D&D 4E D&D 4E settings descriptions

[daddystabz]

I am getting ready to begin a new D&D 4E campaign and I want to give a good overview of each of the classic campaign settings that have been updated for 4E to my players so they can pick 1 they will like. Could you all please break down each setting and give a nice description/overview of each so I can sell them on whichever one they prefer please? Thanks in advance!

Forgotten Realms

Eberron

Dark Sun

 

[Ahrimon]

Default: PoL - Scattered towns and cities with lots of unexplored (at least for a long time) wilderness loaded with old ruins and such. One valley has been half fleshed out and the rest is the DM's playground.

Forgotten realms - Very detailed high fantasy world. They advanced the timeline by 100 years or so for 4th edition so that the people who've read all the old books don't know every minute detail. It's fairly population dense as I recall. I'm not very well versed on the 4e realms.

Eberron - Fairly well populated sword and sorcery world that was engineered with the idea that if magic was around for ages then people would have figured out more utalitarian uses for it. Everburing street lamps, elemental powered water and air ships, etc. The main continent is just recovering from a 100 year war where all of the nations were fighting over the scraps of the old empire. One nation was completely destroyed in some unknown magic catastraphy. It has a very Noir feel to it. Mystery, intrigue and lots of travel. They recomended the Indiana Jones style red line on a map for long travel where nothing important is happening.

Dark Sun - The gods were defeated by the primordials so there's no divine magic (by default). In doing so, arcane magic was released into the world. Arcane magic draws life from everything around it. After countless years the known lands are reduced to harsh and deadly deserts. Civilization clusters in large city-states ruled over by sorcerer kings of imense power. These sorcerer kings are near imortal and are some of the original and most powerful arcane users on the planet. Arcane users are lynched by the ignorant masses. Psionics are common. All of the races have received a twist and don't conform to the fantasy norms. Dwarves don't have beards, elves are tall desert dwelling nomads and theives and halflings are canabals living in a mountain jungle to name a few of the changes. It's a very survival of the fittest type atmosphere. Not much rescue the princess type action.

 

[The Human Target]

Short and to the point always works IMO.

This is how I view the settings anyway.

Forgotten Realms- A fairly basic fantasy setting with a huge following and tons of resources. The basics of the DnD game world hold true, with heaps of new flavor texts. New races and classes (warriors wizards, dark elves, elemental people), lots of classic well known NPCs, lots of support in fiction and video game form.

Eberron- Pulpy fantasy setting in a world recovering from war. Lots of political factions, lots of technology mixed with magic (airships, trains, lots of alchemy), new races (shapechangers, robot soldiers, people possessed by dream demons), high emphasis on Indianan Jones style exploration.

Darksun- A dark, post apocalyptic setting on a blasted desert world. The bad guys have already conquered the world, and the PCs have to make due. Arcane magic is hated, divine classes and the gods don't exist, lots of psionics and mutant creatures, new takes on the races (cannibal halflings, slaver dragonborn, etc), new races (bug people, half dwarves), and lots of new character options.

 

[Ahrimon]

Eberron- Pulpy fantasy setting in a world recovering from war. Lots of political factions, lots of technology mixed with magic (airships, trains, lots of alchemy), new races (shapechangers, robot soldiers, people possessed by dream demons), high emphasis on Indianan Jones style exploration.

Everyone has their own opinion on it, but I cringe every time I hear technology used to describe eberon. It's not as much technology as it's an industrial mindset applied to magic. Warforged are sentient golems. Some ships are powered by bound elementals (no propellers, wings, etc). Guilds of minor ritual casters produce utalitarian items such as animated brooms and everburning torch style lamps. The lighting rail is the one thing where I'll concede a very technological feel. It's a mag-lev style train that floats across a line of small pyramid stones in the ground. It's powered by a bound elemental but unlike the other elemental craft it's not really visible except as arcs of lighting between the train and the stones. Everything maintains a very fantasy feel to me.

 

[The Human Target]

Everyone has their own opinion on it, but I cringe every time I hear technology used to describe eberon. It's not as much technology as it's an industrial mindset applied to magic. Warforged are sentient golems. Some ships are powered by bound elementals (no propellers, wings, etc). Guilds of minor ritual casters produce utalitarian items such as animated brooms and everburning torch style lamps. The lighting rail is the one thing where I'll concede a very technological feel. It's a mag-lev style train that floats across a line of small pyramid stones in the ground. It's powered by a bound elemental but unlike the other elemental craft it's not really visible except as arcs of lighting between the train and the stones. Everything maintains a very fantasy feel to me.

Well you're right, it is all that.

But "tech mixed with magic" is the very short version of saying that.

Like calling warforged robots. They aren't, but thats a quick way of explaining it.

 

[Ahrimon]

Well you're right, it is all that.

But "tech mixed with magic" is the very short version of saying that.

Like calling warforged robots. They aren't, but thats a quick way of explaining it.

Very true, but it can also carry a pre-conception that can stay with a person and really color how they view the setting. How about "industrial magic"?

 

[Neonchameleon]

Forgotten Realms

High Fantasy, genuine organisations of shining good guys and blacker than sin bad guys. The gods are active and interventionist and the NPCs are powerful and often benevolent. But they normally aren't here - and the nature of magic just changed, completely disrupting everyone. Do you want to play shining heroes in a world with absolute evil? Do you want the possibility of becoming a God (it's happened a few times in the backstory)? Do you want to embark on an epic quest to save the world? Come to the Forgotten Realms.

(Note: I'm not a Realms Fan so this probably isn't a fair sales pitch)

Eberron

No organisation is genuinely all good or all evil (except the Elder Horrors, and the seals are weakening) and every player has their own agenda. Gods may or may not exist; there are a number that are worshipped and you can even see the Silver Flame - that's not a God; it's a prison created by the sacrifice of many Couatl lives. Although LG, the Church of the Silver Flame committed genocide against the shifters when the lycanthrope plague was threatening to destroy everyone. And to everyone's consternation (and especially the conspiracy that set it up as a cover), the "atheist religion" of the Blood of Vol is starting to produce clerics and paladins. The land of undead isn't full of tortured undead; the undead soldiers are true patriots who took the regret that they only had one life to lay down for their country and did something to fix that. And the elves worship their undead ancestors.

The kingdoms are all exhausted after the last war and no one knows how or why one of them got nuked. No one wants the war to resume. Except on their terms, so the peace is uneasy. About a dozen different great houses have as much influence as the kingdoms do and they are all scheming against each other and will possibly see you at low levels as useful pawns - and certainly see you as pawns or players at high levels.

Corruption is rampant. Do you want to play a slightly gritty noir game with everyone scheming against everyone else in a slightly corrupt world and no one knowing who to trust? Or a larger than life pulp game with fights on top of the Lightning Rail and onboard airships? (Or even rescuing the damsel tied to the tracks?) And racing against time across the continent to take the message to prevent the war restarting? Either way, Eberron is your place.

Dark Sun

This place sucks. No seriously, it sucks. You do not want to go to Dark Sun and you really don't want to live there. Every city detailed in the rulebook sucks for its inhabitants in a different way. The gods are gone and divine magic does not exist. Evil despots rule over city states, mostly for their own benefit, and magic drains the life out of the land (there's a very nice temptation mechanic to encourage life-draining magic here). Inside cities, life is cheap; outside cities survival is expensive. What are you going to do to survive? And at high levels how are you going to change the world? Make it serve you as you served it? Or try to bring life back to the dying world?

 

[DEFCON 1]

Very true, but it can also carry a pre-conception that can stay with a person and really color how they view the setting. How about "industrial magic"?

Just be careful about putting in too much color, cause then you'd have to call it "Industrial Light and Magic".

And that's REALLY not the setting you're looking for.

 

[Dedekind]

You may want to put it in terms of "If you are looking for X, then setting Y has it."

Such as:

If you are looking for high fantasy, FR has powerful PCs and a rich, detailed history.

If you are looking for action/mystery, Eberron is pulpy and you'll never know what the next twist is.

If you are looking for a bleak world, Dark Sun is short on resources and long on evil city states.

 

[Zinovia]

Forgotten Realms - It used to be that you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a 15th level wizard, and your local tavern keeper was probably a retired 12th level fighter. They were all extremely busy people who never had time to deal with urgent problems, but preferred to sic some lower level adventuring party on the diabolical cult trying to end the world. After all, they had far more pressing things to do themselves. Then the Spellplague happened, and everyone died, or got mutant powers, and magic didn't work right, but now it does. Weird, huh?

Eberron - But you know that she knows that Lady Juliana is an agent of House Whatchamacallit. Victoriana, the Orient Express, shades of grey, steampunk (with magic). Magic robots, goggles, and airships. Oh my.

Dark Sun - "What do you mean you forgot to pack water?!"
"Defiled any growing things lately?". OMG bug people!