Elmofongo: So basically the D&D universe does not have as linear a lore compared to Warcraft and Tolkien and I think the Warhammer universe?

dtgreene: Actually, $SETTING does have a linear core and is a complete universe. However, $SETTING is only one of the various settings that have been released for Dungeons and Dragons; there are other settings, and they are different.

Possible values for $SETTING, as used in computer games:
Forgotten Realms
Dragonlance
Dark Sun
Ravenloft
Spelljammer (but not on gog.com)
Planescape
Greyhawk (Temple of Elemental Evil)

As used in official D&D supplements, but not in any computer games, to my knowledge:
Eberron (would be interesting to see a cRPG set here)
possibly others

tamablenebula: The Gold Box games are 1e AD&D.

dtgreene: Not quite true.

The Gold Box games (Collection 2 and the Krynn series) are actually based on *1st* edition, complete with things like the 1st edition ranger (which gets d8 hit dice and both druid and magic user spells), the strange 1e Heal spell (heals all but 1d4 hit points), and the sexist rule about female strength (female characters have a lower strength cap than male characters, and they get nothing in return to balance the penalty). No game to my knowledge implements the 1e Druid or Bard, however. (The 1e Bard would have been interesting to see in a computer game, especially since it is very different from the Bards of later editions.)

The Dark Sun games, while 2e based, are the only games (to my knowledge) to implement the psionics rules. They are also the only ones to implement double dual classing.

dtgreene: As used in official D&D supplements, but not in any computer games, to my knowledge:
Eberron (would be interesting to see a cRPG set here)

Elmofongo: Why do you call settings like "$Settings?"

Whats with the dollar symbol?

vv221: In Linux (and probably other UNIX-based OS), variables names always start with a '$'. Most of them are full uppercase by convention.

So it means here that the variable named "$SETTING" can take any of the values listed and the sentence will stay true.

dtgreene: Greyhawk (Temple of Elemental Evil)

Green_Hilltop: Whaat? I always thought ToEE was set in Faerun because in the PC version you select a Faerun deity when you create a cleric.

dtgreene: Not quite true.

The Gold Box games (Collection 2 and the Krynn series) are actually based on *1st* edition, complete with things like the 1st edition ranger (which gets d8 hit dice and both druid and magic user spells), the strange 1e Heal spell (heals all but 1d4 hit points), and the sexist rule about female strength (female characters have a lower strength cap than male characters, and they get nothing in return to balance the penalty). No game to my knowledge implements the 1e Druid or Bard, however. (The 1e Bard would have been interesting to see in a computer game, especially since it is very different from the Bards of later editions.)

The Dark Sun games, while 2e based, are the only games (to my knowledge) to implement the psionics rules. They are also the only ones to implement double dual classing.

qwixter: I was going to start with Pool of Radiance.

dtgreene: Technically, it is the shell that has this convention.

Perl also uses this convention for variable names.