D&D 4E Which 4e setting do you prefer?

[MerricB]

It's funny: I like the mythology behind the PoL setting a lot more than I like the setting itself. The various settlements and lost nations of Nentir Vale don't really grab me - to a large extent, it doesn't feel "real" enough to me - but the mythology is great. Primordials? Gods? Fantastic!

Cheers!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

It's funny: I like the mythology behind the PoL setting a lot more than I like the setting itself. The various settlements and lost nations of Nentir Vale don't really grab me - to a large extent, it doesn't feel "real" enough to me - but the mythology is great. Primordials? Gods? Fantastic!

Cheers!

Yeah, the funny thing is I invented practically the same cosmology 25 years ago and still use it. Different names, same exact concept. I agree too about the NV, it is not bad, but you really do have to fill in a lot of blanks (which is the idea really). I just figured I'd go use my old homebrew since the cosmology fits fine with the 4e material and I have plenty of old NPCs, countries, maps, etc and it is pretty PoL-esque anyway. I figure I'll drop Fallcrest in somewhere one of these days in some blank spot, it will work.

 

[S'mon]

FR for me, I like that 4e FR is a PoL setting but has a whole world sketched out, too. It has just enough detail to make further creation easy, not enough to constrain me, as long as I don't feel bound by pre-4e stuff.

Second is Nentir Vale - Threats to the Nentir Vale is really cool; but without a larger 'world' it's not really a 'setting', and long term play becomes difficult since once PCs leave the Vale I'd have to make everything up myself.

Eberron & Dark Sun have never interested me. Where Nentir and now FR have "Dark Age Points of Light" as their theme, Eberron has 'Pulp' and Dark Sun has 'Sword & Planet meets Survivalism" - but neither seems to do their theme the way I'd like it. For me, Paizo's Golarion does Pulp a lot better than Eberron. And while I love Sword & Planet I don't like DS Survivalism, and DS leaves out several of the S&P tropes I do like - PCs from Earth, non-evil princesses, decaying but non-evil civilised societies.

 

[AlioTheFool]

Of the ones listed, for play purposes, I'd say Eberron, Realms, Nentir Vale, Dark Sun. To be honest though, I wouldn't play any of them straight up in a campaign. I just steal bits and pieces from the source books, though my last campaign was based in Droaam in Eberron (though I changed things about the setting).

 

[Weregrognard]

It's funny: I like the mythology behind the PoL setting a lot more than I like the setting itself. The various settlements and lost nations of Nentir Vale don't really grab me - to a large extent, it doesn't feel "real" enough to me - but the mythology is great. Primordials? Gods? Fantastic!

Cheers!

Ditto. I see the Nentir Vale as more of an example rather than an actual setting, and don't really get the fandom that's built up around it.

That said, I'm kind of a setting junkie, and can't really choose a favorite It's really a pain in the behind when starting up a new campaign, with the decision paralysis and all. Someday, I'll break the addiction and go homebrew. Someday...

 

[Storminator]

For me it's Eberron by a country mile, and all the rest to close together to call.

I can come up with a dozen awesome Eberron campaigns at the drop of a hat. I can come up with a couple good ones for each of the others except Dark Sun, which I don't know enough about.

PS

 

[Redbadge]

I voted for Dark Sun, but only because Zeitgeist isn't on the list. Gun-wielding tieflings and technology vs. magic FTW!

 

[Siberys]

To expand upon my earlier post;

FR (and Golarion, since it's been mentioned and it has the same problem, IMO) have never been able to grab my attention; they're both way too 'Kitchen sinky' - they have no apparent overridng theme, things are all over the place, everything seems like a pastiche of some real-world culture, so on and so forth. I've only run Golarion when I've done a Paizo AP, and it hasn't ever inspired me beyond the AP. Well, that's not entirely true; Numeria is awesome. But one country out of 40 or 50 something?

Eberron and Dark Sun are both unique in that there was a solid attempt to avoid falling into tropes like 'THIS IS FANTASY EGYPT' (cultural themes of Dark Sun city-states notwithstanding, as those end up being minor flavor-points for the most part anyways). I mean, Eberron is definitely kitchen sinky, but it does it in a way that makes everything distinctly Eberrony, whereas FR and Golarion don't make the stuff FRy or Golariony.

I don't love PoL, but it's generic without being Pasticheland, and it stays interesting. I don't really consider it to be a setting as much as a frame of reference, though.

I guess it comes down to this; even if I know rationally that I couldn't have done the quality work that went into FR and Golarion, I look at them and think "I could have done this at home with an atlas and a fantasy name generator".

All IMO and YMMV, of course.

 

[CasvalRemDeikun]

Eberron is my favorite setting from the list. It is kitchen sink, but doesn't feel kitchen-sinky. It can do everything, Post-Apocalyptic (Mournland), traditional Fantasy, High Seas, just about everything.

PoL is a clean slate, but they are gradually adding in stuff.

Forgotten Realms suffers from the fact that I still remember it as the setting of uber-NPCs. Even though it isn't that setting anymore (THANK GOD), it still has that history. In contrast to the base setting, the Neverwinter Campaign Setting looks very cool.

Dark Sun just isn't enjoyable to me. It does one thing well, and that is it.

Kara-Tur will be getting released as a Dungeon and Dragon only setting, which I am very excited about. Hopefully it will be divorced from FR like it was originally.

I am curious what they are going to announce this year for the next setting, if they are announcing anything at all. I am really hoping for Dragonlance.

 

[malraux]

I guess it comes down to this; even if I know rationally that I couldn't have done the quality work that went into FR and Golarion, I look at them and think "I could have done this at home with an atlas and a fantasy name generator".

One guy I gamed with always described FR as the setting that every GM would come up with if you gave him enough time to develop his homebrewed world into a full setting. Not that its a bad thing, but it does end up feeling kinda like exactly what you'd expect.