Your least favourite setting

[Campbell]

Too true. IK just feels like a setting that uses D&D 3.5 for business reasons. There's nothing wrong with that, and I'm a big fan of PP, but it does make for some jarring disconnects. I'm currently looking at other systems to use to run IK. Hero and Gurps 4e are in the lead right now, but I've heard about tweaking Black Company, using Tri-Stat, and someone suggested Exalted, but that's simply not going to happen.

If Iron Lore shapes up to be as good as what the previews suggest I'm probably going to run an IK game with that, using Grim Tales' gun rules, and some whipped up Traits for demihuman races that feature prominently in the Iron Kingdoms. Additionally, you might consider Grim Tales as a solution to your mechanical woes.

 

[der_kluge]

Spelljammer. Bar none. Hey, look - it's D&D in space. Whoopdy-freaking-doo.

Dragonlance. Never cared for it. Never read the novels. Ok, so it's got a lot of dragons in it. nice.

Scarred Lands. Hey, big freaking titans lying around. Nothing about this setting interests me.

Eberron. I know absolutely nothing about this setting. Nor do I really care to.

Kingdoms of Kalamar. Reads like stereo instructions. Hey, we're going to give you something that's just like earth, except... lame.

Birthright. The setting has potential, but I don't care for the racial conflict stuff.

Hollow World. I'm ashamed to admit that I own this. The idea is not half-bad, but they totally wussed out and said, "it's here because it's magic, and the gods put it here." *barf* If there were some like scientific basis for the thing, then it might have been pretty good. Except the cover art totally sucked.



Wow. I have a lot of anger in me. Must be late.

 

[Arkhandus]

In D&D....... Ravenloft or Forgotten Realms, probably Ravenloft.

Of all RPGs I know anything about..... White Wolf's World of Darkness stuff.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I don't think you read this thread very well. It's about "your least favorite setting", not "what's objectively bad". Heck, virtually every FR complaint on this thread had to do with DM problems, not setting problems.

Hmm...good points.

 

[radferth]

...
I remember first reading through my old 2e Monstrous Manual and reading about 'crashed Illithid Jammer ships' and thinking 'What the hell is this? Spaceships in D&D?' That was my first exposure to SJ. ...

My brother still occasionally tortures me by reading the 2E Monstrous Manual description of the patriarch grell.

 

[Hurtfultater]

If Iron Lore shapes up to be as good as what the previews suggest I'm probably going to run an IK game with that, using Grim Tales' gun rules, and some whipped up Traits for demihuman races that feature prominently in the Iron Kingdoms. Additionally, you might consider Grim Tales as a solution to your mechanical woes.

Thanks for the ideas. Do share when you try Iron Lore.

On the thread subject, I've never gotten along with the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, or Spelljammer. For older D&D settings, Planescape, Dark Sun, and Generic High Fantasy Land (fleshed out and developed as needed) all worked, and for me at least, and GHFL was just FL with all the annoying bits (most of them, for me) filed off.

 

[James Heard]

Al-Qadim must have a pretty loyal following, as being that it has not yet been metioned.

It's awesome. Even when it wasn't particularly inspiring mechanics-wise it's still the most visually breathtaking set of games I own.

As for my vote for worst setting ever? Rifts. Followed closely by um, Lords of Creation? It's up in my attic still rotting from being dismissed by me in Jr. High School as incredibly lame and dorkiest setting (not to mention worst mechanics) ever. By dorky and lame Jr. High school me, no less. I should have unloaded it years ago, but it's a reminder of bad purchasing.

 

[pogre]

Valus!



It's pick on Destan Day...
(please see the cross-gender character thread for helpful hints)



Honestly, I'm not a big fan of Dragon Lance.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Dragonlance is the worst, I think; it always ends up being a silly setting that takes itself too seriously.

I don't like Eberron (too modern in its outlook, too cheesy), nor do I like the Forgotten Realms (too developed, too many powerful NPCs, not enough to differentiate itself from other settings, no major 'hooks' to the setting, has a 'cobbled-together' feel).

 

[Gothmog]

The worst for me are:

#1 Planescape- the "berk" this, and jargon was just too over the top. Plus the planes became mundane, and the setting's outlook was far too modern and unified to represent the vast unknown that should be the outer planes. I know a lot of people love it, and what drew them to it is what drove me away from it. And the artwork was an absolute turn off for me- I liked some of RK Post's stuff for it, but loathed DiTerlizzi.

#2 Dragonlance- the ultimate railroad campaign world, it has basically ONE plotline per "age" where the main movers and shakers are the only characters that matter, and everyone else is an extra. Its a decent vehicle for novels, but absolutely terrible for a campaign world- and I tried running 3 campaigns in it, so I know.

#3 Forgotten Realms- the problem here is information overload. I liked the original grey box version of FR, but past that it bloated like a dead whale, and was not internally consistent (ie, too many developers). You can run a decent campaign in one corner of the world if you ignore the rest, but trying to keep up with canon, the ultra-high magic levels, godly NPCs, and fending off fanboy players when you change something made me toss in the towel on FR long ago.

#4 Eberron- I tried to like it, read the book, and while it has some interesting ideas, its "more D&D than D&D" or as another poster put it, "FR on crack". Including everything and the kitchen sink, while good from a marketing perspective for WotC, made the world seem contrived to me, and the cultural outlooks and beliefs of people in the setting is far too modern for my tastes. It also seems like the ultimate power escalation setting- but time will tell.