ever run a campaign on a real-world map?

[GrumpyOldMan]

Yup.

Interesting, but why did you move the Orkneys and the Shetlands to be east of the Firth of Forth and the Moray Firth respectively?

 

[sckeener]

I've done this many times usually for modern games or for Ars Magica.

It is good as long as the players understand that the GM can change anything that is there. It is the old issue of what happens when the players know more about the topic than the GM. I've had some players that were wonderful about looking up information about the regions (Ars Magica), but their method of sharing that info with me (GM) was to surprise me with it. Not a good way to get me to include it....

 

[orcmonk220]

Yup.

Good choice. Fantastic country for Western Heartland-esque settings (I know, it's most likely modelled on rural Blighty, but still...)

I've always been tempted to run a campaign across Europe. Maybe even set up World War 1 with Orcs.

 

[Desdichado]

I've done it, yeah. My current homebrew, which is undergoing an upgrade of sorts while I take a turn in the player's chair, has it's geography largely based on the Taklamakan Desert and the Silk Road. However, although I know which of my fantasy ethnicities correspond to Romans, Persians, Saka, Sogdians, Huns, Chinese, etc. my players do not, and the correspondences (other than geographical location) are not obvious.

 

[Stormborn]

I helped another GM prepare a setting which we played in briefly that was based on the South Eastern US. There was once an advanced magical society that ruled the Gulf Coast from the keys all the way to the Yucatan Peninsula before an ancient black dragon and a corrupt circle of druids destoyed the capitol located on the real world's Moblie Bay and turned all of Lower Alabama and Miss into a vast swamp called the Despair of the Dragon. The PCs started a few hundred years later in a remnant of that culture living in the Appalachian foothills. Their nation had been annexed by another more millateristic one located in N. GA and S. Carolina.

I played one of the few remaining members of the order of Paladins that were dedicated to defending the walls of the fallen capitol, reviled for dedication to taking the city back from the dragon at the expense of not fighting to protect the nation from the invaders.
You can read some of Fideous' story here under the Player section

 

[hagor]

Lately, I've been toying with the idea of using Europe (in particular the Mediterranean Area) during the Roman age as the background for a campaign.

Pro's: the roman age is fairly well known, but remains on the border line of myth and history (so it's easy to incorporate monsters, magic, ...); the area is well known (you can use real maps); you have the interaction with all kinds of cultures, etc

This is just an idea for the moment (and given my limited amount of free time will probably never be fully developed): I have no idea where to put the different races, or to use early or late roman age, ...

Hagor

 

[TerraDave]

Yes

(Signature: World of: Maps of)

 

[CanadienneBacon]

Interesting, but why did you move the Orkneys and the Shetlands to be east of the Firth of Forth and the Moray Firth respectively?

The answer is simple but disappointing. I was working on a piece of paper 8.5 x 11 inches, doing a transfer from another map. The isles wouldn't fit onto my 8.5 x 11 paper in their natural position, so I shifted them east, where they would fit.

I also use Europe's landmass and the northern section of Africa for the rest of the campaign world. Completely renamed and recultured everything with tidbits stolen and hoarded over the years from a milleu of sources. Though, the folk on the island above (Edaesmyd) refer to that part of the world as, what else, The Continent. Yeah, I'm shameless.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Honestly, I've never used Earth for D&D games, other than the occassional hapless human being dragged from Earth to a fantasy world.

Then again, I think the big reason why I don't use an alternate Earth is because of the baggage of it all. I can't really implement "this is how things are" without clashing against player expectations. And, sometimes, despite how many times you explain it, it just doesn't sink in (even in cases with a non-Earth setting using ideas with a fixed Earth analog, like samurai or ninja). Tends to be highly frustrating for me.

FR and the Warhammer Fantasy setting work fine for Earth-analogs, but that's not really what I'm keen about.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Other than games set in the real world, Earthdawn.

If you get the Throal sourcebook, they have a map of the Throal empire, including Barsaive. Yeah. It's Europe.