D&D Settings Touranament! Who will win? Vote for your favorite settings! {Round 1}

I woudn't be surprised if something like this has been done - I at least vaguely remember someone doing something similar with races and classes - but I thought it would be fun to do a tournament about D&D settings, ala the Final Four (basketball).

I'm not sure if this will work, but its worth a shot. Here's how it will work.

There are 28 contestants - as far as I can tell, I've assembled "every" official D&D setting, or at least the well-known ones, that was first published by TSR or Wizards of the Coast, plus a few others to fill things out a bit. I've excluded any and all settings that were first and foremost designed for a novel (e.g. Conan's Hyboria) and/or another game system other than D&D (e.g. Harn, Talislanta, Tekumel, etc). I know that Tekumel was first published by TSR, but I feel like it fits into the non-D&D category more.

I then arranged the settings into tournament-style draws. I tried to couple ones in the first round that made sense (e.g. Kara-Tur and Rokugan; and yes, I know that Rokugan was first created for Legend of the Five Rings, so sue me), but some of it is random. I also gave first round byes to what I consider to be the Big Four: Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Golarion. Now we could argue that Eberron or Golarion should be replaced by Dragonlance (Krynn), Planescape, Dark Sun, etc, but I'm trying to go by current popularity, the highest "seeds" if you will. Its a judgment call.

So there will be five rounds: 1-3, then a semifinal round with the Final Four, then a final.

I would ask that we not nitpick this too much - its really just for fun and only means what it means (not a lot). For the sake of not flooding the forum with posts, I'm going to create one thread for each round - so the polls are going to include either/or options which I hope everyone will only vote for one of each. In other words, I'll have options like:

Blackmoor over Kalamar
Kalamar over Blackmoor

Please don't vote for both unless you absolutely can't choose and like both (in that case, you could also abstain from voting). EDIT: To discourage voting this way, I've only given the option to make 12 votes - one for each pair. So don't waste your votes!

I'll make each round last three days, after which the poll will close and we'll move on. That means this whole tournament will take about two weeks.

Enjoy! And feel free to discuss the settings via comments.

Sounds like fun.

Also, for those wanting more info about the settings, there is this handy Wikipedia list.

Wicht said:

Also, for those wanting more info about the settings, there is this handy Wikipedia list.

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Thanks for that. I figure that if people don't know the settings they should or will refrain from voting. I, for instance, don't know Rokugan all that well, and only Kara-Tur from years ago, but I voted for Kara-Tur out of nostalgia .

This isn't exact science, obviously - just a bit of fun!

Some of the matchups, by the way, are going to be slaughters. Planescape vs. Oathbound? Ouch.

But that's also meant to be somewhat realistic. I tried to roughly order them in seedings - with the top four in bold capitals, then a next four in bold.

Also, I did make it so that your choices are viewable to all - so don't be shy! I don't think this is a potentially controversial topic.

Looking at the quarters, I think Greyhawk has the easiest draw. Wilderlands and Mystara have their advocates, but not enough, I imagine.

Golarion might be challenged by Dragonlance or Ravenloft but also should make it through.

The Forgotten Realms will likely get a run for the money from Planescape, which could be an upset - but probably still unlikely.

Eberron has a grueling gauntlet. I could see Scarred Lands or Dark Sun stealing it away.

I think you might be anticipating some things with the seeding. It might have been an idea to do some "league" type rounds first to sort out a subset for the knockout rounds, rather than going straight to the knockout. Birthright and Nerath, for example, is a particularly tough choice, IMO - I would have liked to see how they fare against other settings that are not so similar.

But, as you say, a nice bit of fun.

I'm surprised that Kalamar (a favorite of mine), Midnight, Mystara and Scarred Lands are not doing better early on.

Well, with Scarred Lands, I imagine its the lack of recent support. But its still a good setting.

And Midnight even has its own movie! How many settings other than Dragonlance can say the same thing?

Balesir said:

I think you might be anticipating some things with the seeding. It might have been an idea to do some "league" type rounds first to sort out a subset for the knockout rounds, rather than going straight to the knockout. Birthright and Nerath, for example, is a particularly tough choice, IMO - I would have liked to see how they fare against other settings that are not so similar.

But, as you say, a nice bit of fun.

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I'm probably too influenced by tennis, where the first rounds of Grand Slams are often the best players against the worst. Like tennis, there's a bit of a luck of the draw.
[MENTION=221]Wicht[/MENTION], Scarred Lands is a bit of a dark horse. It happens to be one of my favorite settings, but at the same time its a bit in the "heavy and darkish theme" category, which is why I put it with Eberron et al. Anyhow, Iron Kingdoms also has a bit of a cult following, so that could go either way.

I just hope we get enough votes. By "enough" I'm thinking 50+, although 100 would be preferable.

Oh come on, you just cannot put Ravenloft and Ghostwalk to compete!!, each one of them has it's own appeal, ravenloft is horror, terror, being placed in the unknown, while Ghostwalk is a more friendly and high fantasy "ghost among us". You can't be expectin us to pick one over another!!. (I voted Ghostwalk just because the setting has it's own charm and isn't getting enough love, but again is just placing a high fantasy verus sa gritty fantasy, there is no point of comparation )

KaiiLurker said:

Oh come on, you just cannot put Ravenloft and Ghostwalk to compete!!, each one of them has it's own appeal, ravenloft is horror, terror, being placed in the unknown, while Ghostwalk is a more friendly and high fantasy "ghost among us". You can't be expectin us to pick one over another!!. (I voted Ghostwalk just because the setting has it's own charm and isn't getting enough love, but again is just placing a high fantasy verus sa gritty fantasy, there is no point of comparation )

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There can be only One!