Campaign World Preferences

[Cyri'kazzen]

Hi all,

I am new to this site and wanted to ask a question that I am sure has been brought up in the past. What are everyone's preferences in terms of published campaign worlds?

Currently, I am working on a campaign in the Realms, but having DMed/played there for awhile I have begun to wonder about some of the other settings out there. Namely, what the settings are all about and why people enjoy them. Instead of purchasing a particular setting, I was hoping you all could provide some insight into them. If you could tell me about the settings you DM in or point me to some information about them, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks. Also if this is not the place to post a request of this nature, I apologize in advance.

 

[Jeph]

My favorite published campaign world?

Easy. Homebrew.

-Jeph

 

[NLP]

Scarred Lands Baby!

I started out in Greyhawk and used that for a number of years. After the Forgotten Realms came out I decided to use a homebrew and stuck with that. Over the last year I have been using the Scarred Lands material and I have been quite pleased with it.

SL is both simple and complex. You can add as much as you want to make it your own world, or use as much as you want to keep it as close to core as possible. There are a couple of novels out to help add flavor and the fact that it is supported on a regular basis only makes it better.

My second choice would be Kalamar. I have always liked the world, but it has always felt like Greyhawk to me. The Gods are similar, the cultures are similar. The 3E version helps to change that, but it is hard to get over the fact that I used a lot of Kalamar material in my Greyhawk campaigns over the years.

That being said though, I think there are darn few companies that put out as good material as Kenzer does. The Kalamar material is all top notch, and easily usable in any game world.

 

[Deedlit]

My first choice would be lodoss. An epic anime feel, mixed with areas that are so purely something, they might as well be other planes, and villains as memorable as Karla, all on a single small island, so wars are inevitable. My second on the other hand would be planescape, for it encompasses so many interesting things, and it is so fun to tour the planes, and it can throw any party to their needs, and forces roleplaying for that reason.

 

[Nightfall]

Glad you like the Scarred Land NLP. Hopefully the Players Guides for the Scarred Lands WILL be of interest to you.

Oh and I dare you to guess.

 

[Psion]

Homebrew, bay-bee!

Of the published stuff, I like Scarred Lands the best, though Oathbound is looking interesting as well.

Even if you aren't ambitious enough to do your own homebrew, there are tons of "bits-n-pieces" of settings out there in books like Freeport, Bluffside, Book of the Righteous, AEG's Mercenaries, and so forth that putting together an interesting kitbash world could be pretty interesting.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Easy. Homebrew.

I agree- I have yet to see a published campeign that inspires me to play in their sandbox.

I prefer the plug&play bits, such as the ones Psion referred to, I can throw into my sandbox.

FD

 

[drquestion]

Scarred Lands is the best setting I've seen with the standard "medieval world" feel about it - not that SL is unoriginal or generic, but that it presents something like what one normally expects from a fantasy campaign setting.

For something with a little bit of a different feel, Oathbound is great.

Of course, homebrew also has its merits, but not everyone has the time or the inclination to do this.

 

[Henry]

In the new category, Freeport from Green Ronin games is an excellent setting, incorporating swashbuckling, city adventures, wilderness adventures, and Lovecraftian Horror all within the same setting. It is a very dynamic setting that I may wind up using soon.

In terms of older D&D settings, Dark Sun (now being offered in 3E style by www.athas.org) is an excellent setting. Dark Sun is great to me because it took every single D&D convention and turned it on its ear. It is an apocalyptic setting, but very high-powered and fun for both players and DM's.

The Dark Sun core boxed set can be found at the ESD Downloads at www.svgames.com .

 

[seasong]

Homebrew. I buy setting books to see what other people have done, and to maybe steal their best ideas .