How do you pick your setting?

[Rhuvein]

Published setting w/moderate changes. That way I can have a basic campaign world and add/change/delete stuff and make it my version and adapt it to our group and our preferences.
And I get to have some level of creativity in presenting the setting!

 

[Nightfall]

I use the Scarred Lands, since hey I am an NPC there!

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

I found Glorantha 25 years ago, and Harn about 21 years ago. They're the only two (fantasy) game worlds I've ever used since then. I have played in a couple of others. But for GMing, they are all I need.

 

[TerraDave]

Really other...homebrew somewhere between loose and tight and close and not so close to other worlds...it really depends on what aspect of the world (and campaign I am running in it) we are talking about.

In any case, its mostly in the sig.

 

[mcrow]

Pretty much all of my fantasy games are complete and detailed homebrew, while I tend to use the setting for Nebuleon for Sci-Fi.

 

[Kularian]

My group has almost always done homebrew, except in one rare circumstance where we tried some published stuff...and that didn't work out so well. Normally I make up my own world, sketch out the major details, and just wing the rest as we go. (luckily, I'm good at that, hehe)

But right now, I'm working on an entirely different setting, with new races, classes, gods, etc. Basically using the 3.5 d20 system...and that's about it. So I guess this one's going to be 'heavily detailed.'

 

[Set]

Published setting with moderate modifications, although, as more products come out and the setting evolves, 'my version' tends to become increasingly different.

For instance, playing in the Realms, back in the days when the only source of Realms material was Ed Greenwood's Dragon articles, it was a *far* different world than currently exists. My Scarred Lands setting had only the original 'eight victors' and none of the racial demigods added later, etc. As more and more 'stuff' gets strapped onto a setting, I find that it increasingly moves away from the stuff that initially attracted me to it. Vecna becoming some ubergod able to steal power from all of the other gods, for instance, was completely wrong for the Greyhawk setting, IMO, being more of a 'Realms-style' divine munchkin exercise.

Ironically, this makes shorter-lived settings, like Kara-Tur and Al-Qadim, some of my favorites. They still remain thematically consistent, and leave room for me to 'play.'

 

[Oryan77]

I run a Planescape game. The only thing I really do is allow races from other settings and I might make up a town here and there just because the planes maps don't show a lot of information.

I don't know if this counts as heavy modifications to the setting.