What do you think is the best campaign setting?

[NTZ]

I'm encouraged to see a lot of people mentioning Midnight since this is the campaign setting I plan on using shortly with my group.

Not much I can recommend because I have not played or ran many different settings. Greyhawk is what I grew up with and I am still familiar with from Living Greyhawk. Almost everything else I have played is homebrew.

NTZ

 

[Nellisir]

I'll add another plug for Midnight (classic underdog good vs powerful evil; also low magic), and Dawnforge (not low magic, but butt-kickingly cool -- I'm not a low magic sort of person myself). Wilderlands from Necromancer Games looks interesting and very unscripted; great for doing your own thing. Oathbound has a ton of possibilities.

The Black Company from Green Ronin might also be of interest -- that should be out in a few months.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[Quickleaf]

I noticed that Skull & Bones (Green Ronin) wasn't mentioned...If you're into low-magic, dark & brooding voodoo magic, and swashbuckling adventures, I heartily recommend this all-in-one book.

My favorite campaign setting by others? Al-Qadim 2e and Nyambe: African Adventures (Atlas). Of course, I'm eagerly awaiting Green Ronin's Hamunaptra: Egyptian Adventures.

 

[Zethnar]

Well, I do have to say this, you guys are awesome. As far as web communities go I havent seen any of the usual idiotic behaviour (so far ) and you've all been nothing but helpful.

Thanks.

On topic you've given me quite a bit to think about (there are a few settings there that I never even knew existed). I might have to go off and do a little research now that I know whats out there.

 

[Treebore]

I own Erde, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Wilderlands, Kalamar, Scarred Lands, Oathbound, Dungeonworld, Ravenlfot, Rokugan, Dawnstar, and many other "small" settings and 2e Al-Qadim, Planescape, and Maztica. I don't own Blackmoor, Dawnforge, or Iron Kingdoms.

All I can say is I like and could DM in any of them. It really depends on what I think my players would go for. I have ran Ravenloft, Wilderlands, Greyhawk, For. Realms, Rokugan, and Erde. We had lots of fun with all of them. I would say what makes a setting the "best" is how good the DM is.

So buy something, make it your own, and just DM the h**l out of it. It will be fun.

 

[scranford]

Another vote for Arcanis (Paradigm Press). Well supported and different but consistent. Moves the age to more of a Roman Empire timeframe. Very limited firearms availability, and hundreds of plot hooks. I've played Forgotten Realms, Midnight (2nd choice by the way), Scarred Lands, Greyhawk and many others, and Arcanis spurs my imagination like no other. Now that the Players Guide to Arcanis has been published (in my opinion the best investment I ever made in a FRP book) there is no question where my group will be playing.

PS Midnight is second choice but in my opinion the options for play are limited here by the setting. In Arcanis you can be from Canceri (The evil empire and play a Midnight type game); Ymandagore, and be hunted by the harvesters, whom hunt down all magic; Coryani, the crumbling Roman Empire; or Even Freeport (Yes the Green Ronin Freeport) among the many options. Also their take on the Gods and alignment is both unique and flexible, without being cumbersome.

 

[Wraith Form]

I like games that are epic in scope, where the characters deeds take them from simple farmers or thieves to mighty heros and saviours.

Sounds like Midnight.

I like having a dark foreboding atmosphere over the game, some kind of looming threat to which the PC's are drawn and must defeat (which is what drew me to midnight, and the tolkein reference was just an impression I got from a brief look at the product). Course most of that can be covered by plot and doesnt have to be written into the system.

Right. Midnight.

One other thing, I like either low magic or a system that doesnt use the standard "spell slots" from the core books.

That's funny, Midnight seems to fill that category nicely.

Ahhhh, well at the moment I am leaning very much towards Midnight, although dawnforge looks interesting.

I think you can guess where I'm going with this.

Dawnforge is also a very good setting (think Clash of the Titans on crack), as are the Iron Kingdoms (industrial-age fantasy...like Arcanum, the computer game, but with bigger guns).

 

[jonesy]

If you're looking for:

A wild world taking its babysteps; where the forces of evil are dominant; where elves are barbaric; humans are slaves; and dwarves non-existant:
Dragonlance 1st Age.

A wild and mostly unexplored world where dragons are plentiful; where a gigantic ogre empire has just fallen; where the other races are now competing for dominance:
Dragonlance 2nd Age.

A world where dragons are nonexistant; where nations wage gigantic wars; where the forces of good are taking over the world; where magic is mystical and feared; where good can be evil and a party made up of evil races can become good:
Dragonlance 3rd Age.

A world torn apart, shaken and stirred; where the gods are hidden and need to be re-discovered; where evil is rising and dragons slowly returning; where arcane magic is common and divine rare; where regional wars are commonplace; where at the end all have to stand together, evil or good, or see the destruction of all;
Dragonlance 4th Age.

A world stolen, lost and found; where dragons rule nations, where the prospect of a wizards vs sorcerers war looms in the future; where magic waxes and wanes; where minotaurs become dominant and elves rare; where villains and heroes are epic and anything can happen:
Dragonlance 5th Age.

And of course I only touched the surface and all of the Ages of DL have wildly varied periods. There are moments in the timeline for anything and everything. Just pick a starting point and start carving the world into your liking.

 

[Zethnar]

Yeah, midnight seems to be getting a fair amount of praise. I'll have to take a closer look at it.

It seems like something I can steal ideas from for my own campaign or just run as is.

 

[irdeggman]

1. Birthright. Birthright.net has the d20 BRCS-playtest rules with some chapters updated to 3.5.

2. Dark Sun. Athas.org has the 3.5 updated rules.

Both sources are "free" pdf rule sets with the 2nd ed material available from many different downloadable sites or on ebay quite frequently. As well as several novels (for Birthright) and many for Dark Sun.


Dark Sun is a highly psionic oriented world with a lack of metal where arcane magic defiles the land.


Birthright is a medieval setting with conquest/ruling and war being the primary themes. In Birthright the "old" gods died and spilled their essence on those around granting them special abilities (blood abilities) that are real similar to spell-like abilities.