Quote from: talysman;763623Yrth, though, suffers from a problem I see in a lot of attempts to make a coherent setting: it seems a little bland in places.

I like Wilderlands and Golarion a hell of a lot better than I like Kalamar, another 'cohesive' setting. I'm wondering if cohesion in RPG settings isn't generally a bad thing, for me and I suspect many gamers. Cohesion can get in the way of playability.
BTW I didn't think original Grey Box Forgotten Realms was particularly un-cohesive; it was adding in the various supplemental areas based on Earth history that made it de-cohere.

The most cohesive settings aren't always necessarily the best.  Totally cohesive doesn't save a setting from being potentially boring.

Quote from: RPGPundit;764033The most cohesive settings aren't always necessarily the best.  Totally cohesive doesn't save a setting from being potentially boring.

True. The best setting imo are cohesive settings with something happened in the past that still influences the setting in the present. That's a form of setting canon, I guess.

Most settings are pretty cohesive. They give the GM a blueprint of what the setting may look like and leave some room for the GM to change some of the details. Unlike the new WoD which consist of loose elements who are all non canonical. Every splat in those games is optional and might not exist in your game. That makes it more flexible, but also much less cohesive. In the end they are all building blocks and the never form a complete picture in my mind.

For example the things that makes Hellfrost cohesive are the Norse culture, the world going through the Dark Ages and the Hellfrost itself with all it's snow and ice. Those things bind all the splats and regions together and make it one picture to me. I really dig that. It makes it more interesting.

Quote from: S'mon;763698I like Wilderlands and Golarion a hell of a lot better than I like Kalamar, another 'cohesive' setting. I'm wondering if cohesion in RPG settings isn't generally a bad thing, for me and I suspect many gamers. Cohesion can get in the way of playability.
BTW I didn't think original Grey Box Forgotten Realms was particularly un-cohesive; it was adding in the various supplemental areas based on Earth history that made it de-cohere.

I was actually thinking of Kingdoms of Kalamar when I first read this, I just didn't know how it stacked up against everything else mentioned.

And I happen to really like Kalamar, but its a fair critique to say it doesn't have the wow factor of some other settings.  There's no war-forged as a pc race, no airships, no hellacious glacial wall filled with frost monsters advancing south on civilized lands.  Just kingdom and city descriptions all the way down.  So you're counting on the play of D&D to be fun its own right, rather than having something new and cool leaping out at you off the printed page.

The World of Progress (SLA Industries) isn't very cohesive... but oddly enough, it becomes more cohesive when you know why it's not very cohesive.

Spoiler

The entire universe is an artificial construct originally created in the head of a kid from our universe, and Mister Slayer - an entity who began life as a voice in this kid's head before taking over the new universe - is doing his best to keep it all together while fighting off the original creator, who is trying to destroy the universe from within.

Quote from: Saladman;764801I was actually thinking of Kingdoms of Kalamar when I first read this, I just didn't know how it stacked up against everything else mentioned.

And I happen to really like Kalamar, but its a fair critique to say it doesn't have the wow factor of some other settings.  There's no war-forged as a pc race, no airships, no hellacious glacial wall filled with frost monsters advancing south on civilized lands.  Just kingdom and city descriptions all the way down.  So you're counting on the play of D&D to be fun its own right, rather than having something new and cool leaping out at you off the printed page.

In other words it is cohesive, but it doesn't have a mayor plot hook in the book like an ungoing war or an upcoming doomsday.

Quote from: Ladybird;764802The World of Progress (SLA Industries) isn't very cohesive... but oddly enough, it becomes more cohesive when you know why it's not very cohesive.

Spoiler

The entire universe is an artificial construct originally created in the head of a kid from our universe, and Mister Slayer - an entity who began life as a voice in this kid's head before taking over the new universe - is doing his best to keep it all together while fighting off the original creator, who is trying to destroy the universe from within.

So there is a cosmic force creating and another cosmic force maintaining the universe. Those elements make it cohesive, because you can always lead most things happening in that setting back to those forces.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;764809So there is a cosmic force creating and another cosmic force maintaining the universe. Those elements make it cohesive, because you can always lead most things happening in that setting back to those forces.

Not sure I'd agree with that as a definition of "cohesive", but sure. The details are wierder, though.

But none of this is explained in officially-released materials (And it might not actually be true any more, anyway); if you just read it, you'd think it was just 80's splatterpunk and teenage angst, but with a background with odd holes in it.

Quote from: Ladybird;764875Not sure I'd agree with that as a definition of "cohesive", but sure. The details are wierder, though.

But none of this is explained in officially-released materials (And it might not actually be true any more, anyway); if you just read it, you'd think it was just 80's splatterpunk and teenage angst, but with a background with odd holes in it.

Rifts oddly enough is fairly cohesive across the products. Which is an accomplishment.

After The Bomb was at its core cohesive. But the further from the core you got the more it broke down into blocks of random stuff. Which was a dissapointment for me as the core was well thought out.

Quote from: Ladybird;764875Not sure I'd agree with that as a definition of "cohesive", but sure. The details are wierder, though.

But none of this is explained in officially-released materials (And it might not actually be true any more, anyway); if you just read it, you'd think it was just 80's splatterpunk and teenage angst, but with a background with odd holes in it.

I don't know if that's a definittion of cohesive either. But it can be a force that explains why things are the way they are in that setting.

Quote from: languagegeek;762716Cohesive worlds for me would be where the setting’s metaphysics have ramifications on how the world works. So Tékumel has little-to-no metal, verifiable “gods” without a good~evil morality, multiple species with indigenous vs coloniser populations, a history where the past has ramifications on the present, crazy shit underground with a reasonable origin... To play or run in Tékumel, you don’t really have to have consumed and digested all this info, but the fact that it’s there leads to a setting that feels real and deep.

Totally agree with this one. Especially with the "past has ramifications on the present" part. I don't know if that makes a setting cohesive, but it certainly makes it more interesting to me. I always like those kind of settings, because it feels like those worlds are in motion to me. I never like "hour zero" settings without much backstory, because it feels a little dead to me. Hence my problems with the new WoD. I guess I am a pretty hung up about that.