Favorite Fantasy Setting?

IMO,

Halruaa, Faerun: best gaming setting.

>King is a centuries-old diviner archmage.
>Mageocracy with a council of several hundred elder mages forms the ruling government.
>1/3 of the population has arcane magic, even though only 1/10 are actually wizards. Sorcerers exist, but are regarded as loose cannons and looked down upon.
>Only two gods are recognized or legal. Preaching other faiths is a felony. Foreign priests can visit the port cities only, and cannot legally preach.
>Strict social protocols.
>Formalized eugenics programs, codified in law, shape the population.
>Modern conveniences granted by magic are everywhere, from Street lights to skyships to clothes that give off light or sound, to ice venders selling magically created ice to the masses. High standard of living.
>A history of attempted invasions has made them isolationist, outsiders are voted as enemies.
>Magic immune and magic dead mage counselors.
>Special wizard-police, called inquisitors, or mage-hounds.
>Legal system based heavily on magical inquiry.
>Secret illuminati type organization and conspiracies
>Humanocentric nation
>Frequently beset by bandits, pirates, wild elf savages, half drow barbarians, and thayan spies. More raids than proper invasions.
>realmshelps.net/faerun/halruaa/index.shtml
>forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Halruaa

In short, it's an excellent place for a campaign.

What's your favorite campaign location, and why?

Also, Halruaan Racism:
>Strong open dislike drow and half-drow (mostly due to Crinti)
>Strong open dislike snakes and scalykind (mostly due to Yuanti)
>Assumption that halflings are gypsy thieves or spies
>Native elves were almost entirely genocided during the early founding of the country.

It is also one of my favorite countries in the Realms.

Any Earth country, because then I don't have to make nearly as much shit up to make something believable.

I like Tamriel in the Elder Scrolls series

Which part of tamriel? Tamriel is pretty fucking big.

If it's well detailed, what's the difference? You'd have to read up on the material to run a game in 15th century Germany just like you'd have to read the material for a fantasy setting.

Or are you one of those people who want modern campaigns in their own country?

Probably Cyrodiil as it is the center of the empire. From Alessia to Titus Mede, cyrodiil has been epicenter of history and has many interesting landmarks such as the White-Gold tower. Also I'm a Romaboo/Italophile.

I like Khorinis.

holy shit how did i not know halruaa was this badass?

i thought thay was the fun place

Kulmorost Divided. I was the original OP.

I thought Halruaa was boring airship land until I read the Counselors & kings trilogy, and was prompted to actually look through the shining south books for more info.

Settled by Netherese diviners before its fall, who foresaw Netheril going downhill and decided to start over somewhere else.

Strict rules on magic to avoid repeating Netheril's mistakes.

There's a secret cult to Shar there, with shadow weave cultists, as well.

Thay was supposedly formed by a bunch of Halruaan mages Halruaans deemed unacceptably immoral that were forced to flee the country. (According to Halruaa).

I don't know a ton about Thay, actually. I've been meaning to read up on it, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

What's so good about Thay? I basically know it's a magocracy ruled by evil mages and a Lich. Beyond that I know very little about it.

>I was the original OP
what the hell does that mean? lol.
>Kulmorost Divided
>Khorinis
I'm unfamiliar with this campaign location. What do you like about it? Can you sum it up like I did Halruaa?

>Cyrodiil
>Romaboo/Italophile
Fair enough, that's some neat history. Personally I'm more into late 15th century Italy than Roman Italy, but I can still see the appeal of the Roman stuff.

>liking anything in Forgotten Shit

Found the generic fantasy loving plebs.

really all i know about thay is Edwin, nazi wizards, slaves, and the fact that it turned to total shit in the 4e bullshit

warhammer fantasy

best dwarves in fantasy
guns

Halruaa didn't even exist in 4e, so fair enough.

OP here

I also really like the Witcher setting and series, both the videogames and the novels.

And the hyborian age. I really enjoy me some Conan.

Whats your favorite fantasy campaign locale, and why?

Fair. I really like the elves in warhammer fantasy, and Albion, Kislev, and the skaven.

Talislanta.

>Exotic fantasy setting
>Dual-Encephalons who have binary personalities and interests in one body
>Tattooed slave-warrior clones
>Elemental essences: solid fire, liquid ice, crystalized storms, liquified earthquakes; quintessence
>More weird magic than you can shake a stick at
>Dung merchants as a playable class

Dalelands, Cormyr, Sembia, and the Moonsea region in Forgotten Realms. Grew out of AD&D novels focusing on the area, like Pool of Radiance/Darkness and Azure Bonds. Also gave the players a constant enemy in the form of Zhentil Keep mucking about with muscle never far behind.

Players enjoyed the amount of elven magical crap buried and recovered from the region. In all, several years of good fun.

>best dwarves in fantasy
Glad you feel that way about GLORY TO HASHUT

Not that guy, but I really like Conan's Hyborian Age. Also, Middle-Earth and Westeros are pretty good IMO. I really don't like FR mainly because there's so much magic it creates some logical inconsistencies. Also, there's too many high-level NPCs and magical itens.

This has been on my "to play" list for a while.

How do the rules play? Clunky incoherent 80s style, or more coherent unified mechanics?

Sounds pretty neat.

I'm not sure I like middle earth for RPGs. Makes good fiction though.

I can see Westeros working well with all its factions and groups.

Fr is high magic, that's true. As for high level NPCs, it's a high powered setting. That's like complaining there are too many powerful characters in marvel comics.

Your level 5 party isn't saving the world. Someone else is doing that.

At level 5 you're local-scale sellswords, like might make up the rank and file in a thieves guild, not world saving heroes. Level 13-14 is when you start to be a big enough deal to be capable of making a real difference.

Of course, it's not a good fit if you're looking to have level 3 characters somehow saving the world without straining credulity, but I don't see that as a problem.

Homebrew.

Other than that, Mystara or Eberron.

>How do the rules play? Clunky incoherent 80s style, or more coherent unified mechanics?

Coherent since 2nd edition, plays quite well. It was the original "d20 system", with an Action Table that adjudicated all events.

There's a Talislanta thread here with a sampler inside, and all the books are available for free on www.talislanta.com:

>Fr is high magic, that's true. As for high level NPCs, it's a high powered setting. That's like complaining there are too many powerful characters in marvel comics.

Yes, but FR takes it to a whole new level. Every cave has a +1 something, every bandit on the road have some sort of magical gear. It makes magic seem cheap and takes the wonder out of the setting.

>Your level 5 party isn't saving the world. Someone else is doing that.

The problem is that it makes it harder to come up with plot hooks, why would anyone hire a bunch of low level scrubs when every innkeeper in town has a +5 sword under his bar? Also, why would anyone train regular soldiers in such a high magic setting? They are close to useless, you might as well invest everything you have in battle mages, since they are the ones who will make a difference. Non-magic classes are completely outcasted in such a setting.

Yes, it's a setting where magic is just technology, and even your average grocer has a handful of basic magic items at home, though likely not magic weapons.

That's what kind of setting it is. Magic isn't mysterious, it's utilitarian and commoditized. I'm just fine with that.

>Why hire low level scrubs?
Disposable goons.
Trainees.
Cheap work.

>Why would anyone train regular warriors
In general, the soldiers in Fr have magic of some kind up their sleeves. The ones who get to higher levels without any sort of magic at all seem to be the exception rather than the rule. It's a "magic is commonplace" setting.
The city guards of waterdeep had a ranged disarm spell in 2e. Not everyone is a full blown wizard, but a lot of people have at least a handful of spells.

>Why not only train all battlemages
Not everyone has a talent for it. But the number of regular 'fighters' is pretty low compared to some of the other settings.

>Non magic classes are outclassed in such a setting!
If by non magic you mean "not a wizard or cleric", not necessarily. There are other sources of supernatural or extraordinary abilities.

If you mean "never becomes better than your typical action hero" then absolutely, unless they are like Batman, with a gadget for everything. Playing such a character is going out of your way to play the underdog, as your character concept precludes having any "answers" to problems, in a world where such answers are commonplace.

Frankly, the low level way I hear most people run their settings only makes sense to me if you cap the PCs at equally low levels, like an e6 campaign.