Favorite D&D setting (of those listed)?

[jdrakeh]

I'm trying to slim down my game collection and figured some input from my fellow gamers could help me make tough choices. Of the following three settings, which of them is your favorite?

 

[Mercurius]

Its a bit of an apples and oranges think as you've listed three very different types of settings. Greyhawk is a "kitchen sink" setting and thus more comparable to the Forgotten Realms and Golarion; Birthright is a "theme" setting with a rather specific milieu, and thus more comparable to Dark Sun and other 2E-created settings; and Ravenloft is also a theme setting, but a demi-plane, so with an even more specific set of qualities.

It also depends upon the supplements in question. Are you talking about the early 80s classic Greyhawk box set? How can you get rid of that? The same goes for the Birthright box set or the original Ravenloft module.

I don't know what your situation is, but if I were you I'd look more at individual products and keep the best of the three settings, rather than get rid of an entire line.

p.s. If I'm not mistaken, you've done this a few times in the past. A binge-and-purge type of guy like myself?

 

[Dice4Hire]

I don't think I'd be the kind of person to take other's advice on what to keep in my gaming collection, personally.

As for the question, keep them all. None of them are coming back, most likely, which means you will not be able to get materials for any reasonable price.

 

[Is_907]

I rarely sell books, especially RPG ones. The only RPG related materials I've ever sold were the MM and DMG for 4th edition, when I decided I didn't want to DM it ever again. (Kept the PHB just in case.)

So yeah, I think this is a personal question. [MENTION=59082]Mercurius[/MENTION] gives good advice on looking at individual products/books rather than settings... but over all, old stuff is worth hanging on to.

Maybe give or "extended loan" them to a friend who games?

 

[Is_907]

I rarely sell books, especially RPG ones. The only RPG related materials I've ever sold were the MM and DMG for 4th edition, when I decided I didn't want to DM it ever again. (Kept the PHB just in case.)

So yeah, I think this is a personal question. [MENTION=59082]Mercurius[/MENTION] gives good advice on looking at individual products/books rather than settings... but over all, old stuff is worth hanging on to.

Maybe give or "extended loan" them to a friend who games?

 

[jdrakeh]

I don't think I'd be the kind of person to take other's advice on what to keep in my gaming collection, personally.

Well, the thing is, they're all tied for the #1 spot in my brain. Conceptually, I think I like Ravenloft best, but the execution has never done much for me. From a practicality standpoint, Greyhawk probably wins out as I own every pre-wars supplement and module for it. Birthright is simply something special that really tread new ground for AD&D (and, frankly, I don't think any official D&D campaign since been quite as innovative).

As for the question, keep them all. None of them are coming back, most likely, which means you will not be able to get materials for any reasonable price.

Keeping them all is what I'd like to do, but it's not really in the cards. I have this new-ish rule about not keeping stuff I haven't used in the past year - and normally, that would mean they all go. I'm making an exception to that rule this time, though, as the editions of D&D that I play don't come with a built-in setting, so I need to keep one of them handy.

Incidentally, after weighing my options and the opinions of others, Greyhawk won out - partly because it's the one setting of those three that is easiest for me to find players for, partly because I own tons of it, and partly because of the opinion poll.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Greyhawk is by far the most versatile of these settings, without any one theme dominating it and its sandbox approach.

Both Ravenloft and Birthright make assumptions the players have to accept for running a successful game, which is a big detraction in my opinion.

 

[Thagdal]

There is far more greyhawk resources available online than the others, so you might miss that least if you sell it.
The books are more 'needed' for the other two settings.

 

[jdrakeh]

There is far more greyhawk resources available online than the others, so you might miss that least if you sell it.
The books are more 'needed' for the other two settings.

I dunno. I actually think there is more published material from Ravenloft - that said, I didn't own any of it past Domains of Dread, so that wasn't really a factor for me. Like I said, though, I chose to keep Greyhawk, in large because I have every product leading up to the Greyhawk Wars (which will never happen in my own Greyhawk or, if they do, they'll happen way differently).

 

[delericho]

If I have to choose one of them, I choose Ravenloft as it's the only one I've ever actually used.

Honestly, I wouldn't get rid of any of them. But if I felt I had to do so (for whatever reason), I would use a different criteria: Which have you used in the last twelve months? Keep any you've used; get rid of any you haven't. Even if that means keeping all three, or getting rid of all three.