D&D 5E Thoughts on Kalamar

[Coreyartus]

Way back in the day, I started collecting Kingdoms of Kalamar materials, and was intrigued by the setting. Thought I'd potentially revisit it, and wondered what opinions might be regarding the style of the setting vs. Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.

Did you ever use or play in the setting? What did you think? Did it have a good balance of politics and intrigue, magic elements, hard fantasy, cultural diversity, etc? Did you find it too constricting? Too loose? I'm pondering if, given the hindsight of 10+ years since its advent, if folks had any thoughts of opinions about it in comparison to some of the more recognizable settings owned by WotC...

 

[Remathilis]

Way back in the day, I started collecting Kingdoms of Kalamar materials, and was intrigued by the setting. Thought I'd potentially revisit it, and wondered what opinions might be regarding the style of the setting vs. Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.

Did you ever use or play in the setting? What did you think? Did it have a good balance of politics and intrigue, magic elements, hard fantasy, cultural diversity, etc? Did you find it too constricting? Too loose? I'm pondering if, given the hindsight of 10+ years since its advent, if folks had any thoughts of opinions about it in comparison to some of the more recognizable settings owned by WotC...

My first thought was that its basically Forgotten Realms with an OCD disorder; its through, detailed, logical, and dry as all hell. There were some cool ideas (the hobgoblin kingdoms, for example) but even their modules were so complex and detailed I can't remember a single thing about them.

If your the kind of DM who cares about every little detail (and have the encyclopedic memory to use it all) then I guess its a cool setting. I found it overwhelming in scope in underwhelming in delivery.

 

[Pjack]

I love Kalamar! It was the setting our group used for years and years back in the 3.0/3.5 days. The Atlas is a thing of beauty.

I greatly prefer Kalamar to most other settings because it's so good at having a medieval feel while still being a D&D fantasy world. Generally, people distrust and fear arcane casters, and in most societies, the church (or a set of churches) dominates local politics. It's not so "realistic" that it's a dark and gritty slog, but it's not so fantastic that magic is commonplace and hum-drum. I like that there are hobgoblin kingdoms, and I especially like the entire region of Svimohzia (imagine ancient Africa advanced to the tech level of Rome).

The books do tend to be full of a lot of detail. ("These are the kinds of rice dishes they eat in this region.") I think the trick as a DM is to scatter the details here and there as flavor, but not hit players over the head with them. Look for ways to introduce those details as part of the action, rather than just reading the book to the players. ("The chase takes you through the inn's storeroom; bags of rice have been spilled everywhere.") Some of the adventures are railroady (I'm looking at you, Coin trilogy), but some are more open ended. I really want to run "Siren's Prize"; it looks like it could go several different ways.

 

[Grakarg]

I loved the setting. I thought it had loads of possibilities and details ripe with ideas. I still flip through the books for ideas and inspiration for my current campaigns.

 

[devincutler]

I played Living Kalamar for a while at Cons (alongside Living Greyhawk). I liked the setting. It is low magic, which fits in with 5th edition. And I liked some of the little twists, like hobgoblins being a "normal" civilized race. Certainly it seems like they really thought about the internal logic of the world...for example touting the effort they made in designing realistic geography and locating population centers where they make sense.

The two major campaign worlds (GH and FR) started as small homebrews and you can tell by looking at the terrain around the emotional "center" of the worlds. Around the city of Greyhawk you find all of the main terrain types: Desert, Mountains, Hills, Swamps, Forests, all jumbled together nearby because the campaign world was very small at its inception and Gygax wanted all of the terrain types represented nearby.

Similarly with Greenwood and the Dales.

Kalamar was designed from the top down and it feels that way.

The way Kalamar currently least fits into 5th edition is psionics, which is a thing in Kalamar and is not yet present in 5th edition.

 

[Rune]

While I admit that the 3.0 Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign guide reads like a history textbook, that's as much feature as bug. One thing I always liked about that book is how much potential energy it had stored in it. Much like the political landscape of our world preceding WWI, the setting depicted in that book feels like a powder keg just waiting for a single spark to set everything off. So much the better if the PCs are that spark.

 

[JeffB]

I was critical of it back in the day. The core book is a dry read. I always felt the adventures did a better job or providing the setting in an exciting way.

I recently picked up one of the adventure PDFs on DTrpg as I needed something for 3.0 at the last minute. It piqued my interest for the setting again,and I find it more interesting now than 14 years ago. For me it sits somewhere around GH or the Wilderlands but with a nod towards realism and interesting socio/political viewpoints. Its nothing like FR. I'd like to run some 5e in it, but 3.0 works too.

 

[aramis erak]

Way back in the day, I started collecting Kingdoms of Kalamar materials, and was intrigued by the setting. Thought I'd potentially revisit it, and wondered what opinions might be regarding the style of the setting vs. Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk.

Did you ever use or play in the setting? What did you think? Did it have a good balance of politics and intrigue, magic elements, hard fantasy, cultural diversity, etc? Did you find it too constricting? Too loose? I'm pondering if, given the hindsight of 10+ years since its advent, if folks had any thoughts of opinions about it in comparison to some of the more recognizable settings owned by WotC...

I've read it, in 2 different editions (for AD&D 2E and for D&D 3E), and it is on par with most TSR released . Well written, well developed, good detail, and most of the detail in useful places.

I've not run it, tho'.

 

[gyor]

I think I remember that in Kalamar thier was somekind of treaty with the forgotten realms Gods, so that those visiting Faerun and worshipped a God from the Kalamar setting, would be granted spells from the Faerun Deity who had made a deal with your Kalamar deity.

I remember this because I was wondering why Chaotic Good Goddess of Cats, who fought the forces of evil in the Orcgate Wars, who battled Lovitar, Set, Shar and countless other evil gods, would make a deal with a god who as far as I could tell, you Vicelord, who the Chaotic Evil was the God of Rapists and other taboos. The guy is called the Slayer of Morals and he likes to go around as an immensely fat animal that's sexually aroused (I'm not making this up).

I know she's the Goddess of Lust and Brothels as well as Cats, War, Travel, Pleasure ect... so I can see the connection, but Sharess is still a good guy, and the Vicelord sounds like someone she would have tried to kill during the Orcgate war.

Don't get me wrong, I like that they're a God in a D&D universe (well sort of), that even Orcus would be disgusted by (that's impressive), but while Sharess and Vicelord both like to party, they don't share any values (I don't think Vicelord would respect Sharess' safety word).

Although she did go bad when she was hanging with Shar.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Nail on the head here. Reading Kalamar, the world is on the brink of stuff happening…it’s an invitation for the PCs to get to really affect their campaign setting, to change the world.

It feels like an understated setting, but in reality it’s the calm before the storm.

One thing I always liked about that book is how much potential energy it had stored in it. Much like the political landscape of our world preceding WWI, the setting depicted in that book feels like a powder keg just waiting for a single spark to set everything off. So much the better if the PCs are that spark.