Help me chose my 4E campaign world

[joela]

I'm seriously looking into starting a D&D 4E campaign starting next month. This is in addition to my 3.x* Eberron game. Below are the worlds I'm considering:

Aerth by Goodman Games. Traditional fantasy. Have lots of modules, including Castle Whiterock. And GG is release 4E mods.

Aihrde by Troll Lord Games. Traditional fantasy. Very light setting info so I'd have a lot of leeway to create the world. Hmmmm....

Aldea by Green Ronin. Traditional fantasy with a romance twist. Will have to see if my players have the maturity to deal with such issues.

Dragonlance by Sovereign Press. Traditional fantasy. Beautiful books.

DragonMech by Goodman Games. See Iron Kingdom. Fantasy apocalypse.

Earthdawn by Living Room Games. Fits the PoL theme advocated by 4E.

Iron Kingdoms by Privateer Press. Love the collusion of magic and technology. The latter, though, may take some work.

Glorantha by Mongoose Press. Fantasy bronze. Very mythical. Ducks!

Golarion by Paizo. Traditional fantasy with a horror twist. Beautiful books.

Mystara by TSR. Traditional fantasy.

Scarred Lands by Sword & Sorcery. See Golarion.

Sundered Skies by Pinnacle. Islands floating in an endless sky. Make take some work adapting the magitech.

The Diamond Throne by Malhavoc Press. A different take on traditional fantasy.

Wilderlands Campaign by Judges Guild. Fits the PoL theme advocated by 4E.

And before anyone suggests Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms, I have no interest in such worlds, having played in them in my AD&D 1st editions; nor Eberron because I already run a game in the setting. I have no interest in Birthright, Hollow World, Planescape, Darksun, that Arabian setting, Oriental Adventures or any other Asian setting at this time, Midnight, or Warhammer.

*No conversion to Pathfinder. My newb players are currently content with the 3.x rules, damn it. Let's see how they feel when forced to fight Pathfinder NPCs hehe....

 

[RandomCitizenX]

Sundered Skies has really reignited my interest in Savage Worlds, but with my group the only way I will get to really run it would be to convert to fourth.. that being said you may want to look into combining Sundered Skies and Spelljammer since they seem to have some similar elements.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Of the choices, I would go with one that's still being supported, just because there's more people to bounce ideas off of, steal bits from, and so on.

I'd go with Gollalalalalaron or Aerth, personally, although if it were me, I'd want to try Aldea. (Which is ironic, considering I really don't enjoy the novels it's inspired by.)

 

[Remathilis]

I still love me some goodman games Aerth. It shouldn't take much go get the other 4e elements in there.

 

[catsclaw227]

I am in teh same boat as you, but I have narrowed my list to:

Wilderlands by Necromancer Games
Aerth by Goodman
Golarion by Paizo
Scarn (Scarred Lands) by Sword and Sorcery Studios.

I might use Aerth in the beginning, but if SandS_James gets some Scarred Lands love going again, then I will move my 2nd 4e campaign there.

It's tough for me to decide, too...

 

[Mercurius]

It seems Wilderlands fits the bill, especially if you want 4e-meets-1e D&D.

But another thought is to use any and all. The POL approach really allows for a make-it-as-you-go style campaign. Now I have found that, as a general rule at least, well-planned campaign worlds are more interesting than free-form ones, in a similar way that a fantasy novel set within a deeply designed world (e.g. Middle-earth, Erikson's Malazan) provides a richer context than one that was obviously designed around a plot.

But POL can work with that approach, I think, especially if you have a basic framework for why the world is as it is (that is, why there are no major nations and civilization is few and far between...maybe a great empire was destroyed by a magical cataclysm, and civilization is only slowly recovering?).

So yeah, my advice would be to design your own world, but only lightly (that is all you need)--and you can use specifics (such as Fallcrest) from any number of sources. That also keeps the players on their toes, rather than pulling out their copy of the FR campaign setting book and saying "Actually, Calimport is the largest city in the world, not Waterdeep."

 

[catsclaw227]

I am gonna do a combo of what Mercurius suggests and use a 3.x 3rd party game-world. I am just weighing certain preferences and ironing out the details right now to help decide. I have a lot of books and material from all the campaign settings on my short list.

I may also consider cobbling other items and using a sandbox POL setting too. I have a lot of Necromancer Games adventures and each of them have mini-setting info as well.