Hey all. I'm trying to evaluate a book for its usefulness to DMs/gamers. (It's written by a friend and she asked me to read it to give my opinion on how useful it might be to the gaming community to determine if they should spend effort on marketing to gamers or remain focused on authors.) The book is focused on how climate directly influences culture. It talks about the geographical zones that climate can be broken down into (and how those climates might influence aspects of culture) and then about how cultures progress and change based on the level of available technology.
Being relatively new to D&D I thought I'd reach out here and see if I could get a more general feel from people equally as new to D&D and those vastly more experienced. The book itself isn't long, just over 200 pages, with lots of bulletted lists that quickly eat up page space, but it is information dense and specialized. I know that newer DMs are more likely to start with an established world like Eberron or Faerun while more experienced DMs might go the homebrew route so it may be less useful for newer DMs since there are lots of resources for learning about the culture of the established worlds. But I really want to get more expert thoughts than my own before I go back to my friend and tell her one way or the other whether it would be a waste of effort to market to gamers in addition to writers.
It would be tough to make a blanket statement for everyone. For me, I know when I’m world building, I pull in lots of different influences and sources. If I had read this book, it would likely be one in the back of my head, but I doubt I’d seek it out. There’s enough work in world building without adding in homework.
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Hey all. I'm trying to evaluate a book for its usefulness to DMs/gamers. (It's written by a friend and she asked me to read it to give my opinion on how useful it might be to the gaming community to determine if they should spend effort on marketing to gamers or remain focused on authors.) The book is focused on how climate directly influences culture. It talks about the geographical zones that climate can be broken down into (and how those climates might influence aspects of culture) and then about how cultures progress and change based on the level of available technology.
Being relatively new to D&D I thought I'd reach out here and see if I could get a more general feel from people equally as new to D&D and those vastly more experienced. The book itself isn't long, just over 200 pages, with lots of bulletted lists that quickly eat up page space, but it is information dense and specialized. I know that newer DMs are more likely to start with an established world like Eberron or Faerun while more experienced DMs might go the homebrew route so it may be less useful for newer DMs since there are lots of resources for learning about the culture of the established worlds. But I really want to get more expert thoughts than my own before I go back to my friend and tell her one way or the other whether it would be a waste of effort to market to gamers in addition to writers.
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It would be tough to make a blanket statement for everyone. For me, I know when I’m world building, I pull in lots of different influences and sources. If I had read this book, it would likely be one in the back of my head, but I doubt I’d seek it out. There’s enough work in world building without adding in homework.