Popular Campaign Settings

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Al-Quadim is still #1 though the following are inching up close to it.

Diamond Throne

Eberron

Oathbound

Honorable mentions include Rokugan, Dark Sun, and Planescape.

Best setting of all time is Exalted.

 

[eryndel]

Wow...not sure how much of that is Scarred Lands, but with 32 votes at 11% and fourth in this poll, I'm feeling pretty proud of meself.

Yeah, there's been quite the outpouring of Scarred Lands love so far on this thread.

 

[Falconnan]

Planescape lookin' good

Yeah, baby! Planescape ranks at a strong #2. Hmm. And they discontinued it. Hmm.

Well now, maybe anyone who wants it back should visit the following-
http://www.planewalker.com
They have a link to an open petition to Wizards to open it back up, or give it over to a game company willing to do so.

To the Lady of Pain-->Looking forward to seeing you again.

 

[scourger]

Greyhawk got my vote for fantasy. I liked it when it became the default setting for 3e since I was familiar with many of the concepts and names but not much setting detail. It was fun to learn more about it, especially from a 2e supplement that a player loaned me that I subsequently bought used.

Spellslinger is the runner-up. This is a great mini-game for western-themed D&D. Sadly, the player that I thought would be most interested in playing it is moving away; so it is effectively dead. Too bad. I found it much better than Deadlands (which has a great game mechanic), Deadlands d20 or Sidewinder (which has a neat presentation).

Skull & Bones gets an honorable mention. The new & variant d20 rules don't add anything to my low magic pirate D&D camapign, but the setting information is outstanding.

Forgotten Realms deserves an honorable mention. The default could just as well have been Forgotten Realms for me, and I would have enjoyed that too from having read so many FR novels.

Conan deserves an honorable mention, too. Not the OGL d20 Conan published by Mongoose--it presents too many unnecesary changes for my taste. I'm talking about the Conan RPG from TSR circa 1985. The third module, CN3 Conan Triumphant, is a great story; and that's why I would give the setting an honorable mention. It was so good that I bought the book, and it is not a Howard story.

Gamma World/Omega World would get my #1 non-fantasy vote right now. I just finished running a mini-camapign using the Alternity GW story line with the OW d20 rules. Although my Rifts to DragonStar to Omega World conversion campaign died an ignoble death due to player boycott, another DM has an old Rifts campaign using the Gamma World Legion of Gold module converted to Omega World that I love. I wish we played it more. Incidentally, Rifts and DragonStar are great concepts but suffer from a lack of DM usability and adventure support.

Judge Dredd d20 is the non-fantasy runner-up. I really like the whole concept, especially the adventures. I haven't been able to sell my group on it past the first 2 adventures (and only a few members at that), but I really like the setting. I even got some comics and computer games after reading the game books.

Star Wars, of course, gets an honorable mention, too. I just haven't been able to play it enough since the DM is a little flighty. Also, my comrades have a tendency to turn it into D&D in space.

 

[D+1]

I voted "Other, 3rd party" mostly because I'm feeling ornery. A published setting is not necessarily the best option - homebrew was not really presented as an option but it was not stated that the poll was intended only to cover published settings. Was that intended or an omission?

My opinion on the many published settings is quite fractured. If all else were equal I'd go to FR first, but I've run FR for danged near a couple of decades now and I'm BORED with it. IMO an all-new setting like Eberron should have been one of the first products released under 3.0 and the core rules should have been based on IT, not Greyhawk. Ravenloft never worked for me as a stand-alone setting, but ever since it came out I've incorporated certain aspects of it into just about every game I've run. Spelljammer was, and is, a great concept that was flawed in the execution but it was the first campaign where players seemed to make a point of telling me they enjoyed it and would later ask when/if I would run it again. I have not yet got my hands on Eberron and haven't ever read or played some of the others so can't give my opinion on them. Of the others that I have read/played/run few measure up. Dark Sun was nice to "visit" (play a few games/short campaign) but I wouldn't want to live there (playing an extended campaign.) Planescape was simply not my cup of tea at all, and part of that may well have had to do with my distaste for much of the cosmology of 1E/2E D&D. Dragonlance also held no interest for me. Greyhawk... well it might have been great again if I'd ever seen a REAL treatment of Greyhawk for 3E along the lines of the FRCS but it was banished to the nether regions of RPGA's control and for my part has not been seen again, nor much missed. It was missing in action for 10 or 15 years before 3E came out.

Currently I'm using 1st Edition Judges Guild material as my campaign world. I had been planning to use Arcana Unearthed rules as well but dropped them. I MIGHT incorporate some elements of Eberron but it's unlikely I'll actually run it as a setting in it's own right anytime in the forseeable future.

 

[Malacoda]

Nothing More Cool Than Spelljammer

I am one of the few that voted for Spelljammer. It was a setting with some problems, but the good parts were very good, and easily catapult it over the others.

These days I run a lot of Forgotten Realms, though, as it has tons of 3e support. I need to finish my SJ to 3e conversions.

 

[Urbannen]

Basic D&D Mystara

 

[wizerdchris]

looking for D&D players in or around halsted mn fargo/moordead area e mail me at chrismuhm@hotmail.com

 

[jcfiala]

looking for D&D players in or around halsted mn fargo/moordead area e mail me at chrismuhm@hotmail.com

Unfortunately, this is the wrong place to look for players - You want the Gamers Seeking Gamers forum over here: http://www.enworld.org/forumdisplay.php?f=49

(The thread, it lives again! Bullets don't stop it! Run! Run!)

 

[Voadam]

Oathbound

Followed by Ravenloft

Lots of high magic high fantasy D&D in Oathbound

And Ravenloft is good horror D&D.