Favorite Campaign setting?

[malonkey1]

Alright, guys. New "Favorite" thread: Out of all the published settings (be they from Wizards, or a 3rd party, and including the internet), which is your all-time favorite, and why? It has to be published in some widely-available format (either as books, or on a website you can link to).

My favorite is the Forgotten Realms, because it was the first setting I ever played in (via Neverwinter Nights, originally). I also like a lot of the unique magic systems and the variety of cultures present. I once played a Rashemi Totemist/Spirit Shaman, the flavor was perfect.

[Tvtyrant]

Spelljammer is my favorite campaign setting. The concept of a few thousand space ships that cost the same as a nations yearly GDP (seriously, a big whale ship can cost upwards of 1,000,000 GP) flying around the cosmos and engaging in space wars using fireballs and primitive cannon is my favorite thing from D&D.

Planescape is the universal favorite and my second favorite. Ties up all of the mythology of D&D and makes an impressive framework to play within.

[Kantolin]

I'm a big fan of the Realms... but I think that's not completely fair. I've had several terrific DMs for the Realms, while most of the DMs I've had for Eberron were 'meh' at best.

The result was that the Realms felt like a rich environment with lots of interesting people to interact with, while Eberron was really empty and broke easily. I'm sure a different DM could make it more exciting, though - I do really like eberron's take on goblinoids, and this totally isn't an 'I hate eberron' sort of mindset. :smallsmile:

Beyond them, I've played Ravenloft a couple times, so I end up defaulting to the Realms. Which is cool, though, I do like the realms a lot.

[RolkFlameraven]

I also find myself loving Ed's game world, at lest until 4th blew it up.

I still love the Realms but find myself playing more in a homebrew or Golarion now that my group spends most of its time in Pathfinder.

[fishyfishyfishy]

My favorites are Eberron and Dark Sun. Leaning more towards Eberron. It's such a rich setting full of potential. I really enjoy DMing it. Dark Sun is cool and has a unique survivalist type of feel to it that you don't get anywhere else.

I have a passionate dislike of Forgotten Realms. It's chock full of cliches and Mary Sues.

[Faily]

Mystara and Eberron. Mystara because I like how they managed to squeeze so much into one setting. Eberron because I like industrialized magic, warforged and steampunkish D&D.

[Aegis013]

Mine is Tippyverse. Although I'm not sure it meets the criteria.

[Talya]

The Forgotten Realms has always been my favorite due to it's incredible variety, and the massive scope and level of detail in every aspect, whether it's cartography, anthropological specifics, and rich historical background.
Golarion (Pathfinder) is quickly catching up.

[Arael666]

Is Tippyverse considered a Campaign Setting?

[malonkey1]

Is Tippyverse considered a Campaign Setting?

Can you link to some site, thread, or book that specifically outlines the setting, places, people, magic, etc.?

[Afgncaap5]

I'm gonna say Greyhawk. I know this is the exact opposite of most people's experiences, but the Forgotten Realms always feels generic and overdone to me, so whenever I encounter Greyhawk stuff it just feels very lively and fresh. Eberron is a close second, since it's the first setting that I really felt encouraged me to think about different possible layouts for the structure of the D&D style cosmologies in play.

[thethird]

Ravenloft and Spell Jammer closely tied.

[Aegis013]

Can you link to some site, thread, or book that specifically outlines the setting, places, people, magic, etc.?

There's this, on the topic of the Tippyverse (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?222007-The-Definitive-Guide-to-the-Tippyverse-By-Emperor-Tippy). It doesn't have a whole lot of information, but the basis of the setting and atmosphere is pretty well there.

[Jeff the Green]

Ravenloft and Eberron. I like settings where gods are either unavailable or distant because it leaves more ambiguity and opportunities for conflict. I also like magitech and lower-power settings, so PCs can have a big impact without being epic-level.

[Karnith]

I'm going to be the weirdo who votes for Dragonlance. I fell in love with the fluff from all of the novels, and even though it's not really the best setting to adventure in, I keep coming back to it.

[thorr-kan]

Al-Qadim, baby. Al-Qadim.

Midgard by Kobold Press, but hey, I'm a patron.

Eberron catches my interest.

[Thiyr]

Favorite I've read about? Planescape. I haven't read any of the material, but just...sounds so good.
Favorite I've played in? Ptolus. Also probably the only one i've played PnP in. It's fairly solid for the most part (though I'm not a huge fan of some of it, but that's just me disagreeing with Monte Cook's views on things).
I've also got a fondness for Ebberon, in the "yea, that sounds pretty dang cool" kinda way.

[Blackhawk748]

I like Ravenloft, but ive never really gotten to play in it, so id have to say Kingdoms of Kalamar. It lends itself so well to sandboxing and they never really discuss alignment, it just feels like people acting like people. Also there are no crazy powerful near epic NPCs running around, so the players get to be the great heroes.

[Kuulvheysoon]

For me, probably tied between the Realms and Eberron. They've both got a lot of aspects that I really enjoy DMing with.

Playing... I don't play in established campaign settings (save pseudo-Greyhawk), as most of my playing is other people wanting a session behind the screen. And they never come back behind that screen.:smallfrown:

[malonkey1]

I always liked Planescape and Spelljammer, simply because you can use them to touch nearly any campaign setting. (It's also a good excuse to use cross-setting classes, races, feats, etc., like having a Warforged Red Wizard, or a Kender Spirit Shaman/Hathran).

[firebrandtoluc]

Birthright. It matches my usual group dynamic.

[nyjastul69]

Greyhawk is my favorite setting. It's followed closely by Kingdoms of Kalamar and Eberron. Unfortunately, I've never had the opportunity to run an Eberron campaign.

[afroakuma]

I'm sure it will come as a surprise to everyone that my favorite campaign setting is Planescape.

[Alleran]

Probably Planescape, but accessing several other settings through it (Birthright, FR, etc.), so it isn't PS alone.

Recently our group is looking at adding in the MtG "Dominia" material to our "multiverse" (there's a lot of fertile ground for an RPG there, I think), but we're mulling over how to incorporate the concept of mana bonds and planeswalking into the Great Wheel at our table.

[malonkey1]

Probably Planescape, but accessing several other settings through it (Birthright, FR, etc.), so it isn't PS alone.

Recently our group is looking at adding in the MtG "Dominia" material to our "multiverse" (there's a lot of fertile ground for an RPG there, I think), but we're mulling over how to incorporate the concept of mana bonds and planeswalking into the Great Wheel at our table.

TBH, I'm surprised Wizards never released an M:tG based setting/sourcebook.

[HammeredWharf]

Ravenloft, followed by Eberron and Planescape. Ravenloft is nice in that it's full of lore, but has just enough holes in its lore to get a good campaign running, and has in-built support for new lands, if you ever wish to homebrew a part of it. It also supports a wide variety of adentures, from classic horror to dungeon delving to political conflicts.

[afroakuma]

Honestly, I like almost all the D&D settings. Except Eberron.

[Firechanter]

Planescape is my favourite, although I have played in it only very little beyond the awesome PS:T, because my fellow players didn't really bite and wanted to go back to the Realms.

Forgotten Realms is the runner-up, and also the setting I have logged the most playing hours.

[Amphetryon]

In order: Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Kalamar, Dragonlance, Eberron. Settings not listed are ones I haven't been involved in long enough to form an opinion, except Ravenloft, which has a general tenor I don't care for.

[Brookshw]

Planescape followed by spelljammer, dark sun in third. Ravenloft is fun once in a while. Dislike Eberron and the Realms. Greyhawk's okay in a classic sort of way.

Whatever happened to Council of Wyrms?

[Bronk]

My favorite is the Forgotten Realms, since it is fairly easy to get a feel for them through the various novels, but with a decent overlay of Planescape and Spelljammer to give even more depth.

[JohnnyCancer]

Back in 98 or 99 my friends and I got a lot of mileage out of Red Steel, otherwise I'm used to homebrews more than published campaigns. Red Steel was kind of a swashbuckling setting with mutants, animal people, and crappy guns.

[squiggit]

Surprised at all the pro-FR comments here. That was not my impression of the playground on this subject.

Personally my favorite is Planescape, in part because it's got such an interesting spin on things and in part because you can link it to any other campaign setting easily, which is good because I really like FR and Eberron and spelljammer and ravenloft too.

[Talya]

Surprised at all the pro-FR comments here. That was not my impression of the playground on this subject.


Its detractors are more vocal.

(And also often uninformed.)

[malonkey1]

Its detractors are more vocal.

(And also often uninformed.)

Yeah. Some of their complaints are valid on some level, but in the end, it's all about opinion.

[afroakuma]

I guess in my experience Dragonlance gets more detractors, though FR is a close second.

Which reminds me, I have that thing to do for FR... :smallwink:

[Brookshw]

Well it did bring us Kender......

[Yael]

Rokugan, just love the oriental fluff :3

[Fumble Jack]

Rokugan, just love the oriental fluff :3

I'm not the only one heh heh. In addition I also liked Dark Sun and Ravenloft kind of an odd three way tie

[...]

Dark Sun, but Ravenloft looks promising, and I may just buy a 2AD&D sourcebook for it, unless it came out in 3.5 (did it come out in 3.5?).

[malonkey1]

Dark Sun, but Ravenloft looks promising, and I may just buy a 2AD&D sourcebook for it, unless it came out in 3.5 (did it come out in 3.5?).

Published in 1990 originally, so it would be after AD&D2e, but before Rules Compendium (4th ed.)[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenloft)

EDIT: After further research, I realized that the three big "crossover" settings (that is, settings which explicitly include or draw from other settings), were all published during the AD&D era: Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and Planescape.

[Thurbane]

Greyhawk, pure and simple. :smallbiggrin:

Still sad about how little love Greyhawk got from WotC in 3.X :smallfrown:

[BWR]

Hard choice. It's between Planescape and Mystara mostly.
I suppose you can cheat and claim that PS encomopasses all other D&D settings, but that's not really true - they really had to work to fit some of those in and Mystara's cosmology is almost entirely incompatible with PS.
PS, for its different flavor, tone and focus. Less dungeon crawls, more sense of wonder and mystery and discovery.
Mystara for the best write-ups of countries and cultures. The setting is a mess, but it's a mess that works amazingly well.

Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, and Dragonstar share second place.

Hell, I'm tempted to say all those share first.

[jackbrownii]

Greyhawk, pure and simple. :smallbiggrin:

Still sad about how little love Greyhawk got from WotC in 3.X :smallfrown:

This. I feel a trip to eBay coming on...

[Thurbane]

This. I feel a trip to eBay coming on...
I have the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, and Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk - they are both quite good, but really, more adventures set in Greyhawk and other supplements would have been appreciated by the diehard fans.

I regret not getting in the RPGA Living Greyhawk setting while it was still active. I think you can still download some of the adventures and other materials (the Living Greyhawk Deity pdf is very useful).

[Adanedhel]

Mostly a fan of the Fantasy Flight Midnight setting.
Bleak done right. :)

"When all hope is lost, who will stand and fight."

[Sian]

FR without a question, although i try to stay out of the parts used for books (primarily Sword Coast, The North, Cormyr and Dalelands). Outside of those parts its still very playable without running into big egos, with books to their name, around every corner.

[MrBright01]

For me, it's Eberron

It's diverse: A lot of folks forget that there are plenty of regions where the style and fluff that is so decisive to some folk (industrial era magic, warforged, bloody artificers) are completely irrelevant. It has untamed wilds, it has demon haunted wastes, it has a monster nation. It has a lot of options, most of them unexplored by many DM's who focus on Sharn and the basic human regions.
Industrial Era Magic: I enjoy playing casters, but I always wondered why in most setting nobody uses some of the simpler, cheaper magic to improve the lives of other folk (and, granted, make money doing it). Indeed, several of my characters have done so in other settings. This one, it's already in place, and normal. An everburning torch is treated as exactly what it is, a cheap and effective alternative to traditional "burn stuff" lighting.
Genuine Intrigue: Because the lines between good and evil are much less defined in this setting, and how loose the alignment system is, this setting can actually have social/morel challenges. An "evil" npc is not necessarily a foe, any more then a "good" NPC is an ally. For myself, much more fun then "I detect evil. HE'S THE VILLAIN, GET HIM!"
And of course... warforged: The best race ever (editor's note: This is an opinion piece, no hate). For roleplayers, it's the challenge of playing someone who has only just begun to live. For rollplayers, it's the joy of playing a machine who requires no real backstory and has several advantages over fleshy creatures.


That said, I am working on a Spelljammer game updated to Pathfinder, because I feel the concept was abandoned in the later editions despite having the potential to be a pile of fun, and it seems that's as close as I'll ever get to playing it ^_^

[MrBright01]

FR without a question, although i try to stay out of the parts used for books (primarily Sword Coast, The North, Cormyr and Dalelands).

Bless you, (insert preferred gender). I would probably have enjoyed the FR setting far more if the DM's I knew who ran it managed to do something somewhere where I would not trip over a certain OOC drow or a death-mage-god whenever I stepped out the door at 1st level. Bless you for your kindness to (presumed) your players.

[MrBright01]

Dark Sun, but Ravenloft looks promising, and I may just buy a 2AD&D sourcebook for it, unless it came out in 3.5 (did it come out in 3.5?).

Get the 2nd edition books if you can, in my opinion. Beautifully written and illustrated for the most part, with long and elaborate stories for many of the NPC's. I still have the Domains of Dread book and read it regularly, not because I played it or even like 2nd, but because it is a good read as a creative work for the most part. Makes for good inspiration for the more grandiose villains too.

[Za'hynie Laya]

While I enjoyed most of the novels, Dragonlance as a campaign setting never worked for me beyond a one-shot adventure (usually published in Dungeon Magazine) for an evening together with my local gaming group.

Lankhmar and Kalamar were both good for cherry-picking ideas from to use in other campaigns I've run over the years of steady play.

I love the the Planescape setting, particularly The City of Doors: Sigil. This campaign setting flowed well for my games: from low-level crawls through the Outlands to high-level gambits with powers of Baator.

Eberron has been fun to play in. It contains a lot of mystery and open-ended drama that inquisitive players and an imaginative GM can unearth the answers together.

Used to run adventures exclusively in Mystara throughout the 80's and 90's, but the gold-box and infinity engine Forgotten Realms PC games slowly won me over. The Realms fully support all tiers of play and contain plenty of tools for a Game Master to enjoy. I always run the Realms as "home-brewed" at a specific time of my choosing (usually 1351 DR or 1367 DR) because of the published events that "I allow" to take place in Faerun.

My next campaign will take place in Greyhawk. My group and I have new ideas for this world that we've never played in together. (I hope to make Gary Gygax proud.) :smallbiggrin:

[Farner]

For me, it's Eberron

It's diverse:...
[B]Genuine Intrigue: Because the lines between good and evil are much less defined in this setting, and how loose the alignment system is, this setting can actually have social/morel challenges. An "evil" npc is not necessarily a foe, any more then a "good" NPC is an ally. For myself, much more fun then "I detect evil. HE'S THE VILLAIN, GET HIM!"



Most settings are diverse. Forgotten Realms especially so.

Alignment is the one thing I don't understand about Eberron. It's like Baker "fixed" something that wasn't broken. I've read his blog post on Detect Evil and that spell/ability doesn't work the way he interpreted it. His claim was that with that spell/ability there would be no more BEBGs.

But really just go over to Google and type in "living dictators" and you'll see that even eliminating unambiguous / known BEBGs isn't so easy. Why would Eberron + Detect Evil be any different?

In short, I'm asking Baker:
Why build your setting on the D&D game mechanics (which explicitly include alignment considerations) if you want a world that ignores those mechanics? :smallconfused:

But the thing I really dislike about the Eberron setting is the product support. Every official publication emphasizes the Sand-Box nature of Eberron with phrases like:

"It's up to the DM to decide how this back story element actually played out..."
"While the majority of the legends say that... the DM can rewrite this to his own satisfaction or ignore it entirely."
"But what happens next is entirely up to the DM..."

All that is well and good but if the DM can fill in these kinds of blanks she doesn't need "official" publications to run an Eberron campaign!

Heck, there is legitimately free stuff all over the Internets that can crutch an Eberron campaign at least as well as any "official" publication that one might buy.

Why would you ever pay for anything that supports this setting? :smallwink:

Let me finish this post by saying that I would like an answer to some of these questions. There will be no more 'argument' from me on Eberron here. I get why the setting is (overall) so attractive. I don't get (at all) some of the things behind it - as can be seen with my questions posted above. Help! :smalleek:

[randomodo]

As a DM: Planescape
As a player: Birthright

[malonkey1]

It's freaky that the above two posts are a month apart, almost to the minute.

[bjoern]

Forgotten Realms. Its the setting that got me Into D&D in the first place. Started reading FR novels 20 years ago and started playing d&d shortly thereafter in the same setting.

[Deadline]

Planescape, Birthright, Spelljammer

[Tvtyrant]

Can someone link an explanation of Birthrite for me, or give me some idea why it is so good?

[Oryan77]

My favorite is Planescape. There pretty much isn't any reason that you can't do what you want to do in D&D if you run a campaign in Planescape. The books are better reading and more entertaining than the "instructional" writing from other books.

The art is inspirational to me and I love the maps. The cover to the Planes of Chaos boxset is what first attracted me to the setting. I had no clue what Planescape was, and I bought that boxset right when I saw it. So being a new DM and new to everything but Dark Sun made it really confusing when I started reading Planes of Chaos. It took about a week until I realized there was a campaign setting boxset that I should have bought first. :smalleek:

[malonkey1]

Can someone link an explanation of Birthrite for me, or give me some idea why it is so good?

I never played it, but you are basically a deity's Exarch.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthright_(campaign_setting))

[Meth In a Mine]

I really like Golarion from Pathfinder, but my favorite has gotta be Forgotten Realms. A lot of people I know prefer Eberron, but the fact that Eberron has magic as technology bugs me, and it's also part of the reason that a certain member of my group is convinced adding psionics automatically makes everything better.

Cheers,
MiaM

[Draede]

Probably Golarion, a lot of political intrique and room for open world adventuring.

[Gemini476]

Mystara, easily. It just has so much stuff, and the Gazeteers help present it all wonderfully - not to mention all the great adventures taking place in it.
The Known World is also the base setting for BECMI, which also contributes to my love for it. It's pretty good.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Dragonlance. I appreciate its coziness, among other things. Generally I dislike published settings.

Also gonna plug Tales from the Floating Vagabond and say that, aside entirely from its ridiculousness as a system, it's super fun as a setting. Like a farcical Planescape.

[Jigawatts]

Dark Sun, but Ravenloft looks promising, and I may just buy a 2AD&D sourcebook for it, unless it came out in 3.5 (did it come out in 3.5?).

White Wolf did an entire line of Ravenloft books for 3E, you can find the campaign setting book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Ravenloft-Campaign-Setting-Rulebook-Roleplaying/dp/1588460754/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409810076&sr=8-1&keywords=ravenloft

Thats actually the 3.0 version, but I would use it over the updated 3.5 version of the same book, which is called the "Ravenloft Players Handbook", as its cheaper and easier to find, and the 3.5 one made some wonky rules additions that detract from the game (i.e. powers checks everytime you gain a level, and some other nonsense). On the other hand, the 3.5 "Ravenloft Dungeon Masters Guide" is an amazing book. The 2E box sets are also fantastic.

You can also find a Pathfinder update to 3E Ravenloft in a 3 part PDF on Fraternity of Shadows, found here

http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8951

[WrathMage]

I would be another that would end up plumping for Forgotten Realms. I know that it has its issues with being filled with Mary Sue characters, but I never felt compelled to use them when I run games, and there is so much history and richness to get involved in.

However I would also give a serious honourable mention to Monte Cook's Ptolus. It really is an excellent book, and I love the city, I really want to spend more time exploring it and getting a good game going in it.

Unusually it would seem, I am quite a fan of published campaign settings, I always enjoy looking at how others people's worlds work, so settings appeal to me.