Campaign Settings We Hate

[Tequila Sunrise]

I actually don't hate any setting. It's more about the actual campaign & how the DM runs it that would determine if I hate it or not. I haven't played in many games (I usually DM), so I've never hated any of the games I did play in. So I either don't care because I have never played in the setting, or I love it because I have played in it or am familiar with it.

I'm sure if the DM was good and the players were cool, I would like pretty much any setting that was being run.

I also wonder how many people don't like a setting simply because they played with a DM that didn't do a very good job using the setting.

You just had to go and be reasonable, and make a thoughtful speculation didn't you?

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I don't like being pedantic, but here goes:

ambivalent =/= indifferent

Yeah, but ambivalence lacks negativity and the potential silliness of the positive extreme.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I like settings.

Though I'm kind of ambivalent about "yet another pseudomedieval pastiche!" like DL/FR/GH, it's classic and solid and there's stuff I can mine.

The more unusual settings -- Planescape, Spelljammer, Dark Sun -- I can really groove on.

Eberron occupies a spot in between those two, but I'm more ambivalent about it because it doesn't have a strong difference from the "core game."

The "ethnic" settings I also dig.

And there were a lot of awesome settings I picked up in the 3e era from 3rd party publishers. OATHBOUND remains a setting that should be used more, to this day. Nyambe is amazing, too. The 3e Oriental Adventures book is one of the best Asian fantasy mishmashes, one of the best cultural reference point books out there, with or without the L5R stuff.

 

[Shemeska]

Greyhawk = I like, but probably not enough to actually run a game in the setting

FR = I adore FR and have run and played games in the setting, but having said that I don't consider 4e FR to even remotely be the same setting and I would not willingly play within it. But otherwise any time period, any rule set I'm game.

DarkSun = Awesomesauce

Ravenloft = Gothic Horror Awesomesauce

Planescape = What do you think?

Ebberon = Little exposure, so can't really judge it much

Spelljammer = I love some parts of it and totally cannot stand other parts of it. Probably would not run or play a game in the setting.

Birthright = Don't know enough about it really.

Dragonlance = I like the world within the Weiss & Hickman novels, but it's far too vanilla of a setting for me to probably play within. I like the crazy, wierd non-standard fantasy stuff.

 

[Mouseferatu]

The "ethnic" settings I also dig.

And there were a lot of awesome settings I picked up in the 3e era from 3rd party publishers. OATHBOUND remains a setting that should be used more, to this day. Nyambe is amazing, too. The 3e Oriental Adventures book is one of the best Asian fantasy mishmashes, one of the best cultural reference point books out there, with or without the L5R stuff.

Not to threadjack too far, but did you pick up Hamunaptra? Sounds like it'd be right up your alley.

(And I agree with you. Even though I rarely use them straight "out of the box," I love non-Western cultural settings. Al-Qadim is one of my favorite official D&D settings, and Nyambe one of my favorite unofficial ones.)

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance: It's not the setting per se but the games run there which make or break it.

Planescape, Dark Sun, Ravenloft: Would probably be cool for a short campaign. But as we play so rarely, I wouldn't interrupt a long running camapign to give it a shot.

Birthright: From time it was released to today, Birthright absolutely failed to stir any interest.

Spelljammer: No, nay, never!

 

[Pig Champion]

I don't really care for Ravenloft, Darksun or DL/FR. I like 4E FR a lot better but Greyhawk, Hellfrost and Dragonmech will probably be my published choices forever...ever...ever...

 

[Nifft]

Greyhawk: so ingrained in my mind as the default setting that I can't get emotionally excited about it. Not "love", but definite "like". Indifference (in a good way).

FR: a solid ceiling of NPCs who are better than you! Ha ha ha! At least that's how I remember it. I hear 4e may have fixed this. Hate.

Planescape: LOVE the exotic setting, LOVE the gritty streets of Sigil, HATE the Great Wheel's enforced symmetry. Love/Hate.

Spelljammer: silly ideas (not necessarily a bad thing), but I prefer how Planescape does the same kind of stuff. Indifference (in a bad way).

Dark Sun: little experience, but it was all good. Love.

Ravenloft: a terrible place to visit, but you wouldn't want to die there. Love.

Dragonlance: didn't read the books, don't like Kender though. Indifference (in a bad way).

Birthright: never played it. Indifference (in an indifferent way).

Eberron: perhaps the only setting which perfectly reflects 3.x D&D. Love.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

The setting that's closest to "Hate it" for me is Dragonlance, with which I have a "Love/Hate" relationship - "Love" being Taladas, "Hate" being Ansalon.

I haven't come across a TSR D&D setting that I disliked completely, though I haven't seen them all.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Where's Mystara? (Known World, Hollow World, Red Steel, etc.)

He couldn't possibly have put Mystara on there - no one could hate it and the 'love it' votes would break ENWorld's servers.