Recommend a Campaign Setting Book

[JoeBlank]

Gonna spend a few bucks, and I seem to enjoy reading new campaign setting books. Rarely do I play in any setting other than my group's home brew (and an Iron Kingdoms PBP), but I can pirate ideas from other settings.

Plus, my group is usually open to allowing new feats and spells, and would probably allow an alternate class from a respectable setting book. Prestige classes are not as big a priority, as we keep our campaign fairly low-level, and many prestige classes in campaign books are too setting specific to translate easily anyway.

I have the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Those I have been considering include:

* Wheel of Time

* Kingdoms of Kalamar

* Oriental Adventures

* Savage Species (not really a setting, but playing monster classes would be different enough to make this qualify)

I will probably go with 2 setting books. I have read the reviews on EnWorld, and wouldn't mind some additional input from others. Any suggestions I have left out, or reasons I should/should not consider the above books?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[dave_o]

I highly suggest Wheel of Time. I love it, and even if you don't use the setting, it has some nice low-magic fantasy classes, among other things.

It's rad.

 

[Mystic Eye]

Hi Joe,

May I recommend The Hunt: Rise of Evil setting. It was nominated at last years EN Awards at Gen Con for best setting and was noted by Ryan Dancey to be a "fan Favorite". It is also very well supported with 7 books in the setting available today, tons of on-line support and at least three more setting related books this year.

You can learn more at http://www.huntroe.com

 

[blackshirt5]

I'd second Wheel of Time. Love it, love it, love it.

Beyond that, I'd suggest either Savage Species(looked it over in the store the other night, looked good to me), or Scarred Lands: Ghelspad.

 

[HellHound]

I really like the Hunt Rise of Evil (from Mystic Eye Games) and Codex Arcanis (from Paradigm Concepts).

I'm running campaigns in both right now.

And a third in Oathbound, I might add. Which also rocks.

 

[Harlock]

Scarred Lands. I cannot suggest this enough. Great setting filled with wonderful opportunities for a hero or heroine to shine! It has chills, thrills and surprises galore. Not to mention it is fairly cheap to get started. A lot of folks already have Creature Collection and or Relics and Rituals. If not, check out one of the Gazateers: Ghelspad or Termana and see if you like what you read. It's pretty basic information and guess what? The books retail for like nine bucks! I'm sure the Sage of the Scarred Lands will be around shortly, his name is Nightfall. He knows much much more than me about Scarred Lands and in fact is one of the fellows that got me interested in it most. Good luck in your search and if you have nine bucks to spare, grab a copy of Scarred Lands Gazateer: Ghelspad.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

* WoT - I've read the Jordan books and I'm a D&D/3e fan. This book mostly reprints a lot of the Jordan and 3e material. For new players, this is great. For old hands, not so much. I felt like I had paid $40 for 40 pages of material

* KoK - This book had as much information as an ecycolpedia, but it also read like one. No fun.

* OA - Great book. This would be what I would get if I were you.

* SS - Don't own it, haven't read it, doesn't personally appeal to me.

... just my two cents.

edit: actually, I'd check out Bluffside. I picked it up and liked it a lot. Plus it's easy enough to dump into your current game.

 

[rounser]

Dungeon Adventure Path. Complete campaign worth of adventures, with a mini-setting thrown in for free.

 

[JoeBlank]

That was fast, thanks for the responses so far.

I was not familiar with The Hunt, altho I had heard of it. Will read thru the link. I like when creators/publishers feel strongly enough about their products to spend time telling others about it. Durbin sold me on Heroes of High Favor, for example.

I have read no Robert Jordan, and doubt I will. The low-magic setting sounds like it would appeal to me, but I also like stories that have an ending and I have heard too many negatives about where his series is going. However, this means I would get more out of the setting book than those who are familiar with the books.

There are certainly a lot of Scarred Lands fans here, and I like some of the things I have heard about the setting, but I doubt I will ever have time to play an actual Scarred Lands campaign. How portable are the crunchy bits?

Same goes for Bluffside, anything portable? I have thought about it and can't find a place for the city in my campaign (yet). The campaign world is very small, with only one big city and lots of unexplored territory, but if there were a city the size of Bluffside within a few months' travel it would be known.

I guess to be more specific I am looking for a setting book that is a good read, with some ideas that I can use in my own campaign and with portable crunchies. Anyone disagree with BiggusGeekus on KoK?

Keep it up, this is great information.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Bluffside is kind of a fronteir boomtown. The idea was that a very long time ago it was a city in an anciet civilization. Then a meteor slammed down near it. So it's a city on the edge of a crater that opens up into the ocean. A bit ago, in the setting history, an explorer found the city and it became a small academic/archeological town. Then they discovered that the meteor that hit was made of mostly adamantium. Pow! Instant rush of thousands of people.

It seems to me that it would be a city on the edge of your "big kingdom", ideally that faced west into an ocean. Maybe that will fit, maybe it won't.

... and LOTS of people disagree with me about KoK. I'm sticking to my guns on that subject though.