What's your favorite campaign setting?

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

What's your favorite campaign setting, and why?

You're welcome to choose more than one.

I've listed 15, and i am aware of one more though i cant recall the name. If your favorite isn't listed, then please list on this thread.

Be sure to share with the rest of us why you've chosen the campaign setting you have.

*templeorder made a good point, see below. If your favorite campaign setting is your own, be sure to tell the rest of us a bit more about it.

For those of you with home brew campaigns, listing material on this thread will NOT be taken as threadjacking, for this thread is designed for the benefit of all P&PG members.

What share you?

Enjoy!

[templeorder]

I'm limiting my response to the list to make it simple, but i prefer my own home brew setting i created under the ADnD 1 rules.

I have a real soft spot for Greyhawk because it had a good feel for it, was epic and rife with gods and powers but left a lot to be filled in. Since i love world building, these worlds feel the best to me. Worlds where there are massive amounts of supplements that explain too much sort of impinges on my GM style. I wont say its bad, because a lot of GM's like the detail and appreciate the effort they do not have to do... but i love DIY and Greyhawk was the first world i "did" it to.

[RMajere]

My favorite campaign setting isn't in the list, and I'll proclaim it's fabulousness every chance I get. White Wolf's/Sword and Sorcery's Scarred Lands d20 campaign setting is AWESOME. So that's where my vote goes.

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

If you would, RMajere, please tell us more about this setting. Thanks.

[MortonStromgal]

So for long term play I would say Forgotten Realms, however I love short jaunts into Ravenloft & Planescape. Additionally I enjoy short campaigns (12 or so adventures) in Dragonlance (Specifically the War of the Lance or before) & Darksun.

[edit] If we are going with 3rd party I have a love/hate relationship with Midnight, I love the concept but I want less D&D in my Sauron wins version of Middle Earth.
http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/MIDNIG...gns:_Main_Page

Scarred Lands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarred_Lands

[Oldgamer]

For nostalgic reasons, Dragonlance is my favorite, and like MortonStromgal, I enjoy War of the Lance and before.

But I love Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. FR for being so fleshed out and diverse and Greyhawk for it's high fantasy and medieval European feel that was so much of earlier D&D.

[Baron_Samedi]

Ravenloft...

Its the one setting i can think of, outside of Dark Sun, where the objective goes beyond simply completing an adventure, but rather survival is the name of the game. Also, its great for those who want to get a taste of the different campaign settings out there, as there is a realm, or pocket domain from each of the campaign setttings.(Sithicus from Dragonlance, Al-Kathos from Al-Qadim, Kalidnay from Dark Sun; and there was one from Planescape that eludes my mind for the moment.) Not to mention it is a great equalizer for those 2e and 3.x players out there, with variant magic ratings for each domain and the general absence of the Gods limits players powers and gives them pause before charging into battle...if the local darklord doesn't believe in your kind of magic, or thinks he or she is better than your God, guess what kids? You're at a handicap! It just provides an exciting game with an indeterminite outcome. But i also recognize there are those who want to play more fantasy based systems than horror, so I can understand those who aren't really big fans. Although, most people who have given the system a try, at least in my experience speak fondly of it....

[Dark]

You forgot to add Thieves' World Sanctuary by Green Ronin Publishing but Forgotten Realms would be a close second.

[Webhead]

Dark Sun all the way.

A much "grittier", more "survivalist" style of setting and one in which all magic has consequences. The gods have abandoned the world and thus the only clerics are those that worship the Dragon Kings, ancient sorcerers of frightening power. Arcane magic is divided into two types; Defilers- whose magic is strong but who recklessly ravage the earth to fuel their spells and Preservers- who try to take only what they need and preserve the already fleeting resources of their planet.

Plus, there are some absolute awesome things at work in the background that explain what is happening to the world and why it is such a miserable place. A lot of Athas is a mystery and simply traveling from place to place is a potentially life-threatening endeavor.

After that, I suppose it would be Al-Qadim. If prefer things that break away from the "Medieval Europe" stylings. Not because that style of campaign is bad but because it is (for me) all too common.

[Windstar]

Most favorite was War of the Lance, played it continuously for weekly till DM moved, It had flair and flavor of the fanasty realm that I favor. FR is next because it has been well thought out and fleshed out. Dark sun a very close third, only problem with it was psionics, I have never liked psionics and probably never will. But the new races and the back ground was awesome.

[BrotherDog]

Dark Sun all the way.

A much "grittier", more "survivalist" style of setting and one in which all magic has consequences. The gods have abandoned the world and thus the only clerics are those that worship the Dragon Kings, ancient sorcerers of frightening power. Arcane magic is divided into two types; Defilers- whose magic is strong but who recklessly ravage the earth to fuel their spells and Preservers- who try to take only what they need and preserve the already fleeting resources of their planet.

Plus, there are some absolute awesome things at work in the background that explain what is happening to the world and why it is such a miserable place. A lot of Athas is a mystery and simply traveling from place to place is a potentially life-threatening endeavor.

After that, I suppose it would be Al-Qadim. If prefer things that break away from the "Medieval Europe" stylings. Not because that style of campaign is bad but because it is (for me) all too common.

I was under the impression that the clerics/priests of Athas worshiped the Elements, at least as the novels go.

Zakhara is refreshing in many other ways too. One can never assume who is evil/good based on race.

[Webhead]

I was under the impression that the clerics/priests of Athas worshiped the Elements, at least as the novels go...

It's been so long I had nearly forgotten about them...

Yes, there are also the elemental priests who worship one of the four "classical" elements (Earth, Fire, Water, Air).

Besides them, the only "priests" or "clerics" are the Templars who serve and worship the Dragon Kings.

[Grimwell]

You spelled Qadim =)

[Dimthar]

As for running: Forgotten Realms. I guess the reason is because is Standard, very rich in background and history, tons of info (Maps, NPCs, Villains), and very well documented. In summary, very little work for me other than the Politics and the Plots.

Definitely I enjoy Ravenloft, although don't normally run a campaign there, but rather use the "kidnapped by the mists: Weekend in hell" theme, that is by having Ravenloft interlope (conjunctions) with FR.

Love Al-Qadim since it came out, if running FR, the characters at least have to go once there.

[Dytrrnikl]

On the list, it's Dark Sun first followed by Forgotten Realms. However, overall, my favorite setting is the homebrew one I created during 2E, called Ne'ernight, that started as a way to have a campaign where the characters became immortal and deities of the setting through divine ascension.

It's a sort of ancient greek like setting, in a world where the major continent has a landlocked sea that is large enough to fit the continental United States in it with some room to spare.

Their are two pantheons one with 12 Deities and one with 12 philosophies, with the two in constant conflict, causing war to spread throughout the land. The Philosophies are basically my take on what happens if enough people believe with the power of faith in the same idea - it comes alive in its own way and takes a psuedolife of its own. This conflict, while it is the major plot point, if you will, for the setting, other stories could be played out easily enough.

Due to a cataclysmic event, in which a lich attempted to reassemble an artifact called the Elfsun, arcane magic and its practitioners are ostracized and loathed by most people, except within two very powerful city-states. The elfsun was an artifact designed to open a 1 mile wide gate that lead to some really horrible place. It compelled elfves and fae folk alike to enter it, completely ignoring any and all protections to compulsions.

The Lich was eventually thwarted, but only after he had assembled the Elfsun and untold tens to hundreds of thousands of elven and fae folk entered the gate. The magical backlash of opening a gate that large caused tremendous and widesweeping destruction across the world. The two moons of the world spontaneously combusted, effectively adding two more 'suns' to the world. This constantly bathes the world in sunlight. However, the world is not a desert planet. Lloth's presence was banished from the world during an event called the Upheaval, with drow splitting into two distinct races - drow who remained below and the Aldurra who returned to the surface. Additionally, the Elfsun caused a dramatic change to arcane magic-users - wizards could no longer had access to all 8 school of magic. They began play with the ability to cast spells from 4 schools of magic and could only ever cast spells or use magic items with magic from one of those four schools. At 5th level they had to pick a primary school, which dictated what special abilties they developed as they advanced further.

Well, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. I've got 6 or 7 binders at home filled with tons of info about the setting. I even entered it into the contest that brought the gaming community Eberron.