Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 09-18-07, 02:04 AM	I'm just curious, what do you think are useful "amenities" in a campaign setting to make running a campaign easier for a lazy DM? Some ideas: -An isolated, ignorant part of the world (such as a small, primitive island society, or the prime material plane in Planescape ("clueless")) whose inhabitants aren't knowledgable about the more "active" parts of the world -- somewhere where a character might come from and plausibly know little about the world's politics, geography, etc. (Useful for a character whose player is likewise ignorant of the campaign setting, playing exiles or emigrants from the isolated society.) -A certain amount of "sandbox" area that can include things that weren't planned on to begin with, and about which there isn't very much knowledge, and random things might exist thanks to magical accidents and such. ("Gosh... my player wants to be a Xeph. I didn't really have any specific place for them in my world, but I didn't consciously mean to exclude them, and want to accomodate my player's request. I guess I'll have them be from the Outer Territories.") -A few Deus Ex Machina devices to make sure that the DM can control the extent to which the players disrupt the world and bend the laws of reality (Inevitables, the Lady of Pain, the impersonal force of Paradox in Mage: The Ascension, etc). (Sometimes a DM might like his players bending the laws of reality and disrupting the setting a lot and other times not so much, so these forces or beings are probably best left as somewhat unpredictable, so that they're just as restrictive or permissive as the DM wants.) Thoughts on "amenities" for campaign settings?
Jürgen Hubert 09-18-07, 10:15 AM	I'm just curious, what do you think are useful "amenities" in a campaign setting to make running a campaign easier for a lazy DM? For Urbis, I've included a very large number of references to real world cultures and history. Thus, if a DM needs inspiration, all he has to do is read up on the country or period of history... -A few Deus Ex Machina devices to make sure that the DM can control the extent to which the players disrupt the world and bend the laws of reality (Inevitables, the Lady of Pain, the impersonal force of Paradox in Mage: The Ascension, etc). (Sometimes a DM might like his players bending the laws of reality and disrupting the setting a lot and other times not so much, so these forces or beings are probably best left as somewhat unpredictable, so that they're just as restrictive or permissive as the DM wants.) I must admit, I rather dislike this one. If the player characters want to disrupt the world, let them try. If they try hard enough, they should certainly be able to create major changes. The fun then is dealing with the consequences of their actions.