10 Campaign Settings: Which Ones Should I Get?

[Knightfall]

The trilogy of threads is complete!

Here are ten campaign setting books that I've been interested in for some time.

Warlords of the Accordlands: Master Codex (AEG)
Codex Arcanis/Player's Guide to Arcanis (Paradigm Concepts)
Codex of Erde (Troll Lord Games)
Midnight: Second Edition (FFG)
Morningstar Fantasy Campaign Setting (Goodman Games)
Nyambe: African Adventures (Atlas Games)
Sláine: The Roleplaying Game of Celtic Heroes (Mongoose)
Sovereign Stone Campaign Sourcebook [3.5 Edition] (White Silver Publishing)
The Hunt: Rise of Evil World Book (Mystic Eye Games)
Twin Crowns: Age of Exploration Fantasy (Living Imagination)

 

[Jeff Wilder]

The only one I'm familiar with is Midnight, which I've not played or run, but really enjoyed reading. (I like a dark game, but my experience is that most players don't. Even most players that say they do actually don't.)

 

[howandwhy99]

I've read every single one of those. There are some winners on the list, but the variety in type and genre is pretty high.

I am pretty picky about what I like though. I chose just one: Codex Arcanis, which simply does not get enough praise in my view. It is a great setting to steal from for homebrewing and works as a full setting text as well.

EDIT:

*I don't know which Accordlands book is the main book or even if there is there a main book?

There are only 4 Accordland books. Don't pay too much for them. Only 1 is a setting book. 1 a DMs book, 1 players, 1 long adventure path.

 

[Derulbaskul]

Midnight. Probably my single favourite third-party product from the past decade.

 

[Hstio]

I was a little surprised to realize that I had 8 of the 10 (only missing Sovereign Stone and Accordlands).

Of the 8 my favorite by a long shot is Midnight 2nd edition. It really changed how I played and got me interested in gaming and writing again. Next closest is Arcanis, which is a great setting (steals a lot of concepts from Tekumel). Everything else is a distant third.

Hstio

 

[Aus_Snow]

Hm. On second thoughts, Codex Arcanis. Midnight isn't too terrible. Nyambe is in sore need of a total overhaul, but it has some good points.

 

[Technomancer]

What are you looking for? Something that is completely fleshed out so that you don't have to do any of the work? Something painted in broad strokes that you can fill in your own details for? A popular setting? One that isn't so popular so you don't have to worry about canon lawyers pitching a fit about changes or mistakes? Vanilla? Weird?

Need more info.

 

[Nellisir]

Accordlands (AEG) *
Codex Arcanis/Player's Guide to Arcanis (Paradigm Concepts)
Codex of Erde (Troll Lord Games)
Midnight: Second Edition (FFG)
Morningstar Fantasy Campaign Setting (Goodman Games)
Nyambe: African Adventures (Atlas Games)
Sláine: The Roleplaying Game of Celtic Heroes (Mongoose)
Sovereign Stone Campaign Sourcebook [3.5 Edition] (White Silver Publishing)
The Hunt: Rise of Evil World Book (Mystic Eye Games)
Twin Crowns: Age of Exploration Fantasy (Living Imagination)

*I don't know which Accordlands book is the main book or even if there is there a main book?

I own (or owned) all but the Twin Crowns book. I'd go with Midnight & Codex Arcanis. Morningstar is interesting but not immediately useful. Nyambe is alright, but the "elves-with-tails" thing bothers me (they're elves...with tails. And dwarves...with something. And gnomes...with something.) I like settings that have memorable/good new mechanics, and Nyambe doesn't, really.

Ah, actually I never had The Hunt, either.

Accordlands is spread out over 3 books (maybe 4; I didn't buy the adventure book). I'd rip some of mechanics out of it, but not the setting.

Codex of Erde wasn't all the memorable; Sovereign Stone I just didn't like.

I like Slaine, but it's rough in a lot of areas.

If you don't have them, look for Dawnforge; or (can't remember the name) the "New World" (eg America) setting from Atlas, which I think is excellent & sort of "goes" with Nyambe; or the one-book settings from Green Ronin. Testament, & etc.

 

[amerigoV]

A buddy of mine really like Nyambe and we did game in it for a brief time. He had spent some time in Africa so it reasonated with him.

 

[catsclaw227]

OK....

First I need to ask if this list is generated because these are some settings you are missing, or settings you have heard are cool? In the former case I can assume you have some of the other great 3PP 3.x settings like Oathbound or Iron Kingdoms. Otherwise, in the latter case, I might persuade you to adding a couple to your list.

Of the one's listed, I have all the books of 2 of them, Warlords of the Accordlands and Morningstar, plus I DMed Midnight for a good campaign that ran from 1st-8th (but I didn't have all the new cool 3.5 stuff), and I only have a few books for Arcanis. I have none of the others listed. And I have a massively extensive 3.x book and PDF library. I know of the others, but for some reason I never bought them.

Warlords of the Accordlands is a really interesting, fluff-rich, cool setting with some wonky mechanics and misguided rules supplementation. i.e. kinda like a pretty website without the strong development backend. The races and nations and history was great, and the monsters were evocative, but there are some stats issues. Elves, as a race, specializing in necromancy to fulfill their obsession with immortality, stuff like that.

EDIT: I should clarify that I really liked this setting. I don't care much about the statblocks being off, I can tweak that on the fly in-game if necessary.

Morningstar, didn't get much of a chance to read it much, but it's like a world at the brink of a new age. Your PCs are heroes and special and part of the new beginning.

Midnight.... what an amazing, evocotive setting! Dripping with flavor, if you could imagine a land where Sauron won. Magic is rare and illegal. You will be hunted; there are hounds that can smell magic, led by evil, divine legates. There are some races that are subsisting: Halflings, humans, elves in the forest. It's a great setting... I can see it working great for 4e too, with arcane and divine power sources being rare or only usable by the evil side.

Arcanis... same as Morningstar, I haven't had a chance to really dive into it, never DMed it, but of the reviews I have read, it is well liked, nicely put together, and they have a rabid fanbase. That generally means that the setting is strong and a great place to start.

Are you eliciting suggestions for other settings as well?