Poll: Favorite D&D campaign settings

ace_of_something

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As and avid player of D&D since way back in 1989. I have hit my personal 20th anniversary of playing the game. I was thinking of the campaign settings and I am wondering fellow escapists which setting do you find the most fun to play in?

For the uninformed; the different settings are just that "Settings" in one world or another you get a different feel, different environs, races, and tech levels to name a few things. Your classes and guilds become more in depth and more specific. Keep in mind there's only 8 Slots in a poll. I tried to pick the most fleshed out and diverse campaigns not ones that stick really close to the basic setting.

I am not putting in an ?other? option These are the most well known and (some formerly) widely played with the highest amount of source material. More importantly there are only 8 options on a poll. If you must; Just vote for you fave of the choices and if you much prefer a different setting tell us about it. Oh and by the way there's only 8 slots in a poll.

I've even made some homebrewed versions myself. Usually a mishmash of two or three settings. My most successful being a mix of Rokugan and Eberron set in a large oceanic world filled by large islands and archipelagos a very seafaring world 'pirate age' world. (No gunpowder though :p) I would put homebrew but most people would vote for that so it wouldn't be an interesting gauge on what is p remade which is the idea. Also, there are only 8 slots in a poll so something will likely be missed.

Dragonlance
is pretty close to standard d&d it?s big draw is the awesome novels which the world sprang forth from. Krynn (the world) is a world of grays however with evil and good rarely being clearly defined. Wizards are incredibly rare due to the deadly trials they must go thru to even BEGIN studying the art. This world also had a very deep history pertaining to it?s creation myths (although in D&D they aren?t myths) and gods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance

Spelljammer
this setting was nuts basically you are fantasy characters in space or rather the fantasy version called ?wildspace? No, there are no lasers or big engines. You had to use ships, the kind of ships with sails to travel. Playing here was kind of reminiscent of a high seas adventure as the most advanced races had flintlocks and iron spelljammers (ships). Planets and dimensions belong to different races.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelljammer

Eberron
The most recent addition to the D&D family. Eberron is a high adventure, high espionage world with flavors of pulp and noir choir. It?s set shortly after a war that was ended by a cataclysmic magical disaster of unknown origin Which has left a large region barren and bizarre region in the main continent. The technology level is similar to that of the industrial age however it is done by the harnessing of magical energies such as trapping living fire elementals to propel flying ships. The ?Last War? as it?s called pushed these technological limits by creating living humanoid constructs (robots) called ?Warforged.? Some people of certain prestigious ?houses? are born with magical ?dragonmarks?. D&D Online is based off of one of the secondary regions of this world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberron

Ravenloft
A dark creepy Gothic world filled with oppressed villages. The magic of the gods (divine) is weakened here. Undead are common place and darkness prevails. Vampires (covertly) rule nations. The flavor here is very much Gothic horror. Characters often lose or barely win. Some characters have to make ?Dark Power? checks when using certain abilities to avoid being overtaken by the evil that pervades the very air.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenloft

Dark Sun
Welcome to Athas a dying world world once teeming with life now stripped to a giant barren wasteland save a giant Sea of Silt. Despite what you?d think the ?arabic? influence is light here. More influenced by Dune really. This is, as far as I know, the first setting that used ?Psionics? rather than ?magic? which on paper is pretty much the same thing but in roleplaying is vastly different. The basic goal of this world is survival in this dying world circled by a massive and oppressive sun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Sun

Rokugan aka Legend of the Five Rings
This setting is much more influenced by feudal japan. It is much more xenophobic too; Humans are the predominant race and the two or three races that aren?t humans are very very rare. You can pick one of the ?great clans? to be part of an intricate family/social/economic structure to be a part of I always liked playing a member of the ?Crane Clan?. Honor is far more important than alignment as the great clans battle the shadowlands taint from spreading to the empire. The shadowlands are an area to the south from which all demons and oni come.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rokugan

Forgotten Realms
Welcome Faerûn the region of the world Abeir-Toril which this is set in. Chances are as gamers this is the setting you are most familiar with as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights are set here. Forgotten Realms has a countless number of gods, races, and regions that all mirror earth. Meaning races that resemble medieval Norsemen, Persians, Even some Asian flavored areas and races for each, Jungle Dwarves, Desert Elves, Arctic Dwarves, ?Sun Elves? all are included. This world is also well known for ?the underdark? a vast series of caverns and tunnels that is the placed underneath the main continent which it is the same size as.
However in the new edition of D&D Forgotten Realms is very different most of the gods have died, been destroyed, or lost power. The world was ripped apart by a disaster of magical energy as an old continent was pulled from another plane of existence and entered the world. Now there are floating islands, vast 100 kilometer holes leading to the underdark and planar travel is nearly impossible. People are form odd ?Spellscars? allowing them to harness this dangerous magical energy. Vote for whichever version you prefer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms


Tell Us stories of adventures in these worlds if you got them!

If I've explained something improperly or left out an important detail of the setting feel free to give your interpretation or information, just don't hurt my feelings. I'm so very sensitive.
 

ThaBenMan

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Where the hell is Planescape?! I've never even heard of Rokugan.

Well, out of the choices presented, I suppose I'll pick... Dark Sun. It's sort of post-apocalypse fantasy, pretty damn cool.
 

ace_of_something

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ThaBenMan said:
Where the hell is Planescape?!
Planescape existed almost exclusively out of dragon magazine; thus it didn't meet the 'lot of source material' requirement stated in the OP.

Tell the informed about Planescape.
 

PedroSteckecilo

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Feb 7, 2008
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Mine pretty much go like this...

1) Eberron, because I love the pulpy magi-tech, final fantasyness of it all.
2) Planescape, because I love the freaky deaky wierdness and dimension hopping.
3) Darksun, because a post apocalyptic fantasy world is awesome!
4) Spelljammer, because it's COOL!
5) Ravenloft, also, because it's cool.

I don't mind Dragonlance, but it's too "plot heavy" to really be a good "game setting" and serves as a much better fiction setting.

I hate Forgotten Realms though, it's a High Magic World where magic has changed NOTHING about the world what so ever. You still have a basically medieval feudal society with no magical improvements despite the fact that every farmer and his DOG has a +1 Magic Item and you could throw a rock and hit a dozen Arch-Mages (at least, in 2nd/3rd ed they did, I don't know about 4th)
 

ace_of_something

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PedroSteckecilo said:
Mine pretty much go like this...

1) Eberron, because I love the pulpy magi-tech, final fantasyness of it all.
2) Planescape, because I love the freaky deaky wierdness and dimension hopping.
3) Darksun, because a post apocalyptic fantasy world is awesome!
4) Spelljammer, because it's COOL!
5) Ravenloft, also, because it's cool.

I don't mind Dragonlance, but it's too "plot heavy" to really be a good "game setting" and serves as a much better fiction setting.

I hate Forgotten Realms though, it's a High Magic World where magic has changed NOTHING about the world what so ever. You still have a basically medieval feudal society with no magical improvements despite the fact that every farmer and his DOG has a +1 Magic Item and you could throw a rock and hit a dozen Arch-Mages (at least, in 2nd/3rd ed they did, I don't know about 4th)
As stated in the OP 4th ed has changed it a lot. edit: but yeah that always bugged me about it too.
 

The Shade

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I have an imagination, so I'm gonna go with Homebrew! Where's that option?

I never bothered with the pre-fab stuff. (Except a couple of store-bought adventures, because I was lazy.) I just made up my own stuff. More time-consuming, but way more fun!
 

ThaBenMan

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ace_of_something said:
ThaBenMan said:
Where the hell is Planescape?!
Planescape existed almost exclusively out of dragon magazine; thus it didn't meet the 'lot of source material' requirement stated in the OP.

Tell the informed about Planescape.
Really? I have a 2nd edition Planescape boxed set, and I believe there were other books released for 2nd edition and 3rd edition as well.

Well, anyway, Planescape [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape] is awesome - it's just so crazy and different compared to the boring ol' Tolkienesque fantasy of Forgotten Realms. Anybody who has played Planescape: Torment would definitely know that ;D

EDIT: Actually, looking at that article, there were quite a lot supplements released for it, and nowhere does it mention Dragon Magazine...
 

asinann

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PedroSteckecilo said:
I hate Forgotten Realms though, it's a High Magic World where magic has changed NOTHING about the world what so ever. You still have a basically medieval feudal society with no magical improvements despite the fact that every farmer and his DOG has a +1 Magic Item and you could throw a rock and hit a dozen Arch-Mages (at least, in 2nd/3rd ed they did, I don't know about 4th)
If you had read the books at all you would know why magic itself doesn't play a bigger role in changing things; it can't.

The level of magic power is restricted there (magic nearly destroyed the realm once,) so while you might be able to spit and hit 3 arch-mages with it, they aren't the same caliber as an arch-mage in other realms.
 

McClaud

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ThaBenMan said:
I've never even heard of Rokugan.

Well, out of the choices presented, I suppose I'll pick... Dark Sun. It's sort of post-apocalypse fantasy, pretty damn cool.
Rokugan is actually a campaign world from the Legend of the Five Rings CCG that had a first edition that wasn't d20 or D&D related. WotC went to Alderac Games after the first edition stopped printing and offered to pick up printing a second edition of the game in the d20 license. The 3rd edition fell back to the old system with some improvements, and dropped the d20 system. And it plays better with its old system, as well, since everything - including the system - revolve around the campaign world.

I also love Dark Sun, since it turns high fantasy on its ear and basically teaches a lesson about too much magic use.
 

Melancholy Crow

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Whatever happened to Oriental Adventures??
As a truly old-school D&D veteran (a little more emphasis on that old, please), I've played many of the settings. Hell, I played before there were "settings"!
We've gotten many a mile out of the story-telling opportunities provided by Ravenloft (besides, half of my gamers have fond feelings for Ravenloft, having played the original module (adventure). (We've even revisited the original adventure module a couple times, and plan to do it one more time with some twists.)

However, my regular group has played most in a very long-running campaign of my own design, and their input. We've had a rolling cast of players, but still a couple original members, and have enjoyed playing together for over five years on the most recent campaign, which is itself just another chapter in a story started long, long ago.

At any rate, glad I found the Escapist forums!
 

santaandy

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I wish they would bring back Al-Qadim and Kara-Tur as standalone campaign settings for 4e. Also, I hope they come up with a new campaign setting for 4e.
 

Johnnyallstar

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I have to say homebrew as well. I never use pre-fab scripts because the guy who taught me how to play D&D was a VERY easygoing guy who could go with the flow really well, and let the players have alot of freedom with what they did, and basically wrote the story's beginning and built around the players.

So I do the same thing, I'll start with a hook, then let it go from there. I just make up a place and pick a problem and let the chips fall where they may.
 

dungeonmaster

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I like psionics best in dungeons and dragons, it was the most distinct add on's I can think of.
also my favorite monsters were the gith (githzera and githyanki both f'n rock).
 

Flying-Emu

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Well, I've only ever done homebrewed campaigns. I actually built an entire mythos around one of them, including a pantheon and creation story for FIVE religions, a sect of monk-like psychics who connect with the spirit world, as well as an afterlife set.

As in, you could still play your character after death. You weren't able to adventure, but you could seek redemption from your murderer if you were slain or something like that. I'll have to see if I can find that setting in the piles of junk I call my doc folder.

But out of these.

Spelljammer was soooo much fun for the four months we played. I mean, it's like Treasure Planet except with spells and fireballs and the like. A little dull on the lore part, but that's not a big deal when you're out sailing the galaxy in search of phat lootz.

*EDIT*

dungeonmaster said:
I like psionics best in dungeons and dragons, it was the most distinct add on's I can think of.
also my favorite monsters were the gith (githzera and githyanki both f'n rock).
Psionics wasn't an add-on. It was in the original AD&D 1st Edition Players Handbook. The Gith were also introduced in the AD&D 1st Edition Fiend Folio supplement.

The Gith part I added because I wanted to flaunt my knowledge.
 

Graustein

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I'm somewhat partial to Forgotten Realms. I'm not sure why, it just seems synonymous with D&D to me. That, and I love the pantheon.

Although to be fair, I've only ever heard of and read about the other settings, FR is the only one I've actually played in.
 

Nigh Invulnerable

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I'm a huge fan of Dragonlance as a fiction setting, but it's not necessarily my favorite place for a D&D game. Eberron is pretty cool as a setting, but I'm really more of a DIY person so my campaign setting of choice is my own. Forgotten Realms are just boring. Every dog has some kind of spell hidden in his collar, and even farmers aren't really impressed by magic. That's just sad.
 

roekenny

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I liked FR due to fact was only campaign could play on neverwinter nights but also in campaign settings guide had a lot of variety in regions and described each region in great detail but new version they ripped all that out so could streamline it for action orientated campaigns like rest of the 4ed. But I use it as a rough guide reduce use of magic and add a touch of psionic and truenaming and pact magic make them outlawed since no god can regulate such magic what makes it far more interesting when PC's have to hide their powers or face a foe who dose not play by rules they do as admit FR campaign can stale unless add a bit of home-brew to it but that same for all campaigns.

Just a shame can't find a group to play no more and not using dnd insider since only use 4th ed and I hate it since gone are days could have fun with magic out of combat making your elven archer snog a butt ugly half orc with a simple dominate spell, or having a monk have a nice snooze while rest of part scale down a nasty cliff face and near bottom they see you jump off give them cheeky smile as you pass them and they tell them what took them so long. When finally reach the bottom to what the wizard cast burden on them and rest walk on leaving them lagging behind and then ask the monk what took him so long when reaches their camp 2 hours later heh.
 

LordSnakeEyes

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asinann said:
PedroSteckecilo said:
I hate Forgotten Realms though, it's a High Magic World where magic has changed NOTHING about the world what so ever. You still have a basically medieval feudal society with no magical improvements despite the fact that every farmer and his DOG has a +1 Magic Item and you could throw a rock and hit a dozen Arch-Mages (at least, in 2nd/3rd ed they did, I don't know about 4th)
If you had read the books at all you would know why magic itself doesn't play a bigger role in changing things; it can't.

The level of magic power is restricted there (magic nearly destroyed the realm once,) so while you might be able to spit and hit 3 arch-mages with it, they aren't the same caliber as an arch-mage in other realms.
Actually, in my team's campaign setting, we "unrestricted" magic in a way... See, we got the Epic level Handbook and the deity book, (small note: at least half our players are simplistic adventurer types, whereas I'm often the bad guy of the game, p.s. I don't lose much) anyway, I basically made a Sorcerer who killed Orcus and used a spell I made using the ELH to suck up his demonic essence (thus I was a Demon Lord) went on to become the God Of Magic by killing off the following (and taking their Divine Portfolios): Mystra, Boccob, Nerull and St-Cuthbert (although St-Cuthbert is because I was enforcing Anarchy as opposed to his Lawful tendencies) and although my DM said that I was NOT to release magic (even though I was, by then, the supreme god of magic) or else he'd restart the world I've built so hard to achieve a status in, I basically created Gems that allow one to enhance the power of his spells almost 10 fold (making the Wish Spell the most powerful thing ever since I'd tinkered my Eye, which was one of the gems, to rid me of XP costs) allowing my mortal vassals to almost "give" magic away and thanks to me, the world soon had guns (that basically threw the lightning bolt spell or used transmutation to propel small metal spikes), free Energy/Food/material and mass produced gloves that allowed people to meld materials to their will, it was Utopia (my own version of Atlantis). Although it was kinda tyrannically ruled by Mages, they answered to me, making me the supreme overlord. But my Sorcerer (whom BTW was Called Seraph) got bored with it all and ascended his godhood to become something more (basically sit alongside Ao).

But since the pcs were taking all my visionnary work and started the "Era Of Peace" which btw was boring, I made SnakeEyes (hence my profile name) the Pirate, with my modest beginnings as a smuggler and assassin, I quickly rose to power as lord of the seas and stole the Shards Of Seraph one by one and used them to destroy eachother (except one that I used to raise the World Capital, which became known as Atlantis XD as well as kill most figures of authority, plunging the world into a dark chaos where I presently sit on top of the Food Chain as a level 20 Swashbuckler, 20 Fighter, 20 Psion and 20 Rogue)

Said that way I'm starting to feel over-powered... God I'm Good
 

Lord RPGs

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While I like the Forgotten Realms, I have to admit, Eberron get's my vote. Why? The steampunk-y style. It's similar enough to the standard D&D set-up, but there's always something wonderfully amusing about bringing a gun to a sword-fight.

My friends hate me for doing that, mind you. Catfolk + Pistol X Warlock= Hard as hell to catch and kill if you're a melee guy.