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D&D Campaign Settings you have played most in your life

Mostly homebrew campaigns I have run.

Did run some Greyhawk stuff back when I started certainly used the modules they published.

Have recently run the Rise of Tiamat so guess that counts as FR.

Been playing for a couple of years in a Mystria campaign DM has updated to 5e.
 

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thorgrit

Explorer
The settings I've played in and/or run the most, in no particular order:

1. Generic nonspecific / PHB default. Not a specific setting with a particular big world, just scattered towns, forests, caves, etc. Any setting flavor, such as deities worshipped for cleric domains and such, were just straight out of whatever was listed in the PHB. Slightly Greyhawk-y for 3e, slightly points-of-light-y for 4e.

2. Homebrew. I lump these together for convenience, but differentiate from generic in that the DM had put in the effort of making world maps, or at least known world maps, with different and distinct societal groups and history, and sometimes specific non-default religions and deities. Sometimes with new races or racial restrictions, sometimes with new classes or class restrictions.

3. Eberron. The one I DM in the most. Though it's like 75% core Eberron and 25% homebrew, in that each game I set up I only read what the book has to say about certain things, enough to get going, and I make a canon unique to each campaign. Like, I forget or am too lazy to look up how many elemental airships there are in the world, so sometimes there's only 3 and they're precious artifacts where the secrets to make them were lost in the Last War, and sometimes they're plentiful and mundane. I think it's even in the core book that it specifically encourages DMs to tinker and only play with areas they want to focus on.

4. Adventure-specific. Closely tied to Generic, I consider these to have just enough setting to qualify as being in that Setting. I'd put Curse of Strahd firmly in this category, as well as any of the 5e adventures that mention Harpers, Zentarim, et al. 4e Scales of War I think I'd mostly put here, too, as it has a specific history tied into it. Basically any published adventure with a specific history that a DM has run where they thought it easiest to go with whatever was in the book rather than taking time to modify it to set it elsewhere.

5. Forgotten Realms. I think a friend tried to get me interested in the setting, but I just couldn't. He DM'd a game ostensibly set there but he pulled lore from a stack of books so heavy I got a backache just looking at it. With no easy jumping-on point for the lore for my own interest, as a player I just assumed generic things and let him tell what lore he thought was appropriate for me to know.

I think that's mostly it. I've played in a couple of one-shots of Dark Sun in 4e, I think some Spelljammer once or twice. I've even tried to get Warcraft or Final Fantasy themed games off the ground, but they fizzled due to lack of player interest in those settings. Even when I played/ran Pathfinder, we never looked too deeply into the Golarian setting (I think mainly because I used the SRD for ease of use, and the setting stuff isn't in there).
 

Old One Eye

First Post
Going by DnD, any edition, meshing together campaigns as DM and player:

1. Homebrew by far. Lots of different worlds including the current game where a buddy and I hashed out just enough of a framework to play and are making up more as needed.

2. Greyhawk. Every couple years I get the hankering to run some 'Hawk. Been a few years, but I know the hankering will come back again. PCs have never managed to whack Iuz, so they may need another shot at it...

3. Fantasy Earth. Lots of fun to take a period in history and magic it up. Need to get that march of the 10,000 Greeks idea going at some point.

4. Forgotten Realms. Here and there over the years. Planning on linking together all the 5e adventures for the next time I DM.

5. Spelljammer. I love it, but have sadly under-utilized. Need more 'jammer but there is only so much time.

6. Dragonlance. Ran a really good campaign way, way back in high school with some other smatterings back when. Not much chance of ever seeing a roll of dice again.

7. Nentir Vale. Ran my main 4e campaign in it. The party paladin unified the land as king, presumably still peacefully ruling it.

8. Dark Sun. Played in a couple failed-start games. None of my DMs could ever really get it going. I keep wanting to shove it into Greyhawk's Sea of Dust and run a game, but that is a maybe someday thing.

9. Eberron. Ran the starter adventure. It didn't take.
 

Shiroiken

Legend
Based on hours, not counting Homebrew:

1) Greyhawk - played it all through 1E (basically high school and early college), then returned to it in 3E and 5E. Stopped in 2E and 4E because I seldom DMed those editions. Technically I need to include Mystara in this category, because my 1E campaign had half the world as Greyhawk, and Mystara on the other side, with some teleporation methods between the two.

2) Realms - probably my long played time-wise, since that was what my fellow DMs liked most. Almost all of 2E and 4E was done in the Realms, except for a late Dark Sun campaign I was (mostly) a part of. Did it during the 5E playtest and the first couple years of 5E too, before switching.

3) Dark Sun - not really a fan, but I was part of a decent sized 4E Dark Sun campaign, which reset to 2E (long story - don't ask). Don't really see the appeal.

4) Ravenloft - also not a huge fan, but one of my earlier DMs loved it. Unfortunately, he had a... skewed... view of good/evil (he felt Strahd was the hero, and that all paladins are bad guys). While most of his campaigns fell apart pretty easily, he kept at it, and I (somewhat foolishly) kept playing.

5) Scarred Lands - same DM who loved Ravenloft liked this one too. He should have stuck with it, because here were his best games. Thought it was pretty good, and enjoyed exploring the world.

6) Thule - most recently completed campaign, and I like it a lot. It's not as good as early Greyhawk or Realms, but there are a lot of possibilities here, especially for sword and sorcery style gaming. Hopefully we'll return to it eventually.

Honorable mention: Rokugan - if you include the L5R RPG, I've played in this setting more than any other, but almost all of it was not D&D, even when it was a D&D setting.

I've dabbled with many settings, including Birthright, Dragonlance, Hollow World, and Nentir Vale, but none of them could hold long enough to be a real campaign.
 

pming

Legend
Hiya!

1st: Greyhawk. Been wandering around the Flanaes since it was first put out as a Folio in..81? Maybe '83? Whenever it was out in folio format. Ran BECMI, 1e, 2e, 3e, 5e, Hackmaster 4th, and Powers & Perils (see "2nd", below) inside Greyhawk. It's pretty much my "go to fantasy setting".

2nd: Shadowthorn. This is my home brewed campaign setting for an old Avalon Hill fantasy RPG they put out called Powers & Perils. Created it in '83 as soon as I got the P&P boxed set. This is probably tied with Greyhawk.

3rd: Mystara. Easily Mystara. Again...since '80.

Honourable Mentions: I'd say "Post Apocalyptic Earth" for Gamma World (2nd edition, then mostly 3rd...yes, I said 3rd Edition Gamma World! ;p ), and "Marvel Earth" for MSHAS (the FASERIP Marvel Super Heroes game).

^_^

Paul L. Ming
 

Sorry for a second post but thinking about this also used plenty of Judges Guild Modules early on. Ghost Tower of Inverness for one, for a high school student they were much more affordable than the TSR modules, even if the printing and quality of the paper was much less.

I loved it when I cam across one at my local games store, doesn't really count as a setting but thought they deserved a mention here.
 



Azzy

ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ
  1. Homebrew. In one form or another, most of my D&D experience (whether player or DM) has been in homebrew settings.
  2. Greyhawk. Five campaigns so far.
  3. Forgotten Realms. A single campaign.
  4. Al Qadim. Also, a single campaign.
  5. Dragonlance. A couple aborted attempts before I decided I hated DMing in that setting.
 

24Fanatic365

Villager
D&D Campaign Settings you have played most in your life

Forgotten Realms is the ONLY setting I’ve played in. Bear in mind, though, that I only played for a few months way back in 2e,
and I only came back and picked up 5e in September. For those of you who pretty much despise FR, is there a particular reason (or reasons) why, or is it more of a general, “I wouldn’t write ANYTHING like that.”? I’ve been reading through the old FR novels and short stories, and while some of it is derivative and mundane, not to mention pretty poorly written, for pulp fantasy, it isn’t THAT bad.

I’d REALLY like to play something in Eberron. Something about the post war tension in that world appeals to the history nerd in me...
 

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