Help a returning DM pick a setting

[DragonLancer]

To run DL during that age, is the DLCS enough, or do you need Sovereign Press' Age of Mortals sourcebook?

The default setting is the Age of Mortals, post War of Souls. The Age of Mortals sourcebook is a nice addition but you can just run it with the DLCS itself.

 

[teitan]

To run DL during that age, is the DLCS enough, or do you need Sovereign Press' Age of Mortals sourcebook?

Yes and no. I recently wrote a review http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=active&reviewer=teitan&product=DCS

The review seems rather dim on the product, but I gave it a four. It doesn't have a very good geography section and is missing a full map of the continent of Ansalon (one is on the way in an upcoming Fifth Age gazetteer) which is a BIG ol' minus from me and my boys. There just doen't seem to be enough detail which is a shame considering the low page count, big ol' font of doom and the sheer amount of material they had to draw from when writing the book.

The setting is a lot friendlier to D&D gaming, but still has issues with the reliance on novels, NPCs from novels (not as Uberish as Raistlin or Goldmoon anymore though) and sweeping changes. The upcoming Key of Destiny trilogy of adventures kind of take care of the novel issue in that it is a big story that changes the face of Krynn but only helps in that you can run your own pcs (previous adventures, particularly Dragonlance Classic, required you use THEIR NPC characters like Tanis and Raistlin) and it is a grand cycle to take your players through as opposed just reading about in a book. But again, it isn't your story that affects Krynn, but theirs. I am sure you can ignore it, kind of like gaming in the post War of the Lance series gaming was quite fun, NPCs included, and that maybe KOD won't change the political climate so much as be an epic adventure...

Prices are a bit high on some of the products considering the page count, War of the Lance is going to be 224+ pages (they added to it) but costs 44.95. They are including a pull out map but the price is still HUGE for a 250 page books, full colour map or not.

I would suggest Dragonlance immensely if you are a fan, if not... stick with your favorite setting.

 

[teitan]

Kalamar was written to be useable for anything... like old Greyhawk. That's why many ex-Greyhawk players now play Kalamar... it has much more support and even beats Greyhawk in many regards.

Kalamar is a great setting, very believable except for pronunciation!!! LOL

What is REALLY great is that they aren't updating the timeline, so the world is really your own world and they publish adventures that are as much sourcebook as adventure!

Jason

 

[teitan]

My single biggest complaint is that there have been SO many novels written for it.

This hasn't been to much of a problem in my own campaign. My players mostly don't read the books outside of the gaming material and even the gaming material seems to relate things a bit differently from the novels at times (Bruenor having only 1 eye in Silver Marches) which kind of lends to creedence to the idea that the novels are stories and not necessarily the true history of the events!

I had a player that complained about some minor changes I made in Scardale Town at the beginning but I explained to him that this was my game and novels be damned! We can ignore the comics so well, why not the novels?

Jason

 

[JoeGKushner]

It's hard to tell what the best campaign setting is.

I usually use either the Scarred Lands or the Forgotten Realms. Both have a lot of products (some good, some bad and some excellent).

I think that when Iron Kingdoms by Privateer and Red Spire's books come out, we'll see some more intense competition heating up the place. In addition, there's still Warlords of the Accordlands from AEG. Not to mention Wizard's new setting.

It's a good time to be a GM in search of options but it's a bad time to be a guy like me who enjoys reading about campaign settings even when he doesn't use 'em all. That's okay though. I've taken a lot of elements from SL and put 'em into FR. For example, in the Ride, I have the barbarians follow Tempus but under his more bloody aspect with a very savage leader who wields two axes...

 

[Elodan]

whenever i read threads asking for advice on picking a setting... i think about a quote i heard slightly paraphrased.

asking for advice from the peanut gallery is like picking your nose in public. when you get something, are you prepared for the next step...

the original quote had to do with asking for a diagnostic test performed in a hospital... asking for a diagnostic test is like picking your nose in public. when you get a positive result, are you prepared for the next step...

edit: i can't remember the original author any more but it was from JAMA in 1991.

in other words don't ask questions unless you are prepared for the repreccusions otherwise you may just cloud your mind... why ask to run a test for gc when the patient is admitted for diarh(o)ea. why ask about greyhawk when you are running a fast play sci-fi game. if the gc test comes back positive it still doesn't affect your treatment for the runs. nor does finding out that barrier peaks was set in Greyhawk affect your use of fast play rules....

I've read this 3 times and all I'm getting is that either I need to pick my nose more or that Original D&D(1974) the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.

 

[Elodan]

It's hard to tell what the best campaign setting is.

I usually use either the Scarred Lands or the Forgotten Realms. Both have a lot of products (some good, some bad and some excellent).

I think that when Iron Kingdoms by Privateer and Red Spire's books come out, we'll see some more intense competition heating up the place. In addition, there's still Warlords of the Accordlands from AEG. Not to mention Wizard's new setting.

It's a good time to be a GM in search of options but it's a bad time to be a guy like me who enjoys reading about campaign settings even when he doesn't use 'em all. That's okay though. I've taken a lot of elements from SL and put 'em into FR. For example, in the Ride, I have the barbarians follow Tempus but under his more bloody aspect with a very savage leader who wields two axes...

I'm not necessarily looking for the best setting but looking more to get an idea of the settings are out there, which ones people use and why they like them. With 3E and d20 there are a lot more published settings out there then there used to be. I hoping to get some ideas of which I might like without having to plunk down the $25 - $40 (New Age Heroes and Hamlet of Thumble notwithstanding) to buy one.

I currently own or have access to (in no particular order):

• Forgotten Realms CS
• Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
• Midnight CS
• Kingdoms of Kalamar
• Player’s Guide to the Wilderlands
• Arcana Unearthed
• Codex Arcanis

I’m currently browsing the FRCS and Wilderlands books. Both look good and I’m fairly impressed with the FRCS and how it seems to be placing the emphasis back on the PCs instead of NPCs.

I'll also be checking reviews and any excerpts for the suggestions posted.


Thanks to all those who have posted so far and feel free to keep them coming.

 

[Treebore]

Here is a published campaign world that hasn't been mentioned yet. Erde. The HB sourcebook for it is titled Codewx of Erde by Troll Lord Games.

What I like about it:

A lot of its back ground is based in european lore.
The dwarven language is based on german.
The world creation myth is pretty original and a good read.
The world history explains the decline of the dwarves and elves.
The world history supports play all the way up into Epic Levels.
The world history being based in european myth/lore gives me a degree of familiarity/comfort.
It uses rune magic.
Reading it gave me about 300 adventure/campaign ideas.
Since it will be "revised/updated" soon the current book is on sale with about nine world related modules for $35.00 at TLG's website.

Note that i also like Wilderlands and Ravenloft and Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. But Erde is going to be my next campaign world.

 

[teitan]

You can check out the Scarred Lands for 10 bucks actually, the Scarred Lands Gazetteer is a 32 page product with a poster map for 9.95 from Sword & Sorcery Studios and is along the lines of the D&D Gazetteer and well worth the cash you spend on it...

Jason

 

[johnsemlak]

Since it will be "revised/updated" soon the current book is on sale with about nine world related modules for $35.00 at TLG's website.

Hmm, I hadn't heard that it would be updated. That would be good. I agree the book has a lot of history that's good reading. A lot of the mechanics (the PrCs for example) were very poorly designed though and I hope they do that much better in the new edition.