their current setting.

I find new settings interesting, but I usually go back to old settings (currently Star Wars) fairly often. I have recently read over Polaris and Coriolis, and I like both of those settings. I'm not sure if they're really new, but they're new to me.