D&D 4E 4e Campaign Setting Options - Forgotten Realms, Homebrew, or Other?

4e Campaign Setting - Options

  • Forgotten Realms

    Votes: 1 3.3%
  • Homebrew

    Votes: 25 83.3%
  • Other - mention below

    Votes: 4 13.3%

I wouldn't touch FR with a 10' pole.

I'd either use Eberron or the Earthdawn setting for 4E Age of Legend. Since neither is out right now, I'd start with a homebrew or the default setting.

I completely agree. Aside from a few crunchy bits in the FR Players Guide, 4E FR has significantly underwhelmed me. Aside from Eberron and Earthdawn, I think Cyradon, from ICE would be a great setting to start a new game.
 

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I was thinking of dropping the Nentir into my homebrew, with some slight modifications, as it fits the environs of the real world analog that I'm basing my homebrew around.


4E is designed so that you don't really need (another) world...which annoys me...but it is convinient.

You can basically just decide what you want to use in terms of the defualt gods, history, Nentir, stuff from the mods and DDI, and go from there.

As noted, the only thing I would take from FR is the players guide, if you feel the need for more player oriented crunch.
 
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I came up with an idea for a new homebrew setting a couple weeks ago and it has me more excited about gaming than I've been in years. The adventures are practically writing themselves!
 

I am using a mixture of FR, Scarred Lands, and my own ideas. I've modified the FR some from the 4E games, with the spellplague being the result of a battle between the FR gods, another pantheon, and the primordials/demons. You can find the start of information for the campaign on my blog on this site.

I've set the world about 50 years after the world shattering events, with the idea that all these powers are unexplained and are developing as the world re-settles in place after the massive energies released into the world. NO ONE knows what all the powers are. NO ONE knows what all the options are, who the real powers in the world left are (and what new ones are rising).

Setting the time closer to the events, and stating that these powers are new and are being discovered gives you metagame explanation for introducing new powers (or limiting them).

I'm also incoprorating when the sky falls and chaositec from Monte Cook's 3E materials. Ao and other gods and primordials "fell" into the Sea of Fallen Stars, which had a very prophetic name.
 

Plenty of options

FR has its 4e stuff.

Kingdoms of Kalamar has a 500 page or so 4e Campaign setting book, though the 3e one was statless I believe and eminently useable for a 4e setting (just don't expect warlords or warlocks as named NPCs or dragonborn or tiefling races in the world).

If you are looking for points of light I would suggest checking out the 3e Scarred Lands Gazetteer, it is a 48 page statless book showing a D&D world after an apocalyptic gods war where the PCs races side won but are devastated and there are tons of wierd D&D monsters running around though no longer organized by the losing side.

Another points of light is the 3e Argyle Lorebook, the setup is that a human mage empire conquered the world including the other PC races and monsters but there was a relatively recent magic plague/cataclysm that devastated the casters and ended the empire and now things are in the dark ages with lots of leftover magic troves and small communities scrambling to keep themselves together.

Goodman Games 3e Known World Gazeteer is not bad for 4e points of light either, it has a history of lots of nonhuman empires that rose and fell with humanity just now emerging as a dominant species after wars between giants and humanoids versus elves and dwarves exhausted the empires of both sides. Populations are scarce with lots of wilderness and small village areas.

A couple statless settings would work fine,

Pirate's Guide to Freeport: Pirate themed trade center Island city state with dark Cthulhu cults under the surface originally designed for D&D.

Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World of Warhammer: Dark Fantasy Old World Analogue with Chaos and Elves and People in massive gothic full plate wielding oversized weapons. Designed for the Warhammer minis game and WFRP game the world is eminently useable as a D&D setting.

Hotan's History of the World: The Statless Talislanta setting book, tons of wierd races but a classic fantasy world.
 

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