What fantasy setting do you use?
- Thread starter johnsemlak
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Buttercup
Princess of Florin
johnsemlak said:
The thing is, Dragonlance isn't supported by WotC anymore. Same with several of the other old settings, such as Planscape, Mystara, Al'Quadim, Maztica and so forth. So unless someone wants to do a great deal of conversion work, those settings are essentially dead. Sovereign Press is planning on releasing an updated Dragonlance, and it's possible that someone will eventually update the others, but honestly, there are so many good new settings I don't see the point of reviving the dead ones. YMMV, natch.
johnsemlak
First Post
Buttercup said:
Good point. One thing, who runs the 'Dragonlance.com' site? Is that run by Sovereing Press?
Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
Don Carnage said:I apologize terribly if this is considered a thread hijack. I don't mean to, just wanna talk.
No that's fine I appreciate listening to people, especially regarding the Scarred Lands.
Don Carnage said:I love Relics & Rituals I and II. No complaints, and if there are things I dislike, the quality of the ideas are enough to make me forget them.
Very good, glad to hear it.
Don Carnage said:It happened with Ghelspad. I've tried, honestly sat down and tried to read this book over and over. It's difficult. I've tried to get through the section on Albadia, but the writing is bland. I like Scarred Lands, so it's with regret that I feel this way. Word choice, passive voice, subject-verb agreement, poor editing... it reads (as my wife pointed out) like a college student newspaper.
Maybe I'm being harsh, and I might be. Yet, why can't I get through the book? In places it's plain painful to read. As an example, I took my Sharpie and started editing some of the paragraphs. You should see the section on Fangsfall.
mmm funny I didn't see that. I mean the history section might have had some rough spots...but overall, I felt like the book was very well done. However IF you want to discuss editing problems, I WOULD suggest you take it up with Joseph Carriker and Anthony Pryor. Joseph's email: druid@swordsorcery.com Anthony's paladinx@swordsorcery.com
I will say, if you want to change some of that, try submitting some work to them through their various Open Calls. (One upcoming is CC3. No word WHEN it but it's in the works.)
thegreatbuddha
First Post
Kalamar
Earlier in the thread, somebody asked for input from a Kalamar fan. Here's my attempt to describe the wonder that is kalamar (please excuse the disjointedness).
First off, the world of Kalamar is designed with realism in mind. While writing the history of the Campaign setting, case and effect was used. If their was a civil war in brandobia 300 years ago, real consequences would apply, such as increased grain sales from kalamar to Brandobia. Each nation/region had influence on it's neighbors, resulting in a very realistic feel.
Second, Kalamar is intended as a low-magic setting, but it is easily adaptable to any style of play. You don't have to bother reworking all the wizard NPS to fit your gaming style, because their statistics aren't included. in fact, the entire Campaign Settin sourcebook is rules-free, meaning you can play it under any rules system you enjoy.
Third, Kalamar enjoys IMMENSE support from it's publisher, Kenzer & Co. (Visit their website). A slew of adventures, several sourcebooks, and what is quite possibly the best atlas I have ever seen are all available now, except the atlas, which comes out in December (It's 300 pages of maps, plus a sample dictionary for the many unique tongues of Kalamar)
Fourth, the cultures and their associated languages all "make sense." It's not a case of "We need some viking types, ok, they'll live here." Again, everything was done with realism in mind. Each culture has their own language, which in turn has its own alphabet and syntax rules, which are laid out in the CS. You can hear a characters name spoken aloud, and tell what region he's from by the way the name is put together (For example, Kalamarans rarely put two vowels or two consonants next to each other, while the people of Reanaaria Bay favor double and even triple vowels).
Fifth, the setting gets great support from kenzerco. The publishers frequent the forums, and often ask "What do you want to see in this next product? We want to know what you want." in their upcoming equipment guide, currency naming conventions and exchange rates were asked for, and given.
there's so many other reasons why this setting is great, but I'm ill-equipped to answer them all. The following text is from a conversation on the kalamar forums, as to what makes Kalamar such a great setting:
[Kenjib]
It's very flexible and there's lots of variety. You could run it low, medium, or high magic with little work. There are also a wide variety of adventuring styles to chose from -- gritty feudal politics and intrigue at the city, court or international level, great war epics, rebellious freedom fighting, carving out of a kingdom, explorations into untamed jungles, piracy on the high seas, city guild politics, great armies of evil, fights against evil slavers, fighting for the cause of restoring imperial might and bringing order to the world, exploration of forgotten tombs, and tons of cultural styles to choose from with influences ranging from typical medieval european to roman, greek, meso-american, african, native american, egyptian, polynesian, arabian, and more. Any style you want you can probably find a place for in Kalamar. The cultures are all well detailed and rich yet they are not just carbon copies of real world cultures.
I think the biggest thing is that there is left open lots of room for interpretation and your own DM input into how you want to use various elements of the world. It's very easy to put different kinds of spins on areas of the world to achieve whatever you want.
Another point to note is that the focus of the world is mostly on humans. The demi-humans are not as ubiquitous as in some other settings and sometimes they are more geographically isolated, although it would very easy to increase demi-human presence due to the flexibility. One of the principles behind Kalamar seems to be that as far as magic and wonder are concerned, sometimes less is more. If every street lamp is a magical flame, and every bartender is a retired wizard, does magic really inspire the wonder and awe that it should? That's not to say you couldn't easily decide, however, that in the setting every street lamp is a magical flame and every bartender is *not* a retired wizard. You could do that if you wanted. Like I said it's very flexible, but the setting leaves these choices open to you instead of setting them in stone. It's easier to add stuff like that than it is to remove it.
Or, you can just go here and read a whole discussion on why someon should buy or use kalamar.
Sorry about the length of this post, as well as the rantiness of it, but I love Kalamar, and had to defend it against the FR naysayers.
Earlier in the thread, somebody asked for input from a Kalamar fan. Here's my attempt to describe the wonder that is kalamar (please excuse the disjointedness).
First off, the world of Kalamar is designed with realism in mind. While writing the history of the Campaign setting, case and effect was used. If their was a civil war in brandobia 300 years ago, real consequences would apply, such as increased grain sales from kalamar to Brandobia. Each nation/region had influence on it's neighbors, resulting in a very realistic feel.
Second, Kalamar is intended as a low-magic setting, but it is easily adaptable to any style of play. You don't have to bother reworking all the wizard NPS to fit your gaming style, because their statistics aren't included. in fact, the entire Campaign Settin sourcebook is rules-free, meaning you can play it under any rules system you enjoy.
Third, Kalamar enjoys IMMENSE support from it's publisher, Kenzer & Co. (Visit their website). A slew of adventures, several sourcebooks, and what is quite possibly the best atlas I have ever seen are all available now, except the atlas, which comes out in December (It's 300 pages of maps, plus a sample dictionary for the many unique tongues of Kalamar)
Fourth, the cultures and their associated languages all "make sense." It's not a case of "We need some viking types, ok, they'll live here." Again, everything was done with realism in mind. Each culture has their own language, which in turn has its own alphabet and syntax rules, which are laid out in the CS. You can hear a characters name spoken aloud, and tell what region he's from by the way the name is put together (For example, Kalamarans rarely put two vowels or two consonants next to each other, while the people of Reanaaria Bay favor double and even triple vowels).
Fifth, the setting gets great support from kenzerco. The publishers frequent the forums, and often ask "What do you want to see in this next product? We want to know what you want." in their upcoming equipment guide, currency naming conventions and exchange rates were asked for, and given.
there's so many other reasons why this setting is great, but I'm ill-equipped to answer them all. The following text is from a conversation on the kalamar forums, as to what makes Kalamar such a great setting:
[Kenjib]
It's very flexible and there's lots of variety. You could run it low, medium, or high magic with little work. There are also a wide variety of adventuring styles to chose from -- gritty feudal politics and intrigue at the city, court or international level, great war epics, rebellious freedom fighting, carving out of a kingdom, explorations into untamed jungles, piracy on the high seas, city guild politics, great armies of evil, fights against evil slavers, fighting for the cause of restoring imperial might and bringing order to the world, exploration of forgotten tombs, and tons of cultural styles to choose from with influences ranging from typical medieval european to roman, greek, meso-american, african, native american, egyptian, polynesian, arabian, and more. Any style you want you can probably find a place for in Kalamar. The cultures are all well detailed and rich yet they are not just carbon copies of real world cultures.
I think the biggest thing is that there is left open lots of room for interpretation and your own DM input into how you want to use various elements of the world. It's very easy to put different kinds of spins on areas of the world to achieve whatever you want.
Another point to note is that the focus of the world is mostly on humans. The demi-humans are not as ubiquitous as in some other settings and sometimes they are more geographically isolated, although it would very easy to increase demi-human presence due to the flexibility. One of the principles behind Kalamar seems to be that as far as magic and wonder are concerned, sometimes less is more. If every street lamp is a magical flame, and every bartender is a retired wizard, does magic really inspire the wonder and awe that it should? That's not to say you couldn't easily decide, however, that in the setting every street lamp is a magical flame and every bartender is *not* a retired wizard. You could do that if you wanted. Like I said it's very flexible, but the setting leaves these choices open to you instead of setting them in stone. It's easier to add stuff like that than it is to remove it.
Or, you can just go here and read a whole discussion on why someon should buy or use kalamar.
Sorry about the length of this post, as well as the rantiness of it, but I love Kalamar, and had to defend it against the FR naysayers.
Alaric_Prympax
First Post
I voted for Greyhawk because the campaign I DM takes place there. Other people in my group DM in other settings such as Scarred Lands or Ravenloft or a homebrew, or Dragonlance . It really depends on who is DMing, lately its been a homebrew because I haven't DMed in a couple of months.
Currently IMC the group is going thru NG's What Evil Lurks adapted to Oerth .
Currently IMC the group is going thru NG's What Evil Lurks adapted to Oerth .
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Well, my campaign at the moment is Greyhawk, but about 2,200 years before the normal time setting. Suel empire at it's height, the great Olven kingdoms at their greatest, many of the artifacts still to be made, and a certain power-hungry wizard by the name of Vecna has just perfected the techniques of lich-dom.
Although, it's been a lot of work so far (with a lot more to go) trawling up everything I can about Greyhawk's history etc to try and get the setting "right".
Although, it's been a lot of work so far (with a lot more to go) trawling up everything I can about Greyhawk's history etc to try and get the setting "right".
bloodymage
House Ruler
Kalamar Rawks!
Johnsemlak, just to add a note to thegreatbuddha's post on Kalamar. As an old geography major, I appreciate the nod to realism in the setting's physical and cultural geography and geomorphism.
Johnsemlak, just to add a note to thegreatbuddha's post on Kalamar. As an old geography major, I appreciate the nod to realism in the setting's physical and cultural geography and geomorphism.
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