What campaign settings are in print and what is good about them?

[Particle_Man]

My players are into killing things and looting thier stuff.

Maybe try World's Largest Dungeon. Then you don't need any setting outside of the dungeon, except as character background.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

I’ll stick my head above the parapet to, once again, recommend HârnWorld. There’s little in the way of magic and monsters, but lots of possibilities for strife and adventure. Although there is a rules system (HârnMaster) the background materials are all rules and stats free.
It’s very much an early medieval setting, with lots of intrigue. Check out www.columbiagames.com for more information.

There are also huge quantities of very high quality fan produced materials available FREE! from www.lythia.com. It’s worth checking the site out for some idea of what the official material is like. Many of the fan writers also work for Columbia games.

Of course, if you want wacky new races and chaos spiky death (or even cod-anime) armour and weapons, it is not for you.

 

[Stormborn]

Dog Soul Publishing's Mythic Settings, Baba Yaga Russia, Mythic India, Gallic France, Mythic Japan, Norse Legends,

ACK! How could I have forgotten those. Deb and Sean, not to mention Donna, would kill me! Flexor, if you were interested in Sahashra, the Mythic India setting, I can get you in touch with the author. The fantasy Russia setting won an ENnie. Hmmmm...Fantasy Russia + Expedition to Castle Ravenloft+(optionally Heroes of Horror) = Gothic Eastern European Campaign setting.

 

[Voadam]

More now that I think of them

Arcanis: D&D with a bit of a dark edge and lots of support

Dragonlords of Melnibone: Elric's world though different alignment and the D&D implementation is weak.

Warlords of the Accordlands: D&D with the flavor of the card game.

Dungeon World: A D&D trap dungeon setting for when PCs die.

Iron Kingdoms: D&D with Steampunk

Campaigns in a box: World's Largest Dungeon, Drow Wars, Dragonlords, (Rappan Athuk comes close)

A Game of Thrones and Arcana Unearthed/Evolved's Diamond Throne are more not D&D rules but d20.

Again, I'm sure there are more.

I make no claims about the in print status of any products though.

 

[carmachu]

Ptolus is just a city and a 120 dollar city at that. Crazy money to me, I'd never pony up that much for a city suppliment no matter how detailed.

Its more than just a city, its probably the BEST money I've spent on a gaming item to date. For the cost of 3ish books, I have something that is standalone, I never need to buy a single other upgrade or anything, and is hands down the best quality item I have ever seen. Period. It blows everything else out of the water.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Maybe try World's Largest Dungeon. Then you don't need any setting outside of the dungeon, except as character background.

That's probably a cool product but one dungeon is too much. I love dungeons but I wanto allow the players to move about and kill stuff in different areas.




Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[Gundark]

Hyboria -
Iron Kingdoms - [...] Cons: I think they went way too far with the steam aspects, driven largely by Privateer Press' successful War Machine line.

True, unfortunetly another side effect of this is the storyline is being driven by the miniatures game (which progresses really fast). To be totally fair though if you only get the character guide and the world guide then a lot of the steampunk elements are not there.

Some people get turned off of the setting due to the guns and steam elements, I think originally these elements are uncommon. However like stated above the miniatures game has wrecked this.

That said the Iron Kingdoms is a great setting, well thought out and well written. I would recomend it highly (just ignore the warmachine influnce)

 

[Akrasia]

Goodmans DCC 35 is pretty good. They have some decent preview stuff available on their site. It may still be linked to ENWorlds news pages from last week. IT should be in stores the 16th, or soon thereafter, if your LGS is ordering it.


Wilderlands, there are some good reviews here on ENworld.

Goodman Games' Known Realms and the Wilderlands from Necromancer/Judges Guild are the two published settings that I would recommend (though my praise for 'Known Realms' is based only on the previews offered by GG and the descriptions given by the authors over at their forum).

 

[Treebore]

I’ll stick my head above the parapet to, once again, recommend HârnWorld. There’s little in the way of magic and monsters, but lots of possibilities for strife and adventure. Although there is a rules system (HârnMaster) the background materials are all rules and stats free.
It’s very much an early medieval setting, with lots of intrigue. Check out www.columbiagames.com for more information.

There are also huge quantities of very high quality fan produced materials available FREE! from www.lythia.com. It’s worth checking the site out for some idea of what the official material is like. Many of the fan writers also work for Columbia games.

Of course, if you want wacky new races and chaos spiky death (or even cod-anime) armour and weapons, it is not for you.

I have been stealing from Harn for decades. Didn't do it while I was using 3E, but now that I have moved to C&C I am back to stealing as much as I can. Those fan dowloads at lythia are AWESOME!! Great steals, even for 3E. The background details are just fantastic. They even work out economics and many other such "details". Great stuff. For excellent fluff you cannot go wrong with Harn material, even the fan material is great.

 

[Treebore]

Its more than just a city, its probably the BEST money I've spent on a gaming item to date. For the cost of 3ish books, I have something that is standalone, I never need to buy a single other upgrade or anything, and is hands down the best quality item I have ever seen. Period. It blows everything else out of the water.

You are right. Monte did himself proud on this. There is not a "better" product out there. Top notch all the way. I am buying the pdf's. Just not the HB. With the magnitude of info in this I need the search function, and from what Sue told me at GenCon, the search function in the pdf's is pretty good.

When you consider that they color coded the book itself, as an extra aid in navigating the book, consider the level of detail they are trying to give the coding for searching the pdf's.
I plan on starting to buy the pdf's next month, so I'll find out then just how good they did.