Realism versus Fantasy (CSC)

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A great deal can be said for creating a "real" world-one that is entirely familiar to the players. The logic here is that if the players are able to accept the physics of the world as normal, similar to what they know to be true in our own world, they will be able to suspend their disbelief of the DM's world. In theory, they are able to concentrate upon role-playing their characters. On the other hand if the DM's world is to be just like our own, there is really no need to create a new world. The DM might just as well use maps of medieval Europe or pre-Columbian North America for his campaign world.
A creative DM should not feel constrained to make a world that could fit on our own planet. His goal, his end product, should be a fantasy world, the product of his imagination. If a DM wants water to flow uphill, have clouds that can be walked upon, design a swamp that is bordered by desert, or locate a tropical va1ley between ranges of arctic mountains, he should feel free to do it. However, he should also remember that even in a world where magic works and the fantastic is the norm, there must be a reason for things to happen.
The same rationale that allows a player to readily accept a world patterned on our own can be made to work for even the most fantastic of worlds, so long as the DM can convince the players that the fantastical nature of his world is normal. If the player characters know that the world has a red sun, or that water flows out of the oceans due to an attraction to waterspouts found atop hills and mountains, they recognize that these are natural features of the world in which they live, and though different from what they know, should be able to believe in it.
Remember, though, that a fantastic world feature that is found everywhere will soon be treated as conunonplace and will rapidly lose its distinctiveness. Truly fantastic things, places or events should be localized to one region or be just plain rare. They then remain oddities, worthy of investigation by foolhardy adventurers.