does anyone out there use the kingdoms of Kalamar setting?

[Mark Plemmons]

Kalamar seems like a lower magic world because it is written like one. There are no magic portals.

As much as I like Sayburr, I have to make a minor correction.

Magic portals do exist, but not nearly to the extent that they can be found in the Forgotten Realms. They're very rare.

The most prominent are the elemental points of contact, certain geographical locations rumored to dimensionally overlap the elemental planes. The highest peak of the Elenon Mountains is reportedly in contact with the elemental plane of air. Spots in the ocean coexist with the elemental plane of water (though these latter connections are tenuous and last only weeks). Portals to the planes of fire and earth are also reported to exist on Tellene.

 

[MerakSpielman]

True 'nuff, but I scrapped the standard D&D multiverse for my Kalamar campaign, and made up one that I thought fit Kalamar better.

 

[shady]

I read some very good reviews on this site of KoK and resolved to get hold of some of the material. This was about the time that Villain Design Handbook got published, and I'm a sucker for "GM advice" books, so in fact I bought that before any setting stuff.

VDH is one of the worst 3E books I've bought. Let me qualify that ... it has the usual prestige class, spells, monsters, etc. padding, but if you are looking for the stuff it says it does on the back of the book, around evil character design, then that material is very weak indeed.

OK, I thought, wrong book. I bought the KoK core book (more money than sense). Now, this book turns out to be very dense with information, but as a setting I frankly found it uninspiring. You can (as I've heard others say) mine it for stuff, and it very likely ports well to your own campaign, basically because the overall setting is fairly shallow when it comes to context. Someone then told me that I really needed the Kalamar players handbook (or whatever it is) AND the core book to understand the setting. At this point I made my excuses and left.

I own core books from the following settings - Forgotten Realms, Scarred Lands, Arcana Unearthed, Iron Kingdoms (I'm counting Monsternomicon/Lock&Load as core), Harn (and, stepping outside D20, ShadowWorld, Runequest, Tekumel). I'd say all of them are more interesting settings than KoK. Those people wanting to compare realism between Harn and KoK - sorry but Harn wins hands down.

For those people who say FR is "unrealistic" in fantasy terms, well yes, but I do think FR has a strong identity that comes over well in the core setting book. People who buy that book have a certain expectation as to what they are going to get, and I don't believe they would come away unsatisfied.

I do find myself occasionally pulling KoK entries for my own custom campaigns, but I wouldn't miss it if it wasn't there. I'd grant some people seem to really like it. My general take was that I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

My general take was that I wouldn't recommend it.

Sorry to hear that. But, of course, not everyone likes the same things. That's to be expected. I find it's mostly just a matter of taste. For instance:

VDH is one of the worst 3E books I've bought. Let me qualify that ... it has the usual prestige class, spells, monsters, etc. padding, but if you are looking for the stuff it says it does on the back of the book, around evil character design, then that material is very weak indeed. .

Wow - most of the reviews/feedback I've gotten really liked the villain psychology sections the most.

Someone then told me that I really needed the Kalamar players handbook (or whatever it is) AND the core book to understand the setting. At this point I made my excuses and left.

The KoK Player's Guide DOES help if you're looking to design very setting-specific characters, but the only necessary book is the campaign setting itself. From there, you can take it wherever you want.