Pants
First Post
To answer your question:
Eberron. No doubt. It's fresh, it's new, it doesn't have mountains upon mountains of editions old material that when contradicted will cause the fans to erupt in a violent effulgence of 'omg it iz teh sux' comments. It also isn't Epic Tolkien Fantasy, something which I think only Greyhawk does well. It has more prominent low-level magic than GH or FR, but high level stuff is rare and is usually in the hands of the many villains.
Not to say that I don't like FR, but too much of it annoys me, from the almost incompetant James Bond-esque 'villains' of the setting, to the overly manipulative gods, the quite prominent high-level NPC's (sure, you CAN ignore them, but they are a feature of the setting), and the overabundance of elvish subraces.
To confuse your question:
Iron Kingdoms, a sort-of sword and steam styled campaign is really good. Very good B&W art and especially high production values. It most definitely is not Tolkien styled and really the only reason I rank it lower than Eberron on my taste-o-meter is because some of the rules usage is kinda clunky at times. Other than that, it's solid god.
Wilderlands of High Fantasy has been getting some rave reviews, almost enough to encourage me to buy it... if I weren't poor.
On the whole WotC vs d20 angle:
Eh. There're some good d20 books and some good WotC books. WotC has excellent production values, but so do a few d20 companies. WotC gets flack for not having enough flavor in their books, which is somewhat of an erroneous statement. Races of Stone has lots of flavor. So do the other Races series. Draco, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness are chock full of flavor, as are 95% of their campaign setting books. Manual of the Planes is 85% flavor. So, it IS there, but for whatever reasons, some seem to focus only on the Complete books (which also have some flavor).
It's almost as equally erroneous as saying that only WotC stuff is good.
I own some good 3rd-party stuff (Monsternomicon, Iron Kingdom's Character Guide, Book of Fiends), some baaaaad 3rd party stuff (Demons and Devils), and the boringly mediocre (Path of the Sword, Arcana Evolved). I also own the Epic Level Handbook by WotC, probably the lowest of their low and the Draconomicon, a book that kicks all sorts of rear.
For good 3rd-party stuff, Green Ronin, Privateer Press, Necromancer Games, and Malhavoc continually put out quality releases. Privateer Press, in particular, rocks. Everything they put out wins.
Eberron. No doubt. It's fresh, it's new, it doesn't have mountains upon mountains of editions old material that when contradicted will cause the fans to erupt in a violent effulgence of 'omg it iz teh sux' comments. It also isn't Epic Tolkien Fantasy, something which I think only Greyhawk does well. It has more prominent low-level magic than GH or FR, but high level stuff is rare and is usually in the hands of the many villains.
Not to say that I don't like FR, but too much of it annoys me, from the almost incompetant James Bond-esque 'villains' of the setting, to the overly manipulative gods, the quite prominent high-level NPC's (sure, you CAN ignore them, but they are a feature of the setting), and the overabundance of elvish subraces.
To confuse your question:
Iron Kingdoms, a sort-of sword and steam styled campaign is really good. Very good B&W art and especially high production values. It most definitely is not Tolkien styled and really the only reason I rank it lower than Eberron on my taste-o-meter is because some of the rules usage is kinda clunky at times. Other than that, it's solid god.
Wilderlands of High Fantasy has been getting some rave reviews, almost enough to encourage me to buy it... if I weren't poor.
On the whole WotC vs d20 angle:
Eh. There're some good d20 books and some good WotC books. WotC has excellent production values, but so do a few d20 companies. WotC gets flack for not having enough flavor in their books, which is somewhat of an erroneous statement. Races of Stone has lots of flavor. So do the other Races series. Draco, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness are chock full of flavor, as are 95% of their campaign setting books. Manual of the Planes is 85% flavor. So, it IS there, but for whatever reasons, some seem to focus only on the Complete books (which also have some flavor).
It's almost as equally erroneous as saying that only WotC stuff is good.
I own some good 3rd-party stuff (Monsternomicon, Iron Kingdom's Character Guide, Book of Fiends), some baaaaad 3rd party stuff (Demons and Devils), and the boringly mediocre (Path of the Sword, Arcana Evolved). I also own the Epic Level Handbook by WotC, probably the lowest of their low and the Draconomicon, a book that kicks all sorts of rear.
For good 3rd-party stuff, Green Ronin, Privateer Press, Necromancer Games, and Malhavoc continually put out quality releases. Privateer Press, in particular, rocks. Everything they put out wins.
. It took me a second attempt to discover the loads of great ideas that book contains 
