[4e] Favorite Campaign Setting?

[dromer]

I'm about to start up a new gaming group, and I want to see what everyone's favorite campaign setting was before I start building one. Homebrew allowed.

[WitchSlayer]

Official one? Dark Sun. Non official? My own world that I made up by smooshing lots of things together and adding a touch of my own flavor.

[Goonthegoof]

Forgotten Realms. It gets a lot of hate, but Genasi and Swordsages are still the coolest things there will ever be.

[Flarp]

Officially? I sort of like Eberron. The subversion of various racial stereotypes is interesting, but I'm not a huge fan of some of the more out-there Fantasy Punk elements. I like it better than FR, which I've honestly found to just be Generic Fantasy Setting++, and I have yet to run/play a Dark Sun game.

Unofficially? My own, unnamed homebrew setting. It purposefully reuses a lot of base 4e fluff, but expands upon it and swaps a lot of racial alignments around (orcs are a Neutral, Chaos-leaning race that has strong relations with dwarves and humans, and elves are far more xenophobic and chauvinist, leading them to war with most other races).

[KillianHawkeye]

Dark Sun, because it is awesome. My players finally fear for their lives again! Mwa ha ha ha hahaha!!!

Forgotten Realms. It gets a lot of hate, but Genasi and Swordsages are still the coolest things there will ever be.

I don't like FR, but Swordmages were cool enough that I allow them in my DS game.

[Goonthegoof]

The thing most people ignore about FR is the versatility. Any race or class you can think of that isn't specific to another setting appears somewhere there, makes for massive versatility in campaigns. Plus Rashemen is epic fun to campaign in =D

[KillianHawkeye]

The thing most people ignore about FR is the versatility. Any race or class you can think of that isn't specific to another setting appears somewhere there, makes for massive versatility in campaigns. Plus Rashemen is epic fun to campaign in =D

Yes, but my generic D&D setting that I use for 3.5 games allows just as much versatility, without all the things I don't like about the Forgotten Realms. Although I'll admit I don't know anything about Rashemen.

[dsmiles]

Once again, I vote: Iron Kingdoms. Found here.

[Mercenary Pen]

[shameless plug]I'm going to plug the new Hourglass of Zihaja setting created by Zeta Kai, Afroakuma and Shadow Elf, which will cover both 3.5e and 4e. Still being released, but it is already awesome before we've even got to the playable stuff...

Even if you decide not to go with it, certainly give it a look over[/shameless plug]

[Kurald Galain]

I find 4E a problematic system for anything that's not high-fantasy everything-goes fantasy-kichen-sink, so my vote goes to the Forgotten Realms.

[Sipex]

Premade would be Eberron. I love Eberron.

I have a homebrew which I'm enjoying quite a bit though, mind, I'm the DM so I'm sort of biased. Basically it's a post apocalyptic steampunk/magicpunk sort of world. Something akin to FF9 technology.

In addition, I dislike the idea that 'monsters are evil, end of story' and instead play them as simply different races. Some have more evil tendencies but aren't evil as a whole. Any sentient monsters the party fights are usually based around a conflict of interest more than "Oh, it's evil."

[Comet]

The thing most people ignore about FR is the versatility. Any race or class you can think of that isn't specific to another setting appears somewhere there, makes for massive versatility in campaigns.

I, on the other hand, consider this massive versatility to be a flaw. Throwing every imaginable fantasy element into one world usually makes that world an impossible mess with little thematic drive.

Most D&D settings are like that. I prefer settings with a clear focus, usually.
On that note, Dark Sun is a classic. Don't know enough about the 4th ed. version, but the original, at least, is so much fun to play in.

[Danin]

I'll always be a big fan of Eberron and it is rightfully called my favorite. That said, I haven't had the opportunity to experience Dark Sun yet and it looks like it would be right up my alley.

I like a setting that heavily encourages a style of game play. I find Eberron to be be more epic in a lot of ways (Fighting dragons from an airship) and the intense grit with extra grit and a side of grit that Dark Sun proposes sounds pretty fun.

[valadil]

I enjoy FR. I think it benefited from the reboot. But there are some problems because of the reboot and they make FR very frustrating IMO.

Sometimes the campaign books aren't enough. Major countries get only a page or two of content and I need a little more depth than that for my games. So I look online. There's plenty of Faerun material on the internet. But, it's almost impossible to tell what material applies to old FR and what applies to 4e. Sites that were publishes pre 4e have no reason to differentiate if their content is set before or after the Spellplague.

This isn't a dealbreaker by any means, but it's something you should be aware of if you're considering using FR.

[Jaidu]

My favorite official setting is Dark Sun. It's brutal, fun, and very distinct from other settings. Admittedly, I haven't played much in Eberron. Forgotten Realms is okay, and running LFR games at my FLGS is just about the only way I can guarantee a full table.

A friend of mine is working on a 4e conversion of Planescape using the theme mechanics from Dark Sun to represent factions. There's a lot of official support for the planes, but not really a specific setting that feels like 2e Planescape. I am looking forward to this.

[oxybe]

depends on what kind of game you want to run, really.

my 2 fav settings are Dark Sun and Eberron.

Eberron is more of an "adventurer's world" where you have easier access to a wide array of locales. in most FR, Grayhawk, etc... worlds, traveling is usually a long affair, done by foot or riding until you get access to teleportation, and even that requires some knowledge of the place you're going to.

in Eberron you pay your train fare and you can be fighting construct supremacists one day, the undead hordes the next, demons on the third, relaxing with nobility on the 4th and finally helping close up a portal to the realm of crazy on the 5th. then jump on a magical airship and spend your weekend in a tropical forest ruins.

Eberron is by far my fav setting that's closest to a "traditional" D&D one. it still has your goblins and orcs and whatnot, they're just given a different treatment and the setting lends itself better for wide array of backdrops when adventuring.

Dark sun is what happens when you take everything you ever knew about D&D settings and toss it away. Dark Sun is a godless desert wasteland where Elves are nomadic raiders, halflings are cannabalistic monsters, Dwarves are pretty much a slave caste, though humans are still jerks.

orcs, goblins (including hobgoblins and bugbears), etc... many typical races have all been purged from the world a millenia ago by mad sorceror kings as part of a genocidal pact to attain virtual godhood.

it's kinda like Red Faction, Mad Max and D&D all rolled up into one. with psionics.

[serok42]

Dark Sun and Forgotten Realms are my favorites.

[Salbazier]

I enjoy FR. I think it benefited from the reboot. But there are some problems because of the reboot and they make FR very frustrating IMO.

Sometimes the campaign books aren't enough. Major countries get only a page or two of content and I need a little more depth than that for my games. So I look online. There's plenty of Faerun material on the internet. But, it's almost impossible to tell what material applies to old FR and what applies to 4e. Sites that were publishes pre 4e have no reason to differentiate if their content is set before or after the Spellplague.

This isn't a dealbreaker by any means, but it's something you should be aware of if you're considering using FR.

+1

It's funny that one of the reasons I was a bit lazy to bother with FR is that there are just too much things to learn about it. Okay, you didn't really need to know about every stuff to play, but yeah. i don't like feeling lost what's this and what's that but Netheril and Underdark aside, most FR material did not inspire information-gathering-craze in me.

On the otherhand, the 4e FR books... they just have too little information. I made a character from returned Abeir previously and there isn't much to work with. That aside, that may not entirely a bad thing. It makes FR feel fresh for me.

For favorite setting, I should say Eberron but i have not a chance yet to feel eberron in 4E.

[dsmiles]

though humans are still jerks.

Have they ever not been?

[valadil]

+1

It's funny that one of the reasons I was a bit lazy to bother with FR is that there are just too much things to learn about it.

That's exactly why I was eager to try FR when I started GMing 4e. There was more material than I'd ever want to use in 3.5 and quite frankly, it scared me away from the setting. In 4th, I read all the books in a weekend. It felt good to know as much as the guy who reads everything (well, aside from all the distant history but that's hardly been relevant thus far).

[Salbazier]

Well, valadil, oou opnion in this are exactly matched. :)