I don't know a lot about Golarion, but from the bits and pieces I've gathered, it sure sounds a lot like Mystara; the same "theme park" approach to world-building (here's fantasy Egypt, there's fantasy Scandinavia, this is the demon-worshipping evil kingdom, this is Renaissance Italy, etc.).

I don't think this is a bad way to go about building a fantasy world. It worked for Robert E. Howard, right?

I think the theme park approach is excellent, and is useful for adventures/modules/dungeons as well.

Quote from: The Butcher;639536I don't know a lot about Golarion, but from the bits and pieces I've gathered, it sure sounds a lot like Mystara; the same "theme park" approach to world-building (here's fantasy Egypt, there's fantasy Scandinavia, this is the demon-worshipping evil kingdom, this is Renaissance Italy, etc.).

I don't think this is a bad way to go about building a fantasy world. It worked for Robert E. Howard, right?

I don't know anything about Golarion, but I quite like Mystara (though parts of it -- e.g. Alphatia -- are way too high-powered for my tastes).

The great thing about the "theme park" approach is that, whatever it lacks in verisimilitude, it gains in enabling players to immediately 'grok' the relevant parts of the setting ("this realm is sorta like ancient Egypt...").

Quote from: estar;639303You should do a review or analysis of what made Mystara awesome. It sounds like it was setting that was more than the sum of it's parts.

It certainly was but I don't know if I can actually say what made it awesome; I guess you could say it was the ultimate kitchen sink.  It was also the setting absolutely MADE for RC D&D.

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Quote from: Akrasia;639551The great thing about the "theme park" approach is that, whatever it lacks in verisimilitude, it gains in enabling players to immediately 'grok' the relevant parts of the setting ("this realm is sorta like ancient Egypt...").

Yes, and that's very valuable.  I've always found it far better than the alternatives (either "This is a vaguely generic medievalish place that's not quite like anywhere in particular" or "this is a totally bizarre alien culture that has no rooting in anything in human culture and thus you'd have to read an entire 3000 page setting book to begin to grasp it").

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Plus, y'know, the world kind of is a theme park.

Like "Over here it's the Wild West and over here it's gothic victorian murder mystery and over here it's samurais"

That really happened.

Just because it's hard, on a literary/creative level, to make those transitions feel right doesn't mean it can't be done or shouldn't be tried.

Quote from: Akrasia;639551The great thing about the "theme park" approach is that, whatever it lacks in verisimilitude, it gains in enabling players to immediately 'grok' the relevant parts of the setting ("this realm is sorta like ancient Egypt...").

Quote from: RPGPundit;639873Yes, and that's very valuable.  I've always found it far better than the alternatives (either "This is a vaguely generic medievalish place that's not quite like anywhere in particular" or "this is a totally bizarre alien culture that has no rooting in anything in human culture and thus you'd have to read an entire 3000 page setting book to begin to grasp it").

I would go further and say that this type of instant recognition it absolutely critical for a setting to be effective and viable.  One of the great thing about RPGs is the shared imagined space, and the ultimate goal of the game is to bring all the participants perception of that shared reality as close together as possible to the point of overlapping.  Now, we all know that this is a lofty goal by is sheer nature since it's fairly obvious that it is very difficult to get just two people, let alone four to six, on the same page.  Great art and visual aids are an excellent tool to bridge that gap in perception and reality of the shared space, but so are easily and recognizable tropes like saying 'this culture is akin to earth's Viking culture.'

Quote from: Drohem;639878I would go further and say that this type of instant recognition it absolutely critical for a setting to be effective and viable.

Yes, that's pretty much what I was implying.

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