In my (D&D) setting, the "bejewelled empires" part of the world has plenty of large bustling cosmopolitan cities. The "not northern Europe" zone, not so much. That part of the world is kinda xenophobic (for quasi-religious reasons). the largest city in "not northern Europe" does have small trade diaspora communities from the "bejewelled empires" zone but they are small, exotic, often viewed with suspicion, and I wouldn't call it a diverse city or one welcoming to foreigners.

Quote from: Greentongue on December 21, 2020, 01:46:51 PM
From my experience, while people say they want diverse and detailed, what they want is for you to amaze them with your ability to ad-lib details.

For example, Empire of the Petal Throne has more than 40 years worth of accumulated details and almost needs a degree to play "Correctly". 
At some point, the details are just fluff and players don't want to learn Too Much just to play.

While they are great reads as reference guides, they are an impediment to gaming. IMHO

Much as I love Tekumel to bits, even I have to admit there have always been barriers to popular buy-in.

I'm not entirely convinced it's because of the wealth of detail though, or it's anthropology-degree-flavour, or because it's "too diverse."

Back in the 70s I would hardly say the setting was overdrawn. Maybe later, but not then. A point in your favour is that that was the time it enjoyed it's widest appeal, so you may be onto something, but I'm still not convinced.

Even in its heyday, Tekumel was a hard sell. The most common response seemed to be "This is gorgeous, I love this, I want to be there, but.....What do I do there?"

I would argue it's not because of the detail or the diversity, but because of some of the specific conceits as originally written. Most notably, that as originally presented, the populations were so dense, the social structure was so rigid, social mobility so constrained, and Imperial oversight so omnipotent, that it was hard to imagine how to "adventure."  Not impossible, but not at all  obvious.

And the famous "fresh off the boat" scenario in the original rules, which I think did work to introduce players to an alien society, also carried the seeds of its own destruction. It just didn't look like a setting that permitted adventuring or zero-to-hero ambitions. It was, but it didn't look like one.  So, a hard sell.

EDITED TO ADD: and yes, any setting, even one as detailed as Tekumel became, still demands ad libbing. Even Tekumel is not so overdrawn that you can do without that.

Quote from: Zirunel on December 22, 2020, 02:01:40 PM
Even in its heyday, Tekumel was a hard sell. The most common response seemed to be "This is gorgeous, I love this, I want to be there, but.....What do I do there?"

I would argue it's not because of the detail or the diversity, but because of some of the specific conceits as originally written. Most notably, that as originally presented, the populations were so dense, the social structure was so rigid, social mobility so constrained, and Imperial oversight so omnipotent, that it was hard to imagine how to "adventure."  Not impossible, but not at all  obvious.

And the famous "fresh off the boat" scenario in the original rules, which I think did work to introduce players to an alien society, also carried the seeds of its own destruction. It just didn't look like a setting that permitted adventuring or zero-to-hero ambitions. It was, but it didn't look like one.  So, a hard sell.

Back in the day, for me, it was an example more than the simulation it became. "Playing It Wrong" wasn't a Thing.
You can still play fast and lose with it if you want to.  Much easier without the internet telling players "The Right Way".

For me, at about that time Den and Neverwhere were published and I was inspired by that more than anything else.

Jakalla was certainly a city and we didn't know better than to just play in it.