D&D 3.x Scarred Lands - Who runs or has run it?

[earthsea_wizard]

I have been aware of this setting since the time it was in print for 3e and never gave it any attention. All these years later I am reading through the material and falling in love with it!

The aesthetic and tone I'm getting is a mix of Dying Earth, Diablo, Wilderlands, Ravenloft, Elric, Warhammer Fantasy, Dark Sun, Conan and Zothique. This is not surprising I suppose given it is a White Wolf/Sword & Sorcery project and Anthony Pryor (Dark Sun, Lankhmar, Greyhawk, 3e Ravenloft) worked on a lot of it, but somehow I never got past the "titans vs gods" greek thing which didn't attract me. It turns out this is the extent of the Greekness in the lore.

Now some of it is certainly over the top and on the nose for my tastes (1001 Shelzarian Nights ), and you can tell they are reacting to something given the time period and the state of gaming at the time (white wolf folks coming into D&D land in 1999 while 2e is at its height to show us how they'd do it?...what can we expect), and I am not sure the sentiment aged well, but I am enjoying the dive-in. According to fans it seems that the products started to go downhill after the 3e>3.5 transition. These days I also think 3e is (mostly) better than 3.5 when it comes to flavor and the approach to the game.

Reading it through, I have two concerns:

1. Adapting modules to this setting. It isn't as different as Dark Sun but it does have very specific flavor. Almost no modules were published for it (strange as there are almost 40 publications in total between 3e and 3.5).
2. I am reading about some the cities that are explored with their own books. Places like Mithril and (especially) Hollowfaust are super unique, flavorful, work so well in the setting and seem like they can really "wow" playrers. I wonder if there would be an issue of then traveling to any of the many other cities that were not detailed (or hardly detailed) and finding that they feel mundane with out a VERY creative DM who can nail the setting. In Greyhawk or the Realms you can just wing another medieval city and it won't seem out of place, but the cities that were detailed in SL really set the bar high!

But perhaps each of the cities has enough written about it throughout the books for a DM to make it interesting and I just haven't read enough yet.

Any thoughts, opinions are anecdotes on the above or the setting in general? I know some later editions saw a few publications. I had a look and they just don't draw me in the same way, but I imagine they are useful for pulling info from.

 

[Genghis Don]

I'd suggest making up adventures or using them as ideas/outlines rather than converting them

maybe stay more to the areas detailed if you don't feel up to making others up...there is a l lot of d20 materials for the setting, though I think mostly various campaign settings/places. If you like those early ones use those & flesh it out.

It's a setting I wish I'd given more time to, back in the day.

 

[DM_Jakob]

I have extensive experience with Scarred Lands. I was a DM on White Wolf's Fangsfall chat back in the days and I am currently running my third major campaign in the setting. I have played in the setting since the first Relics and Rituals 25 years ago. I own all the published material pre 5th edition and much of the 5th edition material.

I have always played Scarred Lands as a relatively low fantasy setting. I say relatively because D&D doesn't do well in low fantasy (especially low magic) settings. But this premise is what has made it difficult to adapting modules to the setting as the modules often presume a high(er) level of fantasy. It could be bigger cities, more magic, more fantastic creatures, NPCs with power that are mediocre in the module's perspective but would be renown at least regionally in Scarred Lands etc. But some modules can be scaled down. Other modules can work in the handful of locations in the setting that is very suited for high fantasy. It might take a bit more effort but it is not impossible to fill your game with setting-neutral modules or modules from other settings.

My favourite thing about Scarred Lands is the fluff. As excellent as the fluff is, the mechanics in the books are often equally poor and sometimes outright broken. The fluff of the game is where it becomes obvious that the creaters of the setting comes from other games where combat is not as central as in D&D. Mithril and Hollowfaust are great and they are not even my favourite books. I love Burok Torn and Slarecians: Legacy of the Past made me go from not finding psionic adaptable with a fantasy setting to making it central in my three main campaigns. I undoubtedly had a decrease in quality when the PCs moved to locations not supported by published material - but in some ways it also made the good locations more significant in the history and dynamics of Scarred Lands. The Gods are present and active in Scarred Lands and perhaps nowhere more present than in Mithril and in Burok town. You bet those cities are special.

Check out this Facebook group: Scarred Lands Reborn | Facebook if you want to partake in the revival of Scarred Lands. It is not super active but you get response if you ask questions or want to have a good discussion.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Back in 3E like an eon ago

 

[Genghis Don]

I'm glad someone with more xp than I about the setting answered! I most used it for extra monster manuals in the early 2000's, and looked at spells/items/classes & NPCs from their early releases, but i never kept up with it, and only stole ideas to use in my own, not scarred lands, games

oh, and in that vein, corrupted/mutated/warped monsters are easily used in numerous ways, the fluff can tweak easily. So...always feel free to swipe whatever works!

 

[Voadam]

I really like the Scarred Lands. I played in one campaign and never DM'd the setting straight but I have used setting elements in my mashup homebrew setting like certain prestige class organizations and the gods and even the fallen dark dwarf empire as a historical thing and mechanical stuff like monsters in my games.

I own a bunch of the books in the 3e line. I was also a contributing author on three of the books in the 3.5 era (Relics and Rituals II, Creature Collection III, and Strange Tribes of the Scarred Lands) so some of my spells and monsters are official.

I like the titanomachy mythology and the post gods war setup with the default setting continent of Ghelspad being mostly fairly distinct city states (with the Virduk conquering empire) and big fantasy features like the imprisoned bleeding titan warping the whole Blood Sea and staining it red.

I like how the gods are both set up to cover the 3e alignments and the D&D classes but also have other varied domains that are important and give them distinct flavor so the LG paladin god is also the god of blacksmiths and this is reflected in the different metallic orders of knighthood dedicated to the god. I think this is very Greek mythology reflective in a great way where say Poseidon was the god of the sea and storms but also horses. The gods are each distinct individuals and the mythology is easy to grasp and get into with lots of lore that enriches them but is not necessary throughout the books for those who get them.

I like that it has the short campaign gazetteers and the full hardcover setting guides plus the individual city or region sourcebooks so you have different levels of lore depth if you want. I like how each area is fairly distinct, the paladin run city of Mithril or the desert LN necromancer run city of Hollowfaust or Burok Torn the dwarven undermountain city home to runemages are not just generic D&D cities but have clear interesting fairly unique hooks. I did not really get into the late era planar stuff or the genie plot line.

I wrote some material for both the arctic area and the desert god-king area but my favorite part of the setting is the default ghelspad continent where the interaction of basic D&D themes and Scarred Lands stuff works best for my tastes. The southern very much not African continent with its gnomes and gnolls and the other areas (dragon empires, etc.) are great for those who want different and distinct unique to themself setting baselines, but I like more of the Ghelspad mix of stock D&D with unique things. Very similar to Eberron for me where I like the core five kingdoms continent over stuff like the psionic empire continent or the Dragon one.