D&D General Why did you pick your campaign setting?

[Baldurs_Underdark]

Forgotten Realms, because I'm lazy and the wiki is awesome.

For a new story, I'll just pick a spot on the map where the party is unlikely to cross paths with other / previous adventures.

 

[cbwjm]

My setting currently is homebrew, I chose it because I like making stuff. I could have easily run FR, dark sun, I dragonlance if I wanted to, but I decided to create something new. I had no idea what it would look like, and honestly it is probably a mish mash of settings from various novels and settings that I've merged into a single setting, but I like it. Probably isn't even that imaginative when I really stop and look at it.

 

[Lyxen]

Latest is homebrew, based on previous homebrew, but when I'm feeling lazy or when I'm lacking time I have no problem running a streamlined version of a published setting, usually Greyhawk or even the FR if someone twists my arm (for example the adventure itself).

 

[R_J_K75]

Kaybee Toys was having a sale on BECMI modules. Been in Mystara ever since.

I had the same thing happen to me. After I started playing again 1995ish after a year or two break, I stopped into a KB Toys and bought up a bunch of discounted AD&D modules and boxed sets. One I remember specifically was the Astromundi Cluster. It was pretty easy to find discounted products at that time at game stores, Hobbytown USA, Walden Books and Media Play. Me and a friend used to take trips around town to these places and usually came back with something new. We ended up playing alot of different TSR campaign settings through the mid to late 90s up until 3E came out, but FR was pretty much always our default.

 

[Blue]

I create a new homebrew setting for every campaign, and run in it 4-7 years historically. Part of the campaign process is thinking about what stories can be explored in that setting that can't in other settings, and those themes get woven in.

For example in my current Masks of the Imperium campaign, a couple of the things we are exploring are:
1. A worn out Imperium in a worn out world - literally there is not enough magic to cast spells of 6th level and higher.
2. Colonizing a new world, but one that already has civilizations at "similar tech" - not like Europe colonizing the Americas.
3. Characters all starting as agents of the Imperium, having woken one of the 101 semi-sentient artifact masks that will grow with them. Between that and being able to requisition any mundane equipment it has been the least loot-focused and non-murder-hobo campaign I've ever run.
4. Exploring genocide (of the Dwarves) and the ethics of created servitor races (Drow and Haliflings).

Plus of course other heroic aspects that could be found elsewhere, like dealing with an usurper, etc.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I picked Greyhawk.

But it was a long and weird road getting there. Back in the late 2e and then the 3e days the impression my young self and group had was that Greyhawk was a boring kitchen sink setting, even moreso than FR.

Years pass, and I get involved in the OSR and get really interested in those long ago, wood paneled basement nascent days of the hobby. So, I get the World of Greyhawk boxed set and just start reading it. And despite my dislike for High Gygaxian writing it's...good?

Not inundated with information, great setups for a world just on the cusp of turning over into a chaos, but in a hundred possible directions. Simmering conflicts that can be stirred up by player actions everywhere you look. A chef's kiss of a setting.

 

[Jer]

My current campaign's setting is because we wanted to play an Eberron-like game but my players prefer to have collaborative worldbuilding as part of the campaign, so we set up a world that has an early 20th century between the two world wars feel and have gone from there.

My previous campaign with them used the 13th age Dragon Empire as a template because we were just starting out in 13th age and it made sense. And it fit with the group's sensibilities since it is very much a template to build your own world onto.

When I was younger I used Mystara because I was a B/X and BECMI guy so I gravitated towards it. I still enjoy it as a world and will use ideas from it (especially the Hollow World lost world stuff - which fits into our current campaign nicely as well). But when I run games for kids now I tend to use a "D&D default" gameworld that I guess is the Realms (or at least it pulls a lot of names from the Realms since we base things off the Starter Sets), but since the games are usually less political and more local than the ones for my regular group it doesn't really matter.

 

[payn]

Golarion.

Lots of chatter about hating kitchen sink settings. I was a bit hesitant because it was a Paizo setting and not a D&D setting. Though, I dove into the APs with glee as they were really fun campaigns (mostly) with a new flavor for each one. The Inner Sea Guide is one of the best setting books I have owned. After so many years of experience with the setting, it has the advantage of having a perfect spot for a specific campaign like sword and sorcery, fantasy pirates, or Egyptian lost tombs and secrets. At this point, I am confident I could run a globe spanning sandbox in Golarion and never get bored.

 

[jgsugden]

Pick is the wrong word. My homebrew predates the Forgotten Realms as a product. There were no options... you ran your own game at that time, and didn`t think about options.

 

[James Gasik]

I ran Forgotten Realms for many years. Even though I now wish it wasn't the "default setting" for 5e, I still have a soft spot for it, because I'm a lore junkie. I love reading about all the various tidbits of Realmslore, researching people and places, and finding lore-friendly names and backstories for my characters.

I love the wide variety of Gods and cultures, and have fond memories of my copy of Forgotten Realms adventures and The Ruins of Undermountain (I still have the maps! One day I'll run it again! Maybe!).

The wiki and the Candlekeep website are great resources even if you don't have all the books or read tons of the novels in the TSR days.