The Elemental Empire - part 7 - I Don't Really Like Setting Books (so why am I writing one?)

    I have rarely run games from a module and I don't like reading most setting books.
    This could be a problem now that I'm writing a setting of my own :)
   
    I've always liked creating my own worlds.  Once I started playing RPGs I discovered I also like tearing apart games and seeing how they work.  I've mostly been the improv guy.  You know the one, the guy you turn to when everyone wants to play but nobody knows what.  I can't count how many adventures I've created while my players were creating characters.  And I've got boxes of notebooks of game ideas and house rules.  Most modules never really interested me.  Most settings for that matter.  Honestly I can only think of a few games where I've liked reading the setting material: Shadowrun, Exaulted and Earthdawn.  I can remember reading all of those books and seeing story potential in my head, little bits and pieces that inspired me with adventure and campaign ideas.  I loved Shadowrun for it's density in brevity- the rulebooks (3rd/ 4th ed I think, I haven't read the latest) had great section at the beginning that introduced the world just right.  These sections were detailed, but not too detailed, they hit a sweet spot of saying a lot in the fewest words.  Exaulted I read several books about, each major faction had it's own book - and I loved all the different kinds of stories they presented.  With a neat fantasy-inspired-by-anime setting I could see so many different campaigns that you could run out of the same world.  Earthdawn was like Shadowrun (maybe 'cause they were by the same company) in saying a lot with little, but I also love how they created their own magic system, and presented it in fantastic detail.  But the best RPG book I've ever read was an Earthdawn supplement, The Adept's Way.  This was basically a class guide, each chapter was one class from the game.  The magic of it (to me at least) was how it was written as if one of the characters was talking to the player.  It was like a member of this class was telling you how to play that class.  I loved that style, how it drew you right into the world and the shoes of a member of your class.  I have never read another book that did that, and I'm sad because I thought it was the best style of writing a player's guide.
    The biggest problem I've had with setting books/ material is usability.  The World of Darkness books used to have a short story at the beginning of each chapter.  And that's cool and all, but what am I supposed to do with it?  If the story isn't in the same style as the adventures I'm running, then it's not really helpful.  Same with the story as a tool of building the setting, if I am making the same sort of campaign as your story then cool, but if not then I don't really get anything out of that story.  On the flip side, a breakdown of the percentage of every race living in a city is the kind of detail that makes my eyes glaze over.  Again, when I create the census campaign (in a fit of madness) then I might care about such minutia, but in the game all I need to know is if one race is dominate or if there is a good mix of races.  And are any races in conflict?  Knowing there are 80% Dwarves and 20% Elves is kind of useless ("mostly Dwarves" would have said the same thing without the scary math) (I'm easily scared) - but knowing that the Dwarves drove the Elves out of the community several generations ago and recently the Elves have tried to re-open ties to heal the old feuds; that's useful.  Now I know that this town is a good place to set a story of racial tension.
    That's the thing about a setting, I'm not reading it for my own entertainment, I'm reading it to figure out where to put my players for the story I want to tell.  Or, I'm reading it to figure out what kinds of stories I can tell.  I don't want the game material to entertain me, because of Paranoia.  I love the Paranoia RPG, more than I have words for - I think I ran it once.  I don't love it to play it, I love it to read the books and adventures.  This is a hilarious game, reading anything for the system (the old 2nd ed at least) was like reading a comedy novel.  I don't really care if I ever run it for actual players, because reading it was likely more entertaining than the players would ever be.  It's a terrible system because it's so much fun to read the books that actually running the game is a bit of a let-down.

    Okay, so I have a wee bit o' problem with writing my own game world given that I don't really like reading them.  This is going to be a tricky situation.  So what kind of guide do I want to write?  What is this setting for?  Well, I want this setting to be a tool, not a straitjacket.  I want to create a world, of course, but I also want to leave enough wiggle room to let each GM customize the setting to their group.  The kinds of stories I like are not going to be liked by everybody.  So I want to make something, well no, I want to make a core for storytelling.  I want to make the skeleton of a world, and help the GM with deciding where to build off of and change the world to fit their own group.  Most setting material I've read is like a story, it's there telling it's own tale.  I think instead I want to write 2 books, or two types of books, the GM books and the PC books.  Both are going to have the same style, talking directly to the audience, but there are going to talk in the same way as the group they're written for.  Argh... let me try to clarify what I'm thinking.  As a GM I don't want a collection of stories and statistics.  Their stories are not my stories, so they don't help.  The statistics are minutia, tiny details that don't matter without a story in the first place.  So for my GM books I am going to write GM to GM.  I'm going to write as me, The d100 Mechanic and creator of this setting, and I'm going to talk directly to the GMs out there about how the setting is structured and what they can do with it.  But for the PC books, I'm going to write like The Adept's Way, I'm going to talk to the PCs as if I was a member of this setting, teaching or telling them about the world.  Because while the GM needs the Lego-pieces of the world to create, the PCs need to be able to put themselves in the world and feel it as if they lived there.  So I think I need two different styles of writing, because I think both groups have different needs.
    Which brings up another problem, the minutia.  I started the crazy idea of writing my own setting because I wanted to work on my own game - and I think every game needs a setting.  But while I'm currently working on something based off the 5e SRD, I don't want to lock my setting into that rule-set.  So when it comes to the details things are going to get difficult.  I may need a third set of books with specific numbers for each of the games I want this to be compatible with.

    Okay, so that's the groundwork of what I'm thinking, the way I'm looking at writing this setting.  Now comes the big question- does this sound good to any of you?  I think this sort of layout would be useful, but does anyone else?  I know it's hard to form an opinion off such vague musings, and I'm working on actually writing something, but just from first impressions does it sound good?  Of is there another style you'd prefer?  Let me know in the comments below, please!