D&D 5E Survivor Campaign Settings II: Blackmoor Wins!

[guachi]

So two of the three remaining are Blackmoor and Mystara, which incorporated Blackmoor.

I know someone earlier decried the last four or five as "generic" settings. But I don't think of them as generic. They may seem generic because of their age, but Blackmoor had high tech in it (fairly typical of '70s fantasy) and so did Greyhawk for the same reason.

Mystara is a hollow planet. Sure, it's inspired by Verne and Burroughs, but that's in keeping with Mystara being inspired by Robert Howard. And it's the only RPG fantasy world I'm aware of that has a hollow planet. Yes, Mystara has elves, dwarves, and halfings but its inspiration is even older than that. In 2017, it seems novel that the setting's inspirations are about 100 years-old.

Hollow. Planet.

 

[Maxperson]

So two of the three remaining are Blackmoor and Mystara, which incorporated Blackmoor.

I know someone earlier decried the last four or five as "generic" settings. But I don't think of them as generic. They may seem generic because of their age, but Blackmoor had high tech in it (fairly typical of '70s fantasy) and so did Greyhawk for the same reason.

Mystara is a hollow planet. Sure, it's inspired by Verne and Burroughs, but that's in keeping with Mystara being inspired by Robert Howard. And it's the only RPG fantasy world I'm aware of that has a hollow planet. Yes, Mystara has elves, dwarves, and halfings but its inspiration is even older than that. In 2017, it seems novel that the setting's inspirations are about 100 years-old.

Hollow. Planet.

I still think that they are generic. Despite the tech, there really isn't anything to call them out as special. Darksun was highly specialized, as was Birthright, Spelljammer, Planescape, and Ravenloft.

 

[guachi]

Blackmoor 13
Lankhmar 4
Mystara 12

Other unique things about Mystara: no half-races, lots of unique monsters (because it was a D&D setting and not consumed by the Forgotten Realms borg, though Tortles are about to be assimilated), demihuman specific clan artifacts, explicit rules for PCs to become Immortals.

Mystara did two things I don't think any other D&D world has done - it wholly incorporated another setting into its history (Blackmoor) and introduced elements from 3rd party fiction into its history (parts of module X2)

 

[Maxperson]

Blackmoor 13
Lankhmar 4
Mystara 12

Other unique things about Mystara: no half-races, lots of unique monsters (because it was a D&D setting and not consumed by the Forgotten Realms borg, though Tortles are about to be assimilated), demihuman specific clan artifacts, explicit rules for PCs to become Immortals.

Mystara did two things I don't think any other D&D world has done - it wholly incorporated another setting into its history (Blackmoor) and introduced elements from 3rd party fiction into its history (parts of module X2)

The Forgotten Realms has multiple other settings incorporated. Maztica, Oriental Adventures, and Al Qadim.

 

[guachi]

IIRC, two of those were expressly developed to be sub-settings of Forgotten Realms.

I mean, Maztica has "Forgotten Realms" plastered all over its box cover. Al-Qadim doesn't say "Forgotten Realms" on its cover but it's clearly part of Forgotten Realms.

Kara-Tur wasn't originally part of Forgotten Realms, but it was part of Forgotten Realms present being stuck in an empty spot on the map. Blackmoor was expressly incorporated into the history of the entire setting and affected the entire world. You could merrily play in Forgotten Realms and never ever care about Kara-Tur's existence.

 

[SpectralWalnut]

Blackmoor 15
Lankhmar 4
Mystara 10

 

[HorusArisen]

To be honest this lost interest when Birthright went if Lankhmar loses I despair of gamer taste.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JonnyP71]

The generic medieval fantasy of Greyhawk, with its wonderful Darlene map, and superb heraldry IS D&D to me. It's everything I want my D&D to be. I don't want plane hopping, I don't want friendly humanoids, good-aligned drow, I don't want airships and trains.

No just give me a human-centric, gritty, world, built on medieval ideals, with clearly defined good and evil.

So, given that Blackmoor was incorporated into Greyhawk, it has to be:

Blackmoor 16
Lankhmar 2
Mystara 10

 

[Lanefan]

Mystara did two things I don't think any other D&D world has done - it wholly incorporated another setting into its history (Blackmoor) and introduced elements from 3rd party fiction into its history (parts of module X2)

So, given that Blackmoor was incorporated into Greyhawk ...

So one of you says Mystara got Blackmoor and another says Greyhawk got it.

Did the other settings treat Mystara like a wishbone or something?

Lanefan

 

[JonnyP71]

'incorporated' was probably the wrong word in my post, a northern portion of the Greyhawk world was named after it.

Blackmoor, as it was created by Arneson, was written into Mystara's past, and thus became more closely linked with Basic D&D than AD&D.