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Ossian
2009-12-30, 05:30 AM
Hi Folks.

We are starting a new campaign with rather inexperienced D&D players (2nd edition veterans, but they haven´t played in years). I am going to go for D20 3.5 but the rules set is not so important.

I was wondering though if there is a list of short descriptions of the existing campaign settings. Something like a paragraph which describes at a glance the themes and the feeling of stuff like Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Darksun etc...
Stuff like what kind of characters and what kind of stories are supposed to fit in etc...

Wikipedia seems a bit confusing and there is way too much stuff on the web for the little time I can devote to the search.

Many Thanks,

Ossian.

The Dark Fiddler
2009-12-30, 08:19 AM
I can't help with your request, but just know there's no shame in making up your own setting as you go.

dsmiles
2009-12-30, 08:33 AM
Forgotten Realms is the world of Drizzt Do'Urden, Cadderly, and Elminster. "Normal" heroes are kind of overshadowed by the enormity of these characters. High fantasy.

Dark Sun is a desert realm of feral halflings and sorcerer kings. High death rate.

Greyhawk is the "standard (for lack of a better word)" DnD campaign world. Also high fantasy.

Ravenloft is a gothic evil world, where evil is "rewarded" by the demi-plane.

I never got into Eberron, but from what I've read in these forums, it's a "magic as technology" type of world, and a poorly done version, at that.

Foryn Gilnith
2009-12-30, 08:46 AM
FR can be conducted without the Giant Heroes looming over you, but only if you're willing to suspend a fair bit of disbelief. After Greyhawk was less supported, it became the new "generic" setting.

Ravenloft does "reward" (scare quotes important) evil.

Eberron is inspired by pulp fiction (whatever that means). It's a relatively low-level, high-magic world; and is politically unstable after a recent war.

Relatively low-level in that there are still 17th-level wizards running around, and relatively high-magic in that instead of integrating magic/science, they just brute-force with magic. But still, I like it, mostly because it was WotC-supported and doesn't have the towering epic figures of Faerun.

dsmiles
2009-12-30, 08:49 AM
@Foryn Gilnith:
pulp fiction
–noun
fiction dealing with lurid or sensational subjects, often printed on rough, low-quality paper manufactured from wood pulp.
Origin: 1950–55, Americanism

EDIT: The Mummy is a good example of a pulp fiction movie, better known as B-movies.

Ossian
2009-12-30, 08:59 AM
Interesting!

I have also found the following list of settings:

> Birthright
> Planescape
> Oriental Adventures

It seems that Planescape is way too confusing and information packed to be quickly enjoyable, and Or.Adv. seems like a fantasy Japan. What about Birthright?

O.

jmbrown
2009-12-30, 09:00 AM
Dark Sun: Magic destroyed the world leaving most of it a barren wasteland cut off from majority of the planes. Psionics are common and the environment is deadlier than most monsters. Two important words: cannibal halflings.

Eberron: Swashbuckling, romantic fantasy. Unlike most settings, Eberron focuses on personal quests and regional conflicts over world spanning epic conflicts. Magic combines with technology to create a world of living robots and flying airship. Three important words: Halflings riding dinosaurs.

Forgotten Realms: High fantasy where gods walk the earth and typical NPCs have levels in the upper teens. Events focus on world spanning, epic quests with high powered creatures.

Greyhawk: Similar to Forgotten Realms in play style and expectations. Like Forgotten Realms it combines real world civilizations in regional areas like Asian, African, and Indian.

Ravenloft: Horrific realm populated mostly by undead and other powerful evil creatures. Typical encounters can be several levels above party ECL and "good" characters tend to be singled out as the world is harsh and cruel.

That's... pretty much it for 3.5 campaign settings. Dark Sun didn't even get an official campaign book AFAIK.


What about Birthright?

Birthright is basically real time strategy war gaming mixed with D&D character building. You're a leader given power by divine right over a province. Your mission to dominate the other provinces through war or diplomacy. Developing your character is as important as developing your province.

dsmiles
2009-12-30, 09:06 AM
Interesting!

I have also found the following list of settings:

> Birthright
> Planescape
> Oriental Adventures

It seems that Planescape is way too confusing and information packed to be quickly enjoyable, and Or.Adv. seems like a fantasy Japan. What about Birthright?

O.


Didn't care for Birthright...a little too wargame-y for my tastes.

Planescape was fun, but it can get confusing doing all that plane hopping and all.

And as for OA, are you looking at 1e/2e OA, or 3.x OA? Two different things. 3.x is Lot5R based, while 1e/2e was more fantasy japan/china based. Personally, I prefer the 1e/2e OA.

If you really want somehting out of the ordinary, try Hollow World. I don't know if anyone did a 3rd party conversion, but it was fun as a BD&D campaign setting.

EDIT: @jmbrown: Both Darksun and Ravenloft got some 3rd party love in 3.x

jmbrown
2009-12-30, 09:10 AM
EDIT: @jmbrown: Both Darksun and Ravenloft got some 3rd party love in 3.x

Pretty much all the 2E settings from Al'Qadim to Spelljammer have 3.5 conversions as Wizards gave the rights to non-profit fan sites. You still need the original campaign setting guide to understand what's going on and I don't think Dark Sun got one for 3rd edition.

dsmiles
2009-12-30, 09:22 AM
You may be right. The only 3rd party true "campaign sourcebook" I can remember seeing is Ravenloft. All I know is that Darksun got some adventures from a 3rd party publisher.

Kol Korran
2009-12-30, 12:04 PM
obviously i'm biased, but i do like Eberron more than other settings. mostly it's due to several facts:
1) the setting is more mature than FR or Greyhawk- alginements are shades of grey, the gods are but a possibility, not fact, war is grim, long, and unprofitable in most cases- dragons, elves, fiends and other high powered beings make more sense (to me at least), and mmuch of the opposition could be made by economic powers such as the Aurum or the dragonmakred houses (but far from just them)

2) the PCs are not outshined by anyone else. this is my main complaint against FR. level 5-6 and the PCs are a force. 10-11 and they are major powers to be reckoned with, and so on. the setting however give ample opportunity to challange the characters at high levels (the continent of dragons, the dreaming dark, daelkyr and lords of dust)

3) i like what they did with many of the races and how they changed previous perceptions- dinosaur riding halflings have been mentioned. good necromacy elves. a nation of very cunning and manipulative gnomes. goblinoids are second class citizens, not enemies. there is a nation of monsters. and of course fun new races (though admitadly these could be transfered to other systems)- the kalashtar, warforged, shifer, and lets not forget the changling are all fun to play.

4) mobility: thanks to the lightning rail, airships, and elemental galleons you can travel vast distances in comparative safety, and little gaming time expended. from lush forest to the desert, to the vast swamp, over to the continent of Xenderic and so on... in most other setting a safe long voyage stretches realism.

5) making sense- though this setting offers less material than FR, it makes some sense (IMO at least), while most counties and countries in Faerun have little to do with each other. in Eberron there is an attempt to make the pieces fit together (some do well, some less admitedly, like Qbarra)

and that's the end of me advocating Eberron. have fun whatever you choose... and as been stated before- no shame in doing your own campaing- just pick pieces you like of various settings, and assemble them into your own idea.

Kol.

mikej
2009-12-30, 12:19 PM
Another vote for Eberron. Basically everything poster Kol Korran mentioned and much more. I"ve only played Dragonlance before ( luckly, since I find faerun rather dull ) but was blow away in our first Eberron campaign.

Zaydos
2009-12-30, 12:29 PM
Never played most of the campaign settings but still have most of the 3.X books (for the rules) and the 2e splatbooks (I used to read 2e splatbooks for fun).

Forgotten Realms: Always seemed high magic, high power, and overshadowed by Elminster. It's FR that turned me off the idea of premade campaign settings for the longest time.

Dark Sun: Loved the 2e fluff; Dragon magazine published an issue all about it (along with a Dungeon magazine issue), and personally I don't like the fluff changes (didn't like those by the end of 2e either though). It's a harsh world, wizards are outlawed, the quick route to arcane power involves sucking the lifeforce out of the land, psionics are common place (everyone was a wild talent in 2e, all races have psionics in 3.X), people are stronger (all races have LA +2 or 3 and have some psi-like abilities, and +4s and +2s; 2e they had you roll 5d4 instead of 3d6), and the world is ruled by super wizard-psion sorcerer kings who are turning into dragons. This is the campaign setting I always wanted to play/DM.

Eberron: Played an introductory module once and half of the follow-up adventure before the DM decided running the module was too much work. He didn't let us make our own characters so it was kind of meh (I ended up a wizard with a feat the slightly reduced the XP cost to make Scrolls from a house I didn't particularly care about). The setting seems rich enough and is based on things like Indianna Jones, the Maltese Falcon, and old detective stories from the Pulp Magazine days between the World Wars. Has high/commonplace magic, some political intringue, is a war-scarred world. Has magical lamp posts, trains, airships, etc. Warforged are fun, not always the easiest things to port into other worlds though.

Greyhawk: I know very little about this one. Sorry I can't be helpful.

Ravenloft: Dark, gothic horror. Evil is all around, and good the underdog. The world is harsh, and even the good guys are not stainless and white. The heroic knight? He secretly murdered his first wife so he could remarry. The setting looks fun, and is darker and grimmer than most D&D settings. Everybody has a dirty secret, and the world "rewards" evil as so many people have said. I think game mechanically in 3.X it starts out as a minor benefit with a small side-effect that people might notice, and becomes a major benefit with a minor penalty, and so forth till you become a darklord. The darklords rule their personal realms which are also their prisons. The setting looks nice and fun, though.

OA: Yeah depends upon which edition's OA you're talking about.

Birthright: Looks neat if you want a game about armies and kingdoms. Never seen the books to read it though (loved the Computer Game of it we had though).

Telonius
2009-12-30, 12:33 PM
Another one for 3.0: Deadlands. Alternate history, US Civil War-ish era, "The Weird West," Zombie Abe Lincoln.

Jayabalard
2009-12-30, 01:21 PM
So, I realize this is probably not what you're looking for, but I'm a fan of the GURPS Banestorm (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11725.phtml) setting; you could probably adapt it to your game, or adapt your game to it without a terrible amount of work. There are probably a number of non-D&D settings that could be used if you are so incl

As for "the pulps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine)" ... The wiki article on them is a decent intro to them .


The Mummy is a good example of a pulp fiction movie, better known as B-movies.I'm not sure I really agree that B-movie is really synonymous with pulp fiction ... and imo The Mummy (the recent, Brendan Fraser) was way too high of budget to really be considered a B-Movie, though it does contain alot of the B-Movie elements, since it gives many a nod back to the B-Movies of the 50s.


Also, while I've seen it in several places, I'm not entirely convinced that "pulp" is a good label for Eberron; it really has more in common with steampunk (magipunk) than the pulps. Though I realize that's being a bit nit-picky of me.

Bayar
2009-12-30, 02:55 PM
@Foryn Gilnith:
pulp fiction
–noun
fiction dealing with lurid or sensational subjects, often printed on rough, low-quality paper manufactured from wood pulp.
Origin: 1950–55, Americanism

EDIT: The Mummy is a good example of a pulp fiction movie, better known as B-movies.

And yet, a "B-campaign setting" was the winner of WotC's contest, chosen over whatever Rich had. That gives you something to think about.

AslanCross
2009-12-30, 07:44 PM
Another vote for Eberron here, but let me comment on FR too, since I have experience with it. Can't comment on the rest.

Forgotten Realms

My first campaign was in Forgotten Realms. While I can't fault the setting for the failure of the campaign (it was lack of player commitment and bad timing), it was a pretty generic plot. If you like traditional European/Tolkien-based fantasy, then FR is good. If you have problems with the high-level NPCs such as Elminster, his harem, and Drizzt, then just have them off somewhere on epic level parties or sulking in some backwater town, respectively. The setting is big enough to accommodate people who will never meet each other. I never had any plans of letting my party meet Elminster or Drizzt or Jarlaxle.

1. FR is pretty traditional, but it does have some vague support for non-Western European fantasy if you journey to Kara-tur or Maztica or any one of the real-world analogue settings that were absorbed into FR in 3E.

2. The countries are pretty isolated from each other (which I do not appreciate), so if the Zhentarim are plaguing Cormyr, neighboring nations don't really care much.

3. For some reason, despite their isolation, most of the countries look like each other. They may have different governments, but you only see unique culture if you start looking at Amn, Calimshan, Rashemen or Mulhorand (which is pretty much Egypt). Many of the other nations are either human or elven nations that have very few distinguishing features.

4. High magic, but this magic is the exclusive purview of mage guilds or similar organizations.

Eberron

1. They put almost every fantasy trope and archetype in its place. Giants are not just there because they're traditional; they had a continent spanning empire that collapsed since they betrayed the trust of the dragons who gave them the gift of magic. Dragons aren't just lizards in caves sleeping on piles of shinies. They CAN be, but it varies from continent to continent. Elves are very much unlike Tolkien elves--they're either necromancers on an island jungle, fierce Mongol-like cavalry, or cosmopolitan from being with humans for too long. Even psionics has a logical place in it. It's not just "oh, there's bound to be SOMEONE who has it there"---they're a fruit of the Quori invasion.

2. Villain organizations are as much a political force as they are a physical threat. The Lords of Dust, a cabal of Rakshasa lords who used to serve the now-imprisoned demon overlords, infiltrate humanoid society. The dragons of Argonnessen have agents hiding out among the other humanoids. There are many others. What affects one country is likely to affect its neighbors as well, since they are currently in a tenuous state of non-aggression (I didn't use "peace" for a reason.).

3. The Magic-as-Technology thing is misunderstood. It was NOT meant to be an Industrial Revolution. There are no mass-production techniques that pitch the magitech to the masses. It's meant to be more of a Renaissance setting. The magitech is monopolized by the Dragonmarked Houses (House Lyrandar for the airships, House Orien for the Lightning Rail, and House Cannith for everything else)--these mercantile powers make sure that anyone buying or accessing magitech has to pass through them. As such, there are still commoners who cannot afford to hire warforged workers but can afford to ride the Lightning Rail once every year, and there are still people way belong the poverty line who either live as subsistence farmers or vagrants in the cities. Adventurers, of course, can afford being regular customers (or enemies) of the Dragonmarked Houses.

4. The campaign setting book DOES mention The Mummy as one of its inspirations. That doesn't mean it plays like a B-movie. (Other movies it draws inspiration from include Pirates of the Carribean, Sleepy Hollow, Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Maltese Falcon.) I haven't seen half of these movies, so maybe that's why I don't feel it, but my players and I enjoy the setting greatly.

5. In Eberron, I actually WANT my players to meet the big players. They're not epic leveled, and most of them have NPC class levels, but their writeups are interesting. Aurala, the neutral good queen of Aundair, who wants to rule the world? Kaius, the vampire king of Karrnath, whom everyone thinks is his grandson, Kaius III? (Kaius is LE, but he wants world peace. Go figure. His vampirism is a closely guarded secret as well.)

Foryn Gilnith
2009-12-30, 07:48 PM
That doesn't mean it plays like a B-movie.

Yeah.

My issue isn't with the "Pulp Fiction" part, it's with the "inspired by" part. So the designers watched pulp fiction while writing up Eberron; great. How does this affect me? How does pulp fiction actually influence the setting, aside from a vague "inspired by"? Because playing Eberron, I don't get a "pulp fiction" feel. Therefore, the references to pulp fiction and the random pulp-y drawings in all the sourcebooks are irrelevant and irritating for me.

Jack_Banzai
2009-12-30, 07:59 PM
Yeah.

My issue isn't with the "Pulp Fiction" part, it's with the "inspired by" part. So the designers watched pulp fiction while writing up Eberron; great. How does this affect me? How does pulp fiction actually influence the setting, aside from a vague "inspired by"? Because playing Eberron, I don't get a "pulp fiction" feel. Therefore, the references to pulp fiction and the random pulp-y drawings in all the sourcebooks are irrelevant and irritating for me.

Sounds like a DM problem, not a sourcebook problem.

Foryn Gilnith
2009-12-30, 08:03 PM
Either a lot of DMs are having the problem or it's a sourcebook problem (to be fair, both possibilities are valid).

I wouldn't really see it as a problem, per se, as I don't view "pulp fiction" as a strict benefit. Sort of like how Yahtzee doesn't view the term "cinematic" as much of a compliment. Eberron is plenty fine without pulp.

AslanCross
2009-12-30, 08:05 PM
I think it brings in the investigative and mystery-unraveling feel, as opposed to say, FR, where you know that the Zhentarim are definitely the bad guys.
In Eberron it can get hard to tell who the good guys really are, and who is really behind the crime. (The Church of the Silver Flame is just as capable of a gruesome murder as the Emerald Claw is.) The books are pretty clear on this, but if the current campaign you're playing isn't intrigue based (mine isn't, either), you won't really feel it, I guess.

Jack_Banzai
2009-12-30, 08:09 PM
I think it brings in the investigative and mystery-unraveling feel, as opposed to say, FR, where you know that the Zhentarim are definitely the bad guys.
In Eberron it can get hard to tell who the good guys really are, and who is really behind the crime. (The Church of the Silver Flame is just as capable of a gruesome murder as the Emerald Claw is.) The books are pretty clear on this, but if the current campaign you're playing isn't intrigue based (such as mine), you won't really feel it, I guess.

This is absolutely right. Eberron is kind of an alternative approach to fantasy; it's not to everyone's liking. But if you like a less black-and-white setting, the source really delivers. Not every DM likes that kind of thing; not every DM is even capable of that kind of storytelling. Some DMs are very, very dependent on the player characters being super good white knights who are motivated by fighting the forces of darkness. I'm not saying one way is right or good or that DMs who use that are lazy, I'm just saying that those DMs will not enjoy Eberron.

I, on the other hand, enjoyed it immensely, and my players did as well. I suppose it's not for everyone. It's not for the Final Fantasy player (to use a video game player standpoint). It's for the Shin Megami Tensei player.

bosssmiley
2009-12-31, 09:50 AM
Your 2E veterans should be able to fill you in on all these. But I offer potted overviews anyway:

Dark Sun: dying world fantasy. Think John Carter of Mars run by a killer DM.
Birthright: trad. fantasy kingdom sim, with a massive Tolkien-derived metaplot.
Ravenloft: the Demiplane of Uberwald. :smallwink:
Planescape: the Outer Planes are your playground. Cold War hijinks meets whimsical fantasy. The Tony DiTerlizzi art made this setting.
Jakandor: ancient necromantic culture struggle for survival against a proud warrior race guy viking/amerindian/maori cliche storm.
Council of Worms: you be dragons.
Greyhawk: Gary's fantasy game valeted and released as a setting. Was torn down and rebuilt darker-and-edgier in the early-90s Greyhawk Wars saga.
Al-Qadin: D&D does Sinbad.
Oriental Adventures: D&D does Kurosawa flicks and/or Monkey.
Forgotten Realms: a perfectly good Tolkienian sandbox fantasy setting ruined by brandification and setting bloat.
Tekumel: weird SEAsian science-fantasy in a alien world trapped in a pocket universe.
Eberron: D&D if the primary inspiration had been the Indiana Jones films.
Lankhmar: You know Ankh-Morpork from the Discworld books? Well, this is the city it was a parody of.

Eldan
2009-12-31, 11:40 AM
Let me explain what Planescape means, to me, then.

You have, probably, reading through the books, seen all the mentions of Celestia, where the Archons come from, the nine hells, where the devils come from, or the abyss of the demons.
Planescape takes place in all these fantastical locations. It is a setting which tries to take the overwhelmingly fantastic and otherworldly, and mix it with the mundane.
There are infinite planes, mindboggingly strange creatures, a war of such scale that entire worlds just get lost in it. There are floating cities, mountains of infinite height, constructs of pure law in the shape of geometric objects. There are portals connecting everything. Your shadow may decide to kill you. Telling your name to the wrong person can condemn you to servitude. There are crystal creatures who want to eat your emotions for breakfast, and living planar breaches.
And then? There are cafés, traders, scribes and theatres. You can be sure that somewhere, out there in the living city floating over the infinitely deep chasm, there is a carpenter who just wants to get on with his life and doesn't care about adventure. In Sigil, a deva perhaps just wants to be left alone by all the paladins and enjoy a quiet drink.
Planescape, to me, is the setting that brought all the fantastical places you read about in other books to life. Many of these places are more deadly than you can imagine, others are less than you would have suspected. Get a passport and be careful, and you can actually enter hell to trade weapons with a blood war army. Find the legendary lost layers of Arborea. Try to keep your thoughts straight while hunting on the beastlands.

For your point above: yes, Planescape can be overwhelming and confusing, if you try to take in all the material. There's tons of official stuff, and even more semi-official and homebrew material. My tip? Go to www.planewalker.com. Take a look at their setting, get a feel for it. You really, really don't need to read all the material. Perhaps, if you like it, take a look at Planescape Torment, a truly fantastical CRPG, perhaps the only one where roleplaying and a quick wit help you better than sword and spell. I have been a fanboy for years, and I've never mentioned to read all the books, cover to cover. I've read the most important ones, and then usually take a look at the material that's been published on the location I want to send my players to next. Take the material as an inspiration: the planes are so large, every idea you have fits somewhere into them.

And finally, another advantage to the setting: your players don't have to study it before playing. I once tried playing Eberron with them, but I couldn't get them to even remember the short primer I gave them. After two sessions, they would still ask me what a "Khorvaire" (the continent the game is set on) was, or why that guy over there was made from metal (Warforged are a major race). In Planescape, many characters stumbled through a portal from their homeworld, totally lost in the strangeness surrounding them. We once declared "Scaring Primers" to be a major sport event in Sigil: just pay a demon five gold to jump out from behind a crate and shout "I WILL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!" for five points.

And finally, you may say no to me, but can you say no to Tony Di'terlizzi's catlord?


http://orbita.starmedia.com/animanigra/arte/pics/ps-catlord.jpg

9mm
2009-12-31, 12:58 PM
Greyhawk: generic, Generic, Generic; you might as well has made your own

Forrgoten Relms: high fantasy where the PCs should almost not need to exist/are dealing with problems the real movers and shackers can't be bothered with.

Dark Sun: Fallout; the D&D edition.

Ebberon: mid level semi-steam punk with a side of Lovecraft as you go higher level.

Glarion: yes the PF setting was published for 3.5 first; and it is schizophrenic; want French revolution intrigue; go to Galt, want to remake the Thriller music video? go to Geb... and everything in between.

Ravenloft: Gothic horror with an emphasis of making players take it up the bum.

jmbrown
2009-12-31, 01:06 PM
Tekumel does have a 3rd party 3.5 counterpart but it's probably the most alien setting in terms of breaking Dungeons and Dragons assumptions. The original Tekumel published by TSR is arguably the first published fantasy campaign setting and the guy who created it is a professor of language and history or something. Everything from the language to the culture is finely crafted which means only the most dedicated of players would dare sit down and learn it all.

FatR
2009-12-31, 07:04 PM
2) the PCs are not outshined by anyone else.
Except the villan factions (and a$$hole factions, like the dragons).



this is my main complaint against FR. level 5-6 and the PCs are a force. 10-11 and they are major powers to be reckoned with, and so on.
Yet a random Lord of the Dust can swat them like insects. Seriously, these guys are CR 20+, so at level 11 you have no chance whatsoever to survive if one of them is mildly annoyed with you, never mind actually angered, there are dozens of them, and they are free to roam around. Power balance-wise Eberon is really different from FR in only one way: it gives PCs less promise of ever standing up to overpowered NPCs whose confilicts shape the world and each faction of whose can erase the current political landscape at will, if only other factions stopped countering it for about an hour. There is also a usual question of why their Cold War hadn't turned hot yet and why the setting isn't a cratered wasteland yet.