Pimp your setting

[eschwenke]

I want everyone to think about one of the following:
a) your favorite setting, or b) the setting you run. Why do you like it more than other settings? If you are using your own homebrew, why do you prefer it to published settings? If you chose a published setting, why do you prefer it to making your own? If you chose your own homebrew setting, please don't just say that you like it because it's yours; if that's the best you can say for it you are doing a diservice to your players as there are plenty of really good published settings out there that have tons going for them.

Also, try to critique your setting as well. Think of the aspects of the setting could have been done better, and think of ways to fix it.

As for myself, I'm a Planescape fan, and am semi-active on Planewalker.com under the screen name of Narfi Ref. I intend on answering these questions myself, but am curious as to what other PS fans might say before I give my own answers.

 

[Awakened]

My setting is the best because of how awesome it is. My D&D campaign takes place on a plane that's a retirement home for all adventures. Basically, whenever an archmage or seasoned fighter gets sick of actually doing things, they become eligible to enter the Plane of Riverdale, a living community where the atmosphere is "chilled, but not uncomfortable" and everything gets along in a glass bubble.
Things are easy and uneventful in the domain, as teleporting in and out is prohibited. The only villainous hounds who make it there have lost their teeth long ago. The only monsters are puddings. The only diseases are mind-affecting, Alzheimer's and dementia.
I get to develop new spells all the time, such as a custom scrying spell that allows one to see his or her grandchildren, and also meddle, which allows the user to affect lives on the material plane.
Pimp, huh?
You should adventure with us sometime.

 

[Awakened]

Oh yeah, and um, you have to be venerable or ancient to even be considered for acceptance. You or your family best be in the cheese as well, as it costs 10,000 gp a month to live there.

 

[edemaitre]

My campaign setting

Of the published settings out there, I like the following:

-OD&D "Known World/Mystara"-for nostalgia (it's the first world I role-played in), its Tolkienesque style, and the Clyde Caldwell art on the well-written regional supplements

-AD&D2 "Dragonlance/Krynn"-for the novels, Larry Elmore's art, and modules that were heroic and challenging while allowing players to adventure in parallel to the book's characters (I also like "Oriental Adventures," "Nyambe," and "Arabian Adventures" for their non-European approaches to fantasy)

-D&D3 "Kingdoms of Kalamar"-for its complex, realistic world; slightly lower ambient magic level than "Greyhawk" or the "Forgotten Realms"; and thorough sourcebooks

-OGL "Conan" and "Thieves' World"-for their gritty, low-magic feel, not unlike "Lankhmar"

-I like my own D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" heroic fantasy campaign setting (http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DnD3VanishedLands/) for the following reasons:

--Over the past 25 years, nearly 400 Player Characters and dozens of role-players have adventured in it, and I've been flattered when people tell me that their favorite characters are from my games. I've been lucky to stay in touch with alumni around the world, and the P.C.s have a chance to help shape the history of my world.

--As a homebrew setting, I've been able to tie it into a larger Multiverse, including other Game Masters' worlds, some elements borrowed from favorite myths/legends and genre entertainment, and my other games, including steampunk, time/dimensional travel, comic book superheroes, cyberpunk, and space opera. Most such travel is limited to higher-level P.C.s, but it's nice to have as an option.

--I've been able to gradually map out and develop the cultures and kingdoms, geography, religions, magic, and races of my setting, incorporating elements from each edition of D&D as it has come out (see above regarding favorite worlds). Long-term story arcs that transcend individual adventuring parties (most of which reach Levels 10 to 15 before retiring or disbanding) provide a rich backdrop but hopefully don't intimidate novices. Happy gaming!

 

[ashockney]

Forgotten Realms

All of the greatest campaigns were run in th FR. I look back particularly fondly on the first FR campaign run from the grey box.

Richness, depth, intrigue, innovation, and the maddest lootz!!! This one has it all.

 

[Remathilis]

Eberron

I realize not everyone goes for it, but I love the medival/modernist hybrid, the warforged, the style of adventure, the noir aspects, the emphasis on travel, magic as technology, Xen'drik, Sharn, orcs and goblins not merely horde-monsters, the sense of history, the daelkyr, the mournland, the politics, dragonmarked houses, and the profound lack of meta-plot in the sourcebooks.

It really is what I tried to homebrew for years, done much more elegantly and with better maps.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Grymwurld™

Grymwurld™ — A dark Mediæval Eurocentirc phantasy inspired by Burroughs, Howard, Lovecraft, CAS, Arthurian romance, and Germanic sagas with subtle elements of Christian Mysticism (Cloud of Unknowing, Dark Night of the Soul, St. Teresa of Avila), Traditional unsanitized fairy tales, and Gothic horror. For mature audiences only. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language, and adult situations.

He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you stare persistently into an abyss, the abyss also stares into you. —Friedrich Nietzsche

Grymwurld: The Merchants of Death™ — The setting is similar to the early 1600s in terms of large merchant companies, piracy, new lands & exotic cultures, theatre, swashbuckling, and witch trials. Shadowy cabals learn the secret magic of the East — Psionics — and use it to control the heads of state.

Grymwurld: A Dark Mirror™ — Similar to Europe circa 1291 — 1453. The Undeath, Celtic wars, the discovery of gunpowder, the peak of chivalry in direct contrast with the rise of infantry and mercenaries. The Eastern Steppes are controlled by the Centaur Hordes whose name still evoke terror. The Lawful Inquisition in the form of the Knights of Mars hunt down Chaotic sorcerers, witches, and Elves.

And much, much more has transpired over the last 30 years.

 

[DragonLancer]

My favourite right now is Aereth (the DCC world) because it's perfectly generic for my tastes. Its nicely detailed but with plenty of room for me to make changes and drop things in without having to ruin any theme or go against a canon setting. I prefer generic over detailed any day. Plus the setting has a quality first edition feel which is always a good thing IMO.
The only change I would have made would be to concentrate on a single continent rather than three, but it's not a big issue and I'm happy with it.

 

[SavageRobby]

I'm a big fan of the Wilderlands (I have the Necro boxed set, the PG, plus some of the others JG supplements). Gritty, sparse, imaginative, and based on small city-states rather larger nations, with huge swathes of unexplored, untamed land. Slavers, pirates, amazons, dark necromancers, deserts, demon lands ... and a killer ancient ruin table, to boot. What more could you ask for?

 

[Varianor Abroad]

a) my favorite setting is the Land of the Diamond Throne because it evoked the newness of D&D for me again. I have run numerous games set there since it came out. It had just the right blend of ideas and execution with broad strokes for me to set my Imber campaign in an undeveloped area. That let me build my own ideas into the game. I subsequently wrote a second game set around a group of mojh adventuring looking for the pieces of a vitrified dragon. It's all good.

b) it is also the setting I run right now, although I have been setting Ptolus in the Land of the Diamond Throne along with select bits stolen from Ashanderai's perpetually forthcoming Lands of the Jade Oath.

Now, I would dearly love to homebrew a setting of my own. For 20 years, that's all I did as a DM. However, due to being asked to join the Council of Magisters (I'm now retired) I started up my AE game. I found that the ease of a lot of published material took enough of the edge off that a) I could keep running it and b) I could attract players easily who were also familiar with it.

As a critique, I would say that it suffers from lack of development. Malhavoc went on to other things quickly since the money in d20 was not in staying with a setting. Fans have since built pieces of it, but they often fit the whims of the individual and do not easily mesh with the "vision". Ptolus successfully fits into it, but with some retconning. Really, my dissatisfaction is with myself at the end of the day for not being more enthusiastic with my own work on a corner of the world. I should do more with it, but I'm ready to move onto a new, different homebrew. Finding the time for it...that's the tricky, tricky part.

Really, the issue now is that the d20 market is so mobile and so choked with material that players may not want to buy setting books, or they'll pop up at your table with the Next Coming Thing (hah - Brisco County Jr reference people)! Then they ask if you'll run that. Pathfinder and the Open Design project from Wolfgang are probably the two top contenders for this "mental forefront" among folks I know. The same folks also want to continue with AE, Ptolus, even the Swordlands from IH (a system I would love to find the time to do more with). So guilt and time mesh in a weird spiral here.