PDA

View Full Version : What is your favourite Campaign Setting?



The Oakenshield
2010-11-18, 09:22 PM
Anything you've ever played DnD in is good.
Published, homebrew, etc..., it doesn't matter.

AslanCross
2010-11-18, 09:24 PM
My group and I have fallen in love with Eberron, and I think we intend to stay in it for the foreseeable future.

Archpaladin Zousha
2010-11-18, 09:25 PM
I've fallen in love with the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, and its world of Golarion.

Coidzor
2010-11-18, 09:27 PM
Published so far that I've had much exposure to Eberron.

That I want to learn more about spelljammer and planescape.

Salbazier
2010-11-18, 09:27 PM
Eberron! My most favorite setting.

Lately I've been overexposed to Golarion though, not because I love it more than Eberron. it just that it is PF standard setting and Paizo's AP are just so good.

Midnight is cool too if only I go a chance to play in it...

Eldariel
2010-11-18, 09:29 PM
Planescape, Dark Sun, Ravenloft & Spelljammer are all pretty high up there.

dragonfan6490
2010-11-18, 09:34 PM
My own of course! Published wise, I really like Forgotten Realms and Eberron.

true_shinken
2010-11-18, 09:35 PM
Forgotten Realms gave me Baldur's Gate and Year of Rogue Dragons. I'll love it ever after.

HunterOfJello
2010-11-18, 09:41 PM
I've been DMing an Eberron campaign for a while and have liked it a lot so far.

Chambers
2010-11-18, 09:47 PM
Sharn.

...

Oh, there's more to Eberron besides Sharn? Heh. :smallsmile:

That and Ravenloft. I've recently been playing around with the Masque of the Red Death alternate setting for Ravenloft [1890's Gothic Victorian Earth]. The fluff is great but White Wolf fails at D&D mechanics. The Ravenloft setting published by White Wolf's Arthaus in the early 2000's is fantastic fluff and art.

After that...probably Sigil. Yes, I consider Sigil to be a campaign setting, much like Sharn.

Eldariel
2010-11-18, 09:48 PM
After that...probably Sigil. Yes, I consider Sigil to be a campaign setting, much like Sharn.

Just say "Planescape" like the rest of us; running a Planescape campaign entirely in Sigil is entirely feasible, not to mention infinitely enjoyable.

Warlawk
2010-11-18, 10:02 PM
Eberron and Planescape. The group doesn't care for planescape much though, so I rarely get to indulge. We do some Eberron, but more often we use FR because everyone is more familiar with it.

The Big Dice
2010-11-18, 10:13 PM
Rokugan.

A setting where the only thing you really own are your own words and deeds. Where honour really is a force more powerful than steel and where a single strike of a blade can rock empires to their foundations.

JonestheSpy
2010-11-18, 10:30 PM
Glorantha, setting first for the wargame King of Dragon Pass, then the RPG Runequest, is far and away my favorite published setting ever. Amazing history and mythology, incredibly detailed and original - never been anything like it before or since.

The Big Dice
2010-11-18, 10:32 PM
Glorantha, setting first for the wargame King of Dragon Pass, then the RPG Runequest, is far and away my favorite published setting ever. Amazing history and mythology, incredibly detailed and original - never been anything like it before or since.

I think the original writing team on L5R were trying for a Glorantha-like level of awesomeness. They came close, but that original vision has been diluted over the decade and a half or so L5R has been around.

Psyren
2010-11-18, 10:44 PM
Eberron, but I do have to give Golarion, Dark Sun and Rokugan runner-up positions.

Amphetryon
2010-11-18, 10:49 PM
Kalamar, dark sun, maztica, rokugon, eberron. In that order, more or less.

Remmirath
2010-11-18, 11:15 PM
'Homebrew in general' is probably my favourite of all, but of the published settings I'd say it's definitely Planescape. Followed by Ravenloft, when I'm in the mood for it.

I have a slight soft spot for the Forgotten Realms simply because so many of my favourite computer games have been set in it, but I'm otherwise neutral towards it. Similarly, I have a slight soft spot for Greyhawk because I think of it as the default setting. I would be unlikely to pick either of them if somebody asked me to pick one setting to play in, though.

dsmiles
2010-11-19, 05:28 AM
Iron Kingdoms, followed by 2e Ravenloft and 2e Dark Sun.

FelixG
2010-11-19, 05:54 AM
1) Eberron
2) Iron Kingdoms
3) Pathfinder

The Oakenshield
2010-11-19, 07:11 AM
I'm surprised at all the people who like Eberron, I didn't know it was this popular.

Mordokai
2010-11-19, 07:18 AM
Like some people have already said, I love Forgotten Realms for all the great cRPGs that gave us. Beyond that, my biggest exposure so far has been to Greyhawk and I don't find it bad. I consider Eberron better in pretty much every aspect though and Ravenloft my personal favourite.

The Glyphstone
2010-11-19, 07:26 AM
I'm surprised at all the people who like Eberron, I didn't know it was this popular.

Nonsense. How can lightning trains, halfling dinosaur riders, and magic robots not be popular?

Anyways...Ebberon.:smallbiggrin:

Killer Angel
2010-11-19, 07:30 AM
By far Planescape, followed by Eberron and then Forgotten realms (more for the nice PrCs and the idea of the regional feats)

hamlet
2010-11-19, 08:21 AM
Kingdoms of Kalamar really. Haven't had a chance to play or run it (stupid real life and responsibilities), but I've been dreaming of it for a while.

Edge
2010-11-19, 08:35 AM
Eberron and Planescape. I just love the style of them. Plus, Eberron has warforged and Planescape is possibly the most open setting for monstrous PCs, and I love me some monstrous PCs.

Areswargod139
2010-11-19, 09:26 AM
No love for Dragonlance? Shucks, guys.:roach:

hotel_papa
2010-11-19, 09:33 AM
Eberron. By a wide, wide margin.

Emmerask
2010-11-19, 09:46 AM
Aventurien - not well known outside germany but its awesome :smallwink:

Thefurmonger
2010-11-19, 09:51 AM
1. Darksun

2. Planescape

3. Greyhawk

4. Ravenloft

5. Spelljammer (Would be higher but I hate the Hippo People)

arguskos
2010-11-19, 10:37 AM
1. Zaaman-Rul (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172194)! :smallcool:

2. Planescape, ya pikin' sod!

3. The Forgotten Realms, since only FR brought us the greatest villain ever.
"Once, my thirst for power was everything. Now I hunger only for revenge. And I WILL HAVE IT!"
-Jonaleth Irenicus

4. Ravenloft. Nothing says existential dread like Ravenloft.

5. Nearly everything else out there for 3.5.

Last: Eberron.

Comet
2010-11-19, 11:42 AM
Planescape, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Spelljammer.

At least when it comes to published D&D material, those are my favourite settings. They have focus and a unique take on things. I feel that every other setting lacks either one or the other or both.

nyjastul69
2010-11-19, 12:19 PM
Greyhawk, Kalamar, Forgotten Realms and Eberron in that order.

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-19, 10:19 PM
Generally, I prefer the idea of playing in a world the DM created or DMing in a world I created. Specifically, I'm currently partial to the world in which my last campaign and current comic, Beaches and Basilisks, takes place. My current DM's world is pretty interesting, too, but we haven't seen enough of it yet.

Alleran
2010-11-19, 10:23 PM
Planescape and Forgotten Realms. If there was an official Midkemia setting, though, I'd be all over it.

AslanCross
2010-11-20, 02:48 AM
No love for Dragonlance? Shucks, guys.:roach:

I loved the Dragonlance novels, and I think the setting makes for a great story, but for some reason I feel like it's a bit pointless adventuring in it. If I make a wizard, he will always be in the shadow of Raistlin. An elf general will always be in the shadow of Laurana. A ranger will always be in the shadow of Tanis Half-Elven. I just feel like there's very little space for new heroes in it.

GoatBoy
2010-11-20, 04:46 AM
In my opinion (and somewhat limited experience) nothing comes close to Eberron.

You don't need to read ten years' worth of novels to know what's going on.

Great new rules, but nothing so complicated that new players will have trouble getting used to it.

Elegantly combines the potential for courtly intrigue (Dragonmarked houses and Last War), ancient mystery (Draconic Prophecy), high fantasy (dragonshards, artifice), and dark horror (Blood of Vol, Dragon Below). Easy to focus on what you want and ignore the rest.

Allows you to incorporate just about every class, race, or alternate rules system. It can either be an exotic fighting style studied by a monastery in Aundair, or a newly discovered population on Xen'drik.

It's just the perfect default sword & sorcery campaign world.

mint
2010-11-20, 07:25 AM
Eberron is lovely.
It just has so many good concepts that combine well.
It feels conscious of the tropes of D&D and just really genre savvy without being obvious.
It feels really cohesive and bright. I get this feeling from a Eberron that many concepts have gone through this schema:

Take generic idea, consider opposite, go to neither of those places. So the Eberron iteration of something we've all had contact with before, like elves or orcs, will almost always feel fresh without feeling contrived or forced (by being the opposite of what is expected as a reaction).

Also:

Religion! It is great in Eberron. Something always bothered me about religion in a fantasy world where the gods are active and their influence and power is proven. If they offer paradise in the next life, the world becomes a lot less interesting to me.
In Eberron, religion -except maybe the Silver Flame- does not offer personal salvation. You go to a pretty sad and boring place after you die and there is little to be done about this. The gods can only help you have a better life, not a better afterlife.
Makes religion plausibly meaningful but not all important.


Economy! They consider the effects on magic on industry and economy. What would happen if there was a very low level spell that made you better at crafting? Well here you go, Eberron.


Psionics! It handles the redundancy between psionics and magic pretty well.
On one continent, psionics are dominant, on another magic is dominant.
I like Sarlona. The kalashtar vs quori conflic with the fighting nightmares with ideals and psionic blades is pretty rad.

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-20, 09:03 AM
I loved the Dragonlance novels, and I think the setting makes for a great story, but for some reason I feel like it's a bit pointless adventuring in it. If I make a wizard, he will always be in the shadow of Raistlin. An elf general will always be in the shadow of Laurana. A ranger will always be in the shadow of Tanis Half-Elven. I just feel like there's very little space for new heroes in it.

I feel like that would be the case for most settings with established characters, though I don't have much experience playing in these worlds. Are the heroes of Dragonlance more prominent, or are you just more familiar with them than those of other settings, or what?

dsmiles
2010-11-20, 09:19 AM
I feel like that would be the case for most settings with established characters, though I don't have much experience playing in these worlds. Are the heroes of Dragonlance more prominent, or are you just more familiar with them than those of other settings, or what?It's easier to handwave novels in other settings, IMO. FR has so many different heroes that there's always you can do without them overshadowing you, since they don't overshadow each other. Greyhawk has so few mega-heroes that you can do the same. Krynn's heroes figure so prominently in the world's history that you really can't escape being compared to them.

BobVosh
2010-11-20, 09:20 AM
Planescape, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Spelljammer.


Planescape, Dark Sun, Ravenloft & Spelljammer are all pretty high up there.

Very wise people.
I would amend this with the PFCS, I actually really like their world.

Also if we can venture beyond D&D I would love to add Exalted. Regardless of the mechanics that some people have issues with, I rarely find anyone who hates all/most of the story for exalted.

Also I really dislike Eberron, followed closely by Forgotten Realms.

Trodon
2010-11-20, 09:22 AM
Really? No love to Dragonlance?

1: Dragonlance

2: Forgotten Realms

3: [Insert my next setting I play in here.]

Morty
2010-11-20, 09:25 AM
Forgotten Realms. Sure, it might be full of holes and not really consitent with how the rules actually work, but it's still a huge, rich setting with lots of possibilities for pretty much every type of game you can have in D&D.
Planescape looks brilliant from what I've seen, but what I've seen is pretty much Planescape: Torment and some stuff here and there.
I don't know much about other settins to have opinions on them, except for Eberron which I dislike.

Drascin
2010-11-20, 09:26 AM
Eberron and Planescape are top of the totem pole for me, easily.

The Big Dice
2010-11-20, 10:40 AM
Planescape and Forgotten Realms. If there was an official Midkemia setting, though, I'd be all over it.

SAdly, the [url=http://midkemia.com/]Midkemia Press[/quote] went out of print years ago. I did have a copy of Tulan of the Isles way back when, but it's long gone. :smallsigh:

oxybe
2010-11-20, 10:52 AM
Eberron and Darksun, both because they take the familiar elements of D&D and give them enough twists to keep things fresh all while staying away from "pseudo-medieval europe... WITH MAGIC!"

i've played enough of the "we've lived in a medieval stasis for the last thousand years" settings. i know the differences between grayhawk, the realms, dragonlance, etc... but they all seem to blend together in my eyes at this point.

dsmiles
2010-11-20, 10:55 AM
Eberron and Darksun, both because they take the familiar elements of D&D and give them enough twists to keep things fresh all while staying away from "pseudo-medieval europe... WITH MAGIC!"

i've played enough of the "we've lived in a medieval stasis for the last thousand years" settings. i know the differences between grayhawk, the realms, dragonlance, etc... but they all seem to blend together in my eyes at this point.That's exactly why I like Iron Kingdoms. Steamtech and Magitech combine their awesomeness here.

Elfin
2010-11-20, 11:17 AM
I've actually really been enjoying 4e's Points of Light setting.
But other than that, Eberron and Forgotten Realms. They're both just neat settings, though in different ways.

Can't stand Greyhawk, though, and never have been able to.

umbrapolaris
2010-11-20, 11:19 AM
Forgotten Realms as a base settings with portals to Planescape when the group reached high levels, then allow trips to Ravenloft and Darksun (homebrew rules that allow to go in and back) and permit Spelljamming to Star Wars Saga ^^

i know it is very wide and may be weird but very funny ^^

DM : " you face a black-clad armored man breathing loudly behind a stylized helmet, gripping a tube in his hand"

P1 (paladin) : oh another blackguard , let me deal with him !
hey you ! i will send you to your evil god !

The "Blackguard" : there is no God, only the Force...

the Paladin : (charging) by the will of Helm !!

the Blackguard : (rise his hand) , feel the power of the Dark Side ...

the paladin : (choking) by the 9 Hells...what the...arrgghhhh (fall dead)

the Blackguard : dont underestimate the Dark Side...

Dm to the other players: the Paladin seems to be dead, what you will do?

other players after concerting: where is the portal?...

The-Mage-King
2010-11-20, 11:21 AM
Hm... Planescape, Spelljammer, Ebberron, and, if allowable, Pathfinder CS.

The first, because, really, I like that genre. The second- Giant space hamster. The third- Magitech.


And the fourth? Cayden Cailean (http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Cayden_Cailean). That's all.

hamishspence
2010-11-20, 11:45 AM
I've actually really been enjoying 4e's Points of Light setting.
But other than that, Eberron and Forgotten Realms. They're both just neat settings, though in different ways.

The one I was in (when it was running), partook a bit of all 3.

The setting was post-Spellplague Faerun.

I'd managed to talk the DM into letting me play a Warforged.
(explanation- the Witches of Rashemen have rediscovered the construct-building arts of their predecessor organization, the Ruamathari, and, being eco-friendly, have started to build wooden, free-willed constructs as allies and helpers).

And the DM had ruled that The Raven Queen exists in the setting (either as a colleague of Kelemvor, or his replacement).

RufusCorvus
2010-11-20, 11:55 AM
The setting I'm working on currently. It's an attempt to combine every aspect of history and culture that I like into one cohesive whole. It also involves me scavenging the bits and pieces I like most from other campaigns. I think it's working well so far.

For published settings, the one I like the most is Planescape.

I like about 60% of Eberron.

I was going to say Forgotten Realms, but I really only like it because of Baldur's Gate, so...

Yora
2010-11-20, 12:28 PM
The setting I'm working on currently. It's an attempt to combine every aspect of history and culture that I like into one cohesive whole. It also involves me scavenging the bits and pieces I like most from other campaigns. I think it's working well so far.
That is something that usually doesn't work as well at it sounds. Very often that leads to the setting lacking any real focus and creating a world of many fractured parts that don't match into a well developed whole.
While writing my own homebrew setting, there are often ideas and concepts that I really like, but then decide not to include because it doesn't fit into the whole and only distractes from the original vision.

Psyren
2010-11-20, 12:38 PM
Really? No love to Dragonlance?

No :smallyuk:
(Not from me, anyway...)


The one I was in (when it was running), partook a bit of all 3.

The setting was post-Spellplague Faerun.

I'd managed to talk the DM into letting me play a Warforged.
(explanation- the Witches of Rashemen have rediscovered the construct-building arts of their predecessor organization, the Ruamathari, and, being eco-friendly, have started to build wooden, free-willed constructs as allies and helpers).

Nice :smallsmile:

hamishspence
2010-11-20, 12:44 PM
Nice :smallsmile:

As long as it's not cheesy-powerful, a lot of things can be justified if you come up with a an interesting and flavorful explanation.

Now Warforged in Dragonlance, or Dark Sun, without any plane-crossing, might have been a bit harder-

but Faerun already had an empire that fought its wars with armies of constructs- all that was needed was a reason for the construct-building to survive to the present.

TeqSun
2010-11-20, 12:55 PM
Published so far that I've had much exposure to Eberron.

That I want to learn more about spelljammer and planescape.
Nice haiku.

I'll jump on the Planescape bandwagon as my fav published setting. I'm also really into my own dying-earth-meets-lunar-tinker-gnomes-in-D&D setting right now.

I also have a soft spot for Council of Wyrms, though I haven't played it since 2e and don't know if I ever will again. :smallfrown:

Cahokia
2010-11-20, 12:56 PM
Well, I like the setting I'm working on in my signature the best, 'cause I'm biased. But I generally prefer homebrew to published settings. I like Eberron, but don't know enough about it. I dislike FR because it just feels silly when everyone and their mother is 20th level, and Greyhawk bores me to no end.

Esser-Z
2010-11-20, 12:57 PM
Eberron, easily.

I'm partial to Spelljammer and Planescape, too. Need modern edition versions of them. Well, not so much need, as the fluff can be used with the mechanics replaced, but...

ffone
2010-11-20, 01:11 PM
Forgotten Realms; Dragonlance.

RufusCorvus
2010-11-20, 01:14 PM
That is something that usually doesn't work as well at it sounds. Very often that leads to the setting lacking any real focus and creating a world of many fractured parts that don't match into a well developed whole.
While writing my own homebrew setting, there are often ideas and concepts that I really like, but then decide not to include because it doesn't fit into the whole and only distractes from the original vision.

Oh no, there's a focus. I just happen to be using history and other settings as touchstones.

The setting's been percolating for quite a while. Believe me, I've discarded more ideas than I can count. What I have left are all things that I think can be combined in a pleasing and satisfactory manner.

Yora
2010-11-20, 01:24 PM
Which is not "combining every aspect of culture and history that I like". :smalltongue:

But we agree on the final conclusion. :smallwink:

Satyr
2010-11-20, 01:33 PM
When it comes to D&D settings I have always preferred those settings which do not try to do everything at the same time, but have their own characteristic focus and theme. Therefore, both the Forgotten Realms and Eberron feels too much like a kitchen sink for me to thoroughly enjoy them; Dark Sun is more to my taste, and Midnight is just plain awesome and unfortunately unappreciated

RufusCorvus
2010-11-20, 01:35 PM
Which is not "combining every aspect of culture and history that I like". :smalltongue:

But we agree on the final conclusion. :smallwink:

Then I misspoke.

LibraryOgre
2010-11-20, 03:09 PM
Forgotten Realms to play in. I love the concepts of Birthright, but don't have a feel for the world like I do FR.

Tvtyrant
2010-11-20, 04:12 PM
I'll play anything but Forgotten Realms or Ebberon. No offense, but high magitek worlds don't jive with me, and I hate Drow.

I would have to go with Planescape or Greyhawk, though I like Dark Sun.

hamishspence
2010-11-20, 04:18 PM
I have a soft spot for hybridizing.

Dark Sun style for the desert regions of one of the other worlds, for example.

Teln
2010-11-20, 04:37 PM
On a board with this many Exalted fans, Creation only gets one mention so far? Shame. I'll have to say it's currently my favorite, and each Directional Compass book only makes it even better. Now that CoCD: Autochthonia has been announced, I'm eagerly hoping for Compass of Terrestrial Directions: Underground (aka CoTD: Dug Too Deep).

Drascin
2010-11-20, 04:47 PM
On a board with this many Exalted fans, Creation only gets one mention so far? Shame. I'll have to say it's currently my favorite, and each Directional Compass book only makes it even better. Now that CoCD: Autochthonia has been announced, I'm eagerly hoping for Compass of Terrestrial Directions: Underground (aka CoTD: Dug Too Deep).

Well, he said "Favorite". Creation is neat, but it goes behind Planescape and Eberron in my book - and also behind Autochthonia, really :smalltongue:..

AslanCross
2010-11-20, 05:33 PM
I feel like that would be the case for most settings with established characters, though I don't have much experience playing in these worlds. Are the heroes of Dragonlance more prominent, or are you just more familiar with them than those of other settings, or what?

Well, in Eberron, for instance, there are very few high-level characters, and their history is closely tied to only one place. King Boranel of Breland might be a great fighter on his own---as an Aristocrat 3/Fighter8---but in the greater scheme of things he hasn't and can't really do much to impact the world, which is just too large for him. Pontiff Jaela, who seems to awaken creepy feelings of pedophilia in some groups (thankfully not mine) Keeper of the Silver Flame, is only Lv 18 in her cathedral. Leaving the Cathedral of the Silver Flame drops her to cleric 3.
The highest level character on Khorvaire is a 20th level awakened tree druid ruling over hippie country the Eldeen Reaches. Understandably, his mobility is rather limited. As such, it's fairly easy to explain as to why King Boranel or Jaela or Oalian aren't solving all of the world's problems.

The setting spans four continents, each around 5000 miles across. Travel is only easy on one of them (Khorvaire, which has the lightning rail), but the rest require arduous treks. It's very large.

Furthermore, the nature of evil in Eberron is pretty much in the "we're about to be screwed" category: at least two nightmarish planes of Sealed Evil planning to take over it (and they've already begun), a continent-sized nation ruled by dragons (who are thankfully largely apathetic), and numerous Sealed Elder Evils buried all over the world worshiped by rakshasas who are planning to release them---not to mention that the political situation on Khorvaire is tense due to the Last War.

King Boranel couldn't deal with one of those threats, let alone all of them.

It's a bit more difficult in FR, since you have Drizzt and friends, Elminster and concubines, and other epic heroes, who have dealt with Elder Evils. The gods are also far more active in FR, but since they're active on both sides it kind of balances it out--they did walk the Material Plane once, but now they're a great deal more restrained. Instead they have their respective religions do their work.

In Dragonlance, Raistlin is writ large in their history, and you can't have Raistlin without the others. The gods also walk the world freely, and it's kind of hard to miss them. IMO, at least, there's always this feeling of "I will make a powerful wizard character, who will be remembered, like Raistlin before him. I will make a powerful tragic villain character, like Kitiara before him."

I think the size of the settings has a lot to do with how canon characters are able to affect the world's history. Here is a composite map of every published D&D campaign setting (to my knowledge) that is to scale (also to my knowledge). (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/224/519869992_5361ac34d3_o.png)

The four continents on the western half are the continents in Eberron (not including the orbiting planes, which periodically exert great influence on the world as they reach their coterminous state). It's a very large world.

By contrast, the top half of the eastern continent is Faerun. The two small island continents in the central southern part are the continents of Krynn. On Krynn, at least, it's a lot smaller, and the big fish in its canon have moved the history of the entire cosmology on more than one occasion.

Ozreth
2010-11-20, 05:34 PM
I'm a realms guy myself. Would love to get into some ebberon though.

LibraryOgre
2010-11-20, 06:22 PM
I'll play anything but Forgotten Realms or Ebberon. No offense, but high magitek worlds don't jive with me, and I hate Drow.

The Drow are pretty easy to avoid in FR. Despite the novels, they're not ubiquitous.

Tvtyrant
2010-11-20, 07:59 PM
The Drow are pretty easy to avoid in FR. Despite the novels, they're not ubiquitous.

The one campaign I was in that was set in FG was so Drow heavy I was almost forced to play a drow by the DM. Not saying that is everyone, but I wish drow had never been invented.

LibraryOgre
2010-11-20, 08:14 PM
The one campaign I was in that was set in FG was so Drow heavy I was almost forced to play a drow by the DM. Not saying that is everyone, but I wish drow had never been invented.

Wow. See, I've played in specified games before (some things, like Rifts, pretty much demand that the GM put some specifications on character generation), but an all-drow game doesn't sound like my cuppa at all.

Half-Orc Rage
2010-11-20, 08:58 PM
Right now I am DMing a campaign in Monte Cook's Ptolus setting. I like the main city setting a lot, but I wish he had gone ever further in making it a strange cosmopolitan city in some ways. Still, I paid for it and all the adventures in it, might as well put them to use.

I enjoy Eberron a lot, although I was once the only non-warforged in a party. I liked Dark Sun in theory but in practice it didn't seem much like there was that much going on. Planescape was awesome. Ravenloft I thought seemed corny, like they took a good adventure and stretched it too far into a bad setting. I agree on Dragonlance, just seemed like a generic setting without the big characters. Forgotten Realms is a little better but is still pretty generic when you get down to it. I would like to try Pathfinder if I can, don't know much about their setting.

afroakuma
2010-11-20, 09:13 PM
I think I'm supposed to say Hourglass of Zihaja.

Now that I've done my obligatory project-shilling: Planescape.

Planescape is by far the best I've ever read or used, but it's not for everyone and not a beginners' setting.
Spelljammer has such a unique flavor and is weird and offbeat and fun.
Dark Sun is distinct as are the games run in it. It deserves the acclaim.
Birthright didn't get a chance to really shine, so wasn't quite finding a voice in what I would consider "setting" terms.
Dragonlance is one of my favorite shared worlds, but is far better in the novels, I find.
Forgotten Realms I preferred pre-3.5 and definitely pre-4E. However, it's a middle-of-the-road setting compared to many others; blame high-voltage NPCs for that one.
Greyhawk is unspeakably middling. There's so much there, and yet nothing at all. It's made to be so neutral...
Blackmoor/Mystara had more character, but has less resonance than most of these others.
Eberron is... well, it's designed to be an appealing, fun premise... I just personally find it a no-sell. I don't hate it by any means; I just think it was the wrong direction to move the face of the game.

So... yeah. :smalltongue: They all have something to offer.

But still Planescape. :smallbiggrin:

a_humble_lich
2010-11-21, 01:03 AM
As for published D&D settings, I really liked Taladas, the second continent in Dragonlance. It didn't have all the heroes from the books running around, and I felt that it had much more interesting and fleshed out cultures than most settings. Plus there were Mongolian Elves. Unfortunately, it never went anywhere. I also really liked Al-Qadim.

Thrawn183
2010-11-21, 01:48 AM
Eberron>Almost Any Other Setting>Forgotten Realms>Fanfic>Forgotten Realms

Psyren
2010-11-21, 02:37 AM
As an aside, I would love to see the Giant's entry to that setting competition, that beat out everything except Eberron :smallfrown:

Yora
2010-11-21, 02:40 AM
Yeah, pretty much Planescape. Eberron is also great, but Planescape still beats it. :smallbiggrin:

fireinakasha
2010-11-21, 04:57 AM
1) Homebrewski
2) Arcanum
3) Ghostwalk
4) Spelljammer
4) Forgotten Realms (it's a tie)
5) Planescape

Greymane
2010-11-21, 05:09 AM
I mostly play in Forgotten Realms and Homebrew.

I love FR, despite the hate it gets for all the high level people roaming about.

However... I want to play Planescape so bad. I love the planes and everything about them, from the Blood War to Sigil, I just love it all. Sadly, nobody else in my IRL group shares this love, so I will never be in a game for it. :smallfrown:

J.Gellert
2010-11-21, 05:10 AM
1. Homebrew
Obviously. It's awesome. Take my word for it.

2. Settings from Games/Media
Primarily the Witcher and Warhammer. And of course Conan's Hyboria. Does it show that I like Gray and Black morality? And the hidden villages from Naruto. To a lesser degree, Diablo's Sanctuary, at least before they "Forgotten-Realms-4edition"-ed it (not so much the locations/people, but the history surrounding it).

3. World of Darkness
For an entirely different game, of course.

4. Forgotten Realms (AD&D 2e)
Sword Coast, as represented in Baldur's Gate. I don't really like for the rest of it.

Zapato
2010-11-21, 06:16 AM
Planescape, mostly thanks to the Torment game (I Love Morte).

After that I guess Forgotten Realms, though I've heard lots of good things about Eberron and Dragonlance.

Ow, and Gamma world. Though that's not much of a 'setting' anymore :P

Phoenix_Neko
2010-11-21, 11:31 AM
Planescape. Yeah, Planscape.

Also Elder Scrolls setting (especially of Morrowind part) and Arcanum.

The Big Dice
2010-11-21, 11:32 AM
Blackmoor/Mystara had more character, but has less resonance than most of these others.

Blackmoor (http://jovianclouds.com/blackmoor/Archive_OLD/bmc.html) isn't the same campaign world as Mystara (http://www.pandius.com/index.html).

Sure, elements of Blackmoor were brought in to Mystara, or the Known World I tend to think of it. But they were also brought in to Greyhawk as well.

Tetsubo 57
2010-11-21, 11:43 AM
Forgotten Realms.
Spelljammer.
Everstone: Blood Legacy.
Pathfinder.

But I homebrew a lot of everything I use.

thorr-kan
2010-11-21, 01:33 PM
Al-Qadim, baby. Al-Qadim.

afroakuma
2010-11-21, 07:07 PM
Blackmoor (http://jovianclouds.com/blackmoor/Archive_OLD/bmc.html) isn't the same campaign world as Mystara (http://www.pandius.com/index.html).

Sure, elements of Blackmoor were brought in to Mystara, or the Known World I tend to think of it. But they were also brought in to Greyhawk as well.

True, but there was an aesthetic to both (along with some early Greyhawk materials) that is rather similar and classically "old edition" D&D.

DontEatRawHagis
2010-11-21, 07:11 PM
Dark Sun. No Deities, No Paladins, and a world so exotic that even the cacti will try and kill you.

Safety Sword
2010-11-21, 08:17 PM
Realms (before it got all 4e silly).
Dragonlance (Ah... those were the days, I wanted to be Raistlin..).
Ravenloft.

Haven't played anything else.

ace_cipher_zero
2010-11-21, 08:28 PM
I've fallen in love with the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, and its world of Golarion.

This.

I have seen no setting that has had so much depth, and so much flavor. The Campaign Setting itself is 261 pages, and that only gives fairly general details; all the Pathfinder Companions go far deeper in, expanding on the general scope of things in a more Geographic scale.

For the finer-grained stuff, the adventure paths and (to a lesser extent) the modules breathe life into it there. It is supported by Pazio on every level, except the solar-system level (but that may sometime change--no, really). Overall it gives a great feeling, and its all presented in a way that gives the DM plenty of freedom too. :) Its so good I run 4e and 3.5 and even freeform RPG campaigns in it. I just really love it.

EDIT: After giving it more thought....

Pathfinder is also great because of its stance on Religion: The way the gods are put together... I can't quite describe it, but I goddamn love it. And the concepts of several of them are great... Desna, Sheylyn, Ravaroug, Iomeade and Cayden are all favorites of mine.

Also deserving an honerable mention: WoD.

Zeta Kai
2010-11-21, 08:30 PM
My favorite CS? Why, the Hourglass of Zihaja, of course! :smallwink:

amaranth69
2010-11-21, 08:32 PM
Nothing will ever beat the original Greyhawk setting.

Thurbane
2010-11-21, 10:20 PM
http://i53.tinypic.com/e7nn9x.png

Tvtyrant
2010-11-21, 10:25 PM
Wow. See, I've played in specified games before (some things, like Rifts, pretty much demand that the GM put some specifications on character generation), but an all-drow game doesn't sound like my cuppa at all.

Mine either. I really don't like Forgotten Realms, but I am willing to admit that there is considerable bias on my part, since I dislike the books and I was in a bad campaign for it. But I never really liked the fluff either; it always feels like the wilderness if right outside every single town, and there is no real explanation of how they keep getting food.

LibraryOgre
2010-11-21, 11:00 PM
Mine either. I really don't like Forgotten Realms, but I am willing to admit that there is considerable bias on my part, since I dislike the books and I was in a bad campaign for it. But I never really liked the fluff either; it always feels like the wilderness if right outside every single town, and there is no real explanation of how they keep getting food.

One thing that helped with that, for me, was actually the first Baldur's Gate game, which does show some explicitly farmed areas... probably less than would strictly be needed, but enough to be representative. A lot of the material deals with the fact that there are farmers around (q.v. the Dalelands, which is nothing but farmers), and the 2e "Players Guide to the Realms" goes into a lot of the argicultural products.

Tvtyrant
2010-11-21, 11:39 PM
I might look into that more, but some settings just give me this "the enemy is always at the gates, but we keep on trucking" feeling, which makes me sigh. Commoners are easily butchered, so there would have to be a gigantic area of peace around a city to keep it from starving. Especially since transport has to be incredible to bring crops in from far off places (to the point where it wasn't even done until modern times except in Rome, where the Mediterranean dealt with it).

It's kind of like the Underdark; no explanation of where the Drow are getting food for their cities, or how the Mindflayers are getting all their captives without someone sending armies, or why the Beholders haven't eaten all the Neogi. I demand a reasonable explanation!

Cealocanth
2010-11-21, 11:56 PM
The one I invented all on my own. Then again, I haven't played many others.

Safety Sword
2010-11-22, 12:25 AM
I might look into that more, but some settings just give me this "the enemy is always at the gates, but we keep on trucking" feeling, which makes me sigh. Commoners are easily butchered, so there would have to be a gigantic area of peace around a city to keep it from starving. Especially since transport has to be incredible to bring crops in from far off places (to the point where it wasn't even done until modern times except in Rome, where the Mediterranean dealt with it).

It's kind of like the Underdark; no explanation of where the Drow are getting food for their cities, or how the Mindflayers are getting all their captives without someone sending armies, or why the Beholders haven't eaten all the Neogi. I demand a reasonable explanation!

Cleric = vending machine.

Amiel
2010-11-22, 01:05 AM
One thing that helped with that, for me, was actually the first Baldur's Gate game, which does show some explicitly farmed areas... probably less than would strictly be needed, but enough to be representative. A lot of the material deals with the fact that there are farmers around (q.v. the Dalelands, which is nothing but farmers), and the 2e "Players Guide to the Realms" goes into a lot of the argicultural products.

This.

I also think the key to enjoying the Forgotten Realms setting is having your player characters be the drivers of the plot and the main actors, with the NPCs only making a cameo appearance - if at all.
This way, your group has fun and isn't overshadowed by the Realms stalwarts. This also allows you to dictate the plot according to your own design, rather than following the story progression of the CS itself.


I liked the FR setting (2e mainly); while I prefer the 3/3.5/PFe rules, I much preferred the flavour of the 2e products; they were very well written and chock full of plot hooks, story arcs, interesting characters et al.

My favourite setting is actually a tie between PF's Golarion CS and Planescape, mostly for the exceedingly rich(ness) of flavour.

dsmiles
2010-11-22, 05:26 AM
Nothing will ever beat the original Greyhawk setting.


http://i53.tinypic.com/e7nn9x.png

As much as I love the original Greyhawk setting, 3e came along and killed that love for me. I moved on to Iron Kingdoms, and only look back when somebody runs a 1e or 2e Greyhawk game.

The Big Dice
2010-11-22, 10:29 AM
True, but there was an aesthetic to both (along with some early Greyhawk materials) that is rather similar and classically "old edition" D&D.

You can get pdfs of the original Blackmoor stuff from Dave Arneson's site. It's very weird and not what you'd expect in the slightest. And the modules are even stranger.

There's not many D&D settings that blatantly mix science fiction and fantasy like Blackmoor does.

Erom
2010-11-22, 10:41 AM
Eberron and Homebrew.

Most of the other published settings are blah to me. Especially Forgotten Realms / Greyhawk / Dragonlance seem pretty bland gruel to me compared to Ebby.

dsmiles
2010-11-22, 10:43 AM
I'm going to have to throw out some love for The Slayers d20. Highly underrated campaign setting.

Paseo H
2010-11-22, 10:44 AM
As far as published goes, I have a soft spot for Planescape. I sometimes even detour the player there even though we're basically playing a very half assed freeform version of Rifts/Phase World. :p

Earthwalker
2010-11-23, 08:13 AM
Glorantha (RuneQuest) - All myths are true, all legends are real. I do mean all of them, even those that contradict others. Its a wonderful world, it supports a wide range of styles and technologies. Just wonderful.

Seattle 2060 (Shadowrun 3) - A wonderful detailed world. Campaign books with hooks for runs, I have to say Dunklezahns Will (portfolio of a dragon) is just pure genius and an example of how dragons should be.

Barsaive (Earthdawn) - Again another wonderful world built on legends and lore. A people just returning from the brink trying to take thier world back.

Core Earth (Torg) - I just loved Torg as a brilliant rules light game that let you play any kind of hero you could think of. Such a great idea mashing up diffent realms on earth and then trying to fight them off. Often wanted to do something similar based on movie styles mashing together, with the players being characters from different movies all working together thru another movies plot.

Frenchy147
2010-11-23, 08:49 AM
Forgotten Realms, Blackmoor, and the old Greyhawk:smallwink:

Eldan
2010-11-23, 08:54 AM
Planescape all the way. I've never seen a world that fascinated me as much, be it in roleplaying material, literature, television or my own imagination.

LibraryOgre
2010-11-23, 12:15 PM
I might look into that more, but some settings just give me this "the enemy is always at the gates, but we keep on trucking" feeling, which makes me sigh. Commoners are easily butchered, so there would have to be a gigantic area of peace around a city to keep it from starving. Especially since transport has to be incredible to bring crops in from far off places (to the point where it wasn't even done until modern times except in Rome, where the Mediterranean dealt with it).

True, but not terribly gigantic. Depending on local fertility (which will be good, given things like priests/druids of Chauntea), you can produce a lot, and stock can still be driven from a greater distance. Since the standard world tends to assume efficient horsecollars and better-than-scratch plows (iron-tipped moldboards), you've also greatly increased the amount of area that can be under the plow, and the efficiency of farming.

If you assume that the city is under plow within a day's walk of the walls, with subsidiary markets at that point (small hamlets, with a guard station), you've got about two days ride around each city under the plow and a near-constant patrol presence, and maybe a little bit farther along trade routes.

That's not terribly far, especially if you assume the guards are mounted for their patrols, and are basing distances on foot or oxcart travel. A big city like Baldur's Gate would be able to support it, but you'd still have a long road to Beregost.

The Antigamer
2010-11-23, 04:09 PM
As an aside, I would love to see the Giant's entry to that setting competition, that beat out everything except Eberron :smallfrown:

I would as well!


My favorite published? Eberron and Planscape. Games in the former always feel exciting, adventurous, and fun. Plus I've found it to be the best setting for noir detective stories. Planscape is the most grandiose of all settings. You can go anywhere, do anything, your possibilities are endless.

My favorite homebrewed? Tomorrow it may very well be HoZ, but for now it remains AfroAkuma's squashing together of Spelljammer and Planescape into Planejammers.

Comet
2010-11-23, 04:15 PM
Glorantha (RuneQuest) - All myths are true, all legends are real. I do mean all of them, even those that contradict others. Its a wonderful world, it supports a wide range of styles and technologies. Just wonderful.

Seattle 2060 (Shadowrun 3) - A wonderful detailed world. Campaign books with hooks for runs, I have to say Dunklezahns Will (portfolio of a dragon) is just pure genius and an example of how dragons should be.

Barsaive (Earthdawn) - Again another wonderful world built on legends and lore. A people just returning from the brink trying to take thier world back.


Ooh, if we're doing settings outside of D&D, I'm going to agree with you so much. Those are all some of my favourite settings.
Glorantha, especially, is absolutely amazing at its best. I didn't really warm up to it after reading just the books, but then I played the computer game King of the Dragon Pass and was converted hard. Brave heroes, outlandish creatures/locations, magic that actually feels magical and myths everywhere coming to life and clawing their way into the lives of the people of the world. Awesome.

randomhero00
2010-11-23, 04:45 PM
eberron, planescape, and homebrew. Dark sun and ravenloft to a certain extent.

PS outside of DnD Exalted

Zeta Kai
2010-11-24, 09:50 AM
The Hourglass of Zihaja is my favorite setting, & I hope that it will be yours, too. Come join us. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177072)

Callos_DeTerran
2010-11-24, 11:33 AM
I have to disagree with someone who called Eberron as sword & sorcery. It's more...well I don't know what to call it. Probably pulp fantasy (which isn't a bad thing)? But definitely not sword & sorcery...Oh right, my favorite campaign setting.

1) Greyhawk, despite the white-washing of it for 3rd Edition, Greyhawk is still my favorite campaign setting. And the more I find out about it, the more I think it's the best.

2) Hyborean Age, THIS is sword & sorcery personified. Conan's setting. Words can't describe how much I enjoy it and wish to play in it.

3) Highpoint of Dragonmech fame. Lunar dragons, mechs, a post-apoc setting in the midst of it's apocalypse, and the crazy steam-powered inventions of coglayers and steamborgs? Sign me up!

4) My homebrew setting, that I'm still working on. Hoping to combine some of the Hyborean Age's flavor with China Mieville's Bas-Lag setting. Yet to determine how well that's going to work out.

Set
2010-11-24, 12:10 PM
Top 3;
the Scarred Lands
Al-Qadim
Kara-Tur

Other favorites;
Greyhawk
Golarion

I haven't played in Tellene/Kalamar, Naranjan, Jakandore, Nyambe or Tekumel, but they all look pretty awesome.

Mojo_Rat
2010-11-24, 03:10 PM
Historically Greyhawk has been my favorite, but as many have already Said it didnt survive the years of neglect very well.

Currently playing PF all the interest is in Golarion it is a wonderfully detailed setting.

On a strange note my group seemed to like the unaproachable east part of FR but it may be because there were alot less books written there.

TheEmerged
2010-11-24, 04:15 PM
Homebrew unless stated otherwise.

1: The Emergence. Played for roughly 5 years, ended when one of the players showed up with the 'interesting new card game' he'd discovered (M:TG). Started in GURPS Supers, spent most of its time in HERO. Players were told to build a 'normal' character out of 150 pts and up to 40 pts of disadvantages (but no major combat skills) in a 'mundane' modern world. GM then took those builds and secretly added superpowers. The morning of the first campaign day, about 6000 people across the world woke up with superpowers. "Hilarity" ensues. My board name comes from this campaign.

2: The Forbidden Sector. Not sure of the years we ran this, went for roughly 2-3 years. Rule system was Alternity. Campaign area was a 50-lightyear by 50-lightyear Sector that had been declared off-limits for most of the galactic civilization's history, reopened during a "cold war" after the first galactic war. The PC's are mercenaries working for a "franchise" (modeled after InterStel from the old Starflight computer games) that are among the first allowed into it. What the players didn't realize at first was that many of the various planets of the Forbidden Sector were essentially fantasy races given a science-fiction bent. The "surprise twist" during the final session was when the players discovered this was actually the future of The Emergence (after most of the supers had long since died).

3: Paranoia, published setting. Rarely run for more than a session or two at a time, this is still a personal favorite. I stand behind my long-standing belief that it is a crying shame this hasn't been licensed for a PvP-oriented MMORPG.

4: The PRIMUS War. HERO System, ran for about 3 years, roughly from the time we all tired of EverQuest until we started playing World of Warcraft. Take elements of Aberrant(tm) (White Wolf's superhero setting), Brave New World(tm) (another lesser-known superhero setting), the 5th Edition Champions(tm) world, and The Emergence (higher on this list). Set about 20-30 years after this world's arrival of superpowers, the players are 'villians' fighting to make their own way in a world that has PRIMUS & the Golden Avenger on one side, Team Tomorrow and UNTIL on another, half a dozen 'supervillain' agencies, and the ever-present threat of Doctor Destroyer in the background. In hindsight, I wish I had gotten the chance to 'conclude' this campaign the way I did #1 & #2 on this list.

5: Battletech. Ran sporadically from 1987 until some time in the mid-late 90's. Experienced a resurgence when the arena rules came out. Several of us were more wargamers than roleplayers (I'm healthy amounts of both myself). I think what got to us was the continual shifting of "what's happening now" in the campaign world.

6: "Boulevard Battles". Ran in HERO. Essentially a Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat one-off, minus the concept of a single tournament. A couple of the older players have actually been chatting about finding a way to do this with 4th Edition D&D mechanics. We ran this the same way most people run Gamma World -- it was as much about the puns and pop-culture riffing as the combat.

onthetown
2010-11-24, 06:28 PM
My favourite to actually play in is Forgotten Realms... but my all-time favourite ever that I totally nerdgasm over every little piece of literature and fandom is Dragonlance. I don't enjoy playing in DL very much, though I do have a couple of characters there... I think it's just because it's sacred ground for me, so I mostly just love all the novels.

TheEmerged
2010-11-24, 07:13 PM
RE: The fantasy city/farming discussion. This is actually about to become a plot point in my current 4th Edition D&D campaign. As part of the campaign background I declared that a common ritual allows for the multiplication of foodstuffs - but only from an original piece of food. A crop blight that prevents the ritual from working has spread to the drow city the players are currently working out of as mercenaries. Stuff is about to hit the fan, especially when the derro (evil dwarves, the eternal enemy of the drow in this campaign) find out...

Knaight
2010-11-24, 09:11 PM
My favorite is among my home brew settings, something by the name of Alchemquest that will eventually be typed up and edited, as soon as I stop procrastinating. Its so far above anything else I've made, I would even go so far as to say I'm proud of it.

Next up is Al-Rassan, compliments of one Guy Gavriel Kay. Its from a book, yes, but by the time you read it you understand it so well, and it is extremely interesting, as is the source material from which it is based.

The Big Dice
2010-11-24, 10:57 PM
RE: The fantasy city/farming discussion.

If you can find a copy, Warhammer FRP 1st edition has a fantastic section on how big an agricultural area a city needs surrounding it. There's also this article (http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm) on the subject.