What fantasy setting do you use?

[Yanessa]

Kalamar

As some folks seem to miss comments to Kalamar:
So here is one!
Kalamar is a Highquality-World comparable to good old Harn-World (from Columbia Games).
The geographical background is a continent with 2 mediterranean placed "inner seas", where the civilized states are located.
The setting gives more weight to historical and political development (parallels from the Kalamaran Empire to late Rome/Byzanthinian Empire) than "magical upheavals" like the various "Avatar-Wars" in FR.
The geographical dispersion of cultures and political entities is more logical and concise than FR.
The quality-level of the products is very high for the typical D20/D&D supplement, more in the range for "specialists"-worlds/-systems like Ars Magica or Harn.
For example see the preview for the new Atlas on
www.kenzerco.com - you will see that I do not exaggerate!

 

[Jay Berg]

I am a collector of settings because I am a very lazy bastard!

I used to DM a multiverse. The players started out in the old world of Warhammer FRP and had Harn to the northeast as a large island/sub continent, Al'Quadim to the south as the arabian backround, and Rogukan to the east.

The players had all kinds of freedom to move around but mostly stayed around Bögenhafen since that city was fleshed out so well in "Shadows over Bögenhafen"

Then I added Sigil (Planescape) and suddenly all hell broke loose as my players just went wild and started hopping around. Of course I heavily encoured them to do so. So it happened that they visited a whole bunch of other settings like Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms or Shadow World.

Right now (I'm not DMing at the moment) I am a HUGE fan of the Scarred Lands as the flavor of that setting is very unique. Also those high quality city books like Freeport really help.

 

[Numion]

I play FR pretty much "as is". Of course none of the nonsense about elminster, which is fine because my players aren't too intrested in him. For me the main purpose of the setting is to give background for the adventures. The emphasis is on single adventures and action, not too much interaction with the rest of the world.

 

[Sanackranib]

poll

I chose FR which I have both run and played extensively and the Scarred Lands, which I am currently running. This setting is IMO the best one I have seen in years, and I agree with buttercup, it's dark (which I like - hey 3 areas are run by necromancers. You have gotta love that) There is also a lot of support comming out for it.

 

[Hard8Staff]

Hey, I think Harn is pretty kewl. When it first came out it was waaaay ahead of its time. Now that I'm working as a writer & publisher, I haven't had time to really check out the new stuff, though.

Obviously, I voted Kalamar days ago. But I forgot that I also use Garweeze Wurld...

After the Shield review, I expected Psion to pop in here and vote Kalamar

 

[barsoomcore]

I always get confused when I read the responses to these polls. All the responses seem to indicate that everyone's using FR, or Greyhawk or whatever.

On the other hand, homebrew is winning as I write this.

I've never known a soul who owned any Greyhawk or FR material.

I feel like such a freak!

I gotta go homebrew. I don't have many needs for a campaign setting but it's gotta have:

A: flintlock pistols
B: swinging on ropes
C: Big Honkin' Dinosaurs

Broncosaurus Rex is kinda cool but came to late. Plus its got laser guns and let's face it, laser guns are just never going to be as cool as flintlock pistols. No sir.

 

[johnsemlak]

I always get confused when I read the responses to these polls. All the responses seem to indicate that everyone's using FR, or Greyhawk or whatever.

On the other hand, homebrew is winning as I write this.

I've never known a soul who owned any Greyhawk or FR material.

I feel like such a freak!

Well, A lot of people who voted in this poll probably voted for homebrew and a setting (or several settings). That is, they do homebrew that is influenced by published setting material.

More generally, I think whether or not people use published settings may vary wildly among different groups of friends. A person may have a large group of friends who don't use a published setting on principle, or for whatever reason. But another group may be die hard fans of Greyhawk, or scarred lands or whatever.

Just look at the fan sites for all the settings! There's definitely users of these settings out there. Sales also indicate that published settigns have their users.

Myself, as a novice 3e DM I"m going to stick to using published Greyhawk material for awhile, though I may mix in stuff from other settings. I'll do genuine homebrew when I or my group get tired of it.

 

[Roderick]

I`d also like to "stuff the ballot", but for unknown reasons I`m currently not able to cast my vote. So I list the settings I`m gming in order of my preference

1.) Kingdoms of Kalamar - If I had to describe this setting in one word, I would call it solid. Never since my Harnworld days, I encountered such a degree of craftsmanship, when it comes to worldbuilding. The realism and the level of detail are breathtaking. The fact, that I`m gming it for my old buddies I started roleplaying with back in 83 sure adds to the fun.

2.) Planescape - I always liked the "anything goes" feeling of this setting.

3.) Scarred Lands - Like Don Carnage said, it`s a love - hate thing. I had severe quality issues with the early publications. In fact the Mithril sourcebook nearly made me drop the whole thing, but they redeemed themselves in my eyes with the Ghelspad HC. Don`t get me wrong, it`s a great setting with a great mood, but IMHO S&S took the wrong approach to worldbuilding, by concentrating first on the details with their city sourcebooks, and then pay attention to the big picture. So the whole setting is riddled with little inconsistencies, which bug me (being lawful pedantic) very much.

4.) Forgotten Realms - I`ve never been a great fan of the realms, but the players in my fourth group voted unanimously for the FR, so they got FR. And I must say the release of the Silver Marches sourcebook rekindled my interest in the FR somewhat. IMO the realms work fine, when you concentrate on one region, and don`t look at the big picture.

 

[Darklone]

Yet another ballot stuffer for Kalamar.

Why I play there? In this setting I can play MY game. Whatever and however that game may be. It fits.

 

[Voadam]

I put only ravenloft because that is the setting in the ongoing longterm campaign I run, but I will be joining a greyhawk game in a couple of months.