How do you feel about published campaign setting books? Do you like having a setting laid out or making your own for your games? Has there ever been a setting book that you thought others should read even if they don't play that setting/game? Personally I've never used one. Never really saw the point but maybe I've just been too stubborn about it?
>>98148030>How do you feel about published campaign setting books?They're ultimately a scam, given that you're expected to rewrite what you don't like when you encounter problems with a TTRPG.>Do you like having a setting laid out or making your own for your games?Making one's own content or content suitable for one's group is the main advantage of this hobby. The lazy faggots who can't take the time to do that don't belong in this hobby.>Has there ever been a setting book that you thought others should read even if they don't play that setting/game?Only if they can get it completely for free. It is good to take in inspirations where one can, especially from game design they would potentially enjoy, but without spending so much as a penny so the grift isn't supported.
>>98148135>they're good but it's a griftYou just want to seethe.
>>98148030What game?
>>98148168I don't like you. Every thread I see you in just turns to dog shit. >What game?It's not a game specific thread. It's a thread about an aspect of the hobby.
>>98148168Go make some other board worse, CIA desk jockey
>>98148030Usually a bit curious, enough to see what its about, decide if I'm going to pirate it and then if I'm going to buy it. I tend to get ones with high utility tables and generation material that gets a specific tone like Yoon-Suin or Silent Titans. The author putting a lot of effort into unusual art, material I can directly use to run a game. Doesn't have to be a whole setting book, sometimes a bestiary like The Insectiary or & Monsters works well as enough of a setting I can crib on. A lot of modules have enough setting built around them its easy to fit in or take what I want too. Vary rarely do I use them whole cloth, hasn't happened in decades but it likely did when I was a kid, although I must have been fucking them up according to 'canon' on account of being 10 years old and not with it enough to notice or care. Not sure I can recommend ones people should read if they're not going to play but some I liked and have used or will us at some point include>Rifts Wormwood >The Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan>Transhuman Space >Dragonmech>Warhammer Fantasy & 30/40K >Battlecry of the Reptiliads >Battletech 3025-3150ish >Silent Titans >Ultra Violet Grasslands >Vaults of Vaarn>Into the Wyrd & Wild>Veins of the Earth>Rackhell>Yoon-Suin>1000 1000 Islands >Ashen Void>Red & Pleasant Land >Vornhiem >The Hill Cantons (Misty Isles of the Eld, Marlink, etc)>Times that Fry Men's Souls >The Valley of Flowers>Fever Swamp>Forest of Gornat >Churn Stoke Burn>Dungeon of Sign's Fallen Empire>Crystal Frontier >Through Ultan's Door>Corpathium >Dead Planet >Gradient Descent >Pound of Fleshand a bunch of fantastical stuff that maps easily onto 1500-1700s adventure and light historical reading.tl;drFeels good man. Get the ones that have high use and spark joy. Take the parts you want, don't worry about the rest.
>>98148150Another faggot who can't read.
>>98148168The last applicable one you played. You DO play games, right?
>>98148030Fundamentally, a good setting book saves you time, especially in the more time consuming prep before you start your first session.To be honest, I find setting books that home in on a small region or city to be more useful for playing an actual campaign, although I'll always have a fondness for the Forgotten Realms Grey Box, Eberron, and the Dark Sun box set.
>>98148860You're right, you actually said they're especially good.
>>98148030The last good one was greyhawk for od&d.
>>98148168This guy is a living example of why public executions may not be all that bad.
>>98148030They're great for inspiration and stealing/creative reinterpretation; but I have never really played any setting as-is.
>>98148030I really like a good settings book. It has a certain type of vibe that I can get behind. It's like this complete package to deploy, and it has this air of officialiality. I would like to publish my own someday injecting my feelings about them into it.
>>98148030>How do you feel about published campaign setting books?Some are good, most are meh, some are genuinely bad.>Do you like having a setting laid out or making your own for your games?I like both.>Has there ever been a setting book that you thought others should read even if they don't play that setting/game?Yes, but primarily because one of the books for the setting contain a quest, and that quest is structured in a very delicious way. Many GMs, especially new GMs, tend to make very linear quests and campaigns, and the quest in that setting book offers a different way to structure your quests that I think more people should know of. Unfortunately, the game isn't in English, so most people won't have much use for it.
I enjoy them. I never “run a setting book” though. I’m mostly looking for maps and some good ideas to steal. I take what I like and dump the rest.
>>98148937The Trail of Cthulhu ones are kinda hit and miss - the scenarioes in the real world are way better.That being said, I asked exactly because there is like no more game-dependent aspect in RPGs. There is really no discernable reason to put, say Fading Suns (pre 4e) in the same basket as Sine Requie.
>>98149099Wrong again.I said the act of taking in inspiration wherever one can is good.Consider learning how to read.
>>98151922>especially from game design
>>98148030I like many of the Ravenloft books (not counting the absolute garbage ones made by WotC). The Van Richten's Guides for 2e and 3e especially have a lot of interesting ideas, even if you're not planning to use the setting.
>>98151961Game design they'd personally enjoy.Do you just read things in fragments, and refuse to look at how the entire thing flows?
>>98152457Me talking about the whole thing seemed to confuse you so I thought I'd focus on as many words that you can handle. I overestimated.
>>98151666>There is really no discernable reason to put, say Fading Suns (pre 4e) in the same basket as Sine Requie.If you like both then then both go in the same basket. It's a thread about personal preference.
>>98153529... my point was exactly that one is good, the other is shit. So, it's not a meaningful a question without asking "what game?": it depends on that, no way to generalize like OP did.I mean, I suppose you CAN find a setting-hater that hates every setting published and is all for doing it yourself, but.
>>98153581>... my point was exactly that one is good, the other is shit. So, it's not a meaningful a question without asking "what game?": it depends on that, no way to generalize like OP did.Your point is so fucking stupid. Get yourself a fucking trip so I can filter you and never read your stupid fucking posts again. The system doesn't have a bearing on if you think the setting itself is good or bad. This thread is about published settings. The settings should speak for themselves.This is such a simple fucking thread. I asked three simple fucking questions in my OP. >How do you feel about published campaign setting books.This is a fucking general question. Do you hate them? Do you like them? Do you not give a shit about them. It's a simple opening question.>Do you like having a setting laid out or making your own for your games?Another fucking simple question with an easy answer. You either like using premade settings or you like to make everything up on your own. The most complex answer to this is just that you like to take things from published settings and use them in your homebrew setting.>Has there ever been a setting book that you thought others should read even if they don't play that setting/game?Again. A simple question. Which to be fair I don't think anyone has actually answered with a specific setting book.>I mean, I suppose you CAN find a setting-hater that hates every setting published and is all for doing it yourself, but.Yeah, you mean >>98148135 the first person to fucking reply to the thread?
>>98153664Anon, I was just talking about setting. FS indeed is terrible system, with a (messily) good setting.>Yeah, you mean >>98148135 the first person to fucking reply to the thread?Don't believe him in the slightest.
>>98152502You didn't talk about the whole thing, or any of it for that matter.
