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Kaihaku
2008-09-25, 09:09 PM
What are your favorite worlds/settings? Feel free to toss up established settings or homebrew, anything that you've played in.

One of my favorites is...

Phantasy Star
Why: Algol is, quite simply, the best fusion of fantasy and science fiction that I've ever come across. The background is epic, the worlds are diverse and unique but all fit properly into the greater whole. It's also the only setting in which I appreciate the combined presence of psionics and magic (generally, I prefer one or the other).
Notes: Please do not mistake this for Phantasy Star Online, I'm talking about classical Algol. I've run several Phantasy Star campaigns, mostly freeform, and I was working on a Phantasy Star d20 project there for awhile. 4e, being closer to a video game, is uniquely well suited for capturing the Phantasy Star 4 style so I might revive that project for 4e.

So, I'll toss up a few more that I've enjoyed as we go but I think that should start things off.

AstralFire
2008-09-25, 09:12 PM
Eberron. I love how well-thought out it is, the ways in which both old races are used and new races are implemented, and how it explicitly leaves gaps for DMs by painting sketches rather than stories.

And just in general, I like technology, so some drift away from horses, horses, everywhere is good.

Neon Knight
2008-09-25, 09:16 PM
4e, being closer to a video game

Wrong thing to say. We've had multiple mega threads full of heated arguments about this statement. For the love of Pelor, please retract it before someone hotheaded (like me) latches onto it in a berserk fury.

Ontopic:

Aside from homebrews, I like Iron Kingdoms, Ebberon, and... hm. Birthright and Darksun sound cool, although I haven't gotten to play in them.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2008-09-25, 09:23 PM
I really only play homebrew...

Thurbane
2008-09-25, 09:27 PM
Greyhawk!

Greyhawk!

Greyhawk!

Where roleplaying began... :smallbiggrin:

Nerd-o-rama
2008-09-25, 09:31 PM
I am avowed Eberron fanboy. Nonetheless, I would both be lying and remiss in my apparent responsibilities if I said my favorite setting was anything other than Sigil Prep (http://www.sigilprep.com/).

Raum
2008-09-25, 09:32 PM
What are your favorite worlds/settings? Almost any alternate Earth. I enjoy taking the familiar and twisting it into my own mold...

Prophaniti
2008-09-25, 10:11 PM
I do still enjoy the occasional Forgotten Realms game, but most of the stuff we play now is homebrewed.

Though, we've also been purging heretics and smiting the foes of Man in the Grim Darkness of the Far Future lately...:smallbiggrin:

kpenguin
2008-09-25, 11:30 PM
I do love Eberron. I'm sorry Rich, but Keith Baker's contest win was well deserved.

SilentNight
2008-09-25, 11:47 PM
I'm a huge fan of Dragonlance despite its possibly overdone good-neutral-evil theme.

Kaihaku
2008-09-26, 03:45 AM
Wrong thing to say. We've had multiple mega threads full of heated arguments about this statement. For the love of Pelor, please retract it before someone hotheaded (like me) latches onto it in a berserk fury.

Yes, I'm well aware and no, I'm not going to be cowed by threats of hotheads derailing this thread because they feel that "someone is wrong on the internet" (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png). I said what I believe and it was relevant to the topic of the thread, further discussion of that belief is not relevant to this thread and has been battled out ad nauseam elsewhere. Don't like my belief, go ahead and start a thread debating it; a thread I'll probably ignore because I've heard it before, I'm not convinced, and I don't want to waste the time and energy.


It's nice to say that you've enjoyed homebrewed worlds but how about some descriptions? What kind of homebrewed worlds? What made them so striking?

Seamless Blue
Why?: This was a homebrew setting created by a friend of mine. There were only two deities, a god of chaos and a god of law, each lesser parts of a divine being which split during creation. The most striking thing about this campaign was rich and diverse characters. Everyone NPC had a personality, history, and relationships. Every interaction was memorable. That level of detail was a big, I'm sure, but the results were grand.

bosssmiley
2008-09-26, 04:03 AM
Eberron. I love how well-thought out it is...

Ah hahahahahahaha. Oh wow. :smallbiggrin:

Wait, you were serious? :smallconfused:

Planescape - haggle, bully and scam reality into the form you want.
Birthright - you are king, and you really do rule by divine right.
Dark Sun - because who doesn't like Barsoom?

*Those* are examples of thought-provoking and memorable settings that stretch what D&D is capable of: WOTC take note.

Kaihaku
2008-09-26, 04:11 AM
I've never gotten to play in Athas, I've missed out. :smallfrown: It definitely has a unique feel to it... Sigh, I want to play a Mule. :smallannoyed:

It always struck me as a great world to play a good character in. Probably one of the best, there's nothing to define a good character than a world where they don't fit and which they stand in stark contrast with...even when they eventually break and fall.

nagora
2008-09-26, 04:16 AM
Greyhawk for homebrew - the 1e setting is a perfect balance between ideas to inspire and space to fill in what the DM wants. With a lovely map.

Otherwise, CSIO, which is where we're playing at the moment. The city is mad and fun, the countryside suitably untamed and the islands are fantastically Conanesque.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 05:29 AM
Ah hahahahahahaha. Oh wow. :smallbiggrin:

Wait, you were serious? :smallconfused:

...Yes. I personally enjoy that people took a lot of time considering the political, economic, etc rammifications of easy access to weak magical effects.

I've always liked Planescape and Dark Sun, but I've never considered the latter to have really pioneered much new in fantasy (and it's just too depressing for me to want to be there all the time) and I have small issues with the former that lessen my enjoyment of it.

serok42
2008-09-26, 06:30 AM
Forgotten Realms (played in FR since 2nd edition)

Dragonlance

Never played in Eberron but from what I have read I think I would like it.

Morty
2008-09-26, 06:40 AM
Forgotten Realms. It's a huge, diverse and rich setting that covers anything I'd want from a D&D game. It's also epic in a good way. The only real beef I have with it is that it clings too hard onto alignment system and utilizes "cannon fodder races" cliche to the full. But those are fairly minor.
Beside that, I love Planescape even though I've never played it; but I'd very much to. I'd never touch Eberron and Greyhawks has always seemed a bit bland to me; but admitedly I don't know much about it. I don't know enough about other settings to make judgements; FR has always been sufficient to me when playing D&D.

Kol Korran
2008-09-26, 06:48 AM
i also enjoy Eberron quite a bit. it has enough environments but is still very cohesive as a setting, giving the feel of a whole world instead of different regions pieced together like Forgotten Realms.

another setting i liked though never got to play is the Starfall Isles by "the six elements" spin off version of D&D. cool magic system, cultures, and basic concept of the ripped apart continent. it;s also fairly easy to run as a DM, and has quite a lot of place for player's creativity.

all i got to say i guess...

Saph
2008-09-26, 06:56 AM
I've found Forgotten Realms to be the best, just because of how huge and detailed it is. Works great with just about any group.

I'm also going to go with the OP in recommending Phantasy Star. :) I ran a D&D 3.5 Phantasy Star 4 campaign a while back, following the game's plot closely, and it worked great. The only problem is trying to find a decent map . . .

- Saph

Tormsskull
2008-09-26, 07:03 AM
*stuff*

I hate to be pedantic, but:

Its Algo, not Algol (and I definitely agree with you that Phantasy Star would make an excellent campaign setting).

Also, in Darksun, half human/half dwarves are calleds 'Muls', not 'Mules'.


Ok, the editor in me is subsiding. My favorite campaigns:

Birthright
Ravenloft
Dark Sun
Elderain (my homebrew campaign world)

Thant
2008-09-26, 07:15 AM
The Nearly Ultimate TOP 8 for le moi:

1 Fallout Universe (kicks some serious @$$ to any d20 setting/game:smallcool:; not d20)
2 Homebrew Campaign - End of Niira (armageddon-type postapoc/arcane/tech/noir/psionic megamix; d20)
3 Dark Sun: the Burnt World of Athas (what can I do, I love the wastelands:smallsmile:)
4 Planescape (A++ material for psychotic role play; d20)
5 Homebrew Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscure (love steampunk/ noir; not d20)
6 Homebrew Master of Orion (Battle at Antares time line; not d20)
7 Homebrew Ur-Quan Masters (SCII time line; definitly not d20)
8 Cyberpunk 2k20 (old school)
...

nuff said.

DigoDragon
2008-09-26, 07:32 AM
I always prefer my own homebrew world. Post apocalyptic fantasy where technology will not work for reasons no one can figure out. Except for an occasional malfunctioning artifact.

potatocubed
2008-09-26, 07:51 AM
Planescape - haggle, bully and scam reality into the form you want.
Birthright - you are king, and you really do rule by divine right.
Dark Sun - because who doesn't like Barsoom?

*Those* are examples of thought-provoking and memorable settings that stretch what D&D is capable of: WOTC take note.

You're right about stretching what AD&D was capable of. I think that's basically what sets old settings apart from the newer ones - consider also Spelljammer and Ravenloft (not to my liking, but man were they unique).

Eberron, much as I like it, is 'just another fantasy setting'.

Anyway, more topically, my favourite D&D setting is Planescape. I also really like Creation, the setting for Exalted.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 07:53 AM
Spelljammer is pretty cool and one of these days I'm going to do a conversion project for it, since I think it makes for a better inter-setting travel method than Planescape does. Using a spell and poof you're there isn't very exciting, no matter how dangerous the spell, expensive the reagents, and low the chance of success.

hamlet
2008-09-26, 08:01 AM
Greyhawk the folio edition. Maybe that first boxed World of Greyhawk set too, in combination maybe. This is the first and best incarnation of Greyhawk ever. EVER.

Kingdoms of Kalamar is, in some ways, Greyhawk's spritual successor. In some ways, I'm sure Gary would have gone apopleptic over it. In all ways, I really love it and find it to be a very VERY close 2nd to Greyhawk for "real world" style gaming.

Dark Sun. It was more than just "D&D in the sand." It was a very good campaign in that it was something entirely different than yet another version of Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms. It threw out the psuedo-medieval European vibe which, though I love it to death, can get old after its 20th incarnation.

Planescape is awsome. That is all.

ETA: Birthright was a very nifty campaign set. Not so much in that it was an innovative setting, but that it was an innovative way of approaching "the same old" type of setting.

jcsw
2008-09-26, 08:40 AM
+1 For eberron. Because I like steampunk and Eberron is quite thematically close to it.

Sorta like steampunk... with Elves and Magic!

Santiago
2008-09-26, 08:44 AM
Forgotten Realms, Warhammer Fantasy, Everquest, and the Diablo setting.

(Not sure if video game settings count :smallcool:)

Maxymiuk
2008-09-26, 08:46 AM
Fading Suns hands down. The sheer number of possibilities that jump out at you from every page in the core book alone...

oWoD for all my grim&angsty cravings.

When running D&D I do homebrew worlds exclusively.

Comet
2008-09-26, 09:31 AM
Here's another vote for Planescape. It just feels new and different. Ok, less so today than during it's initial release, but still.
Also, sentient alleyways are awesome. As are marketplaces with demons and angels going about buying groceries like there wasn't anything weird at all going on.
And in Planescape:torment, I thought that a bar with an eternally burning man as it's main entertainment/ambient light was a really cool idea.

Adlan
2008-09-26, 09:45 AM
Serenity, Cowboy's in Space with Chinese Cussin' and Big Dam Hero's just trying to get buy.

The Serenity Setting has a real feeling to me, it could really happen (just, assuming psychic's, new law's of physic's ect.), I like the fact Humanity is Alone, I like the Poverty, I like the Alliance (Bunch of Hun Dhan's), I like the Browncoat's, I like the Mix of technology, I like the Lack of Alien's, I like Being in the setting and exploring it my self.

I just love the whole 'Verse.

Also, 4th Age LOTR, Aragorn is Crowned King, but there are still lot's of goblin's and evil things to be fought, and treasure to be found.

finnmckool
2008-09-26, 09:54 AM
Just started the Firefly game, can't wait to get back to it. It is mighty fine.

Love Star Wars, myself. Especially end of the GCW beginning of the New Republic Era. You really get a chance to reinvent the galaxy to your liking, especially if you don't mind ignoring the EU. Are you a Jedi? Great, then help Luke reinvent the Order. Help him avoid making the stupid STUPID mistakes he makes in the books, if your GM will allow. Former Alliance? Help reform the New Republic. Smuggler? Carve out your piece of the galaxy. Republic probably owes you some favors, see how far you can push it! Anyway.

Jayabalard
2008-09-26, 10:36 AM
I really like Yrth/Ytarria (GURPS: Banestorm); it's an alternate earth with humans from the real world and nonhumans from other worlds, carried into it due to the banestorm. It's well suited for semi-historical games mixed in with magic and non-human races. While you may have Pagans (especially among the icelandic people in the northlands), most of the population follows one of the real world's major religions
Megalos, Cardiel, and Caithness are all Christian (Orthodox/Catholic), Atarre has some protestants (French Hugenots, brought over in the last major banestorm in Europe sometime in the late 16th century), Al-Haz and Al-Wazif are both Islamic states (Shiite and Sunni respectively as I recall), Sahud is a melting pot of Eastern Religions.You get quite a bit of discussion of economics, geography, history, etc and these are all pretty believable. For example: there are a couple of good sidebars about the first couple of female knights, including who the first ones were, how they came to be taken seriously and how they are generally treated in each country and by other orders of knighthood.

Neon Knight
2008-09-26, 11:31 AM
Yes, I'm well aware and no, I'm not going to be cowed by threats of hotheads derailing this thread because they feel that "someone is wrong on the internet" (http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png). I said what I believe and it was relevant to the topic of the thread, further discussion of that belief is not relevant to this thread and has been battled out ad nauseam elsewhere. Don't like my belief, go ahead and start a thread debating it; a thread I'll probably ignore because I've heard it before, I'm not convinced, and I don't want to waste the time and energy.


I'm not asking you to be cowed by threats, I'm asking you not to smoke in a room filled with black powder.




It's nice to say that you've enjoyed homebrewed worlds but how about some descriptions? What kind of homebrewed worlds? What made them so striking?



Because I made them. Seriously.

With a homebrew world, I am in complete control of the content. Thus, everything can be customized to acheieve maximum resonance with the audience. The themes that intrest me and my players can be explore din depth, without spac eor time having been spent on things we simply weren't interested in. The ideas that intrest me, the philosphies that intrigue me, the visuals that thrill me, and the emotions that thrill me can take precedence over those that don't.

Since you want a description, however, I will accomodate you. The last world I homebrewed was focused on a key concept; the idea of familial bonds. Thus the resulting world was set up to accomodate it: I sketched everything out rather than defining it, because that's how I roll and because it allows the players to fill in the gaps, something I love to do as a palyer and try to provide my own players with. I then set up a key figure, an epic adventurer that had ascended to godhood, leaving his 100 children (of which the PCs are memebers of) to wander the land and continue his tradition of protecting it.

hamlet
2008-09-26, 11:35 AM
I'm not asking you to be cowed by threats, I'm asking you not to smoke in a room filled with black powder.



So . . . you're saying I should put away the matches and not say what I was really thinking about Eberron? That it was really just a way to have "robots with lazers pew pew pew!!!" in D&D?

Ok, I'll refrain.:smallwink::smallbiggrin:



Yes, homebrew worlds are very awesome, and can be great labors of love, but at the same time, I think unless you're willing to put your world up for our horrible scrutiny, that we should probably stick to professionaly published worlds. It gives us common ground to tread.

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 11:38 AM
So . . . you're saying I should put away the matches and not say what I was really thinking about Eberron? That it was really just a way to have "robots with lazers pew pew pew!!!" in D&D?

Hey, I'm not even gonna deny it. Well done robots that match the flavor of the world, but robots. The combination of quality and robots is part of what makes it so awesome, and they're honestly not even my favorite new race of the setting. Changelings are, as they say, da bomb diggity yo.

TRANSFORMERS! Robots in disguise...

hamlet
2008-09-26, 11:41 AM
Hey, I'm not even gonna deny it. Well done robots that match the flavor of the world, but robots. The combination of quality and robots is part of what makes it so awesome, and they're honestly not even my favorite new race of the setting. Changelings are, as they say, da bomb diggity yo.

TRANSFORMERS! Robots in disguise...

Hey, not saying it isn't a cool idea, but let's be serious for a moment. They're robots. And we're, mostly, adults who still play with toys and, I imagine, some of us still living in our parents' basements/living rooms.

Not that I am living with my parents. I moved out. A year ago. Don't judge me! Stop looking!

AstralFire
2008-09-26, 11:45 AM
Hey, not saying it isn't a cool idea, but let's be serious for a moment. They're robots. And we're, mostly, adults who still play with toys and, I imagine, some of us still living in our parents' basements/living rooms.

Not that I am living with my parents. I moved out. A year ago. Don't judge me! Stop looking!

Your dad dying and your uncle moving in really doesn't count, bro.

hamlet
2008-09-26, 11:48 AM
Your dad dying and your uncle moving in really doesn't count, bro.

Grandmother dead, grandfather lost, afraid, and wanting to move in. Does that count?

Diamondeye
2008-09-26, 11:52 AM
I'm a big FR fan (until the recent disaster, but that's ok, I've got plenty of old books)

I think I would like Greyhawk, but I have little eperience with it

I've always been fond of the worlds for both RIFTS and the Palladium RPG

Eberron, sort of meh. I could tolerate it.

Same with Dragonlance. There used to be some products for playing DL on continents other than Ansalon which seemed more appealing. Wish I still had that module I bought.

Never cared much for Ravenloft, Planescape or Dark Sun.

Jayabalard
2008-09-26, 11:56 AM
II've always been fond of the worlds for both RIFTS and the Palladium RPGI agree with the early RIFTS books, but some of the later ones just got kind of absurd.

Squeeck
2008-09-26, 12:45 PM
Old World of WFRP, hands down. I love the grittyness, the humour, - and the Skaven, of course! Although I must admit that I liked the 'les miserables' -Bretonnia of Mk 1 better than the recent pseudo-Arthurian realm. The discrepancy between generally renaissance-era setting, with one feudal leftover state feels a bit forced. Although I must admit that I have not read the Bretonnian sourcebook since I've been a player in a campaing set in there, and therefore don't know the whole truth. There probably is a good reason for the backwardness of that region...

Ghal Marak
2008-09-26, 02:00 PM
Dark Sun - because who doesn't like Barsoom?

Woah woah woah. Your telling me that there is a setting that is like Barsoom? As in, the 'John Carter of Mars' Barsoom? Awesome. I need to find more information.

Learnedguy
2008-09-26, 02:35 PM
So basically we got two camps. Those who like the classical fantasy settings and those who like the more genre-jumping settings (robots? With ELVES and TRAINS?! Sign me in!!).

Personally I kinda like the genre-jumping settings more. If I'm gonna pretend I'm an elf chick I might as well do it in a world with zeppelins.

RTGoodman
2008-09-26, 02:57 PM
So basically we got two camps. Those who like the classical fantasy settings and those who like the more genre-jumping settings (robots? With ELVES and TRAINS?! Sign me in!!).

I don't think that's ENTIRELY true. I really don't like Eberron that much (I'll play it, but I'd rather play in a different setting), but I'm also not a huge FR fan. Eberron just seems a little hokey (hey look, goblins and TRAINS!), while FR is a bit cliche.

I like Dragonlance, but only during certain time periods (nothing after the WotL, especially), and I think I'd like Ravenloft and Dark Sun if I played them.

It's not that I like traditional fantasy, it's just that I like settings that have enough differences to make them unique but not so many changes that they seem forced or silly.

Piedmon_Sama
2008-09-26, 03:08 PM
I guess I'll be the first to mention Rokugan. Ah, I loved that setting, but none of my friends could ever get around the whole "roleplaying any culture other than 21st Century American Dudes in Medieval Clothing" thing. The whole group got ordered to kill themselves for shaming their Daimyo's house the first session, we never tried it again. :(

Aside from that.... Eberron is basically what I wanted my D&D settings to be like as a young teenager. It never made sense to my (youngish) mind to have a pseudo-medieval setup when you have plenty of low-level spellcasters to make a community's life easier. I was always homebrewing "magitech" stuff like miniguns and field artillary. Then Eberron came out, just a year or so too late to really have my interest. By then I was working on my own settings. To be honest, I've never much cared for Forgotten Realms. Too many "theme" nations, too many Elves, too many Wizards and Clerics running around for the whole feudal setup to even make sense. (The harvest was bad last year? Hold on, let me hike up 60 miles and get in touch with the Druid circle! :V)

In terms of homebrew, most of mine are just hodgepodges of stuff that makes no sense ("Piedmon, I really want to play a Half-Ogre fighter," "alright, I'll just pencil in a Half-Ogre country up north...."), or almost entirely "liberated" from some period of history. But I did have one, I felt, really solid idea for an original setting: it took place 200 years after an Ancient Gold Dragon called Aurrex (get it?) announced that, "for their own good" he was taking control of all the human nations on the continent (they were being run by a bunch of scheming bastard nobles at the time, so nobody was sorry to see the old leadership go). The continent's seven most powerful human Archmagi, at the same time, gathered a band of several thousand followers and traveled into the wilderness of the east.

While Aurrex unified the four human kingdoms into a new Empire, and ushered in a new era of food and plenty with his magic, the Archmagi each founded a town from the wilderness, and created the Seven-City Alliance. The Alliance was a new kind of nation, founded on the ideals of Republicanism, liberalism and equality. Basically, the humans were divided into two camps: a "traditional" nation under Aurrex's "big brother" government where the citizens were safe but personal liberty was heavily curtailed, Alignment Detections were regular and criminals forcibly had their alignments changed to Good. The Alliance is a dangerous frontier country, still prone to bouts of anarchy and infighting, with a powerful underworld and pitiless streets. But it's also a place where people can be free to live as they wish, move where they want, and all men are (in theory) equal.

That world had some other ideas.... the Orcs as mercenaries, fighting for all and every side in any conflict, Dwarves as peerless craftsmen with an insatiable work ethic (they literally had to be working on something everyday or they'd go crazy), the gnomes were refugees from a destroyed country who fought from atop giant steam-powered mechs and mechanical flying beetles. I never found a way to fit in Elves and Halflings, but Hobgoblins were a major player in the setting. There was an underground war going on, ubneknownst to the human nations, that spanned the whole continent, where a rising Hobgoblin Empire had swallowed up almost all the traditional subterranean bad-guys (Kobolds, Duegar, etc.) but were fighting off assassination attempts by the Illithids, who were teleporting in mind-shattering horrors from beyond our universe to do their fighting.

Shame I never got to run that setting, and all my notes on it went with my old computer.

Morty
2008-09-26, 03:10 PM
So basically we got two camps. Those who like the classical fantasy settings and those who like the more genre-jumping settings (robots? With ELVES and TRAINS?! Sign me in!!).

Personally I kinda like the genre-jumping settings more. If I'm gonna pretend I'm an elf chick I might as well do it in a world with zeppelins.

I don't think it's true. I, for one, don't like sticking to the genre very much but I find Eberron utterly unplayable for various reasons. I play FR because it sticks to the genre in a solid, reliable way. And when I want to smash said genre, I homebrew. Of course, FR is inconsistent. But if you give me the choice between mild inconsistency and the... things that can be found in Eberron, I'll take the former.
And really, every time you say "We've got two camps here" you're most likely to be completely wrong.

potatocubed
2008-09-26, 03:36 PM
Woah woah woah. Your telling me that there is a setting that is like Barsoom? As in, the 'John Carter of Mars' Barsoom? Awesome. I need to find more information.

Seek, and ye shall find.

http://www.athas.org/products/ds3

kbk
2008-09-26, 03:57 PM
Seek, and ye shall find.

http://www.athas.org/products/ds3

Excellent.

I rate Ravenloft as my favorite. I've always had a morbid streak.

Then Dark Sun. I'm so happy you have a link to 3.5 Dark Sun. I thought it was dead after wizards picked up TSR. Who can NOT like cannibal halflings?

Then I have to hand it to World of Darkness 1.0. You know, before they blew it up and started over.

Wreckingrocc
2008-09-26, 04:07 PM
I rate Ravenloft as my favorite. I've always had a morbid streak.Contains Ravenloft infoSo my DM changed some things to make it his own, and he had Strad attack us when we were unlocking the magical items. Basically, we had two party members preoccupied, and me and by brother's badass barbarian-ranger-fighter with uber strength had to fight them all alone. He charged in and attacked a vampire, and I (I was a sorceror/rogue about to become a daggerspell mage) shot a fireball at a bunch of them. I killed four vampire spawns and burned Strad badly. He charged at my brother's friend and did heavy damage. I then used another fireball and finished him off. It was supposedly a CR 12 encounter, beaten by two level 5 or 6s (I don't remember.)

Ghal Marak
2008-09-26, 04:13 PM
Seek, and ye shall find.

http://www.athas.org/products/ds3

Sweet! You just made my day! Thanks for the link.

Kaihaku
2008-09-26, 05:50 PM
I hate to be pedantic, but:

Its Algo, not Algol (and I definitely agree with you that Phantasy Star would make an excellent campaign setting).

Also, in Darksun, half human/half dwarves are calleds 'Muls', not 'Mules'.

And yet, you just couldn't stop yourself.

Algol: In Phantasy Star I, the system is called Algol. Algol is also the name of the real star, Beta Persei (the ghoul star), where the Phantasy Star series supposedly takes place. Finally, on a purely aesthetic level, I prefer the extra L, despite later revisions.

Muls: "Mules" was an honest mistake coming from the fact that I've never been able to play in a Dark Sun campaign and it's been years since I read and setting material. After the post, I did look up the Dark Sun Wiki to refresh my memory but didn't edit out the mistake because it seemed a minor one.

Yahzi
2008-09-26, 08:12 PM
I always home-brew worlds. My latest world is an attempt to explain why society is stuck in a psuedo-medieval setting, despite magic and nigh-immortal elves.

Pronounceable
2008-09-26, 08:21 PM
Let's see now, I'll leave out "campaign" and focus on "setting":

1) Discworld. In all its glory.

2) Geneforge series (awesome games by Spiderweb Soft): An extremely beautiful setting mixing fantasy and pseudo science. It revolves around a cult of wizards, Shapers, who rule the world and can create life. Said life (accidentally) "evolves" to the point that it thinks it deserves freedom, and we get four awesome games (one more on the way). Further games establish a great duality between Shapers trying to keep their powers and hold on to their supremacy over creations and ordinary people versus intelligent creations and oppressed masses who develop ways to gain powers of shapers without their discipline. It's like Jedi vs Sith, shaping being rather analogous to Force, only done WELL.

3) Midkemia by Raymond Feist: The definitive low fantasy setting, at least for me. Riftwar Saga is among the best series I've read, with a good mix of politics and war. Plus a whole lot of great characters. There's magic of course, and the obligatory Ultimate Setting Wizard, but that serves to enhance the setting, NOT detract from it (unlike some standard fare I could name).

4) Exile/Avernum series (again by Spidweb): The underdark (as we know it), is being utilized by the Empire (yes, the tropy one) as one giant prison. People banished down there are anything from genuine criminals to misfits, crazies, rebel sympathizers (actual rebels are killed), victims of politics or the plain unlucky. People manage to set up some sort of civilization, but things are hard. With time, Exile/Avernum becomes a full fledged country, the only alternative to the (now much more benevolent than before) Empire.

5) Lionheart: Although a horrible disappointment and the final straw for Black Isle as a game, Lionheart had a setting made of awesome. During the Crusades, a mass execution of prisoners creates a portal into a realm of magic and out come all manner of spirits and monsters. Said spirits can bond with humans to grant them magic powers leading to all sorts of awesomeness with historical figures.

6) Girl Genius: I shouldn't have to say anything else.

7) Planescape, which is obligatory to mention.

8) Ravenloft: Again, pretty much obligatory.

9) Dune universe: You know, it's quite hard to write a paragraph for each item in a list. (that much you'd have figured by reading up to here)

10) My main homebrew setting. I'm writing it last out of modesty (it'd be in top 3 otherwise). What's so special about it? I made it, as Kasrkin has mentioned.

Waspinator
2008-09-26, 09:38 PM
A couple that haven't been mentioned:

1: Dragonmech. It's a third party setting that was basically a stereotypical D&D world until it's moon started "Majora's Mask"-ing it, with meteors and lunar dragons ravaging the land. The natives built "mechs", giant constructs powered by (depending on which race you're talking about) steam power, magic, or slave labor among other things, to fight back. It's a weird magi-steam-punk world with a feel I like.

2: Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game from Sword and Sorcery. The first, "Azeroth as a D&D 3.5 setting" edition, not the second "tabletop WoW" edition. Warcraft has a very interesting setting and it makes for a good RPG game. Plus it has the advantage of many people being already familiar with it.

3: Knights of the Old Republic: Star Wars, in an era so far before the movies that you can get away with pretty much any continuity change short of blowing up Tatooine and get away with it.

4: Dark Sun is also neat. FYI, I think Dungeon magazine also did it's own 3.5 update of it at some point.

Oh, and about Girl Genius, take a look at this:
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/girlgenius/

erikun
2008-09-26, 10:20 PM
I've run several Phantasy Star campaigns, mostly freeform, and I was working on a Phantasy Star d20 project there for awhile. 4e is uniquely well suited for capturing the Phantasy Star 4 style so I might revive that project for 4e.

So, I'll toss up a few more that I've enjoyed as we go but I think that should start things off.
If you're planning this online, let me know. I can see the classes getting redone into PS classes (and the racial abilities as inate magic/abilites). That should be a fun one to play in. :smallsmile:

The Glyphstone
2008-09-26, 10:49 PM
.....Ok, now I have got to play a Warforged Druid with the Ironwood Body feat, who transforms into mechanical animals. Awesometastic.


For favorite settings, I've never seen anything that tops the aformentioned Sigil Prep, though I never got to play in it myself. Next up is the Iron Kingdoms - again, never played, but I do play the Warmachine miniatures game avidly....All Hail Lord Toruk...


I do like Ebberon as well, simply because it's not FR and I don't know a lot about Greyhawk.

Random NPC
2008-09-27, 12:59 AM
Eberron: Because Goblins and Trains at the same time is FREAKING RAD!
and robots that shoot lasers too!

thegurullamen
2008-09-27, 01:42 AM
Eberron.

I didn't like fantasy/D&D for the longest time because magic+medieval settings does not equal win. It equals "never would have happened". History followed the course it did because people did the most with what they had at the time under certain conditions. If there were two all-powerful uber forces out there, (arcane and divine magic) nothing, nothing, NOTHING would have stopped people from experimenting and exploiting the hell out of them. The medieval period would've looked very different and I doubt that the catapult would have been invented as a major siege weapon. Maybe a tertiary one. The main ones? That dude that smells like poo and the woman beside him in the chastity belt.

Is Eberron's interpretation correct? Of course not. It starts from a flawed premise (I doubt the laws of magic are so nice that they comply to such an arbitrary scale as "more harmful for humans = harder to cast". As is, the same amount of energy it takes to 10th lvl Fireball someone could be used to snap their neck. A hundred times. And make their corpse bleed liquid gold.) It compounds that "problem" by playing the Rule of Cool: Super-Deluxe Omni-Genre Edition! So, what you end up with is the land of B-movies, (except with more compelling plots, characters and a world with consistent rules.)

All of that said, what Eberron does is important; it presents the option of a world where magic has impacted sociology and the flow of technological advances. Really, there's no reason why magic and technology wouldn't have mixed before the start of the medieval ages.

Behold_the_Void
2008-09-27, 03:37 AM
I tend to run homebrew, but I steal most from Dragonlance so I guess that counts. In my earlier DMing days I have been known to drop Rokugan into the eastern region too.

Eberron, Shadowrun and Iron Kingdoms all interest me but I've not had a chance to play in them. Telling me we're playing in Faerun is almost like telling me we're playing in Greyhawk as far as what it means to me - standard straight up D&D fantasy setting.

Thane of Fife
2008-09-27, 08:17 AM
I've always been kind of partial to the Savage Coast, where Red Steel (the setting) takes place.

Swashbucklers, Wheellock Pistols, and a Curse which turns people into Superpowered Freaks.

A good combination of traditional AD&D and New Stuff.

Satyr
2008-09-27, 08:33 AM
My favorite D&D Setting by far is Midnight. It's like Lord of the Rings with the exception that the Dark Lord has won, and now rules the world (with the exception of a few pockets of resistance).

I am also very fond of Dark Sun, but I never palyed it with D&D rules - we had the gerenal consent that it would make more fun and sense with the All Flesh Must Be Eaten rules. We were right.

The homebrerwed settting I work on for years is another favorite, but that is quite obvius with my own setting. It is roughly based o the Yrth/Ytaria setting described above, but with more historical correct influences, a more Dark Age feeling, and fantasy people based on Changeling: The dreaming and the old Wod's Umbra.

But probably the best setting in general is tthe real world in many different eras with or without supernatural influences. My current campaign is a Werewolf: The Apocalypse game based on the myth of king Arthur (and Bernhard Cornwell's Warlord trilogy).

Diamondeye
2008-09-27, 11:30 AM
I agree with the early RIFTS books, but some of the later ones just got kind of absurd.

Yeah, from about #7 through #12 it just got ridiculous. 13 and 14 brought things back to more reasonable levels.

Part of the problem was that up through book 5 (Triax) they were afraid to make anything that competed with the Glitter Boy in terms of either survivability or main gun firepower. The Glitter Boy shouldn't have been so good in the first place, and they shouldn't have been afraid of stuff being better. A better initial spread in terms of gear wouldn't have encouraged the mudflation of the later books.

Thurbane
2008-09-29, 09:32 PM
Not much love for Greyhawk. I can almost see why WotC put up the curtain and shot it now. :smallfrown:

AstralFire
2008-09-29, 10:57 PM
Not much love for Greyhawk. I can almost see why WotC put up the curtain and shot it now. :smallfrown:

I honestly like Greyhawk even less than FR. Gygax's reverse naming drives me insaaaaaaaaane.

Hawriel
2008-09-29, 11:41 PM
Well the OP did say any world or campaigne setting, and its not restricted to D&D.

Shadowrun 2053 to 2064.

Its dark gritty cyberpunk noir with magic. The writers for this game really make you feel the world.

Battletech 3028 to 3054.

I like both the 4th succesion war/post war period and the clan invasion/post invasion settings. Playing in the game world of Solaris 7, or a mercinary company on the Lao/Davian border, the possabbilites are endless within their world. Just take the big map in the Inner Sphere (the really old one with a million plannets and stars mapped out on it that you need to tack on the wall) throw a dart at it and there is most likly something puplished about or close enough to ware ever that dart lands.

Star Wars classic rebellion time frame.

As published by West End Games. Not just for the rules set. The amound of color and depth that WEG put into star wars is amazing and fits so well with the feel of the origional trilogy. I cant stand the D20 it doesnt fit, it has the feeling of random splat books.

If you must have a D&D setting listed....

Forgotten Realms.

Well my little corner of it in the Bloodstone Lands. Which is pritty much been changed so much in my campain it might as well be homebrew.

Ravenloft.

Creepy victorian gothic horror. Just fun, and if you go evil the rest of the party really cant complane. I really like what White Wolf has done with Ravenloft.

TheThan
2008-09-30, 01:03 AM
I always prefer my own homebrew world. Post apocalyptic fantasy where technology will not work for reasons no one can figure out. Except for an occasional malfunctioning artifact.

You just gave me an idea for a game.

It’s like you said, a post apocalyptic world. Only the use of older technology (and there for better) is feared and taboo. People that use it (and use it well) are known as wizards and are shunned and feared by the locals.

Can you imagine someone pulling out a radio and talking to someone else, and have the crowd jump back astonished when the guy on the other end responds?
Someone with a gun would not only be very frightening, but very powerful too.