Best and Worst Settings?

[EarthsShadow]

cool thread

okay, here I go:

Favorite non-d20/D&D setting is a tie: Earthdawn and Torg (ED for the die system, which I feel is still superior to anything d20, and Torg because it is just the best compliation of all types of genres that is mixed feasibly in a storyline possible).

Most hated non-d20/D&D setting: Vampire (sorry, but I just don't like the idea of sucking another beings blood, disgusts me).

Best Quality non-d20/D&D setting is a tie to me: Ars Magica (for its magic system and how it ties it to the world played in) and DarkMatter ('nuff said).

Worst Quality non-d20/D&D setting: this one would be really hard to pinpoint so I shall leave it blank, but an honorable mention would be Recon from Palladium.

Favorite d20/D&D setting is a tie: Dark Sun and Scarred Lands (DS because it focuses on psionics and I like psionics, plus its unique magic structure and how magic effects the land and the way people live. SL because of its recent history and how the setting is still reeling from the Divine Wars, and the world is relatively young and whatever campaigns people play have a chance of changing and effecting the world. Plus, for a new setting its very in depth and detailed, yet vague enough to do whatever you want with it).

Most hated d20/D&D setting: Ravenloft (this one just didn't jive with me, to me it was very, i dunno, lame).

Best Quality d20/D&D setting: Kingdoms of Kalamar (reading the setting book allowed me to really feel what living on the world is like, plus the maps and languages presented are awesome, and each region is very detailed and distinctly seperate from each other, and yet they are all tied to each other in unique ways. Plus, its a lower end magic setting.)

Worst Quality d20/D&D setting: Council of Wyrms (a great idea, not implemented well at all. To easy to powergame in it and it was unbalancing).

Honorable mentions for the positive side: Gamma World (just gotta have it) and Forgotten Realms (even though there are already big people in it, the world is pretty vast and there are regions that not even Drizzt or Elminster are recognizable names. Plus, if that bothers you, pretend they dont' exist).

Honorable mentions for the negative side: Dragonlance (mainly because of reasons stated before, hard to game it and they keep changing it so much that no one knows what age your playing in. Hopefully the new book will change that, and I know the new trilogy of books is placed on the other continent on the world and not Ansalon.)

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

I'm Surprised!

Well, best would be Greyhawk. You can play any type of campaign that you'd want. You can port just about any type of 3rd party stuff into it. EGG always said he wanted people to take Greyhawk and make it their own, which I've done.

All these negatives for Dragonlance surprise me. I ran a Dragonlance campaign for well over 15 years and the players never felt like they were overshadowed by the Heroes of the Lance. I guess many here just didn't have good DM's. The continent has a lot more space than narrow minds would think. Alot of fun was had by all, especially the time we covert oped into Daargard Keep, and then we fought remnants of the Red Dragonarmy in Nordmaar, then there was the Great Throtyl Prophesy...

As for worst, I've yet to hate anything yet, although I came close once with the Forgotten Realms. Admittedly, the last thing I need to buy is another campaign setting in spite of what goodness is there.

Son of Thunder

 

[MerricB]

Best setting: Greyhawk.

Why? Many reasons, mainly due to a large amount of play there and familiarity with it. It also lends itself well to a certain type of epic storyline with evil demigods leading nations and the like.

(I will say that if Gygax had stayed with the setting, I don't know if I would have liked it so much...)

Worst setting: Dragonlance.

I love it as a setting for the novels. As a D&D setting... I find it very difficult to work out even one adventure I can run there.

Cheers!

 

[Xeriar]

Best Setting: Legend of the Five Rings - the d20 conversion is Rokugan, but I still like the L5R rules better. Any setting where the reading can make you feel sorry for the Most Evil Bad Guy Out There (tm) has something going for it.

"You, you made your 'empire', you knew I fell, but you did not come for me... none of you came for me, I was your brother!"

My favourite d20 setting is currently a homebrew D&D campaign.

Worst setting, hmmm. I've seen a pretty terrible rendition of the Forgotten Realms, which included a custom god where 'priests must carry gold pieces' I kid you not (The sleeves in their robes were also automatically considered bags of holding...)

Worse non-d20 setting: Cyberpunk 2020. There is really no character development, the 'classes' are unbalalanced, and if someone rolls through the roof for attributes, they are going to shine for a very long time...

Shadowrun was so much better by C: 2020 book has remained nearly untouched since.

 

[Nightfall]

hey Nightfall, how come I never read you writing about Dark Portal Games, but they are prominant in your sig? Did you catch my slam about that in my Suessian tribute BTW ?

Nope but I'm sure it was good. As for why, I've been busy with other project but believe me, I'm the first one to recommend Riddle of the Arcanexus for 5th level to 8th parties. It's a GREAT adventure. Very nice.

Also: thanks for the link to the S&SS newsletter.

ALL: Don't be confused by the Table of Contents that has no d20 stuff. The d20 focus starts on page 36 with a seperate Table of Contents - looks like it may have been originally designed to be 2 documents but they stuck them together.

Thanks for pointing that out Biggie.

 

[King_Stannis]

Best: Birthright, with honorable mentions to both Planescape and Scarred Lands

Worst: Forgotten Realms. As someone said, it's like you're an intruder at someone else's gig. (Dis)Honorable mention: Greyhawk. I tried, I really did. But I could not inject any life into that puppy.

 

[jester47]

Best: Forgotten Realms Worst: Forgotten Realms.

Hands down best camapign setting is: (Deep Breath) Forgotten Realms 1E/Very Early and Very late 2E/3E with Kara Tur, Al Quadim, and Maztica, all as the pime material plane for...

Planescape.

Heres why:

3e makes is really easy to toss out the "New Cosmology" (which is really the old one but everything is debatable when you start talking about the planes.)

The place is big. There is lots of room.

There is a supplement for everything. It may not be the best version of the information (I mean sheesh look at the map of darkhold...)

Big plots happen everywhere and all the time, more than the really powerful NPCs can handle.

The history is rich but in a way that lets you slip in your own stories when you want to.

Its amazingly versitile. I have never found a setting that has so much variation that you can put almost any published module or monster in it with little or no modification:

Iron Kingdoms? There is Lantan and the smiths of Gond. Keep on the Borderlands? There is the Borderkingdoms. Banewarrens? Stick it in the east. Freeport? The pirate Isles and the sea south of Chult. Abysthor? Tell me you cant replace Thyr and Muir with Tyr and Helm? Hollowfaust? Try the Smoking mountains of Unther. Burok Torn? Pick a mountain range in the southeast...

If somthin don fit, put iton the planes! Plenty of room in dem der outlands!

Conversely the worst Campaign setting is a tossup.

Its either-

Dragonlance just cause the interesting part is very stuffy for a campaign world and whats bigger than saving the world. Talk about outshining the PCs! Sheesh! Great story though...

-or-

Middle 2E Forgotten Realms (faerun only) right after the time of troubles. God, talk about a bad marketing decision... Even Ed Greenwood agrees...

Aaron.

 

[Eosin the Red]

Best setting ---- Birthright, distant 2nd place is KoK.


Worst ----- Never did get into Planscape or Jakandor. Actually, never got into 2E.

 

[arwink]

Best - Planescape. Stylistically it appealed to me, and I'm very into weird fantasy that makes me go "what?" Also have a thing for politics in settings, so it won me over even though I wanted to hate it.

Worst - Darksun. Conceptually, it seemed cool. Then I played it, and everyone went insane with hardcore twinkery that left a very, very bad taste in my mouth. I know it wasn't the settings fault so much as the DM and the players but the impression lasted.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Hey, I want The Song of Fire and Ice to be the best setting ever, any word on when that article when will hit shelves?