Quote from: Simlasa;783685In the CoC zine 'The Unspeakable Oath'... one of my favorite regular sections are the 'Fragments of Fear'... each one sets up a weird situation and then gives several possible explanations.

I like Fragments of Fear.

But an idea for an adventure with six different options for what is really going on is to me very different than a setting that suggests six different options for what the King of Country1 is doing in his capital or why the Queen of Country2 is considering war with Country1. I don't need that sort of uncertainty built into the setting info. I want consistent, coherent setting information. Uncertainty is easy for me to add on my own either by riffing on what is there or by presenting only partial information to the players. The players will then add even more uncertainty just by virtue of their imperfect understanding and recollection of the information that has been presented.

Quote from: Bren;783707But an idea for an adventure with six different options for what is really going on is to me very different than a setting that suggests six different options for what the King of Country1 is doing in his capital or why the Queen of Country2 is considering war with Country1. I don't need that sort of uncertainty built into the setting info.

I don't 'need' it either, but I like it and prefer it... if it's well done with interesting options.

QuoteI want consistent, coherent setting information.

So do I... to a point. It's not like I'm saying the setting should be nothing but a series of random charts (though that could be fun!).
By giving optional explanations of what's going on it's not like the writer didn't do the work... he's giving you multiple choices that he feels all fit the concept/flavor/theme of the setting.

Quote from: Simlasa;783708By giving optional explanations of what's going on it's not like the writer didn't do the work... he's giving you multiple choices that he feels all fit the concept/flavor/theme of the setting.

Minor items are fine e.g. adventure hooks. But I don't think that multiple major setting choices is going to produce a consistent setting with anything like the level of detail I'd want in a published setting.

One reason for the Fragments of Fear is that uncertainty about what's truly behind the Silent Men (or whatever the hook is) allows players to both subscribe to Uspeakable Oath and to play on an adventure based on Fragments of Fear.

Quote from: Bren;783707I like Fragments of Fear.

But an idea for an adventure with six different options for what is really going on is to me very different than a setting that suggests six different options for what the King of Country1 is doing in his capital or why the Queen of Country2 is considering war with Country1. I don't need that sort of uncertainty built into the setting info. I want consistent, coherent setting information. Uncertainty is easy for me to add on my own either by riffing on what is there or by presenting only partial information to the players. The players will then add even more uncertainty just by virtue of their imperfect understanding and recollection of the information that has been presented.

The adventure with six different options is what the old WoD did with the Gehenna books for example. The setting with six different options is what new WoD does.

In Ancient Mysteries for example is a piece of backstory about how the ancient vampire society in Mesopotamia got wiped out by a monsters called the Edimmu. After that fragment of history you get three story seeds how you could make that return in the present day. The monsters could return or a vampire could get cursed and killed or a cult arises with one very powerful vampire are the three options you get.

Of course you can also do something else with it or complete ignore it. Actually both the setting and the adventures you can play have several different options. The amount of detail does suffer, yes.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;783542Glorantha isn't a game, right? It's the setting for Runequest?

WOD is a setting too, its just packed in and different in each sourcebook and splatbook.

d20 Gamma World played on the idea of what exactly was the cause. There was conflicting info on what the cause for the collapse was. This isnt surprising as it is also a White Wolf product via their S&S/Arthaus sideline.

Dark Sun and Dragonlance has it to a lesser degree. Neither played with that aspect though.

In NWOD isn't the God Machine itself left open to interpretation? With several possibilities suggested?
Maybe I like that sort of thing because I love horror and mystery so much... and having the world too well-defined drains out some of that atmosphere, for me...and settings with too much detail often come off as dry, IMO.

Quote from: Omega;783788WOD is a setting too, its just packed in and different in each sourcebook and splatbook.

d20 Gamma World played on the idea of what exactly was the cause. There was conflicting info on what the cause for the collapse was. This isnt surprising as it is also a White Wolf product via their S&S/Arthaus sideline.

Dark Sun and Dragonlance has it to a lesser degree. Neither played with that aspect though.

It's a stacked setting. You have multiple super settings you can use. You can even use more than one of them at the same time. But the WoD itself is a modern horror setting which allows you to play a mortal investigating weird stuff. It's like a supernatural version of the X-files, Cthulhu without the mythos or a Silent Hill like setting.

Quote from: Simlasa;783818In NWOD isn't the God Machine itself left open to interpretation? With several possibilities suggested?
Maybe I like that sort of thing because I love horror and mystery so much... and having the world too well-defined drains out some of that atmosphere, for me...and settings with too much detail often come off as dry, IMO.

Yes, it is. It's unknown what it is and what it wants. The only thing known is how it works, namely via Infrastructure. That comes in different flavors. Concealment (cloaking), defense (mortals, cults, angels), logistics (getting the right stuff at the right place at the right time), elimination (cleaners) and command and control (planning, decisions). And the rest is up to you.