Looking For A Campaign Setting

[Desdichado]

Well, if you want to get nitpicky, it was clearly written by Sovereign Press, since it included character classes from their earlier setting... uh, what was it called again? Sovereign Stone? Something like that. It also doesn't include any adventures.

But I don't want to get nitpicky. I just want to point out that he's practically eliminated, well, everything based on his selection criteria in the first post. I also wanted to point out that based on his second post, in my opinion his selection criteria is based on some misinformation, particularly in regards to the Eberron campaign setting, but also many of the third party settings.

 

[Stormborn]

So lots of debate about various settings. My suggestion? Dungeon Magazine. Take whatever is in the Core rule books as given and then find the adventures you want. There is actually a bit of a setting implied in several of the adventures, something that was hinted at and recently confirmed in an editorial. And I am not talking about the Adventure Paths, but they are possibilities too. If you choose to go this pway you could easilly start a new thread asking which adventures in the mag fit the criteria you want. I know that there are pleanty of posters around here who could help your figure out an order and suggest a setting from it.

 

[Treebore]

I didn't suggest Greyhawk because with the Demi-gods running around, members of the Circle of 8, Robilar, and many others. I thought there were too many elements similiar to FR for the OP to deal with. Don't forget the relics.

Oh, are the demons and devils still running around from the Greyhawk Wars? I haven't looked at anything GH edit: (in 3E, I own everything up to the Scarlet Brotherhood release for 2e) except what just happens to be in the core books and stuff I have read in Dungeon.

That reminds me, WL has the lands to the South, off of its maps, controlled by demons and devils. Now if this is real demons and devils or people faking it (like the bear men faked being bearmen in "13th Warrior") is up to the DM.

Kalamar is designed do to be "static" meaning that there won't be any advancement to the campaign timeline. So you will never have to compete/deal with "official" changes or novels altering the campaign history. The DM is the Alpha and Omega of what happens in Kalamar.

I do think you'll be happiest with Kalamar or Wilderlands. Erde would be a long shot.

 

[SpiralBound]

Nice summary, SpiralBound! I wouldn't really call Iron Heroes a setting, though; it's a ruleset with about the thinnest "implied setting" I'e seen in a d20 book.

Oh. I was going more on the phrasing of the poster who suggested it really. I'm not familiar with 90% or more of the settings, and thus didn't know that. I'm glad everyone liked the summary.

 

[SpiralBound]

Yeah, I have to join in with the people saying the OP has a totally skewed idea of Eberron. The "high-powered" things mentioned are almost all things *you can't get* as a player character. Sure, there's a train powered by magic, and there are streetlights powered by magic, and so on. Big deal...... Saying Eberron is a high-power setting is like saying d20 Modern is a high-power setting because it exists in a world where Abrams tanks, nuclear weapons and anthrax exist, regardless of the fact that the average d20 Modern character is an ordinary twentysomething guy with an apartment, a car and a pistol.

I could be wrong in this, but I think that the OP was looking for a SETTING that wasn't over-powered, not a setting where the CHARACTERS aren't over-powered. (Although that may be a requirement too for all I know) Thus, he may not like Eberron as a setting choice due to the power-level of the setting itself, irrespective of how powerful individuals are. I don't really know if this is the case, but the OP DID start this thread stating that he was looking for a setting which was low-powered... :\

 

[grodog]

I didn't suggest Greyhawk because with the Demi-gods running around, members of the Circle of 8, Robilar, and many others. I thought there were too many elements similiar to FR for the OP to deal with. Don't forget the relics.

Oh, are the demons and devils still running around from the Greyhawk Wars? I haven't looked at anything GH edit: (in 3E, I own everything up to the Scarlet Brotherhood release for 2e) except what just happens to be in the core books and stuff I have read in Dungeon.

To Treebore's point, yes, GH has all of the original artifacts, relics, demon prices, archdevils, etc. running around, but it scales up or down in power quite nicely depending on how you run it (really, the same can be said of any setting, including even the FR ). GH is inherently more gritty than FR, and Valus is quite a bit more gritty and low-powered than GH, too.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Hrm.

Don't forget "psionics built-in, not tacked-on" . . . is that true for Greyhawk?

 

[grodog]

Don't forget "psionics built-in, not tacked-on" . . . is that true for Greyhawk?

Sure, Greyhawk's got psionics: mind flayers, intellect devours, Xan Yae, Zuoken, etc.

 

[reanjr]

Are there any major NPCs that are psions?

 

[ruleslawyer]

No.

GH is not as psionic-friendly as Eberron or Scarred Lands; this is in part a matter of history (psionics were a kooky aliens-only ability in the early days of the game, when the setting was gestating). It's the same for FR; while both settings feature psionic races, beings, and even patron deities, psionics isn't "integrated" into the setting in the same way it is for from-the-ground-up 3e settings, for basic historical reasons.

Honestly, I don't think that it's worth worrying about the psionics element much. Any D&D setting that features psionic races has a good reason to have psionics in the game without DM shoehorning; you don't need kalashtar or dragon-kings or slarecians to have psionics in your setting. It's always been easy to integrate psionics into my FR game; while I generally use it as an alien (and thus unsettling, fearsome, and occasionally disturbing) power inherent to weird races like illithids and aboleths, PC-types can get it too (usually by picking up lore from said weird alien types, etc.) It certainly wouldn't be hard to use the psionic societies featured in the Players' Guide to FR, or their Greyhawk equivalent, if I wanted to.