Best Setting Books?

[tjoneslo]

Non-D20
Rifts

I've seen Rifts mentioned almost everytime the setting-fluff discussion comes up. Unfortuantly Rifts now encompasses 50+ books at $15 each and no PDF versions. So all you people who like Rifts, please recommend one to three of the books (beyond the core book) which are the best of the setting, iconic of the ability of the setting to inspire.

 

[Roan]

I am currently running a home campaign using the Arcanis setting. I got started playing this game through Living Arcanis, but decided I liked it enough to use it for my home world. While there are quite a few fantastic supplements out for it, there are probably hundreds of fantastic modules freely available to download from the RPGA. Just requires a bit of paperwork through the RPGA. If your players would like to play their characters at a convention, then you'll have to do a little extra paperwork.

For my home campaign, I decided to run a mixture of the Living Arcanis events, a few of the published products and some of my own work. I work full-time and am going back to graduate school, so having quite a bit of the work done for me, for a minimum of $, is very nice. Should any of my home players want to play their character in an open Living Arcanis game, I can easily put together a log sheet showing their where they have gone and what they have done.

As mentioned before, the Codex Arcanis is almost all story . . . and interesting enough in it's own right just to read for enjoyment. My wife and I love to dig through discount gaming bins, so I have picked up a couple copies of many of the core rulebooks and modules for next to nothing. Once I get people hooked on the game, I give them a copy of one of the Codex so that they get even more hooked.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I've seen Rifts mentioned almost everytime the setting-fluff discussion comes up. Unfortuantly Rifts now encompasses 50+ books at $15 each and no PDF versions. So all you people who like Rifts, please recommend one to three of the books (beyond the core book) which are the best of the setting, iconic of the ability of the setting to inspire.

That's a pretty tall order. Rifts can be vastly different things for different people. For me, I would suggest: Rifts core rules, Rifts 14: New West, Rifts 21: Splynn Dimensional Market, Rifts 1: Vampire Kingdoms, and Rifts 2: Atlantis.

Kane

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I am currently running a home campaign using the Arcanis setting.

Cool!

By the way, welcome to the forums!

 

[Gothmog]

There have been five settings that when I first read them screamed "run me!" and are VERY different from their competition, due to both depth and tone.

1) Midnight- a great setting with a dark, but heroic tone. This is one of the only books I've read that while I was reading it, I could easily picture in my mind the locales and characters involved. If your players are too much into the regular D&D rut (kill, loot, rinse & repeat), they probably won't care for it much though.

2) Codex Arcanis- GTseng3 gave a really good rundown of Arcanis, so I won't repeat what he's said. This is the first D&D product I've seen that offers a complex but realistic pantheon system, where not all followers of a god are the same alignment (and in fact can be opposite alignments!). A very well thought out setting, with a rich history and unusual takes on the standard D&D races.

3) Iron Kingdoms- A really cool, somewhat dark steam-fastasy setting. The fluff in the IK books are great, the rules mechanics unfortunately are rather wonky at times.

Non-D20

4) Warhammer Fantasy Role Play- A very cool gritty, dark world based loosely on historical Earth cultures. You've got skaven (rat men), chaos cultists seeking to undermine society, witch hunters, a detailed and rich history, and no black/white hats that are common in D&D. The new 2nd edition is an incredible system, and has become my game of choice since its release.

5) Deadlands Classic- Probably the most brilliant writing and most entertaining read of any RPG I've ever seen. Deadlands mixes Westerns, pulp, and horror into a yummy blend that you just can't go wrong with. Basically at the height of the Civil War, the evil and deaths that had been wrought started a supernatural influx into the world that resulted in horrors from legend coming into the world en masse. The setting takes place 12 years later- the Civil War rages on, although on a less intense scale, the Souix and some other indian nations successfully fought off the US and hold their ancestral lands, and the Great Rail wars are on as the US, Confederacy, and independents race to be the first to build a transcontinental railroad. Hucksters use the released dark forces to work magic, men of faith perform miracless, mad scientists create devices from dream and nightmare, indian shamans commune with their ancestral spirits, and gunslingers and other riff-raff roam the West. Some of the best and most fun RPing I've ever done has been with Deadlands, and the rulebooks and regional supplements leave you gasping for more. Although the Classic line is out of print now, Deadlands Reloaded is due out anytime for the Savage Worlds system.

 

[tetsujin28]

For D&D settings, I really like a lot of the old 2e ones: Dark Sun, Birthright, Ravenloft, and Planescape.

For more modern things, Northern Crown is pretty nifty (if a bit too PC), and covers a period no rpgs have done, before. I'm using it for conversion to either GURPS or Fate, so it can be done pretty easily.

I like Eberron a lot, but it's very tied into D&D.

 

[King of Old School]

D20:

Iron Kingdoms - I'd actually get the Character Guide rather than the World Guide. For my money, the IKCG had all the stuff that made the setting come alive for me while the IKWG read like a rather dry encyclopedia (and an incomplete one, without the IKCG info).

Heavy Gear - Technically this is a non-D20 setting, but the Third Edition includes OGL conversions in all the books so I'll lump it here. It's a fascinating, detailed pseudo-hard SF world with quasi-realistic mecha, but the real draw is the political and social intrigue. For the setting, ignore the corebook and get the Terra Nova Companion (or for 1st/2nd edition, Life on Terra Nova).

Non-D20:

Blue Planet - Wonderfully immersive setting; one of the few RPG settings that actually feels like it could be a real world that real people would live in. I'd just about kill for a Spycraft 2.0 conversion...

Unknown Armies - Admittedly only for certain tastes, but if you're one of the people interested in this kind of thing (hints: you like Tim Powers novels, or David Lynch movies) there are few games better.

KoOS

 

[Ghostwind]

For d20, I really like these:
* Oathbound (same flavor and attitude that I liked with Dark Sun and Planescape)
* Iron Kingdoms
* World of Warcraft

For non-d20, these stand out:
* Blue Planet
* Warhammer Fantasy RPG
* Lord of the Rings RPG: Mines of Moria (Decipher)

 

[Trickstergod]

Am I the only one who thinks, that while it's fine and dandy for authors to pimp their work, there should be some preface about personal involvement in it?

Just saying.

Anyway - there's a number of good settings out there.

As others have stated, and I inevitably bring up in any Scarred Lands thread, Divine and the Defeated is probably the heart and soul of the Scarred Lands setting and one of the better pantheon books out there. The mechanics therein are shoddy; but if all you're interested in is the setting aspects, it's solid. Taking its cue from the Greek pantheon, it feels like the gods actually fit together rather than being the random hodge podge some settings deities are.

Midnight's also a great setting book. So long as dark and dreary's all right, Midnight's near about the best there is. A twisted take on Tolkien, it can't be recommended highly enough.

Eberron's also worth mentioning. I absolutely hated everything I heard about it in previews, but once I actually sat down and read the book I found myself proved wrong. It has more of a Renaissance fantasy feel to it than the typically more Medieval D&D, but it really is the world D&D has set up taken to a more logical conclusion. To a degree it exemplifies the d20 system, but the setting itself stands up quite well indeed.

Ravenloft also deserves mentioning. Just avoid the "3.5" Ravenloft Player's Handbook. Go for the Ravenloft Campaign Setting. They're essentially the same, but the Campaign Setting book doesn't have the screwy information plugged into the shoddy revision. Again, this is a dark setting. If that's a problem, avoid it. Where Midnight's more epic and Tolkien in nature, though, Ravenloft's more personal and closer to Shelley and Stoker.

If d20's less an issue and more D&D, 2nd edition's Planescape definitely needs recommending. Gaiman-esque, after a fashion.

 

[Ghostwind]

Am I the only one who thinks, that while it's fine and dandy for authors to pimp their work, there should be some preface about personal involvement in it?

Just saying.

I may be wrong, but I don't think a single person here has pimped a campaign setting they have personally written.