Favorite Third-Party Settings

[Ceresco]

Arcanis: the World of Shattered Empires, refered to as "the thinking man's D&D."

It’s like the end of the world.

In the north, the nation of Canceri begins to buckle from the weight of the theocracy’s oppressive rule- most pray for death, and the rest, for deliverance.

Enemies gather round the proud nation of Milandir, each eager to pull down its bright towers and humble it’s defenders. Fear gnaws at Milandir’s people, and they begin to lose hope.

To the south, the once mighty Coryani Empire sleeps under an indifferent ruler, while it’s greatest general bides his time, waiting to seize the throne for his own noble house. The Imperial Court looks on like a flock of carrion crows, ready to pick apart the corpse of the land.

The besieged Patriarch of Coryan works tirelessly to reconcile the beliefs of a dozen splinter sects, each one warring upon the others and poised to tear down the Mother Church itself. Everywhere the speakers for the gods look heavenward for guidance, and hear nothing… but silence.

The scions of the great noble houses harken to the blood of the ancient Valinor in their veins, blood that bids them to serve the gods by ruling the rest of humanity. Plots born from an ancient treachery begins to reach fruition in the present machinations of emperors and kings.

All over the continent of Onara, strife threatens to tear the nations of man apart.

It’s like the end of the world…

…And the beginning of a new.

Welcome to Arcanis, the World of Shattered Empires

Arcanis is a world of high fantasy, intrigue and suspense. Diplomacy, skill, and discretion will carry you as far or farther than skill at arms or in the arts of magic. Heroes come in a myriad of forms. Some are fantastic beings born with the blood of Valinor or the souls of elementals. Others are descendents of Celestial Giants who once roamed the stars as freely as a fish swims the sea. Many of the greatest heroes of Arcanis are simple mortals of mundane blood but lofty ideals. It is a world of heroes who stand between the common folk and destruction. You can be that hero. The power is in your hands; leave your mark upon the Shattered Empires.

Used with the express permission of Paradigm Concepts, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright Paradigm Concepts, Inc 2002, 2004

 

[Aus_Snow]

Arcanis: the World of Shattered Empires, refered to as "the thinking man's D&D."

But not the spelling man's, eh?

j/k

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I'll second Arcana Evolved and the Diamond Throne setting. I love that setting. Like Ptolus, it accounts for the standard tropes of the core rules. I remember the DT gazetter caused a bit of an uproar because it was so sparse. I think people wanted something with a lot more detail. Truth be told, I could've used a little more myself, but it left a lot of DM wiggle room, which was really the whole point of Arcana Evolved anyway.

 

[Yair]

I enjoyed playing in Murchad's Legacy, a vanilla setting available in PDF. It's basically just a nice vanilla setting, with some interesting politics and an ongoing orc-human war.

I'm not really familiar with (non-standard) other settings, but the ones I'm interested in are Oathbound (a world where high levels PCs are taken to - to be played by mysterious super-powerful entities for their own aims), Midnight (already mentioned), and Birthright (a wonderful setting, full of political depth and interesting ideas, but I never did manages to plot a game involving both PC and regent levels). Of these, I think I'll add some about Birthright.

Birthright: World availabe as old WotC scanned PDFs, fairly cheap but of poor quality, or by ebay etc. AD&D, but with a 3e (free) conversion. The setting revolves around the aftermath of a great war, where the evil god physically battled with the good ones ending in their mutual destruction and the spreading of their divinity amidst the surviving mortals that fought by their side. Those infused with divine power gain more by killing others immortal-style, or by the devotion, obedience, and so on of the multitudes - or tapping into the divine power of nature. Thus the powerful people in the world are those with divine blood, and they scheme to increase their worldly influence (or, for wizards, maintain the sanctity of nature) and occasionally kill each other to gain more power. Add to this an empire in ruins with the high nobility squabbling over the inheritance, a parellel shadow world of dreams still dominated by the nightmare of the fallen dark god, and a lavishly detailed description of the world - and you've got what I hold to be one of the best settings out there.

My only regret is that I seem unable to combine the political with the PC level of play, despite several attempts, and that the poliical level is rather wargamish (which I don't enjoy).

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

Wilderlands -- just flat out flexibility. Of all the settings I have played in this one always gave me the feel of vast openness like no other.

Scarn -- very unconventional IMO and that is the real draw for me.

 

[Hussar]

Whoa, 15 posts to get some Scarred Lands loving? Nightfall is slipping. Or sleeping. One or the other.

But, I would like to second that one. While I have some issues with the mechanics of SL, and much of the mechanics are 3.0, the fluff end of things is fantastic.

 

[grimwell]

Blackmoor
Vanilla setting, yet not vanilla all the same. Has a good backstory that gives a GM plenty of plot seeds to take a campaign in many directions (one at a time, or all at once!). Civilized enough to justify standard levels of technology and magic that you find in the DMG, and wild enough to have plenty of green space for players to carve their own path. Feels super old school since it has roots to the earliest of days, yet not to the point where it's only good for dungeon crawls.

Blackmoor was my Gen Con campaign setting. I went in knowing I'd buy one and this is the one I found the most promise (for my tastes) in.

Also, the MMRPG (Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game), has well over 38 modules that you can download and run 'home games' for -- so there is plenty of 'campaign in a box' value just from the website if you want to run a 'living' setting, or if you just want to use the mods for your friends for fun...

 

[Psion]

Scarred Lands - Epic in scope, but not in a "we use teleport spells to keep the sewers flowing" sort of way. In Scarn, there is a feel of looming threat and dangerous magic. Has two "setting" features that really jazz me up: 1) it's not always good vs. evil. Sometimes your greatest ally against the great evil of the titans is the more traditional evil of followers of dark gods. 2) The background makes certain D&D conventions make sense, like why clerics are different than druids.

Oathbound - High power setting with a "survival fantasy" sort of feel to it. The world is a prison for a God. The god's followers are doomed to guard his prison, and preside over seven distinct territories.

Second World Sourcebook - Setting that merges modern fantasy with D&D. Second World is a fantasy mirror of earth. Earth as we know it exists, but those who become touched by magic are drawn into the second world. A great setting because it has a fresh spin on the metasetting, and it makes modern conventions in D&D make sense. And if you are inclined to do so (i.e., make a character who can use tech in second world), you can make modern firearms work in a fantasy setting.

 

[Ceresco]

But not the spelling man's, eh?

j/k

No offense taken, my vocabulary far out strips my ability to spell.

I also can't remember a string of numbers more than 4 digits long.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Yeah, see the link in my sig too.....