Wizards of the Coast – and just about every other RPG company – puts out a lot of pre-made, boxed settings, and even more are made by third-party publishers. But in a game where you can play anywhere your imagination can create and customize the rules exactly how you want them, why use pre-made settings at all? That’s the question posed to us by a listener this week who’s gotten the itch to play a campaign in Dark Sun but is wondering why it has a hold on him.

There are a lot of pros and cons for using boxed settings and creating your own settings, and the 3 Wise DMs dabble in both in their own ways. Here’s what Thorin, Tony and Dave think of using pre-made settings, what makes a good setting, how they make them their own and how they pull elements of existing settings into their homebrew settings, too.

2:00 A listener question: Why use a book world instead of building your own, especially Dark Sun

8:00 Why build your own homebrew setting?

13:00 Dark Sun the cannibal world: How the setting should help set player expectations

21:00 Kit-bashing pieces and characters from established worlds into each other and into your homebrew

31:00 The dangers of altering well-known settings and characters too far for your own purposes

39:00 What makes a good pre-made world?

46:00 Never spurn a muse: Follow the settings that inspire you

51:00 Final thoughts