Campaign Settings...

[Nessin]

Is there anywhere to find some detailed summaries of third-party campaign settings? Mainly I'm looking for Midnight, Arcana Unearthed - Daimond Throne, and Oathbound (well, and the Slavelords of Cydonia when it comes out). My problem is with the Wizards of the Coast stuff, I can easily go to a bookstore or one of the local game shops, and check out the books on the shellf. No one in my area stocks the third-party campaign settings though, so I'm stuck without that option for those. I've been looking through the reviews here, and on several other sites, but they don't help much in describing the campaign setting as rating the book (which is fine, that's what they're supposed to do, but I'm looking for more detail).

 

[Crothian]

you should be able to read about most of them through the review database

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Monte Cook's website and www.diamondthrone.com both have GREAT stuff for AU. The Second Coming stories on DT are fun. Both sites link to the Malhavoc forums; another great AU info source.

 

[Ghostwind]

Oathbound information is available at www.oathbound.net and Bastion has a sale that only lasts for another 24 hours or so in which the Oathbound hardcover is only $10 and nearly every other Bastion product $5.00. You can't lose with that kind of deal...

 

[Pants]

you should be able to read about most of them through the review database

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php

*cough*

I've been looking through the reviews here, and on several other sites, but they don't help much in describing the campaign setting as rating the book (which is fine, that's what they're supposed to do, but I'm looking for more detail).

Well, I know many other members can give you a more detailed rundown on the various CS's, but I'll try my best:
Iron Kingdoms by Privateer Press - My personal favorite out of the 3rd party ones. A steam-industrial world with guns, war, and magitech style elements (steam powered golem-things). Very grim-n-gritty, throws out a lot of the standard D&D tropes (such as the planes of existence), magic is generally much lower in power with healing magic very difficult and often dangerous to perform. Raising from the dead is almost impossible. Very cool setting, even if I'm not a big fan of how some of the rules are handled.

Scarred Lands by Sword and Sorcery Studios - A very popular setting that has just gone under. Has a lot of product support for it (too much, some may claim). The basic premise is that the titans battled the gods and lost. In the process, the world was, well, scarred and the surviving races struggle to eke out an existence in the very changed world. Grimmer than standard D&D, but has most of the standard tropes.

Midnight by Fantasy Flight Games - Think of Midnight this way. Imagine if Sauron had won the war in Lord of the Rings and you pretty much have Midnight. Much lower in magical power than standard D&D, less heroic (IMO) and more of a struggle to survive in a dangerous world, and, of course, very dark. Very cool setting, even if I don't actually own the book. I'm cheap

Diamond Throne by Malhavoc - Truth be known, all I know of this setting is that it's the setting behind Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. Pretty much rebuilds a lot of the rules surrounding D&D while still managing to stay d20.

Oathbound - I know exactly jack-squat about it.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Iron Kingdoms kicks much arse. It is by FAR my favorite of the settings out now, though I doubt I'll ever get to play in a good IK game.

 

[Emiricol]

You can get a lot of great info on midnight at the fan site (www.againsttheshadow.org). I have a Midnight story hour called Of Fey and Shadow here in the Story Hour forums,and it is copied over at the fan site as well. It is not precisely Tolkein, but that is a heavy inspiration. It is dark and gritty - that may be your thing, but it might not.

 

[Nessin]

*cough*



Well, I know many other members can give you a more detailed rundown on the various CS's, but I'll try my best:
Iron Kingdoms by Privateer Press - My personal favorite out of the 3rd party ones. A steam-industrial world with guns, war, and magitech style elements (steam powered golem-things). Very grim-n-gritty, throws out a lot of the standard D&D tropes (such as the planes of existence), magic is generally much lower in power with healing magic very difficult and often dangerous to perform. Raising from the dead is almost impossible. Very cool setting, even if I'm not a big fan of how some of the rules are handled.

Scarred Lands by Sword and Sorcery Studios - A very popular setting that has just gone under. Has a lot of product support for it (too much, some may claim). The basic premise is that the titans battled the gods and lost. In the process, the world was, well, scarred and the surviving races struggle to eke out an existence in the very changed world. Grimmer than standard D&D, but has most of the standard tropes.

Midnight by Fantasy Flight Games - Think of Midnight this way. Imagine if Sauron had won the war in Lord of the Rings and you pretty much have Midnight. Much lower in magical power than standard D&D, less heroic (IMO) and more of a struggle to survive in a dangerous world, and, of course, very dark. Very cool setting, even if I don't actually own the book. I'm cheap

Diamond Throne by Malhavoc - Truth be known, all I know of this setting is that it's the setting behind Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. Pretty much rebuilds a lot of the rules surrounding D&D while still managing to stay d20.

Oathbound - I know exactly jack-squat about it.

I considered Scarred Lands, but dismissed it because it was recently dropped.

I actually forgot I dropped Oathbound from consideration as well, because it's very high-magic from what everyone says. I can barely stand magic in D20, and only tolerate it because no one else in the area plays anything but D20, and if I go for online games, it's hard to find much else besides D20. So I look for Low-magic if possible.

Midnight, from what I've read, would be cool, but from what I've read I seriously doubt I could successfully play a character in the setting, let alone GM. I'm not much for the good/evil focus. But I was hoping to find some more information because I like the general concept and the low-magic aspect.

Iron Kingdoms isn't even in the running because as soon as it's 3.5 upgraded, I'm all over it. Not too long ago I decided to invest in a single miniatures game, and in my area it was almost entire Warhammer, with a minor following of Warmachine. One quick look at Warhammer almost made me retch (how can people stand to play that game, it's ridiculous in both rules and cost (And by cost I'm refering to value of product for value of money, all miniatures games are expensive, but for the same price of a Games Workshop unit of plastic models, you can get several pewter units in just about any other system)). So I picked up Warmachine, and I love it, and most of the players in the area who play Warmachine also play D&D, so it fits.

Daimond Throne is something I'm considering loosely because it's supposed to be fairly high magic, but I like Cook's Arcana Unearthed book, and plan on picking it up just for some of the variant rules, so I figured I'd look into the setting for it as well.

The other setting I'm really looking into is Eberron, which doesn't look half bad. 50% of my problem with D&D magic is simply fluff value in that the whole concept behind the very core of D&D (outside of all settings, even Homebrew) is that magic exists, and is used fairly regularly. However, despite that fact, both the system and the entire fluff behind it seem to contradict that fact. In Eberron at least Mr. Baker recognized that if magic is so common, and used daily, than it stands to reason that magic would have been used to improve the quality of life around the people (such as the bonding of Elementals, the fact that you'll find more lanterns with Continual flame that actual torches, so on and so forth).

I wish Slavelords of Cydonia was out, because I'm not sure I can wait for it, I'm definitely getting Grim Tales because I like the low-magic variant, but patience is not a virtue for me!

 

[Nightfall]

Pants,

[sarcasm] You really know how to sell a setting don't you? [/sarcasm]




Just because a setting has stopped putting out more books doesn't mean it's still not damn useful! Fact is there might be a chance it comes back (Yes I'm spearheading the revival but it's gonna a take a while.)

In any event, my reasons you should run Scarred Lands:

Magic might be a little high, but the characters STILL need to rely more on their own skills and abilities to survive. (I know I've had to modify a little to increase this factor but its become a fairly common/accepted way in some SL circles when handling Character creation, in terms making no magic items for sale, and finding them/getting/keeping them more important than tossing them aside.)

Druids aren't nature clerics! (Very important in my mind)

The gods are way more active and have cohesiveness than some settings. (Not to mention a N god of death/dead. Yeah Nemorga! )

Rangers can now do more outside since we have enviroments that make what happened to Cyre looks petty by comparison. (Hey you have guy like Thulkas stomp around and see how much life sticks around. Well him or Chern. Both are favorites. )

Sorcerers aren't always dragon blooded! Yeah titans!

And yes, the Titans. The ultimate bad asses.

Blood Sea. It's really a sea of blood!

Anyway that's my SL support for the start of 2005.

If you do want low magic and gritty, Midnight's a good option.

I would say if want AU, wait for AE (Arcana Evovled) The return of the Dragons has me pretty stoked.

But what I think you should REALLY do is this: Play in my mIRC Scarred Lands game. You'll not be dissappointed.

Well so far no one has been. I could be wrong...

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Iron Kingdoms isn't even in the running because as soon as it's 3.5 upgraded, I'm all over it.

It already is! The IKCG's been out for a while now, and it's 3.5

AU is definately worth it, but I agree the waiting for AE would be good. Except for the Parry Magic ability, unfettered work wonderfully in IK.