Best d20 Setting?

[Daniel Knight]

Voted Homebrew. Let's face it, I'm free to do what I like. The players (if they’re able) or me (if I’m inclined) can start wars, kill kings, or even wipe out entire continents without having to worry about official materiel contradicting it later on. It’s also the only place that has everything I like, and nothing I don’t. Rather handy in the big scheme of things really. Freedom to develop and express without the restraints of someone else’s work, who doesn’t know me or my gaming group.

 

[Renshai]

FR

usual Arcady, you can’t point out the good things about Kingdoms of Kalamar without taking your time to “try” and point out things you dislike about the Forgotten Realms. Now, Kingdoms of Kalamar is great. I love the setting. I own every book they have put out to date. Why can’t simply point out its strong points? Oh that’s right, I forgot. You have never been able to stop yourself from trying to belittle the Forgotten Realms, the people who enjoy it, or the people that created it.

Silly geography that makes NO sense.

The geography is the direct result major cataclysmic events that reshaped the land when Evermeet was formed. A fact you probably were not aware of because you didn’t take the time to find out facts before bad mouthing it.

Uber author-sex-fantasy-alter-ego NPCs.

Oh, yeah. Good reason to not like an entire setting. The Chosen, Elminster, and all the other powerful characters were NOT Greenwood’s characters. And what is wrong with having a story or character driven by sex? It happens to be a big part of life… How this makes an entire game setting less palatable is beyond me.

Silly oversized inconsistant pantheons.

In a fantasy setting where gods are made by heroic or diabolical acts and destroyed by the actions of other divine kin things may be a little different from what you learned about in some Mythology book. You try and apply what “you” deem to be consistent. From what I know about you, your world tends to be very low magic and “realistic”. That is what you enjoy, and that is great for you. Kingdoms of Kalamar tends to fall into your ideal paradigm… that’s great too. Why not judge them on their own merits and leave the FR bashing aside.?

No ethnographic cohession.

The very fact that you include this as something you are looking for makes me laugh. If it is truly important for your game to have this, then by all means run in a setting that fits your needs. But when my players are exploring the depths of a Netheril Ruin for the first time, or putting and end to the Zhentarim Spy that plagued them for a year, ethnographic cohesion tend not to cloud the fun we are having.

No logic to it's historical patterns.

What logic would that be? Worlds where entire civilizations of people can be moved by way of Gates is going to be a bit different from a world where this either isn’t available, or hasn’t happened yet. Either way, it is fantasy. Fantasy and magic. Two things that are persistent in D&D the last time I looked. If you think they are weak backbone upon which a world is based, perhaps you should be playing GURPs Russia…

Illogical trade routes.

See above.

Improbable status between power groups.

Ummm…. Ok?

Improbable status between humans/demihumans and 'humanoids'.

Ummm… Ok?

A meta-plot so huge it changes every DMs game every 3 months.

More house rules than you can shake a stiff kobold at

Granted, back when 1E moved over to 2E things got a big change. However, the ramifications caused by the change inspired more incredible campaigns that I have time to tell you about.

As far as house rules go? So what? Feats that are tied to the region where a character came from? I fail to see where that is a bad thing. And Prestige Classes tied to the setting? Again, I fail to see the problem.

In closing, you are a smart cat Arcady. Witty and full of a great imagination when you use it constructively. Why not give a review that builds on positive comments, rather than negative ones?

 

[Davelozzi]

Re: FR

The Chosen, Elminster, and all the other powerful characters were NOT Greenwood’s characters.

Where'd you get that idea? The Chosen (including Elminster, Blackstaff, and the Seven Sisters) and the Knights of Myth Drannor were all characters from Greenwood's campaigns, I thought. But not Drizzt and some of the others that have joined in since.

Otherwise, I agree with you that there's no need to knock down one world to hold up another.

 

[Kichwas]

Of course I never mentioned FR once in my post...

Only in my replay and only in reply to someone else calling it out and attacking it...

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I just love the old feel of Greyhawk. Looking through all the old books and reading the references to Castle Greyhawk and stuff like that is great. The 3E Greyhawk book is cool, but it could have used some better treatment, more along the lines of the FRCS. If I knew it was going to be this sparce, and that WOTC wouldn't support it much I would have just gotten the old 1e campaign set off of E-Bay, I may even have the folio around here...But anyway the book is good in terms of political activities and history of the nations so I don't knock it. I used to play a lot of FR after it came out, and of course every D&D CRPG was set there, and I just got bored with it. I don't think I'd use it again. I'd either make my own up, or get Scarred Lands or one of the third party settings.

 

[Renshai]

FR

For someone who has listened to your tirades against the Realms it was pretty easy to figure out what you were talking about. I've heard it all before.

The Chosen, and Elminsters were NPCs in Ed Greenwood's campaigns, not player characters. The Knights of Myth Drannor were/are player characters.

Ren

 

[Kichwas]

My tirades against the realms?

Perhaps you have me mixed up with someone else?

I rarely get involved in realms threads and have said both good and bad things about the FRCS book.


You misread me and then slander me with what you've misread.

Yes I do not like the setting of the Realms much. But my post above was in no way directed against any one setting. It was a list of things that I quite clearly said I have seen in nearly all settings and which I do not like and that yes; the reason I like Kalamar is that it lacks that list of flaws.

You may not like a person making a choice for a reason of distaste with the other options; but that is very much at least 50% of why I prefer Kalamar. As the 'lesser of many evils' so to say.

There are many redeeming qualties to all of the settings listed above. Even FR which you seem to falsely think I have it in for and make 'tirades' against. But with the exception of Kalamar I feel they are outweighed by their list of flaws.

 

[Gez]

Arcady, the thing that amused me was about the "oversized pantheon". Oversized, with only a handful dozen gods ? What about the Hindu pantheon, how many gods are there in it ? Or any animist "pantheon", where there is a deity for every place, every object, and every animal ?


Improbable status between humans/demihumans and 'humanoids'. I had the feeling Kalamar had this problem, since it seems only Humans and Hobgoblins matter in that world, leaving no room to dwarves, elves, gnomes, goblins, halflings, kobolds, orcs...

 

[Kichwas]

Improbable status between humans/demihumans and 'humanoids'. I had the feeling Kalamar had this problem, since it seems only Humans and Hobgoblins matter in that world, leaving no room to dwarves, elves, gnomes, goblins, halflings, kobolds, orcs...

Which is not an accurate statment. The demihumans have a stronger level of influence in Kalamar than they do in most settings. You just have to read more than the table of contents of index to find it.

That points to Kalamar's greatest flaw right there: bad presentation and dry writing. It's all there in the details but more people don't read for the details, they just skim the surface for impressions.

 

[coyote6]

I'd like to like Kalamar, but . . . it just hasn't grabbed me. Whatever hooks there are haven't snagged me so far. It hasn't sparked my imagination. The gods seem flat, and nothing leapt out at me screaming "Ooh! Hey, run this campaign!"

Arcady, what about it sparks your imagination?