The Campaign Builder's Guild

For brainstorming purposes, it might be interesting to consider what types of settings are overdone/popular. Below, I try to classify several settings (mostly campaign). Feel free to add your own Conworlds!

Note: As per Polycarp!'s suggestion... A Matrix!
(Some appear in several boxes. If that is the case, they are  Orange

Star Trek

Setting (Down) Style (Across)	Adventure	Bureaucracy	Discovery/Exploration	Wonder
Dystopian	Changeling: The Dreaming The GrimDark IdDark (Light Dragon) Reth Jaleract (Kindling)	Knife's Edge (Kindling) The World of Arga (Leetz) Tempter (Steerpike)	Dark Sun Death From the Depths (Pair O' Dice) Discworld of Tu'loras (Lath)	Bas-Lag (China Mieville) The Cadaverous Earth (Steerpike) World of Darkness: Dark Ages
High Fantasy (Magic-Focus)	Dilandri (Stargate521) Dragonlance Forgotten Realms (4E) The Lord of the Rings Mystara	Avayevnon (Seraphine Harmonium) Celtricia Exalted Forgotten Realms (3E) World of Ethshar (book: Watt-Evans)	Forgotten Realms (2E) The Hobbit	Planescape
Low Fantasy (Might-Focus)	The Bronze Setting (Llum) Conan Greyhawk	Eschaton (Phoenix) A Game of Thrones (book: George RR Martin)	Lords of Dus (book: Watt-Evans) The Unfinished World (Epic Meepo)	The Clockwork Jungle (Polycarp)
Horror	Ravenloft	Dystopian Universe (Biohazard) World of Darkness Age of Madness (Steerpike)	Call of Cthulu	Haveneast (Biohazard)
Modern / Superheroes	Shadowrun	World of Darkness	WonderWorld (Light Dragon)
Space	Battletech Firefly/Serenity Spelljammer	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Star Wars	Dystopian Universe (Biohazard) Spaceships, Sixguns, and Cyclopean Horrors (Steerpike) Star Trek: Voyager
Steampunk / Pulp	EberronPulp Castle Falkenstein Lincolnshire 3118 (Kindling)	Broken Verge (Crow)	Eberron Pulp Hollow Earth Expedition Pulp Masque of the Red Death Horror Frankenstein's Legions (Gypsylight)	Castle Falkenstein Etherscope Mare Eternus (Nomadic) Tephra (Jharviss)
Weird	Xell: Chimera City (Steerpike)	Changeling: The Dreaming Fluxworld (Steerpike) The Living World of Glaesra (Pair o'Dice Lost)	Alice in Wonderland (GrimGrin) Call of Cthulhu	Gloria (Light Dragon) The Land of Oz

Adventure
-Slaying bad guys is what it's all about. Traditional Fantasy.
-Hack/Slash/Magic Solves problems.

Bureaucracy
-Well developed worlds with clear power-bases. Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
-Intrigue, Courtly Drama
-Solving complicated problems through diplomacy and logic.

Exploration/Discovery
-Finding new things is key. Quests.
-Discovery solves problems.

Wonder
-Oddness.
-No real direction except taking in the world.

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Steampunk
- A time period with displaced elements of technology that are somehow impossible.
- Candlepunk, Clockpunk, Dieselpunk, Neo-Victorianism, and some Pulpish adventures fall into this category.

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An alternate classification scheme: (Courtesy of Ghostman)
Tone: Brutal-Despair-Grim-Medium-Optimistic-Light-Humour
Fantasy Elements:
a. None-Scarce-Medium-Abundant
b. Might-Mix-Pseudofantasy-Magic
Tech Level: Stone-Bronze-Medieval-Renaissance-Victorian-Early 1900s-Modern-Future-Post Apocalyptic
Style: Action-Horror-Intrigue-Adventure-Politics
Morality: Dark-Ambiguous-Survival-Black/White

Setting	Tone	Fantasy Elements	Tech Level	Style	Morality
Babylon 5	Medium	Scarce, Pseudofantasy	Future	Action, Politics, Intrigue	Ambiguous
The Cadaverous Earth	Grim	Abundant, Mix	Renaissance	Adventure, Politics, Intrigue	Ambiguous
Celtricia	Medium	Medium, Might	Medieval	Adventure, Politics	Ambiguous
Clockwork Jungle	Medium	Medium, Might	Bronze	Adventure, Politics	Ambiguous
Cthulhu	Despair	Scarce, Pseudofantasy	Early 1900s	Horror	Survival
Forgotten Realms	Light	Abundant, Magic	Renaissance	Action, Adventure, Politics	Black/White
A Game of Thrones	Grim	Scarce, Might	Medieval	Politics, Intrigue	Ambiguous
Gloria	Optimistic	Abundant, Magic	Victorian	Adventure, Politics	Ambiguous
The GrimDark IdDark	Despair	Abundant, Mix	Medieval	Action, Adventure, Horror	Dark
Hyborian Age	Brutal	Scarce, Might	Bronze-Medieval	Action, Adventure, Horror	Dark
Mad Max	Grim	None, Might	Post-Apocalyptic	Action	Survival
Riddick	Brutal	Scarce, Pseudofantasy	Future	Action	Survival

Morality Definitions
Dark - Everyone's pretty much selfish, or "bad" to the core.
Ambiguous - Everyone has a dark side.
Survival - Amoral. It doesn't exist.
Black/White - Simple Duality.

Old Classification
[spoiler]
Adventure, Pulp
Knock-down craziness. Positive vibes
-Eberron

Adventure, Low-Fantasy
A harsh world, with harsh consequences. You make your own legends.
-The Bronze Setting (Llum)
-Conan
-Greyhawk
-Lords of Dus (book: Watt-Evans)

Adventure, High Fantasy
Here the heroes get out and get dirty and make legends. They are the powers in the world.
-Dragonlancep
-The Lord of the Rings
-Mystara
-Planescape

Adventure, Space
Go wild in the vacuum of space!
-Spelljammer

Bureaucratic, High Fantasy
These are developed worlds, with well-defined rulers, and well-defined powerbases
-Celtricia (Perhaps Intrigue as well?)
-Exalted
-Forgotten Realms
-World of Ethshar (book: Watt-Evans)

Bureaucratic, Space
These are developed worlds, with well-defined rulers, and well-defined powerbases
-Star Wars

Diplomatic/Intrigue
The focus is on people, not war. Very micro-view.
-A Game of Thrones (book: George RR Martin)
-Castle Falkenstein Also Steampunk
-Kushiel's Dart Series
-Lankhmar (book: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser)

Dystopic, Fantasy
Often closely linked to Adventure, Pulp and Adventure, Low Fantasy
-The Cadaverous Earth (Steerpike)
-Dark Sun
-Knife's Edge (Kindling)
-The World of Arga (Leetz)
-China Mieville (Adventure, High Fantasy; some Steampunk)
-Reth Jaleract (Kindling)
-Tempter (Steerpike)
-White Wolf's World of Darkness Series

Dystopic, Modern
-White Wolf's World of Darkness Series
-WonderWorld (Light Dragon)

Dystopic, Sci-Fi
Often closely linked to Adventure, Pulp and Steampunk
-Spaceships, Sixguns, and Cyclopean Horrors (Steerpike)
-Dystopian Universe (Biohazard)

Horror, Traditional
-Ravenloft

Steampunk/Victorianna
Close to Adventure, Pulp; with a decidedly "Weird Science" flavour
-Etherscope (Published Setting)
-Mare Eternus (Nomadic)
-Masque of the Red Death Horror Elements


Weird Fiction
-Alice in Wonderland (GrimGrin's Adaptation of Lewis Carroll's work)
-Call of Cthulhu
-Changeling: The Dreaming (Dystopic, Adventure)
-Fluxworld (Steerpike) (Dystopic, Modern)
-Gloria (Light Dragon) Positive! Hopeful!
-The Land of Oz
-Xell: Chimera City (Steerpike)
[/spoiler]

Currently Uncategorized
-The Jade Stage (Luminous Crayon)
-Na Bantu (Wensleydale)
-Prismatic (Llum)
-Ptolus
-Urbis (Jurgen)
-Weird Sun (Cowd) (Space)
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First off celtricia actually falls under diplomatic/intrigue much more than bureaucratic fantasy.

Secondly go ahead and throw Mare Eternus (weird fantasy: philosophical, existential) in there. I haven't had much time to expound on it but it is a setting I plan on eventually fleshing out.

Interesting that even though steampunk is considered to be one of the more overdone settings, we seem to have none of them : )

This is by the way a nice idea; i wanted to do something similar although i couldn't really come up with a decent categorization system. so good to see the initiative :)

I've got a fever, and the only cure is more horror...

Clearly, we need more horror. I'd definitely put my own settings Vilydunn and Haveneast into that category, but they both need more work to show the horror element.

Quote from: NomadicFirst off celtricia actually falls under diplomatic/intrigue much more than bureaucratic fantasy.

Secondly go ahead and throw Mare Eternus (weird fantasy: philosophical, existential) in there. I haven't had much time to expound on it but it is a setting I plan on eventually fleshing out.

Nomadic has the right of it; Diplomacy, intrigue, and social interplay are the heart of Celtricia.

However, very good idea to classify these.  It is aso interesting to see what we have done and how others view our own.

Re: Celtricia... well, I am having a difficult time categorizing it as Intrigue because it seems that there is more to it and that the theme may not really be intrigue (but I certainly could be wrong)- how do your characters usually adventure in it, Vreeg? Do they ride off into the sunset as adventurers or do they solve mysteries, deal with people and personalities and courtly drama?

I added a definition for this: Diplomatic/Intrigue
The focus is on people, not war. Very micro-view. .

Although Celtricia seems to have intrigue, it does not necessarily appear to be the point.

Crow- Thank you. I see this as an easy guide for people searching for inspiration when looking to write their next piece. Perhaps it will stimulate some creativity! :)
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Nomadic- Hmm... It seemed a bit Steampunky to me when I read it. Maybe when you add more, I can categorize it better. The "weird fantasy" section right now is distinctively set aside for pervasively odd settings- it needs to maintain the theme over description of a variety of locales for me to place something there.

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Anyone who wishes to have their settings added, please provide a link :)
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I'm all for neat categorization but some of this doesn't readily apply.  For instance, the categories of "high fantasy" and "low fantasy" describe the "epic-ness" of an adventuring world.  They are on an entirely different axis from dystopian/utopian, or from "weird fiction."  That is, these terms aren't very exclusive - it's easy to imagine a dystopian, low fantasy setting (you yourself say they're "closely linked"), or a weird high-fantasy one (pseudonatural squidknights tilting at protoplasmic dream-dragons for the hands of fair fifth dimensional omni-princesses in the Far Realm, or something).

You might be better served by a matrix of different adjectives, like somebody tried to do with magic a while back.  Dystopian or not?  Sci Fi or Fantasy?  Epic or gritty? (Because surely "high" and "low" can apply to SF or modern settings, not just fantasy.)  "Intrigue" in particular could apply to many other kinds of settings.  I'm not saying these are bad categories - on the contrary, you've covered most bases here - just that they aren't all on the same "level" as one another.

That might help your original purpose; that is, to consider what kinds of things are overdone/popular.  By your present list, dystopianism seems awfully common, but many of those settings could be shuffled into other categories like low fantasy, weird, or even horror, leaving you with a much different picture of what is overdone and what isn't.

[blockquote=PC]You might be better served by a matrix of different adjectives, like somebody tried to do with magic a while back. Dystopian or not? Sci Fi or Fantasy? Epic or gritty? (Because surely "high" and "low" can apply to SF or modern settings, not just fantasy.) "Intrigue" in particular could apply to many other kinds of settings. I'm not saying these are bad categories - on the contrary, you've covered most bases here - just that they aren't all on the same "level" as one another.[/blockquote]
Just what I had been thinking, more of a matrix, as setings are hard to pigeonhole sometimes.

Quote from: Light DragonRe: Celtricia... well, I am having a difficult time categorizing it as Intrigue because it seems that there is more to it and that the theme may not really be intrigue (but I certainly could be wrong)- how do your characters usually adventure in it, Vreeg? Do they ride off into the sunset as adventurers or do they solve mysteries, deal with people and personalities and courtly drama?

I added a definition for this: Diplomatic/Intrigue
The focus is on people, not war. Very micro-view. .

Although Celtricia seems to have intrigue, it does not necessarily appear to be the point.

Well, they do adventure.  Does that help? :weirdo:

They limp back into the town as adventurers and then they solve mysteries, deal with people and personalities and court some major drama, including jumping into the thick of the politics and the 'behind the scenes' movers and shakers.  They also spend a lot of time in the intra/inter guild conflicts and in the bardic nightlife.  A lot of time in the bardic nightlife.

Nomadic has been reading my stuff for a while, and while there is a lot of adventuring, it is normally done in support of political/social goals. I hope that helps.

Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowInteresting that even though steampunk is considered to be one of the more overdone settings, we seem to have none of them : )

This is by the way a nice idea; i wanted to do something similar although i couldn't really come up with a decent categorization system. so good to see the initiative :)

Actually you know Mare Eternus is steampunk (just a weird philosophical fantasy version). So might be better to file it under that.

Edit: Ah I see this was already noticed. Anyhow the reason it also falls under weird is because it is a very strange setting where things don't really make sense. Alot of its essence is the mystery.

Quote from: Polycarp!I'm all for neat categorization but some of this doesn't readily apply.  For instance, the categories of "high fantasy" and "low fantasy" describe the "epic-ness" of an adventuring world.  They are on an entirely different axis from dystopian/utopian, or from "weird fiction."  That is, these terms aren't very exclusive - it's easy to imagine a dystopian, low fantasy setting (you yourself say they're "closely linked"), or a weird high-fantasy one (pseudonatural squidknights tilting at protoplasmic dream-dragons for the hands of fair fifth dimensional omni-princesses in the Far Realm, or something).

You might be better served by a matrix of different adjectives, like somebody tried to do with magic a while back.  Dystopian or not?  Sci Fi or Fantasy?  Epic or gritty? (Because surely "high" and "low" can apply to SF or modern settings, not just fantasy.)  "Intrigue" in particular could apply to many other kinds of settings.  I'm not saying these are bad categories - on the contrary, you've covered most bases here - just that they aren't all on the same "level" as one another.

That might help your original purpose; that is, to consider what kinds of things are overdone/popular.  By your present list, dystopianism seems awfully common, but many of those settings could be shuffled into other categories like low fantasy, weird, or even horror, leaving you with a much different picture of what is overdone and what isn't.

I agree with this assessment.  The only thing I'd add is that the matrix would still be very limited because you can use more than two words.  Eberron could be listed as: Pulp Low-Tech Fantasy, and then depending on where and how you run it you can add Adventure or Mystery.

My consideration is what's been overdone is anything gritty, dark, low fantastic, and/or dripping with sh*t about to/already happening (note: on this last one I said "dripping with" as I know some people consider it necessary that some sh*t be going down to have a good campaign for adventuring in).  In addition I don't see enough sci-fi settings, at least not here.

Polycarp! = Perhaps I should define high and low fantasy. I do not see the differences as necessarily being scales of epic-ness. I see them as difference in terms of magic. Low fantasy has a low emphasis on magic- it is more freedom and swords of the swords/sorcery style. High fantasy focuses on magic and wizards and some bureaucratic structure.

Vreeg- Well... I think I solved the difficulty- by eliminating Intrigue... Now it falls under Bureaucracy. So you are now in the correct place! :) ... I think.

Silver Cat- For Space... look at weird sun (above, uncategorized).

Eberron should be under Adventure: it's not focused on finding new things but about the action.  If the game is significantly about fighting bad guys on you home turf it shouldn't be Dis/Ex.  (If you want something you can mention there put down Hollow Earth Expedition.)

I'm also not sure about Superheroes being setting type.  Default it's not any different from Modern, just higher-powered (you could consider it similar to Low vs. High Fantasy).  But you can do it in any kind of setting.  The point is that Superheroes isn't characterized by the environment but by the characters.

To get off my subject completely I wonder what would characterize Space Wonder?