Yora
2016-07-13, 03:18 AM
Some years ago there was a bit of talk about fantasy settings and the idea of Grand Unified Theories of the worlds. Which basically means that the setting starts with an explanation of how the world was created, how the cosmic laws work, and why everything is now the way that it is. And it was talked about because not everyone likes such worlds.
Of course, there are plenty of people who do. People like lore binging on The Elder Scrolls, Forgotten Realms has always been hugely popular, and the website for Harnworld boasts with "Hârn is one of the most detailed fantasy worlds ever created", as if that alone is proof of excelent quality. Any time I've been talking to people here about the setting of The Dark Eye, the main selling point was the huge amount of detail.
You can like it or you don't, but there's also a different approach that probably originates, or at the very least is strongly associated with pulp stories. Hyperborea, Barsoom, to some extend the Hyborian Age, the non-expanded Star Wars universe, and of course the first box set for Dark Sun. (Soon after they began adding some metaplot and introducing a Grand Unified Theory, which a lot of people really hated.)
For the purposes of running a campaign, having a setting that is scarce on details and rather sketchy on most things is certainly a big convenience. Much less preparation, fewer things to remember and keep straight, and less need to dump large amount of background lore on players who might not particularly care about such things. It also leads to an often distinctive aesthetic quality where there is a lot more exploration of the unknown and discovery of completely unexpected things, which is usually absent from big, well established settings.
But just like having a lot of detail, backstory, and explanation doesn't make a setting great by itself, simply having little information doesn't make it good either. It can very well still end up as just being shoddy and uninteresting.
So the big prize question is this: How do you make a small and compact setting with minimal backstory in a way that is still exciting and interesting? What are the elements that make very small settings great?
Of course, there are plenty of people who do. People like lore binging on The Elder Scrolls, Forgotten Realms has always been hugely popular, and the website for Harnworld boasts with "Hârn is one of the most detailed fantasy worlds ever created", as if that alone is proof of excelent quality. Any time I've been talking to people here about the setting of The Dark Eye, the main selling point was the huge amount of detail.
You can like it or you don't, but there's also a different approach that probably originates, or at the very least is strongly associated with pulp stories. Hyperborea, Barsoom, to some extend the Hyborian Age, the non-expanded Star Wars universe, and of course the first box set for Dark Sun. (Soon after they began adding some metaplot and introducing a Grand Unified Theory, which a lot of people really hated.)
For the purposes of running a campaign, having a setting that is scarce on details and rather sketchy on most things is certainly a big convenience. Much less preparation, fewer things to remember and keep straight, and less need to dump large amount of background lore on players who might not particularly care about such things. It also leads to an often distinctive aesthetic quality where there is a lot more exploration of the unknown and discovery of completely unexpected things, which is usually absent from big, well established settings.
But just like having a lot of detail, backstory, and explanation doesn't make a setting great by itself, simply having little information doesn't make it good either. It can very well still end up as just being shoddy and uninteresting.
So the big prize question is this: How do you make a small and compact setting with minimal backstory in a way that is still exciting and interesting? What are the elements that make very small settings great?