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Best NonWOTC Campaign setting?
- Thread starter Zakter
- Start date
You and theives world Crothy. I swear. 
Treebore
First Post
The problem is, Rokugan/Oriental Adventures, Ravenloft, oathbound, Scarred Lands, Kalamar, Wilderlands, Midnight, and Erde (not previously mentioned, by troll lord Games) can all be fun. Just depends on what strikes your fancy and how well you run it. i am sure even the ones i am not familiar with can be fun as well. Any campaign world can be fun. you just have to read up on them as best you can and make up your own mind as to what will suite you best.
Heck, i even had fun with Dungeonworld.
Heck, i even had fun with Dungeonworld.
Derulbaskul
Adventurer
1. Midnight for grim'n'gritty.
2. Dawnforge for high fantasy.
3. Oathbound for experimental games.
Oh, and Dragonstar looks good too but I have yet to run it.
Hmmm, FFG certainly seems to be well represented....
2. Dawnforge for high fantasy.
3. Oathbound for experimental games.
Oh, and Dragonstar looks good too but I have yet to run it.
Hmmm, FFG certainly seems to be well represented....
Coreyartus
Explorer
For my money, it's Kalamar. There are SO MANY options out there, you have to be careful what you pick and choose--and Kalamar seems to be a well supported, clear, interesting, and thorough setting.
It's growing expansively--catching up on the sourcebooks and mods for the setting may be an expensive proposition, but then again (like all RPG settings) you simply use what you want and incorporate the new stuff when you want to, IF you want to, at your convenience. All your players really need is to share a Player's Guide and then you can pick up a Campaign Setting Sourcebook. And there's a Living Campaign version to boot.
If you like political intrigue, interesting backstory, and an expansive world with lots of potential for cultural diversification, Kalamar is a good bet. It doesn't rely upon a lot of new races or changed rules to flesh out it's distinctiveness--it's a darker & grittier version of Greyhawk, without the reality-stretching too-high fantasy of Forgotten Realms. Option of psionics, interesting and sufficiently different (but not too different!) new class options, and a wide variety of intriguing equipment. And there's enough that you can start small (in a variety of well defined geographic areas with their own cultural spin) without having to be a globe-trotter to taste what the setting has to offer.
My to cents.
Coreyartus
It's growing expansively--catching up on the sourcebooks and mods for the setting may be an expensive proposition, but then again (like all RPG settings) you simply use what you want and incorporate the new stuff when you want to, IF you want to, at your convenience. All your players really need is to share a Player's Guide and then you can pick up a Campaign Setting Sourcebook. And there's a Living Campaign version to boot.
If you like political intrigue, interesting backstory, and an expansive world with lots of potential for cultural diversification, Kalamar is a good bet. It doesn't rely upon a lot of new races or changed rules to flesh out it's distinctiveness--it's a darker & grittier version of Greyhawk, without the reality-stretching too-high fantasy of Forgotten Realms. Option of psionics, interesting and sufficiently different (but not too different!) new class options, and a wide variety of intriguing equipment. And there's enough that you can start small (in a variety of well defined geographic areas with their own cultural spin) without having to be a globe-trotter to taste what the setting has to offer.
My to cents.
Coreyartus
Try a little Omega World from Dungeon/Polyhedron #94.
Judge Dredd is great for a different falvor of D&D. There are only 4 modules in print, but it's enough for a good adventure series.
DragonStar is also a great setting idea. Raw Recruits is a good adventure (or mini-campaign).
Otherwise, for D&D the Shackled City Adventure Path from Dungeon looks great.
Judge Dredd is great for a different falvor of D&D. There are only 4 modules in print, but it's enough for a good adventure series.
DragonStar is also a great setting idea. Raw Recruits is a good adventure (or mini-campaign).
Otherwise, for D&D the Shackled City Adventure Path from Dungeon looks great.
Elder-Basilisk
First Post
I've never been interested in Midnight, but I've played in Arcanis for a while and I really like it. It diverges far enough from ordinary D&D to feel different and unique but not so far that you lose your bearings. Dwarves for instance, manage to be different from standard D&D dwarves and still feel dwarvish. The Coryani empire and Milandesia are familiar enough to be understandable and convincing cultures but are different enough that magic doesn't feel out of place and that there's a point to playing a campaign in Coryan rather than Rome.
There's room for hope, despair, honor, faith, impiety, obligation, and honor. (That's not true of all settings--standard D&D (Greyhawk, FR) doesn't do honor or despair particularly well and settings like Midnight don't seem like they handle hope, honor, or faith very well). There's also a very nice balance between global conflict and consequences (for example, a dwarf satisfying the bargain of Sarish, retreiving the lost city of dwarves from the Isle of the Sorceror King, returning the Sword of the Heavens to the world, etc), midscale campaigns (General Menisis's campaign to retrieve the Val'tensen lands from Milandesia for Coryan, the decadence of Emperor Calcestus leading to either the fall of the Coryani Empire or its transformation into tyranny, or leading Menisis to turn his legions around and march on Coryan), or small-scale, local campaigns (the harvesters have kidnapped someone and he needs rescuing/there's a forbidden, heretical cult of Larissa that needs to be dealt with, etc).
There's room for hope, despair, honor, faith, impiety, obligation, and honor. (That's not true of all settings--standard D&D (Greyhawk, FR) doesn't do honor or despair particularly well and settings like Midnight don't seem like they handle hope, honor, or faith very well). There's also a very nice balance between global conflict and consequences (for example, a dwarf satisfying the bargain of Sarish, retreiving the lost city of dwarves from the Isle of the Sorceror King, returning the Sword of the Heavens to the world, etc), midscale campaigns (General Menisis's campaign to retrieve the Val'tensen lands from Milandesia for Coryan, the decadence of Emperor Calcestus leading to either the fall of the Coryani Empire or its transformation into tyranny, or leading Menisis to turn his legions around and march on Coryan), or small-scale, local campaigns (the harvesters have kidnapped someone and he needs rescuing/there's a forbidden, heretical cult of Larissa that needs to be dealt with, etc).
Gothmog said:
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