10 Campaign Settings: Which Ones Should I Get?

[MortonStromgal]

Midnight, the my only complaints with it are that its too D&D not enough Middle Earth and that the Heroic paths ended up as a cool idea but I would rather not have the added complication. Overall though it and Kingdoms of Kalamar were my favorite 3e settings.

 

[Erik Mona]

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.

That would be Northern Crown, I believe. It's pretty cool.

(Perhaps not as cool as Rogue Games somewhat similarly themed COLONIAL GOTHIC, but that's not for d20).

--Erik

 

[jdrakeh]

FWIW, Troll and Toad is still selling copies of the Warlords of the Accordlands books in like new condition for pennies on the dollar:

Core Book
Campaign Adventure Book
Monsters and Lairs
World Atlas

Really, at those prices, you can't afford to pass it up. It's a really unique game setting. The Campaign Adventure book is a 1-20 adventure path, BTW.

 

[jdrakeh]

Elves, as a race, specializing in necromancy to fulfill their obsession with immortality, stuff like that.

Well, they weren't D&D elves for sure. For me that was a feature, though, not a bug.

 

[catsclaw227]

Well, they weren't D&D elves for sure. For me that was a feature, though, not a bug.

Oh, I totally agree. I dig the setting stuff. It was ripe with ideas and the ongoing conflicts were cool. The mechanics needed some work, but I rarely care about that stuff. I didn't need John Cooper level monster editing.

 

[Erekose]

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

Me too!

 

[Glade Riven]

Well, I havn't experiance with what is on the list, but I'd recommend Dawnforge and Iron Kingdoms to be added to it.

Dawnforge - First age of the world, and PCs play boosted races. A bit of a cross between Tolkien and Conan. It's a loose world that allows for hard and fast epic play.

Iron Kingdoms - quite the opposite of Dawnforge, IK is brutal full metal fantasy with some steampunk elements (How strong of a steampunk is up to the GM). The add-on book Libre Mechanika showcaese an alternative magical item crafting system which allows for some interesting results. Hard-to-find in print, although Paizo has PDF versions avalable.

 

[Knightfall]

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.

Anything that is inspiring. Something with good rules mechanics that I can borrow for my homebrewed world. A setting with new, unique ideas that make you say, "I wish I'd thought of that."

 

[Glade Riven]

Oh, then you definatly want to check out my recs. Both have a bunch of flavor mechanics. For Dawnforge, the races have racial levels from 1 to 10, as the PCs are suppose to be paragons of their race (even more so than normal). My group has discussed the possibility of running a Dawnforge where we'd be playing future D&D deities. IK has Liber Mechanika for a new crafting system (although it can get hefty with the paperwork), Steam powered golums (Steamjacks), some interesting races and takes on races, and a bunch of other flavor mechanics.

 

[Nifelhein]

Dawnforge is a good setting if you are looking for heroic fantasy in the style of Greek/Roman heroics akin to Odissey, and just like Midnight it is a mine of ideas.

I voted Midnight but I know very few of the list, and I am a quite rabid fan of that setting.