What Is Your Favorite Campaign Setting?

[Yora]

It depends entirely on whether you like the changes.

Where the DM and players are familiar with the world and like the changes it allows for a dynamic world that exists outside of purely the interactions of the PCs.

No. Even if the changes are good, you still can't use any of either the old nor the new cool material because you don't know what the next metaplot update will do with them.

 

[TheSword]

No. Even if the changes are good, you still can't use any of either the old nor the new cool material because you don't know what the next metaplot update will do with them.

I’m sorry I just don’t agree. This not going on holiday to a place because you can’t guarantee the hotel will be operating in 10 years time. Live for the moment!

You get to choose what you use and what you don’t use. Deciding to use some of the official lore doesn’t force you into using all future lore. Not using one part doesn’t preclude you from using later parts. Lore is a pick n mix of whatever parts you like.

For instance I really like the metaplot around the city of Shade and the Shadovar. I don’t like them clearing Myth Drannor. So I use the city of shade coming back but ignore the parts where they clear Myth Drannor.

I really like the Last Mythal series. I really don’t like Myth Drannor being reclaimed by the elves (there’s a theme here). So I ignore that bit and enjoy the rest.

There is absolutely no need to be comprehensive with lore. You can use or not use as little as you like.

 

[Yora]

That's not a comparison.

Say you have an NPC get killed in your campaign and then the next timeline update make that NPC an important player in the new world shaking event. What now?
Say the players have conquered an evil castle and took control of a powerful artifact. And then the next timeline update starts with that castle being destroyed by the hero of a novel and the artifact gets used by a villain. What now?
Say your players are making grand plants to take on a famous villain in a big awesome dungeon and halfway there a new timeline update comes out and says the villain was defeated by some writer's pet NPC. What now?

That's what I'm talking about.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Usually, for me settings are more fonds and wallpaper for the actual gaming, I'm as happy GMing in Golarion as in Forgotten Realms. But the one setting that really matter and reflect gameplay is Warhammer's The Old World, I just love it.

 

[Yora]

I'm right there with you. I'm a 40 year Greyhawk lover, but I now own the Grey Box, FR5 & FR3 - which is enough to run an amazing Sword Coast 1e style campaign. I'm actually gearing up to run a 1e Forgotten Realms Sword Coast/Savage North campaign, using OSE-Advanced.

That would be my second choice for a campaign to run, if I had not already something quite similar in the works now.

 

[TheSword]

That's not a comparison.

Say you have an NPC get killed in your campaign and then the next timeline update make that NPC an important player in the new world shaking event. What now?
Say the players have conquered an evil castle and took control of a powerful artifact. And then the next timeline update starts with that castle being destroyed by the hero of a novel and the artifact gets used by a villain. What now?
Say your players are making grand plants to take on a famous villain in a big awesome dungeon and halfway there a new timeline update comes out and says the villain was defeated by some writer's pet NPC. What now?

That's what I'm talking about.

Then you choose not to use that element and use one of the other 40 thousand other options in the published campaign world or fill the gap. Seems like you’re getting trapped in hypotheticals.

If your campaign wipes Waterdeep off the map for some reason you obviously don’t run Dragon Heist as your next campaign. I thought that would be painfully obvious. Run Princes of the Apocalypse instead and have several of the NPCs be Waterdeep refugees.

 

[TheSword]

Usually, for me settings are more fonds and wallpaper for the actual gaming, I'm as happy GMing in Golarion as in Forgotten Realms. But the one setting that really matter and reflect gameplay is Warhammer's The Old World, I just love it.

It truly is awesome. @GuyBoy and I are half way through Enemy Within and I’m currently running an adaption of Skull and Shackles campaign set in The Great Ocean.

 

[Aldarc]

Definitely, though I think Eberron has a slightly different approach - it's got some big sweeping historical events that set the stage for the PCs, whereas Kalamar, if I remember correctly, is more a world balanced on the edge of those giant events happening in the first place.

This is similar, in some ways, to the 3e setting Dawnforge. It's like a setting set in the mythic age before the present day of D&D: e.g., before the split of the drow with the other elves. So there is a sense that the world could go in the direction of D&D's norms but maybe not, depending on the choices that the players make.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

This is similar, in some ways, to the 3e setting Dawnforge. It's like a setting set in the mythic age before the present day of D&D: e.g., before the split of the drow with the other elves. So there is a sense that the world could go in the direction of D&D's norms but maybe not, depending on the choices that the players make.

That's not one I'm familiar with...wasn't it one of the runner-ups to the Wizards setting contest that got made into its own third-party product?

 

[Committed Hero]

Timeline advances and metaplots basically make any setting unplayable.

You can't touch any of the cool things in your campaign if you want to avoid your campaign conflicting with the official material.

It's one of the dumbest ideas that ever happened to RPGs.

I understand the frustration, but it doesn't have to be as big a problem as you make it. It depends on how much of the group is familiar with the metaplot, how big the changes are over time, and how much of the setting PCs can change as they go.