Recommend a Campaign Setting Book
- Thread starter JoeBlank
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Voadam
Legend
I'd recommend the Ravenloft Campaign setting for adding horror elements. As originally designed as a 2e Campaign setting you could get sucked into it for a horrific adventure until you completed a quest or killed a darklord and then you might escape back to your campaign world.
As far as crunchies it has lots of fear, horror and madness mechanics, cursing and dark powers corruption rules, and lots of templates for evil things that give them options for their powers and more powers as time goes on so that old vampires are more dangerous than fledgling ones.
It also has great flavor, (no orcs or half orcs in the setting but half orc stats are used for humans who were cursed in the womb).
As far as crunchies it has lots of fear, horror and madness mechanics, cursing and dark powers corruption rules, and lots of templates for evil things that give them options for their powers and more powers as time goes on so that old vampires are more dangerous than fledgling ones.
It also has great flavor, (no orcs or half orcs in the setting but half orc stats are used for humans who were cursed in the womb).
JoeBlank
Explorer
Many thanks to all who gave advice. I learned a lot about some campaign settings I was interested in, as well as about some I had not even considered. In fact, I want so many of those suggested that I have decided to implement my own personal "Campaign Setting a Month" tradition. The plan is to get one new book each month, looking back on this thread to help me decide.
March is officially Oriental Adventures Month, because it was high up on the list and easy to find this weekend. In the coming months I will see whether I am in the mood for The Hunt: Rise of Evil, Nyambe, Scarred Lands, or something else.
The Scarred Lands deals are tempting, so I may go ahead and spend a little more now.
Looking through Wheel of Time, which was originally at the top of my list, reminded me of one crucial difference: WoT is meant to be a d20 game, not just a setting. The money spent on that book goes largely to reprinted material, much of it from the core books. It still looks interesting, but I will probably wait until I find it at a discount, or even on ebay.
March is officially Oriental Adventures Month, because it was high up on the list and easy to find this weekend. In the coming months I will see whether I am in the mood for The Hunt: Rise of Evil, Nyambe, Scarred Lands, or something else.
The Scarred Lands deals are tempting, so I may go ahead and spend a little more now.
Looking through Wheel of Time, which was originally at the top of my list, reminded me of one crucial difference: WoT is meant to be a d20 game, not just a setting. The money spent on that book goes largely to reprinted material, much of it from the core books. It still looks interesting, but I will probably wait until I find it at a discount, or even on ebay.
bloodymage
House Ruler
I love KoK. But I wouldn't recommend the CS to you for your purposes. Kalamar, I think, only works as a whole (doesn't mean you can port some Fhokki to your world!). No one has mentioned the PHB, though. Virtually nothing crunchy in the CS, the PHB is all crunch!
I don't have any strong opinions as to the best CS to steal from. I own material from KoK, SL, The Hunt and FR and they all can offer something. The only ground I might cover which hasn't come up is Gary Gygax's World Builder. It's not for some, but it does give GMs an ample resource to refresh their game. There's a great objective review of it by Trepelano here.
I don't have any strong opinions as to the best CS to steal from. I own material from KoK, SL, The Hunt and FR and they all can offer something. The only ground I might cover which hasn't come up is Gary Gygax's World Builder. It's not for some, but it does give GMs an ample resource to refresh their game. There's a great objective review of it by Trepelano here.
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Larry Fitz
First Post
Thanks for the kind words Voadam and Sagan...
Joe,
I think I should point out that you aren't really looking for a campaign setting book as much as you are looking for stuff to use in your homebrew (and apparently a "good read"). That being said if you're of limited funding I would recommend one of the many fine city setting books. Obviously my first choice would be Streets of Silver, but Bluffsides or Freeport could work for you as well. I say this because they have things I think you'll get more use out of than the average campaign setting book, and with less work on your part initially. You don't have to use the entire city, you can take neighborhoods or just individual buildings and NPC's and drop them into Thain, or turn them into villages in the outlying regions. In SoS there are cross referenced plots you could yoink and with a little modification put them in near any waterway.
If however you are still creating your homebrew world and are looking to adapt things from a campaign sourcebook, I would steer you away from FR or any of the standard WoTC books. Why? Because if you want the world to have a less "been there, done that" feel for your players, take the roads less traveled. Try Twin Crowns or Nyambe or Slaine. Heck, if you can, eventually get all three and make a hybrid (and invite me to play).
Joe,
I think I should point out that you aren't really looking for a campaign setting book as much as you are looking for stuff to use in your homebrew (and apparently a "good read"). That being said if you're of limited funding I would recommend one of the many fine city setting books. Obviously my first choice would be Streets of Silver, but Bluffsides or Freeport could work for you as well. I say this because they have things I think you'll get more use out of than the average campaign setting book, and with less work on your part initially. You don't have to use the entire city, you can take neighborhoods or just individual buildings and NPC's and drop them into Thain, or turn them into villages in the outlying regions. In SoS there are cross referenced plots you could yoink and with a little modification put them in near any waterway.
If however you are still creating your homebrew world and are looking to adapt things from a campaign sourcebook, I would steer you away from FR or any of the standard WoTC books. Why? Because if you want the world to have a less "been there, done that" feel for your players, take the roads less traveled. Try Twin Crowns or Nyambe or Slaine. Heck, if you can, eventually get all three and make a hybrid (and invite me to play).
Arthur Tealeaf
First Post
I think the Iron Kingdoms world book will rock, although it's not out yet. I think it will be worth the wait. Iron Kingdoms is my favorite campaign setting so far, although the Elric world ranks high too. (and of course Middle Earth, but hey, who plays there? [Okay then, some do, but not so many!{At least not with the d20 system}])
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