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<blockquote data-quote="Greg Benage" data-source="post: 6695997" data-attributes="member: 93631">I liked (and still do) the 1st edition campaign setting. The gray box, FR1 and FR5 make for a good vanilla D&amp;D sandbox* setting. Compared to Greyhawk, FR struck me at the time as the first published campaign world that seemed to have been designed as a world for D&amp;D campaigns, rather than a setting for fantasy wargames or high-level &quot;domain&quot; play. I felt the same about the Mystara gazetteers that started coming out about the same time. Greyhawk with its thirty-mile hexes, focus on state politics and army rosters, etc., was never particularly inspiring for me as a D&amp;D world. The Forgotten Realms, as presented in the late 80s, felt like a world where D&amp;D adventures** happened.* Meaning no metaplot (yet) baked into the setting. It's a big world with lots of ruins and wild places.** At least a certain kind of D&amp;D adventure, specifically the heroic fantasy we-fight-evil-because-we're-the-good-guys adventures that had mostly already supplanted the more &quot;murder-hobo&quot; (in the good sense) treasure-seeking adventure style of the earlier (A)D&amp;D modules. But if you want to run a mission-based, heroic fantasy campaign, you can do a lot worse than the Sword Coast circa gray box, FR1 and FR5.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Greg Benage, post: 6695997, member: 93631"] I liked (and still do) the 1st edition campaign setting. The gray box, FR1 and FR5 make for a good vanilla D&D sandbox* setting. Compared to Greyhawk, FR struck me at the time as the first published campaign world that seemed to have been designed as a world for D&D campaigns, rather than a setting for fantasy wargames or high-level "domain" play. I felt the same about the Mystara gazetteers that started coming out about the same time. Greyhawk with its thirty-mile hexes, focus on state politics and army rosters, etc., was never particularly inspiring for me as a D&D world. The Forgotten Realms, as presented in the late 80s, felt like a world where D&D adventures** happened. * Meaning no metaplot (yet) baked into the setting. It's a big world with lots of ruins and wild places. ** At least a certain kind of D&D adventure, specifically the heroic fantasy we-fight-evil-because-we're-the-good-guys adventures that had mostly already supplanted the more "murder-hobo" (in the good sense) treasure-seeking adventure style of the earlier (A)D&D modules. But if you want to run a mission-based, heroic fantasy campaign, you can do a lot worse than the Sword Coast circa gray box, FR1 and FR5. [/QUOTE]

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