The Business: Don't Buy Settings That You Don't Need

Jeffro gets to the point that Cargo Cult publishers and adherants fear.

Jeffro: Draw a crappy map, write faction/hero details on an index card, hand them out, talk to each player for about five minutes to adjust the entire setup, and then go.

You can run ANY conflict you can imagine with about four hours of prep.

The campaign sets add ZERO value. https://t.co/x2nruZQwDR

— Cardinal Jefforieu (@JohnsonJeffro) January 16, 2024

As I said last week, Official Settings are not necessary.

I will go one step further. At best they are not necessary; more of than not, it's a grift.

The illusion of Official Settings rests upon a legacy of Tournament Play, which is at best depreciated now if not extinct. The other justifications rely on cross-medium branding (e.g. Rokugan with Legend of the Five Rings), brand licensing (e.g. Star Wars), or are just lazy or predatory grifting upon low-info Tourists and Normies.

You don't need it in a full and feature-complete game like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition. Lazy publishers exploit Muh Setting to justify their paper-pushing product treadmill paradigm- not quite contemporary microtransactions, but the spirit is the same.

Don't.