What do you think is the best campaign setting?

[Zethnar]

Really? I might hold off untill that comes out then. Although it may not be possible to get it here for a while after realease depending on whether its released as the "2nd edition" or just as a reprint.

 

[Treebore]

Okay, I can understand that . I'm not sure yet what to think of Caverns of Thracia, and I'm still waiting for CSIO to arrive; I hope that the latter is a useful city supplement .

CSIO is the best City supplement I have seen since the Waterdeep boxed set. Fair amount of detail, legal system, fleshed out adventure sites, excellent locations index, nice small maps that you can still read. Very worth getting for a "main" city setting. Plus the Wilderlands specific stuff is easy to edit out, just ignore it.

In fact it can be a good campaign setting for a "darker" game without becoming a Ravenloft/Midnight bout of depression. The Invincible Overlord is evil and the cities government is very corrupt and oppressive. Lots of evil temples about, slavery, lots of "evil" that needs to be eradicated.

 

[Acid_crash]

For my own curiosity, what is CSIO? Also, can anybody tell me more about Arcanis? I have actually never heard of either of these so any links or info would be great. Especially since CSIO is a city supplement.

 

[Eremite]

I think that there are so many great settings that it's hard to pick a single best one.

I think all the following are great (in alphabetical order):

- Dawnforge (a blank slate)
- Dragonstar (lovely mix of sci-fi and fantasy)
- Forgotten Realms (just ignore the novels and the fanboys and simply enjoy the quality and quantity of support material)
- Greyhawk (the classic setting)
- Midnight (brilliant)

Hmmm, FFG gets three guernseys in that list...: they sure know how to produce campaign settings!

I think Eberron has the potential to be great and Oathbound is rather good as well. Kalamar is excellent and probably the best supported world (great adventures and love that atlas!); Conan is rather good despite getting off to a poor start with the first book (which Mongoose remedied in spectacular fashion).

Isn't it nice to type a post that is completely positive?

 

[Turjan]

CSIO is the best City supplement I have seen since the Waterdeep boxed set. Fair amount of detail, legal system, fleshed out adventure sites, excellent locations index, nice small maps that you can still read. Very worth getting for a "main" city setting. Plus the Wilderlands specific stuff is easy to edit out, just ignore it.

Oh, I know the general atmosphere of the city, because I have the Player's Guide to the Wilderlands, and there's definitely no need to cut the setting out, because I like it . Personally, I'd just like to get rid of some real world references (god names and the like).

I'm just waiting for USPS to stop sitting on my copy .

For my own curiosity, what is CSIO? Also, can anybody tell me more about Arcanis? I have actually never heard of either of these so any links or info would be great. Especially since CSIO is a city supplement.

CSIO stands short for "City State of the Invincible Overlord". It's the most developed part of one of the oldest settings ever done for D&D, that's the Wilderlands by Judges Guild (redone by Necromancer Games). The city supplement is renowned to be one of the best ever done; I can tell you whether this is true as soon as it will finally arrive at my doorsteps.

Arcanis is a setting by Paradigm Concepts. It's a fully fleshed out setting with remnants of a "Roman Empire", an oppressive religious state and lots of other, rather diverse regions to play. It's connected to a "Living Campaign", similar to Greyhawk, and seems to be alive and kicking .

Edit: You asked for links . It's funny that the best description of CSIO is on the White Wolf order page here and not on the Judges Guild Page .

As far as Arcanis is concerned, try this link. The website is terrible, btw. I can't tell you much more about Arcanis, because it did not really click with me.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think Greyhawk is the best DnD setting. It's the closest to the default setting presented in the core rules without the Forgotten Realms problems of uber-NPCs and overpowered magic. It's got everything you want - opportunities for adventure, variety of foes, variety of terrain, history, trade, politics, cool knightly orders the PCs can join and a dark lord on his dark throne.

 

[Cithindril]

As far as Arcanis is concerned, try this link. The website is terrible, btw. I can't tell you much more about Arcanis, because it did not really click with me.

Here is another link to the Living Arcanis support page...

onaraonline.org

...haven't played it myself, but what I've seen at my FLGS looks rather good..

 

[Cithindril]

..and while we're at it, here are a couple of links for the Scarred Lands..

Official Scarred Lands Site

Scarn Fansite

...enjoy!

 

[Mark Plemmons]

Several people have mentioned the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting, so I thought I'd point out a good link for some quick world info:

http://www.kenzerco.com/rpg/kalamar/

You can read David Kenzer's discourse on "Why You Should Be Playing Kalamar", and also learn more about different aspects of the Kingdoms of Kalamar, including: Present Day Overview, Nations, Independent Organizations, and Deities. Plus links to some reviews, downloads, and misc.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi,

To the original poster of this thread:

Your best bet to find out what is good and what is not good. To this end try to either google for those particular settings or go to your local games store and look through those books that might interest you.

Here; your gonna get 100 different responses with a good number of them from people with, sadly, an axe to grind against certain settings.

Every time somebody posts a topic like this, it's the same old thing, why cant people just give their opinion on the setting they enjoy and not slam another setting in the process?

Scott