Which World Box set to buy?

[NarlethDrider]

I went with A Campaign Setting & Dungeon Crawl Classics 35: Gazetteer of the Known Realm and I absolutely love it! I put aside my stack of Eberron books and haven't looked back. There are so many adventure/campaign hooks built in to the system, but at the same time they made the setting so open that it is easy to run in any direction with what you want to do as a DM.

It takes care of all the annoying work for a campaign, but leave you in control of it without having to discount any kind of cannon.

/swoon for the Known Realms!

I'll be runnin Into the Wilds to start with so thats leanin me toward the KR

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I bought Wilderlands thanks to hype here, but I am very very disappointed with it. It's certainly worth the money in the amount of detail you get, but the detail is largely gibberish, almost like it was randomly generated by tables or something. And while there is a lot of detail, the detail is quite shallow.

 

[grodog]

There's always the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, of course, if you're being turned off to both the DCC world, and the Wilderlands

 

[CaptainChaos]

I picked up DCC 35 and am now suffering from buyer's remorse. I've picked up other DCCs and use them from time to time, but the world itself has turned out to be ho-hum in my opinion.

I hear you, but that seems like exactly what this product was striving to be: totally bland, generic, and unchallenging. Like the DCC line as a whole, it simply embraces wholesale the stereotypes of "old skool gaming."

 

[Grimstaff]

Unchallenging? If by that you mean that its not weird in some way, like Eberron or Dark Sun, then, yeah. IMHO, however worlds like that stunt a DM's creativity, cramming a "hook" or "theme" down their throats, whereas worlds like GH, FR, and the new DCC35 offer DMs a template that players will already have some basic familiarity with, but still leave plenty of room to make it unique in whichever way he/she desires, rather than in some way someone else desired. Not that I'm knocking that, it just isn't what I look for in a setting. I'd much rather add stuff I think is cool to a setting, rather than eliminate things I find silly, like lightning trains and psionic bugs.

I highly recommend DCC35 as a setting. Wilderlands is also nice. I would still like to see some work done on GH. Paizo?

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

edit: see below

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

...I have my races & cultures already made up & just need a world to put them in. ... So, what do you think?

Kingdoms of Kalamar ATLAS is what I think!

 

[Aus_Snow]

Unchallenging? If by that you mean that its not weird in some way, like Eberron or Dark Sun, then, yeah. IMHO, however worlds like that stunt a DM's creativity, cramming a "hook" or "theme" down their throats, whereas worlds like GH, FR, and the new DCC35 offer DMs a template that players will already have some basic familiarity with, but still leave plenty of room to make it unique in whichever way he/she desires, rather than in some way someone else desired.

No, they don't - or at the very least, not universally. I know this as absolute fact, from experience.

Not that I'm knocking that

Yes. Yes, you are.

(. . .) I'd much rather add stuff I think is cool to a setting, rather than eliminate things I find silly, like lightning trains and psionic bugs.

Sure. As opposed to wizards and fanatical priests of non-existent deities, casting spells and slaughtering 'monsters' that you would never find even in mythology? O. . . K. . .


Well, with that cleared up, I'll just add that I like vanilla fantasy as much as the next gamer. Heroic fantasy, in particular. And, FWIW, I've heard good things of both the settings mentioned in the OP.

 

[Agamon]

Kingdoms of Kalamar ATLAS is what I think!

That's not a bad idea. KoK maps are awesome, and that's all he really needs by the sounds of it; a place to put his races and cultures and stuff.

 

[DragonLancer]

I recommend the Known Realms CS big time. Yes, it's generic and to some minds vanilla, but its one of the best settings I have found. Theres more than enough room there to plonk down anything you want to add or change, whereas I find the Wilderlands to be just far too cluttered.

Known Realms. You know it makes sense.