Recommend a Campaign Setting Book

[Nightfall]

psionotic, no offense but if you read further down, he doesn't want to plug in Bluffside or Freeport just yet. (Maybe in another continent) But I will say, pick up Blight Magic and/or Book of the Righteous as some options for both magic AND ideas. Think you'll like it. (I will also STRONGLY suggest, if you don't have book of Vile Darkness, GET IT. No Dm worth his salt should do with out it.)

 

[Eosin the Red]

Wheel of Time is good low rare magic wholesome play. It is less pilferible but it is really easy to pilfer for it. I generally use the rules and classes for Wheel of Time but port in other stuff I like.

Book of the Rightious - best buy available. Bar none. Great read.

Kingdoms of Kalamar - I like the stuff they have done and the make (IMO) the best modules on the market.

 

[Adlon]

My .02 cents...

The Hunt: RoE. Excellent CS. I currently run in this setting, and found it VERY open ended. You can use it as generically, or as steadfast as written, or anywhere in between. There is a good amount of material for this setting.

OR:

Scarred Lands. THIS setting is steadily becoming my favorite overall setting. The Ghelspad Gazetteer, at a whopping $9.00 US, is a steal. You get ALL of the core essentials of a CS world. A pantheon, history/timeline, overall one of the best purchases for under $10 anyone can make. Oh, and you get a pull-out FULL color map of the continent.

This setting is gaining alot of fans, IMO, because of the FINE regional sourcebooks, breaking the world down into smaller pieces (Sorry Mormo

Each of the sourcebooks by itself are essentially mini campaign settings.
Add in the additional products in the line, like Creature Collection 1 and 2, Relics & Rituals 1 & 2, Divine & Defeated, well, the world can expand and/or contract as much as you need it to.

 

[Holy Bovine]

So, I can't radically change the campaign the way some DMs like to do. There is no transporting the PCs to the Oathbound setting, or Scarred Lands, or any other setting. Putting a city even the size of Bluffside anywhere close to Thain would not be logical, why did the orcs not attack Bluffside? Why did Bluffside not come to the aid of Thain? I can however bring in a lot of the good elements from published materials if I can find a logical place to put it in the area I control. In fact, Bellhold (from Of Sound Mind) is in my area.

Now this makes more sense. I too was confused by your statement that you wouldn't have time for a Scarred Lands campaign. I would suggest that the following supplements would be very portable and easy to 'port' into such a setting.

Secret & Societies - about a dozen various organizations that populate the SL. Change a few place names here and there and you should have no problems using most if not all of them.

Wise & Wicked - FUlly fleshed out NPCs for the PCs to encounter and you to build adventures around. Note that some of them use base creatures found only in the Creature Collections but all game stats are provided. Every entry has background info and many adventure hooks to build from.

Hallowfaust - I can't recommend this book enough. A city-state ruled by Necromancers. It would be quite easy to explain why they wouldn't have aided Thain in your campaign. Many of necromancers are so invovled in their study of death they rarewly take notice of the outside world even in the Scarred Lands! That could easy be played up in your games.

Burok Torn - another outstandfing city supplement. This time about a massive dwarven mountain empire that has fallen on hard times. They have been under seige for decades and they are slwoly losing their battle of attrition. Maybe this is where the Orcs in your game went? The details are excellent here too with lots of information on how an underground empire functions and what motivates these dwarves.

These, too me, are the 'big four' as far as setting and flavour that can be easily ported to most any campaign. If you want spells and magic items I would recommend Relics & Rituals 1 & 2. There are even powerful artifacts detailed and several PrCs in both. Also new magic called Ritual Magic and Tattoo Magic that again could easily be put into other settings.

I have run a Scarred Lands campaign (with my own addtions and deletions) for about 21/2 years now (originally began as a FR game then changed to SL). My PCs are at around 14th level and we have recently started a new SL campaign with 1st level characters set in Hallowfaust.

 

[JoeBlank]

Thanks to all these wonderful replies, it looks like I will be going over budget. As far as the main purchases, it looks like barsoomcore hit the nail on the head:

Wheel of Time -- give it a look, but it's not really the sort of thing that can just a "part" of a campaign world, which is what it sounds like you're looking for.

I think your two best bets, by far, are Oriental Adventures and Nyambe. Both present very different cultures that still fit within the ground rules of standard D&D so that your characters could, in effect, walk to these places and not find that the rules of physics (or rather magic) have changed all that much. They could learn some cool stuff, maybe take a prestige class or learn some new spells or weapons or whatever, and go home if they liked.

Both books are spectacular, well-written and illustrated, full of ideas and inspiration and thoughtful rules to make adventuring in their settings a completely unique experience.

This is exactly what I want, and for these reasons, as well as the free Lorebook, Nyambe has replaced WoT at the top of my list. Sounds like both Nyambe and OA will be good reads, and are likely to have a few things I can draw into my campaign. If I like them as a whole, here comes a new continent or far away land to drop in.

On top of interpreting my goals perfectly, I respect barsoomcore's opinion because I dig his campaign setting. Your site is great, and I would love to play in a Barsoom campaign some time. I frequently look at your site for ideas.

Samothdm, have no fear. I must admit I felt like a downloader of pirated MP3s, claiming "If I really like it I will buy the whole album, so the artist is actually making a sale out of my getting a free sample." But this turned out to actually be the case. If the campaign book were only the Lorebook with decent artwork and a hardcover, I would still buy it.

So after getting those two, I still don't think I will be able to pass up The Hunt: Rise of Evil. The concept sounds great, and I will probably have to get it.

It is also well past time to wet my feet in the Scarred Lands. Most likely I will browse through a few offerings and see what strikes my fancy. I am sure that the city books are well done, but I think I will be more likely to go for Secrets and Societies or Relics and Rituals. Either one should give me some immediately useful info, and a taste of SL.

Wallet, brace yourself.

 

[Glaurung]

There are a bunch of Scarred Lands books on sale at www.swordsorcery.com

You may want to take a look before heading to your FLGS.

-Mike Gill

 

[Nightfall]

Either or Mike!

(Does also think you'll like CC2 for some strange and wonderful monsters) Also might want to pick up Warrens of the Ratmen (if you want some really COOL monster info) or Hornsaw, cause it rocks AND you got probably the best forest in d20 to date. (IMHO.)

 

[Eldorian]

It hasn't been released yet, but I've always been fond of Blizzard's WarCraft world, and they've teamed up with sword and sorcerery to produce the setting for 3.5e.

http://www.swordsorcery.com/swordsorcery/press/Warcraft.html

I usually play in either Generic Greyhawk or a setting of my own design, but I'd play in WarCraft.

Eldorian Antar

 

[Myrddyn]

I just L-U-V-E The Scarred Lands !

 

[mmadsen]

Plus, my group is usually open to allowing new feats and spells, and would probably allow an alternate class from a respectable setting book.

With that in mind, I recommend Oriental Adventures. It's chock full of material that should fit an occidental campaign just fine -- or you can use it as prescribed. The new spells, feats, classes, and magic items (talismans!) all work in a western setting, and the notions of Taint and the Shadowlands fit right into a standard fantasy campaign.