D&D General Old Campaign Worlds - What Have You Used And Why?

[Tonguez]

I’ve always been a homebrewer and so never really focussed on world settings except for the content of modules and stealing ideas from anything interesting. I too started with the Mentzer Red Box but didnt know that Aleena, Bargle and the Savage Coast were all part of the same Hollow World.

That said the three settings that I have used and which influenced me are Birthright, Ravenloft and Al-Qadim.

I also read a whole lot of GURPS sourcebooks and although my homebrew world initially was the ecclectic mess of cultures like Mystara, I soon changed it due to my love of Solomon Kane stories influenced by Birthright and Ravenloft to being an alternate Earth in the ‘Renaisance’ including faux Ottomans on the southern border, gothic vampires and werewolves in Eastern Europe, the Grand Inqusitor becoming Pope, Oliver Cromwells Protectorate surviving in England and Lyonnes rising from the ocean reconnecting Britain with the Continent and bringing Sidhe back into the world ...

 

[Quickleaf]

Published settings I've played in...

• Greyhawk, with plenty of homebrew additions – my introduction to D&D as a boy
• Forgotten Realms – sat in for one Adventurer's League game at my FLGS to see what it was like
• Living Arcanis (Paradigm Concepts) – convention one-shot
• Mystara / The Known World – Keep on the Borderlands / Caves of Chaos
• Spelljammer – one-shot game using GURPS rules

Published settings I've DMed for...

• Al-Qadim – a brief campaign in college and a PbP here
• Forgotten Realms – most heavily in Chult for Tomb of Annihilation
• Greyhawk – a few scattered adventures when I was chipping my teeth DMing
• Nentir Vale – 1 year campaign
• Planescape – 4 year long campaign
• Ravenloft – just the original I6 Ravenloft

I'd like to try out Midgard (Kobold Press) as a player, but chances to play are few and far between for me.

 

[Zardnaar]

FR
Greyhawk
Dragonlance
Darksun
Mystara
Spelljammer
Eberron
Ravenloft

 

[atanakar]

My groups have always been about home brewing campaigns. I don't remember DMing or playing in any official setting. BUT we did buy the books and box sets for inspiration or to steal the best parts. My main sources of inspiration as a DM were the Mystara Gazeteers, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Spell Jammer. I did read a lot of FR novels and the Dragon Lance saga but never imported anything from those settings in my campaigns.

 

[Shiroiken]

DMed:
Greyhawk (always)
Birthright
Mystara
Hollow World
Thunder Rift

Played
Dark Sun
Dragonlance
Forgotten Realms
Ravenloft

Both
Nentir Vale
Rokugan

 

[StormbringerAUS]

Greyhawk
Some FR
Dabbled in Dragon Lance
Have used the Lankhmar City of Adventure

Plus ran stuff in the 80s from Judges Guild using City State of the Invincible Overlord and City State of the World Emperor.

But mostly homebrew though also using a bit of the Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces as well

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[uzirath]

My early groups used Greyhawk heavily. My homebrew world grew out of the old Oerik map from the original folio (not the one in DA1). I developed detailed maps for the Amedio and the region south and west of the Sea of Dust. I also played in, occasionally DMed, and/or was inspired by material in the following (in roughly descending order of importance):

• Al-Qadim
• Forgotten Realms
• Lankhmar
• GURPS sourcebooks
• Tekumel
• Middle Earth (as presented in MERP)
• Dark Sun
• Mystara
• Maztica

 

[RobJN]

I DM Mystara (and by extension, Blackmoor). Grew up with the setting, as it evolved. Nowadays, I've darkend things up a bit, bolting on elements from Eberron (warforged, dragonshards, dragon marks, artificers, magewrights, demonic possession of things as well as people) and thematic bits and bobs from various novels (channeling from Wheel of Time, in Alphatian (Tower) and Glantrian (Seanchan) flavors, fey courtly politics inspired more from the Dresden-verse than PC1's Midsummer Night's Dream.)

 

[Fenris-77]

Hmm, I have dig deep into the memory banks here.

Settings I've DM'd

Mystara/Known World
Greyhawk
Forgotten Realms
Ravenloft
Eberron

Settings I've played in (in addition to the above)

Dark Sun
Blackmoor
Planescape
Dragonlance