D&D 5E What makes each setting unique?

[Wolfskin]

Hi all,

I'm about to introduce a new group of gamers to DnD, and we've decided to vote on which campaign setting to use. I'm not that familiar with the lore and details about the settings so I come to you for help: what are, in your opinion, the thing that makes each one of the DnD settings stand out in a positive way?

For instance, I'd say Dark Sun is set in a post-apocalyptic, brutal world ruled mostly by evil sorcerer-kings.

But what about Forgotten Realms, Wildemount, Greyhawk, Dragonlance and such?

 

[aco175]

This site has some text on all the settings that may help.

I would just use the vanilla Forgotten Realms if you have a new group of gamers, unless the players are experienced and just the group is new. New players may not care on the flavor as much as learning the game and while FR has its faults, it is basic so everyone can expect the baseline of D&D.

 

[Stormonu]

My take:

Forgotten Realms is high fantasy - wizards, heroes and villians are plenty and there are a lot of movers and shakers. It is kitchen-sink fantasy, though those having the same (or likely better!) skill as the characters are common.

Greyhawk is gritty fantasy - morality is gray, things are in decay and there are secret plots everywhere. It too is kitchen-sink fantasy, but the characters tend to be a step above the common folk and spellcasters are somewhat more rare.

Eberron is noir fantasy - magic is in ascendance and is everywhere, but the shadow of a Great War and the lingering fear of yet another one looms on the horizon. This is another kitchen-sink fantasy, and while the characters are a step above the common man, magic is everywhere.

Dragonlance is epic fantasy - the world is not as great as it once was, but the characters are heroes with a great destiny before them. Not quite kitchen-sink fantasy, but the characters are expected to be heroes who will accomplish great deeds.

Mystara is pulp fantasy - this is a kitchen-sink fantasy world full of cliches and gonzo magic. Characters are a step above the common man, but there are plenty of powerful adversaries abound.

Spelljammer is wierd fantasy - take a trip among the stars as if it were a great ocean and the various worlds were islands among them. Everything strange has a place here, and bizarre magic is commonplace.

Ravenloft is gothic fantasy - it is a series of gothic realms in decay ruled by evil and rife with oppression. The characters are underdogs, fighting against an evil that crouches in wait for them to devour them. One of the few places where firearms are appropriate, and magic is feared and mystical.

Birthright is D&D's version of Game of Thrones. The characters are nobles or rulers of the land, facing against other regents or terrible monstrosities known as Awnsheglien - "the first of their kind".

Al-Qadim is the Arabian Adventures realm of sword & sandal adventures. It hearkens back to the 60' & 70's Sinbad and other arabian night tales. Genie magic is common and characters are heroes that are a step above those around them.

Planescape is extra-planar adventures of discovery and delving into the philosophy of alignment. Characters travel to strange new worlds, where powerful monsters and exotic treasures lie.

I'll let others take on from here.

 

[Blue]

Really, read @Stormonu - he's got everything. But I want to add in a few points. Basically, one categorization that may be decision point for some tables, and then some commentary.

Most/all player facing options: Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Planescape.

Strongly themed and better with their recommended character options (including additions like Dragonmarks (Eb) or Psionics (DS) because they will be strongly lore and setting supported: Dark Sun, Eberron. Glorantha & Adventures in Middle Earth (3pp).

I'm personally a fan of the second category. For example, in the Forgotten Realms you can play a living golem called a Warforged. In Eberron you can play a sentient weapon made by House Cannith and sold to all sides in the The Last War that now it has ended was recognized as a person instead of property by the same Treaty of Thronehold that also committed slow genocide by permanently shutting down all the Creation Forges, called a Warforged. Eberron in particular takes the races and gives them all their own fresh spin and place in the world - you find yourself wanting to play a gnome, or whatever race has been meh for you with common lore.

But the first category is the quickest to leap into. While the Forgotten Realms has a ludicrous amount of lore, as long as your DM knows enough of it the players can rely on the usual tropes to build characters and start play.

 

[turnip_farmer]

It's far easier to make up your own setting, in my opinion. You don't need to read up on any fluff, and nor do the players. You never need to worry about your players knowing more fluff than you.

And it doesn't have to involve any significant amount of work. Just make it generic fantasy land #76821 and rely heavily on clichés and established tropes.

This may not be to everyone's liking, but I find it makes it easy for players to show up and fit themselves into the world without needing to read through a bunch of handouts or setting books.

 

[Aldarc]

It's far easier to make up your own setting, in my opinion. You don't need to read up on any fluff, and nor do the players. You never need to worry about your players knowing more fluff than you.

This is generally why I recommend the Nentir Vale. It's mostly a blank slate setting that lacks the baggage of other lore heavy settings. It provides a basic set of deities, a basic mythic backstory/metaplot (i.e., the Dawn War), several fallen empires, some starter towns, and then the rest of the setting is mostly empty spaces to drop ruins, modules, or adventures. There is a fairly strong DIY vibe to the setting. IMHO, it was designed quite cleverly for newcomer GMs. Critical Role, IMHO, is a great example of how the element of Nentir Vale can be used to build a great setting mostly from the ground-up. Moreover, apart from maybe Eberron, it's also really the only setting where every 5e PHB race, including the dragonborn, has a place without having to make changes to the setting in ways that make the grognards pick up their pitchforks.

Nentir Vale is the mythic fantasy setting: It's a kitchen sink setting framed around small points of light/civilization surrounded by the threat of encroaching darkness/chaos/wilderness. It's set in the Dark Ages of a fallen high fantasy setting that embraces a mythic Chaoskampf motif that reverberates throughout the cosmos. Even if it starts out small or they are unaware, characters are heroes who engage this cosmic struggle at every inch and level of play.

 

[Wolfskin]

Thanks for the input, folks! It helped me a lot.

 

[Blue]

Thanks for the input, folks! It helped me a lot.

Let us know how the vote goes.

 

[Voadam]

I think this covers them all.

Going backwards by last edition they showed up in a book (not just Dragon magazine):

5e

Forgotten Realms: high magic classic D&D with lots of fantasy historical counterpart lands, dragon cults, a big evil magocracy, and big evil secret society.

Eberron: D&D post-WWI pulp noir. A big continental empire civil war has ended with fragile peace accords so nations maneuver in anticipation of the next one. An undead using nation, a paladinic theocracy, reality of the gods and cosmologies not clear, undeath cults, hereditary dragon magic turned into niche political and commercial powerhouses, elemental skyships and trains, lots of almost industrialized low magic, and warforged construct people ex-soldiers.

Ravenloft: Gothic Horror D&D, expect vampires, monsters created from corpses by doctors, and alchemical madmen with secret identities. Domains have their own unique cursed generally supernaturally powerful lords, and curses are stronger.

Wildemount (not that familiar with) two empires in conflict neither easily classified as good guy or bad guy.

Ravnica (not that familiar with) Magical Guilds and Clockworks from Magic the Gathering.

Theros (not that familiar with) Fantasy Greek D&D.

Greyhawk: Old D&D tropes, mostly humans with kingdoms of elves, dwarves, gnomes, and lots of evil humanoids. A crumbling ancient evil superkingdom has lots of breakaway states, a recently released evil demigod is building his own empire, an order of evil monks is manipulating things from behind the scenes and there are a lot of fantasy Arabs and vikings and mongols in addition to some weird fantasy ethnicities. Includes Greyhawk city, a D&D version of Lankhmar, a fantasy version of New York.

4e:

Nentir Vale: A lightly fleshed out points of light setting (villages are small safe places in dangerous wilderness darkness after the fall of the human empire to gnolls) with a history of ancient warring tiefling and dragonborn empires and a cosmology with big wars between divine gods and elemental primordials.

Dark Sun: Post Apocalyptic D&D with a desert backdrop, little metal, lots of psionics, and cruel dragon sorcerer kings ruling city states and empowering their own magical templar servants.

3e:

Dragonlance: lots of knights, dragons, draconian dragonmen, the gods are sometimes absent, a big tradition of three orders of wizardry, minotaurs as a big race, and no orcs, drow, or tieflings. Plus tinker gnomes, fearless klepto kender halflings, and a branch of mentally challenged dwarves.

d20 Wheel of Time: based on the fantasy novel series, unique magic system of weaving threads, different racial and monster pallete from normal D&D with trollocs, ogier, myrdraal, and such.

Diablo: mostly a demonic megadungeon with hints of world stuff like an amazon culture or an order of sorcery.

2e:

Lankhmar: The world of the fantasy novel series that helped define swords and sorcery as a genre, lots of thieves and barbarians. The city of Lankhmar is a fantasy New York city.

Birthright: god power passed onto divine ruler for nationwide magic type effects, players as rulers as the default, divine-blooded individual monster rulers (The Spider, The Banshee, The Manticore). Also includes fantasy Arab and viking and generic european medieval kingdoms.

Planescape: Outer planes where Demons, Devils, Angels, and weird things are. Also an impossible geometry planar city of temporary gates at the center of the alignment cosmology where tons of philosophical factions maneuver to influence reality.

Spelljammer: D&D in space using discredited theories of phlogiston mixed with Solar System crystal spheres and magical flying interplanetary ships. Xenophobic mutant beholder empires, mind flayers in space, and an ancient elves versus orcs space empire war.

Al-Qadim: Fantasy D&D Arabian nights. Has a twist on religion and genie based magic.

Kara Tur: Fantasy D&D Far East.

Maztica: Fantasy D&D Meso- and South America, including conquistadors.

Jakandor: Post magical apocalypse two cultures respectively built around necromantic magic and totemic warrior traditions come into contact and conflict over the ruins of the magical past.

Mystara: Lots of themed Fantasy mostly Ethno states such as a halfling five shires area, a fantasy mongol khanate, two warring magical magocracies, a magical trade based nation with a focus on diplomacy and dueling. Also includes some pulp areas and themes such as the uncharted Island of Dread and a Hollow World.

1e:

Conan: Hyperborean fantasy of barbarians and civilization, very sword and sorcery (only lightly fleshed out in the modules).