The "Other" Option

The other option; I have looked at the setting in the DMG (Which is really just a town and some surrounding area but it has a lot of detail) and we could use that instead if we have people that are particularly unhappy with the world as it stands now. I mean I will be honest and say, yeah I am not going to have every speck of detail about this world up front and certain things about the world might never get filled in. If this is going to cause issues I would rather cut my losses and go back to a traditional setting. I can still do a lot of the things I want to do with the campaign and it will make my life easier to have some details done for me.

Maybe the scope of what I wanted to do was to large as far as the world when really maybe a small but much more detailed area would make it more fun.

Jon brought up the "Cant please everyone all the time" but I think in this case we can since I think Jon and Patrick can have a good time in either environment and Matthew and Troy will have a more detailed playground.

Like I told Patrick, at this point I guess I would prefer to do this and have a setting written for me, because honestly now to me it's like I put in some time on this and it wasn't received how I wanted....I guess I really expect/ed the players to be a part of the process and all discover the world together as we went not me hand out 300 years of details before the first session. But maybe that's the wrong approach or...at the least, not what you guys were used to and it threw you off.

Before I vote I for one would like to know if we would be making new characters or transferring the old ones. I certainly wouldn't mind creating a new character for the new setting but I just feel like Brack works really well for this campaign and I would like to 'save' him for that someday when we can return to the world of Erathia.

I think most likely it would be a new character situation, at the least in terms of story and whatnot. Basically this will be a K.I.S.S. setting (Jon will get it but, Keep It Simple, Stupid) just traditional D&D setting like Forgotten Realms. I will post the excerpt from the DMG. Basically it would be using this small sector of the world as the map and setting and the town as the starting focus. Maybe later just drop the town onto the Forgotten Realms setting when it's out. Sorry for the formatting it copied weird and I am lazy right now about editing. Page 197-198 in DMG if you want to look but try not to spoil it by reading more. Also I would like to get on vent if possible tonight at like 530ish and chat together.

Fallcrest stands amid the Moon Hills at the falls of the
Nentir River. Here travelers and traders using the old
King’s Road that runs north and south, the dwarven
Trade Road from the east, and the river all meet. The
surrounding ridges shelter several small valleys where
farmers and woodsfolk live; few are more than six or
seven miles from the town. In general the people outside
Fallcrest’s walls earn their living by farming or
keeping livestock, and the people inside the walls are
artisans, laborers, or merchants. People with no other
prospects can make a hard living as porters, carrying
cargo from the Lower Quays to the Upper Quays (or
vice versa).
Fallcrest imports finished goods from the larger
cities downriver and ironwork from the dwarf town
of Hammerfast, and exports timber, leather, fruit,
and grain. It also trades with the nearby town of Winterhaven.
The surrounding hills hold several marble
quarries that once produced a good deal of stone, but
the area has little demand for ornamental stone these
days, and only a few stonecutters still practice their
trade.
Fallcrest
A small town built from the ruins of a larger city, Fallcrest is
the crossroads of the Nentir Vale.
Population: 1,350; another 900 or so live in the countryside
within a few miles of the town. The people of Fallcrest are
mostly humans, halflings, and dwarves. No dragonborn or
eladrin are permanent residents, but travelers of all races
pass through on occasion.
Government: The human noble Faren Markelhay is the Lord
Warden (hereditary lord) of the town. He is in charge of
the town’s justice, defense, and laws. The Lord Warden
appoints a town council to look after routine commerce
and public projects.
Defense: The Fallcrest Guard numbers sixty warriors (see
the accompanying statistics block), who also serve as
constables. Moonstone Keep is their barracks. The Lord
Warden can call up 350 militia at need.
Inns: Nentir Inn; Silver Unicorn. The Silver Unicorn is pricier
and offers better service; the Nentir Inn sees a more
interesting clientele.
Taverns: Blue Moon

Fallcrest’s Story
Up until four centuries or so ago, the Moon Hills and
the surrounding Nentir Vale were thinly settled borderlands,
home to quarrelsome human hill-chieftains
and remote realms of nonhumans such as dwarves
and elves. Giants, minotaurs, orcs, ogres, and goblins
plagued the area. Ruins such as those on the Gray
Downs or the ring-forts atop the Old Hills date back
to these days, as do stories of the hero Vendar and the
dragon of the Nentir.
With the rise of the empire of Nerath to the
south, human settlers began to move up the Nentir,
establishing towns such as Fastormel, Harkenwold,
and Winterhaven. A Nerathan hero named Aranda
Markelhay obtained a charter to build a keep at the
portage of the Nentir Falls. She raised a simple tower
at the site of Moonstone Keep three hundred ten years
ago, and under its protection the town of Fallcrest
began to grow.
Over the next two centuries, Fallcrest grew into a
small and prosperous city. It was a natural crossroads
for trade, and the Markelhays ruled it well. When
the empire of Nerath began to crumble about a century
ago, Fallcrest continued to flourish—for a time.
Ninety years ago, a fierce horde of orcs known as the
Bloodspears descended from the Stonemarch and
swept over the vale. Fallcrest’s army was defeated in a
rash attempt to halt the Bloodspears out on Gardbury
Downs. The Bloodspears burned and pillaged Fallcrest
and went on to wreak havoc all across the Nentir
Vale.
In the decades since the Bloodspear War, Fallcrest
has struggled to reestablish itself. The town is a
shadow of the former city; little trade passes up and
down the river these days. The countryside for scores
of miles around is dotted with abandoned homesteads
and manors from the days of Nerath. Once again the
Nentir Vale is a thinly settled borderland where few
folk live. This is a place in need of a few heroes.

Edit to my above. I can't meet tonight and Friday is well Friday so its for getting F'ed up. Anyways I was going to say lets take Saturday normal game time and just all get together and chat, let the emotions and shit cool off and sleep on stuff that's been talked about and then Saturday decide where to go from here? Sound ok?

Ya, sounds good.

OK So Saturday morning at least I will get to TALK about D&D even if I don't get to play it.

If everyone is headed towards a reboot, perhaps it is worth considering a new campaign set in Eberron. Obviously you can't use the old stat blocks and such, but all the world detail is already there. (You can even use the Monster Manual entries for the non-PHB races, such as warforged and shifter.)

Then again, the advantage to the DMG setting is that no everything beyond the 200 miles of the map is unknown lands, so Dean can easily work in the majority of what he's already been working on--it's just on the other side of the Dawnforge Mountains. Only difference would be that the characters are the outsiders, rather than members of the society.

Placing the DMG thing inside Dean's world could work. It would give him some more time to work on stuff, and us (me) more time to work out our characters, as well as get used to the new rules. So long as we can extablish a workable context by the time we get through the DMG setting, along with some good NPCs, power groups, etc... Maybe the background that is already provided in the DMG setting will be a good springboard into other historical references, descriptions, and details. If we do this though, we'd also have to agree to work together to develop this place, and work out the tone of the world, the campaign, our party, and perhaps even our characters in a more concrete way.

I haven't read the details of the DMG setting, but according to Jon "it is in forgotten realms and it is actually the jumping off point that WotC have made for their premade adventures." If this is true, it might be good segway into the new Forgotten Realms setting, which will be released relatively soon. Though, I've also come to like the Eberron setting as well so that would also work for me.

Yeah what what I can tell (and mentioned) it looks like it will/can be dropped down onto the FR setting when it comes out. And it is the setting for the first 3 premades (I think two are out).

I was editing my post when Dean posted his post right beneath mine, so I'm not sure if he saw the stuff I add while editing it. Just in case he didn't, here it is again:

Quote :

Placing the DMG thing inside Dean's world could work. It would give him some more time to work on stuff, and us (me) more time to work out our characters, as well as get used to the new rules. So long as we can extablish a workable context by the time we get through the DMG setting, along with some good NPCs, power groups, etc... Maybe the background that is already provided in the DMG setting will be a good springboard into other historical references, descriptions, and details. If we do this though, we'd also have to agree to work together to develop this place, and work out the tone of the world, the campaign, our party, and perhaps even our characters in a more concrete way.