Count me in as another who dislikes overly detailed settings.  Something like the old World of Greyhawk box from 1983 or the original FR box for 1e provides everything you really need for a fantasy campaign, for instance.

When a campaign setting is filled with detail, not only do I run into problems fitting my own ideas in, but you also get the rabid canonista deal.  Not that I've had to deal with many of the latter personally, but just reading their rants on various message boards and mailing lists is a big turn-off.  "Supplement 13, page 32, mentions that all doors open toward the outside as a result of the Sanderson Compromise of 1548 when it was decided that switching hinge positions would be a proper defense against Jehovah's Witnesses.  Don't you know anything?!"

Then why do reviewers love to single that out? It's not like there aren't other problems they could sink their fangs into, like layout and editing...



-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceThen why do reviewers love to single that out? It's not like there aren't other problems they could sink their fangs into, like layout and editing...



-clash

I generally don't ding a book for being light on setting, unless the description lists it as "detailed" but it really isn't. I try to comment on how much setting is in the book, just so people know what to expeact.

I think that while The RPG Site has more DiY GMs than other places some places, I'm inclined to think that GMs as a whole are closer to 50/50 published setting/DiY.

Quote from: McrowI generally don't ding a book for being light on setting, unless the description lists it as "detailed" but it really isn't. I try to comment on how much setting is in the book, just so people know what to expeact.

I think that while The RPG Site has more DiY GMs than other places some places, I'm inclined to think that GMs as a whole are closer to 50/50 published setting/DiY.

By reviewers, I didn't mean you! I meant those evil creatures who exist to only feed on publisher's blood.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceI have the same problem with over-developed settings. I like to create my own stuff, and many settings have no place to put them.

OTOH, I understand why. I regularly get bashed by reviewers for not putting enough setting info in my games. I want to leave them open, so people can fit their own stuff in, but apparently people like me - and jrients - are a dying breed.

-clash

Similarly, I try the same approach. With RI I keft Britannia off the list. I thought this would be the perfect setting for a GM with interest to build their own setting. I got bombasted by the British fans and now I have to write an entire book about it.

As for doing supplements for profit...mm, no. Supplements, even from large press, are notoriously less profitable that core rules. I have wanted to do a monster book that crosses genres (called Unnatural Things) for years. It would have sci-fi, fantasy, and modern monsters in it, their treasure and tactics and how to port them between genres. For instance, a zombie would just be nano-mech automated flesh in scifi, necormantic summoning for fantasy and voodoo for modern. However, such a book is art intensive and notoriously low sales. Not catastrophic, but lower than your core. Adventures and other source books are even worse.

So, I try to be sensitive to what my customers want. That is why I am writing a Shaolin Squirrels: Nuts of Fury and Squirrels Ahoy: Squirrels of the Spanish Main. As a point, some settings are more open to expansions like SA! Expansions done right do just that, expand the setting without straight-jacketing the GM.

Bill

Quote from: flyingmiceBy reviewers, I didn't mean you! I meant those evil creatures who exist to only feed on publisher's blood.

-clash

sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you meant me.

I have noticed some people ripping a game apart for not having a detailed setting. Which is wrong, unless there was a promise for one. Besides the fact that a good number of people don't want overly detailed settings, there is only so much space in a core book , with the rules and such.

Quote from: HinterWeltAs for doing supplements for profit...mm, no. Supplements, even from large press, are notoriously less profitable that core rules.

Everyone says that, but my StarCluster supplements sell very well, as does the Cold Space VDS - on the order of 50-60% of the main book. At least in pdf - The SC supplements are only in print for less than a month.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceEveryone says that, but my StarCluster supplements sell very well, as does the Cold Space VDS - on the order of 50-60% of the main book. At least in pdf - The SC supplements are only in print for less than a month.

-clash

I think the key to your supplements is that they are generally short and very specific. I like it that way so I can buy the stuff I will use and not get a bunch of other stuff I won't likely use. Of course this model really only seems to work in PDFs.

Quote from: McrowI think the key to your supplements is that they are generally short and very specific. I like it that way so I can buy the stuff I will use and not get a bunch of other stuff I won't likely use. Of course this model really only seems to work in PDFs.

That very well may be. I'll find out as the packaged print supplements sell - or not - from Lulu.

-clash

Quote from: ImperatorThere's a limit on how much you can wirte about a world without getting into areas you swore you'd never touch.

If you can't detail more world areas, you seem to have only the way of advancing events on game world... aka metaplot.

But most game settings that end up breaking this promise are also uber-heavy on the metaplot.

RPGPundit

Quote from: MaddmanExalted.  Not a place so much, but events.  The game starts at a certain point and WW has said they will *never* put in a metaplot that moves things forward.   That's for the PCs to do.  There are events like the Time of Tumult adventures and the Autocthion invasion, but these are very much optional and (this is the important bit) later suppliments didn't assume that they had taken place.

Well, I am not extremely well-versed with Exalted, but I seem to recall some fairly interminable debates on RPG.net where some angry Exalted fans were claiming that there was a "Metaplot de facto".

RPGPundit

Quote from: WolvorineWell, seriously, like Imperator said...  there comes a point where you either let the setting languish in no-support hell or you detail more.  Sure you can keep pumping out modules, but that's only going to take you so far.
The nature of gamers is that they want new stuff for whatever product line(s) they're interested in.  If you stop producing stuff, then the line 'feels' dead and forgotten.  In many cases I doubt it's a matter of hand-rubbing and evil chuckles as the ignorant saps keep throwing their hard-earned dollars into the devil's mouth while the lies told premeditatedly slip away.  
I mean...  sure it may suck to have those promises fall through, but if you find that you can't deal with a setting because it's too well-developed, that just sounds stupid to me, personally.
What other option would you suggest in addition to development or dead?

Not making the stupid fucking promise in the first place?

And seriously, its not like either the Realms or Eberron had literally used up every last inch of space they could detail that they just HAD to detail Sembia or the Vast or the Border Kingdoms or Xendrick.

RPGPundit

I wrote Tribes of Mother Night setting, and people say I didn't include enough, so I will be adding more, but detail everything? No. I'm going to leave some aspects open. (I'll focus on the Empire and its brushing/conflict nations but probably leave vast wilds left open.)

*sighs* I tried to leave of "lots of room for you" but it seems I erred too much.

What's the problem? It's not like the game companies are sending people around to their customers to make sure that once their products hit the shelves you erase all your homebrew data for that area and start towing the line. Just use what you want and trash the rest.

Quote from: SilverlionI wrote Tribes of Mother Night setting, and people say I didn't include enough, so I will be adding more, but detail everything? No. I'm going to leave some aspects open. (I'll focus on the Empire and its brushing/conflict nations but probably leave vast wilds left open.)

*sighs* I tried to leave of "lots of room for you" but it seems I erred too much.

Hi Tim!

Is the revised Tribes going to be published by Silverlion or by Chine?

thanks!

-clash