Good Homebrewes/3rd party settings?

[Alaize-chan]

Hey there! I was reading my SCAG and... Well, Forgotten Realms feels kinda bland to me, it's full with a ton of references and cameos that I honestly don't understand, the veterans who has played DnD for years surely like it but I'm just newbie x.x

Anyways, do you guys know any cool 3rd party setting? Hopefully one that's online and for free?

[Sparky McDibben]

Kobold Press' Midgard setting is pretty awesome and I highly recommend it. I actually enjoyed Wildemount, too; it maintains a dark fantasy tone without being too bland about it.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Well,

[Obligatory Shameless Self Promotion Warning]

I've been working on/playing in a setting now for about 6 years, called Dawn of Hope (https://wiki.admiralbenbo.org). It's an attempt at doing a kitchen sink setting...but coherent. And at incorporating player actions--the standing policy is that players' actions have lasting effects on the world.

I've tried to figure out how to merge the mechanics and the worldbuilding so that they're consistent--I have in-universe explanations for spell slots/levels, hit points, why adventurers can progress so rapidly, and a bunch of other things. At the same time, I've tried to reconsider each element and not accept "because it's tradition", especially at the worldbuilding level. The planes are completely different (mostly consolidated), alignment is not a metaphysical force, and all of the gods, racial backstories, and lore is freshly made. The goal is for people to be able to treat it as if it's a more generic setting (elves look and act like elves, same with humans, etc), while still having depth.

It's licensed Creative Commons-BY (free to use and modify, but give credit) except for those parts that are OGL licensed.

[Alaize-chan]

Cool, I'll take a look at those n.n

I actually kinda like to have an explanation to spell slots and adventurers healing super fast 👍

[micahaphone]

Not sure if this counts for your question, but wotc recently published "The Explorer's Guide to Wildemount" setting book. It's Matt Mercer's homebrew world, specifically the continent Critical Role is playing their second campaign on. It's a good mix of kitchen sink fantasy while having a bit more thought and design put into it. For example I love that the main political tension in this land is a cold war between the Dwendalian Empire and the Krynn Dynasty.
In a forgotten realms version, this would be the human land vs the drow land. But Mercer makes it more cultural rather than racial. The empire is humans, dwarves, elves, and others, and there's languages beyond just "all of this race speaks this one language". the dynasty has actual historical and material reasons to be disadvantaged and to have a religion vastly different than the sanctioned gods of the empire. There are different factions with their own goals and makeup, and rarely does anything fall into "these are the evil people they worship the evil god because they're evil".


What I'm trying to say is it's a bog standard fantasy setting but more thought was put into its creation so its a lot more believable.





The Eberron setting is also very good, but it's not bog standard fantasy, so your mileage may vary. Ditto goes for the Ravnica book.

[Verble]

I second the Midgard setting. They have a new book coming out soon exploring the far east.