Other/new fantasy rpg settings

Rowan · Nov 20, 2020

I'm publishing Everway Silver Anniversary Edition. Kickstarter is coming very soon. You can find more info over on facebook.com/EverwayGame.

Ulfgeir · Nov 20, 2020

If you want Wuxia-type of fantasy, then take a look at Tianxia: Blood, Silk & Jade.

zarionofarabel · Nov 20, 2020

The world from Midnight! The continent is called Eredane, I think there's supposed to be others but I don't remember if they were named. Anyway, I always loved the LotR except the Dark Lord won vibe. Sets it up for the PCs to be heroes trying to save the world! Plus the naming conventions are awesome, the designers put alot of effort into making it sound like LotR style names! My favorite published setting!

aramis erak · Nov 21, 2020

Mercurius said:
Lots of discussion of D&D worlds in the D&D forum, but I'd like to open a thread to discuss other (mostly fantasy) settings that aren't (necessarily) tied to D&D. Feel free to mention any and all, but I'm primarily interested in relatively new ones that have come out over the last 5-10 years. I'm also very interested in settings that have significant coverage--that is, not just as a few pages in a big rules book.

First, some classics. My four favorite older settings are Talislanta, Shadow World, Earthdawn and Everway, the first three of which came out in the 80s, the latter in the 90s. Talislanta is the quintessential "exotic fantasy" setting; Shadow World was the default setting for Rolemaster; Earthdawn is the pre-history for Shadowrun, with a very "points-of-light" vibe. Everway is a bit forgotten, unfortunately. Designed by the ever-prolific Jonathan Tweet, WotC published it before it purchased TSR, and it was sort of the mystical cousin to Planescape.

Other good settings from Days of Yore include Tekumel, Glorantha, Harn, Atlantis, Warhammer, Jorune (science-fantasy), Titan, Agone, Theah (7th Sea) etc, as well as licensed settings like Hyborian Age, Melnibone, Middle-earth, Dying Earth, Corum, and others.

More recent settings that I've enjoyed are Numenera (also science fantasy), Symbaroum, Realms of Terrinoth, Ehdrigohr, Artesia, and Aventuria.

Finally, I'd like to mention the Beyonder game, which was the primary inspiration for this thread. It has a bit of a Talislanta vibe and seems very well conceived.

So what are some other (recent-ish) non-D&D fantasy settings I might have missed? I'm curious about Forbidden Lands, which feels very old school, although I haven't investigated it too thoroughly.

Arrowflight's world is excellent; the 2e rules, however, badly nerfed PCs. And 1E is dead tree only. Early renaissance, not earth, 1E plays well. Half the book in 1E is setting. Similar in 2E. Plus several expansions.

Talisman Adventures just came out in electronic, dead tree is next month. It's a nifty take on the board of the board game as a region map. System mechanics appear to be new.

Fria Ligan, same company as Symbaroum has Forbidden Lands - a hex-crawl focused fantasy using their Year Zero engine. the setting is baked into mechanics. several supplements out for it.

MNblockhead · Nov 21, 2020

Lost Lands by Frog God Games. I list this not because it is particularly unique--it is pretty much kitchen-sink fantasy. But the world is huge and there is a LOT of material for it. A lifetime worth of campaign material. At the same time, there is a LOT left open for the DM to fill in and it isn't saddled with a bunch a canon baggage. There is a lot of history and fluff and timelines and pantheons, if you want to use them but you can still avail yourself of the maps and pick and choose and change what you want.

Also, they have the setting guide on World Anvil and are working on putting in all their adventures. It is an amazing resource. Being able to pull up a beautiful online map that you can pan around a zoom and and out of, click on cities and get pop up descriptions and links to articles. To overlay available adventures on the map. It is just great resource, especially if you use World Anvil to track your campaign.

Also, I like to old-school aesthetic to most of Frog God Games materials. And, while the world as a whole is fairly kitchen sink, there are some very flavorful and unique books for various regions, each of which can support a years-long campaign on its own. Really, Lost Lands is a super-setting made up of a bunch of settings they've created over the years: The Blight, Bards Gate, Razor Coast, Sea Kings Malice, The Grand Duchy of Reme, City of Brass, Borderland Provinces, Rappan Athuk, Sword of Air, the Northlands Saga, and on and on.

Jd Smith1 · Nov 21, 2020

War Hammer setting is an all-time favorite of mine, although it doesn't receive very effective support from the various publishers. Fan support has been solid.

Bluenose · Nov 22, 2020

The Design Mechanisms Thennla for Mythras is within the timeframe specified, and quite a bit different from typical not-really-medieval settings. It's predictably quite Glorantha-like in terms of cults and magic, but doesn't have the amount of strange magics and races that your find with Glorantha. There's a free introductory guide, though the pace of releases isn't high and TDM seem to put more emphasis on their Mythic Earth sourcebooks (presumably they're more successful, but who knows for sure).

Sir Brennen · Nov 23, 2020

Parmandur said:
Lankhmar is currently being published by Goodman Games for Dungeon Crawl Classics.

There is also a Savage Worlds adaptation of the setting as well. I don't think it's for the current edition, however.

Argyle King · Nov 25, 2020

It's not "new," but Banestorm has a significant amount of detail available. (Enough that you could buy the book and still get your money's worth, even if you don't play the game for which it is written.)

Tamriel (from Elder Scrolls) has a large chunk of lore available.

While not a specific setting per se, I believe the concept of Fallout could be easily converted into fantasy. Instead of guns and technology, you would have magic and such. The PCs could be vault dwellers who were locked away in a dwarven vault, after some catastrophe had befallen the world. Now, they emerge into a world which is changed from what once was.

Ptolus appears to be getting an update. I was a fan of the setting, but it was released right around the time my main group stopped playing D&D 3E.