Provinces of the Great Kingdom

[Havard]

Yeah, but then again, what could that bring, in terms of playability?

The question is always, could the players handle the information to their benefit. With stuff like that, or general, most meta-stuff.

In our campaign here, I couldn't resist screwing around with that, and named one of the characters after a Mystaran god.
Ooooh, my players flipped, it was fun to see.

To be honest Rafe,
your "screwing around with Mystara references" was my least favorite part of your campaign. I am saying this because it is such an overall great campaign and you are doing a fantastic job as a DM. But if there is one thing I didnt like, it was the inclusion of various Mystara elements without staying true to them. This should perhaps not be surprising as I have been heavily dedicated to Mystara since the 1980s. But when I am still part of the LFC that should say something about the games other achievements.

I disagree with you if you are saying that information that the players can handle is all that is relevant. I think DM discussions of campaign background, even if these are things that the PCs will never learn about can be helpful, both to create an atmosphere of a consistant and more importantly to help the DM generate ideas. But I agree with you that things do need to ultimately lead back to the game and that too philosophical discussions are probably useless and perhaps even destructive.

-Havard