Gray's Setting Anatomy and Pathology

[Superfluous Crow]

Like all living and evolving organisms, settings can contract diseases and disorders which keep them from growing up to become healthy and mature worlds. This list keeps track of the many illnesses that have been discovered. Any independent setting doctors and researchers should feel free to contribute to the book, so as to add to the collective knowledge of the setting-medical community. If you know of any eventual cures you should post them immediately! You might save a setting from hiatus.

 Hypervariation Disorder (Theme Park Disorder)
While total settings are immune to this disease, elemental settings are prone to this tragic disorder. Reminescent of the human Multiple Personality Disorder, the individual elements of a setting suffering from this disorder lack an underlying theme and seem disjunct and out of sync. Some liken this to a a classical theme park structure, where each area carries its own feel, style, and theme.  
 Cure: Unknown

 Glossary:
 Elemental Setting: A setting composed of individual ideas linked together to create a whole. Makes for more varied settings, at the cost of structure. The underlying setting is functionally just a frame for placing ideas.  
  Total Setting: A setting focusing on the underlying theme or idea, the individual elements are simply means to an end. Total settings are more down-to-earth and grounded, although they are prone to diseases of the originality organ.  

(you are free to joke around with this although serious contributions are valued)

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Amusing idea CC. Your elemental/total distinction kind of seems like renaming DivSet and Ethocentric, though. Also, I feel like the way they're worded excludes a middle ground between them--i.e. a themed setting with some ideas that are not simply a means towards that theme.

[Kaptn'Lath]

Vreeg's Shadow
A Debilitating disease that can be highly infectious. Most common in settings that live in tight communities. The setting is racked with a feeling that its not "good enough" or "lacking in detail". Can often cause a slowing of growth to outright stagnation thus compounding the problem. Inflammation of this can be found at most setting websites especially around the Forums region.
Cure: 10-20 minute work out every week.

Hypervatiation Disorder:
Has been known to be a genetic disorder, as some settings are born with this disease. Cases from Birth are referred to as "Divset" or "Diversive Setting", their parents usually claim the setting is "special" or "underestimated".
Known Remedy: Sometimes the liberal application of a "Shared History" or "Racial Origins" can alleviate most symptoms however this has been known to leave traumatic scarring of the original appearance.

[Superfluous Crow]

[ooc]Phoenix: You have a point although I'm not sure i agree... I just can't explain it properly i guess. I would consider my setting to be elemental while I don't want it to be divset. Divset/ethoc says something about the state of the endproduct while elemental/total says something about how the setting was composed and developed.[/ooc]  

[Ghostman]

Wannabeatism: Much as the setting may pretend to be original, it is in fact little more than a superficially disguised imitation of another setting. Well-known and popular settings such as Middle-Earth are the most likely candidates to be imitated by Wannabeatist settings. The telltale symptom indicating this condition is the compulsive urge to replicate the tropes, themes and structures of the imitated setting.

Known Remedies: Immediate and plentiful injection of original content can ease the symptoms, but will not truly cure the condition. A radical operation of the core structures is the only way to elevate the setting's condition to healthy levels, but involves the unfortunate danger for potentially deadly complications such as Rupture of Internal Consistency. The remedy may thus prove to be worse than the malady.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

[ooc]How do we know something's a disease rather than merely a normal condition?  I mean I'd name some, but I'm fairly sure they aren't actual problems just my personal view.[/ooc]

[Acrimone]

I object to any and all uses of the expression "down-to-earth" in any diagnostics until someone provides a decent definition of the term.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Wannabeatism: '¦'¦'¦the condition can usually be easily detected by observing a common symptom: the compulsive need to implement the tropes of the imitated setting.

[ooc]I'd allow for cases where it is acknowledge up front that wanabeatism is going on but a good excuse it provided.  (I can't necessarily say what constitutes a "good" excuse.)[/ooc]

[Steerpike]

There could be varying levels of Wannabeatism.  A bad case would include when major factions, races, whole kingdoms, deities, and geography are more or less ripped directly from another setting, given a few name changes, and then passed off as original.  A mild case might be some sections of a setting that are recognizably more than simply inspired by another setting, but stolen whole hog with minimal tweaking.  In my view there'd be a big difference between simply using some tropes from a setting and making a carbon copy of that setting; if tropes were taken from a setting and than modified dramatically to suit the new setting, or placed in a dramatically different context (example: the setting is Middle Earth, but a dwarf-led industrial revolution is now in full swing), this wouldn't "count" as Wannabeatism.  Is that sort of what you were thinking, Silvercat?

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Is that sort of what you were thinking, Silvercat?

I guess (I'm not sure: I can say things without knowing what I mean).  I would just say that if someone isn't looking carefully enough close yet personal imitation can look like copying.

I was thinking myself of how I had the recent thought to start with D&D race stereotypes but build from there.  Not because I want those races but maybe for a challenge (creativity can be too easy sometimes).

[beejazz]

There's also the reverse of wannabeatism, oppositional syndrome. The setting sets itself up as entirely exceptional within the genre it claims to emulate, to the point where it seems like another genre entirely. The simple, painless remedy is to call it what it is.

Note: Hero/Villain swaps within the same genre (like playing the robbers instead of the cops, or Elric instead of Conan) or small exceptions to the usual tropes are distinct and benign phenomena.

[Ghostman]

Of corse very few if any settings are 100% original. I meant those cases where plagiarism really is blatant. I guess I should tweak the wording a bit...

(example: the setting is Middle Earth, but a dwarf-led industrial revolution is now in full swing), this wouldn't "count" as Wannabeatism.

It's not so much another setting but a different version of the same setting in that case. Or perhaps (illegitimate?) offspring of that setting.

[Superfluous Crow]

Mievillian Vestige
An anatomical quirk, this setting refers to elements that have yet to be implemented or detailed scientifically (or might not be implemented at all beyond the simple description provided in the vestige). Adds an illusion of depth and detail to a setting. MVs are benign and do not threaten the health of a setting unless it suffers from a great number of them. In most cases the MVs actually add an air of intrigue to the setting which many find alluring.  

[Kindling]

I love MVs.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Mievillian Vestige
An anatomical quirk, this setting refers to elements that have yet to be implemented or detailed scientifically (or might not be implemented at all beyond the simple description provided in the vestige). Adds an illusion of depth and detail to a setting. MVs are benign and do not threaten the health of a setting unless it suffers from a great number of them. In most cases the MVs actually add an air of intrigue to the setting which many find alluring.  

Example?