Regardless of edition, what was your favorite official D&D campaign setting?

>What? No, it's autistic specificity makes Dragonlance bad.

There are many reasons that make Dragonlance bad. I don't think either of ours is any less relevant.

>Rokugan and the other of their kind, you know, half-assed boring generic and underdevloped settings

You watch your mouth :(

I mean generic Rokugan from Oriental adventures, not L5R.

Oh

Council of Wyrms

Warcraft is not that bad.

K

There are many genuine grievances you could have about Warcraft and the thing you bring up is the "le yiff in hell" meme?

For shame, user.

Shut up, furfag. Yiff in Hell :D

Thanks for reminding me to put Nyambe and Council of Wyrms in tier 2 also.

Known World/Mystara
Forgotten Realms

Why there is no Dragonstar in this list? Who the fuck did it? This man should be thrown out the airlock.

>Planescape
Who hurt this poor, lost child?

I'm sure it wasn't published by whoever was holding the rights at the time.

All the philosophy stuff is about as far away from what D&D's good at as it gets, the many casual trips to the afterlife serve to cheapen it all and make it just another adventure setting, and the cant is fucking terrible.

Planescape was probably their best that I know of. Honestly, all the settings were pretty bad in some way. Dark Sun was almost great, but they screwed it over with their metaplot, and by including fantasy races from other settings. Greyhawk would be great if the setting at least had a semblance of internal consistency.

Really, I know very little about anything past 2nd edition, but almost all of it looks awful. Just from reading that description though, Kingdoms of Kalamar sounds like my kind of thing.

...

In order of favoritism:

1.) Dark Sun
2.) Planescape
3.) Hollow World

See who echoes my sentiments perfectly.
I'll add that Planescape feels like it's trying to ape WoD and I'd just play Mage: the Ascension if I really wanted an afterlife-hopping WoD game.

Granted, Sigil's a pretty neat place, and the whole Great Wheel cosmology is inspiring enough provided you keep it to very occasional and short visits.

Just not enough to make it that great a setting overall.

I like Eberron.

Planescape (Torment) was my first exposure to D&D/RPGs, its really hard to go to regular fantasy after that

forgotten realms,dragonlance,planescape,spelljammer,dark sun,eberron,mystara,al-qadim,oriental,greyhawk,ravenloft,and warcraft.

>was your favorite
>did hate

Why the past tense? Would the passage of time have changed any of this?

Using this guys categories
>would run it out of the box tier
Planescape
Dark Sun
Al-Qadim

>would run it with some tweaks tier
Forgotten Realms I have a soft spot for the setting since it got me into D&D
Eberron
Nentir Vale/Points of Light

>would run but changing a lot tier
Oriental Adventures/Rokugan
Greyhawk
Mystara

>would never run tier
Dragonlance
Birthright
Ravenloft

If I ran a FR campaign I would have to use the entirety of the setting with some tweaking where appropriate
The never run stuff is more due to personal preference than any problems inherent in the setting

>everyone forgets about Lankhmar

I really like Eberron, partly due to the pulp adventure, and partly because I love roleplaying Warforged.
Dragonlance, the Kender and Tinker Gnomes are the worst races.

It has nice flavor but it really doesn't fit D&D, should've been based on the Conan game.
Also, the PDFs are somewhat rare.

Favorite:
* Nentir Vale: Pretty much all my favorite D&D lore came out of this setting. I'll World Axis over the Great Wheel, any day.

Interested In:
* Eberron: Because it's the most unique D&D setting out there that's actually had recent translations.
* Forgotten Realms: It's goofy and honestly kind of hackneyed in spots, but I got into D&D through Baldur's Gate, so I have a soft spot.
* Dark Sun: Mad Max post-apunkalyptic D&D. What's not to love?

Want To Like, But Can't:
* Jakandor: Sells itself as a morally human vs. human setting. The morality is hamfisted (yes, the Charonti practice non-evil necromancy, but the Knorr are savage, vengeance-worshipping invaders: where's the grey in that?) and the end result is boring.

Salvageable:
* Planescape: Much as I love the idea of exploring the multiverse, I hate most of what people consider the "definining attributes" of Planescape. The 4e version reworked the setting to something I can actually play, though.

Impossible to Salvage:
* Dragonlance: Much as warring dragon-armies and the draconians are cool, the underlying morality is utter bullshit and it cannot redeem itself for kender and tinker gnomes.

Can't Say:
* Greyhawk: I really just don't know anything about it.
* Mystara: Only know bits and pieces of it, but for gonzo fantasy, this would definitely be my game; aranea, lupins, skygnomes, diaboli, lots of cool stuff.

Favorite: Dawnforge by FFG. High fantasy with a lot of effort put into the worldbuilding, I still use it when running 5E even though it was made for 3.5

Least favorite: Forgotten Realms. It just always feels so bland.

Love the Athas.
Post magi-apocalyptic brutality with veneer of internal consistency.

Hate: Warcraft setting.
It's like shitty slapstick for tweens. With the world trapped in a complete tardlock war.

BEST: Dark Sun, Faerun (Soft spot), Spelljammer

WORST: Warcraft, Dragonlance

I would never even consider running a D&D campaign that doesn't take place in Eberron. It's perfect for the weird ass unique beast D&D has become.

Ahahahaha

Greyhawk
Planespace
Dark Sun

The rest are not too interesting to me.

>gif in hell.jpg
>.jpg
You had one job user.

>Run out of the box tier
Al-Qadim
Dark Sun
Planescape
Birthright

>Would run with some tweaks tier
Spelljammer
Mystara
Ravenloft
Oriental Adventures

>Would run but change a lot tier
Greyhawk
Dragonlance

>Would never run tier
Points of light
Eberron
Forgotten Realms

What is this, and why is it so bad, because I am unsure I want to read it myself to learn.

So little love for Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

What's interesting about Birthright? Is it the setting itself, or just what the players are doing?

Has to be Dark Sun. It is Mad Max Fantasy, what more does a man want! It truly feels alien, like Morrowind does. That makes the RP more fun.

Spelljammer was Star Trek nerds trying to shoehorn their shitty show into the RPG

Quite wrong. Spelljammer is in fact the opposite: the folks in charge wanted precisely what you claim - trying to shoehorn Star Trek into an RPG - so the developers made it into a fantasy D&D thing purely to fuck with them.

It does have the goofy 70s-80s sci-fi aesthetic, just mixed with fantasy shit like actual boats flying through space. Spelljammer never got properly developed as a setting though, most of the books rehashed the fucking normal settings (Greyhawk, FR, Dragonlance) again and again whenever they showed up. The Rock of Bral was nice, but not set anywhere specific.

Best: original gygaxian greyhawk
Worst: dragonlance

Definitely Dark Sun 1st Edition with its ultra-violence, harshness and leather muscle fetish

...

Is there a setting that 3rd ed didn't fuck up somehow?

Half the shit people complain about with Dragonlance, for example, is full bore 3E. Like .

The setting itself isn't much to my interests--descendants of gods doesn't tickle my fancy--but the actual gameplay is something I find compelling and unique. There's a certain itch that can be scratched with the intrigue/war angles presented in the concept, and I think cards as a wargame resolution is novel.

Bullshit. Kender have had that same "they're kids who never stop having sticky fingers, but you're supposed to like them anyway because they're good guys" fluff since they first appeared in Dragon Magazine #101.

I don't really use official settings, but I'm fond of Greyhawk for being the official home of weird D&D shit that's not actually from some other source (owlbears!), and Spelljammer for being batshit in a good way.

Forgotten Realms always struck me as "a completely standard D&D setting, but everything has already been done by someone else"

Also Eberron always felt like a "cool RPG ideas" thread off some forum rather than a place you could run more than three sessions in a row in.

Yeah, and I've heard the exact same argument but with "I'm the party thief, I'm supposed to steal things" and nobody gets quite so autistic about that.

Dark Sun for great conanesque setting.

Planescape for Blood war and planar shenganians, yet it's far from perfect.

Forgotten Realms for the old times sake only.

Hate?

Warcraft, it ruined fantasy art.

Greyhawk 'cause it's boring.

Dragonstar. Space fantasy.

Dragons has taken over and after a little galaxy scale war created new government where metallic and chromatic dragons rule over lesser creatures.

So council of wyrms in space?

Sounds like a grand idea. Lunar and Solar dragons are rad.

What's so bad about the morality in Dragonlance?

For most, it can be summed up in two words: The Cataclysm.

The Gods see that the Kingpriest of Istar, not content with turning his theocratic empire into a brutal and repressive hell-hole, whilst still thoroughly believing his own hype that he is serving good, now wants to use a powerful magical artifact to force them to elevate him to godhood so he can personally wipe out all evil.

Understandably rather pissed at this, the Gods send ominous signs and portents, warning of their growing anger. When these signs make absolutely no sense to anybody, they spirit away all of the Clerics and other Divine Magic Users in the world and smash a humongous meteorite into Istar.

Afterwards, do they release their Clerics back in the mortal world to minister to the maimed and crippled, to the sick and starving, to explain what the Kingpriest had done and why they had been forced to do this?

No! They just sit and wait for mortals to repent and say that they were wrong for all of this.

When, instead, mortaldom gives them a collective, "Dude, what the everloving FUCK!? Seriously?! What the hells is wrong with you all!?" the gods respond by turning up their noses, haughtily proclaiming "you have turned your backs on us, so we shall never return our gifts (divine magic)", and pissing off into the aether.

We're supposed to side with the gods and believe that we should want them back. Even if, at one point, Tanis Half-Elven does concede that maybe the gods were the ones who abandoned them, it's never given any serious attention.

Oh, and the Kingpriest? Officially, his crime is remembered as *making Good too strong* and throwing the Balance out of whack. The man who conducted racial pogroms, employed mind-reading inquisitors, and took moral guardianship to the extent of literal witch hunts, complete with burning people at the stake, is supposedly seen in-universe as a fucking saint.

Seriously, Dragonlance is fucking creepy as hell, and I think it gets worse when you realize it probably has much the same relationship to Mormonism as Narnia has to Christianity.

The authors are unashamed Mormons so they would bring their fucked up morality into the mix.
If they had at least an ounce of talent they wouldn't have written such complete and utter drivel.

One of the designers, T, is too goddamn full of himself. He autistically raged out because something didn't go his way. Like goddamn, get your head out of your arse you piece of shit.

Most of the official D&D settings have good ideas and I can appreciate them for what they are, but none of them are that great. Dark Sun is probably the best.

none

Wilderlands of High Fantasy is technically unofficial...

>He autistically raged out because something didn't go his way.
Is this about the bitch-fit he threw when they put Soth in Ravenloft, or something else?

I still thought Soth in Ravenloft was awesome and one of the better Ravenloft novels. Though maybe its just childish nostalgia

>one of the better Ravenloft novels

Says more 'bout the other novels than Soth one.

>One of few villains not killed by the fucking novel protagonists
>Quick, to Ravenloft! Before they nab him!

I think it was some other bitching which got posted to EnWorld enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?24200-Tracy-Hickman-s-view-of-the-Dragon-300-sealed-section, but he did bitch and whine about Soth's inclusion in Ravenloft.

He seems too full of himself and seems like an autistic tool.

He's too goddamn preachy and his insanity is seeping way too much into his work. It's fucking bewildering.

>top tier
Dark Sun
Planescape
Spelljammer

>would be happy to run, but not my first preference tier
Council of Wyrms
Ghostwalk
Ravenloft

>good idea but too poorly executed to run without heavy modifications tier
Birthright

>would never run tier
Blackmoor
Dragonlance
Eberron
Forgotten Realms
Greyhawk
Kingdoms of Kalamar
Mystara

>about to run a forgotten realms campaign
>see everyone shitting on it ITT
worry.jpg

But my players do want a standard fantasy adventure and I'll be stapling on some of the AD&D 1e and 2e general modules into the setting as they go along, so hopefully it'll work out.

It's not so bad, provided you read on why people complain about it and try to see for yourself whether it's right or not. Keep the high-level characters out of the party's faces and try to have the magic be rarer and more mystical than it really is, for instance.

>Keep the high-level characters out of the party's faces

Definitely agree with this. Even the less "big name" characters are okay handled with care; nobody wants Elminster or Drizzt in their campaign but a story about working for say, the Xanathar could be fun

>and try to have the magic be rarer and more mystical than it really is, for instance.

While this is certainly one way to do it, I prefer going the other way and making magic uncommon but not rare at all, more like the video games for example. It lends itself to a lot more "gamey" campaign, which is good for some and not for others. I tend to treat gods in FR the same, they're not going to show up every session, but they normally will get involved with the characters when appropriate. Honestly the fact that gods sometimes show up and take matters in hand personally is one of the few things that puts FR aside from the generic "gods are there but not allowed to intervene personally" fantasy for me.

Dark Sun and Spelljammer are diametric opposites in tone, but they're my two faves. I can't wait for them to get done for 5e, especially the latter.
Probably Dragonlance? It always felt like the blandest of the "generic fantasy" settings.

Well, somewhat close probably. But no democracy - hardcore aristocracy/magocracy with a lot of in-house politicking. Also spaceships and legionnaires stomping primitives for their own good in the name of dragons.

Ahh, also current ruler uses drow as an analogue of KGB/CIA.

I was intending on limiting magic and godly influence somewhat. I own three sourcebooks: Shadowdale, Anauroch, and Dreams of the Red Wizards. I definitely don't want to use DotRW/Thay for a while because it's very mystic and magical. Starting the campaign in the Dalelands seems like the most natural choice, but would Anauroch be a good choice? I'd rather not start them where I don't have a book for yet; I really don't like using PDFs for campaign planning.

It also has a straight up fantasy understanding of the cosmos with the crystal spheres.

Greyhawk is without a doubt my favorite, TSR/3e whatever, if it ever gets converted to 5e I'll eat that shit up too. It's the world I was always going to build but never needed to thanks to it existing.

As for hate, initially I was going to say Forgotten Realms but I don't really hate it. I'm just tired of WotC promoting it, and promoting the worst aspects of it. But I do resent it for being more popular than Greyhawk.

What I actually hate is Eberron. I like to pretend that trash heap of a setting doesn't even exist because just thinking about it sends shivers of disgust down my spine. There's something about steampunk that makes my blood boil and my body writhe, and Eberron has just enough steampunk influence to sound the alarms. I don't know if it's the steampunk itself or the mouthbreathers who enjoy it but I won't go near it with a 10 foot pole.

Dalelands is good if you want a fairly straightforward vanilla fantasy setting. Thats not a bad thing mind you, that can be fun and is simple to run because everyone knows it.

Anauroch could be interesting, thats the desert, right? So it's a lot more unusual a place to adventure but there are lots of hooks like lost tombs, desert tribes (and the Shades I think? Its been a while since I read FR stuff). You could also make them struggle to survive more if thats fun for the group, keeping track of water and shelter and the like.

Can someone explain to me the difference between Greyhawk and Forgotten realms. They both seem super fucking generic.

Greyhawk is somewhat bleaker, darker, and more points-of-lighty, with no great big secret societies ruling everything. You've got more room to spread.

>enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?24200-Tracy-Hickman-s-view-of-the-Dragon-300-sealed-section

I'm conflicted bacause he seems like an ass but BOVD and Paizo are shit.

Gygax's Greyhawk is basically a post-apocalyptic Western story disguised as medieval Europe.

2e Greyhawk is kind of seedy place, with lots of evil and neutrality but not as much good.

Forgotten Realms is overall medieval and thrives on the "magical ren-faire" aesthetic.

Greyhawk is slightly darker and slightly lower-magic. But you are correct in that they're both just generic fantasy settings with nothing in particular to set them apart from any other generic fantasy settings.

I think I would downplay the survival aspect a bit. Needing to find shelter sounds good, but it's probably good enough to lump food and water into general rations that can be obtained by finding wells.

Eberron is the only published setting I have had any interest in and also have played. Dark Sun seems like it could be fun but the only people I ever find who would run it are sperglords who throw a huge fucking tantrum if I don't share their encyclopedic knowledge of the setting and dare to want to play something more compelling than a series of stereotypes stapled together.

FR, Greyhawk, et al. are all lazy boring tripe.

Love em but would probably tweak them for play
Spelljammer
Ravenloft
Dark Sun
Eberron
Forgotten Relms

Hate

Nothing really jumps out I might have no interest but nothing is really hated

Lankhmar is a fine setting, through it does not work well as D&D.

What do you recommend for it?

If it doesn't work well for D&D, would it work well for Dungeon Crawl Classics? I kind of put a bunch of money down for that kickstarter.

TSR Conan RPG/ZEFRS
It's weird enough to work as a DCC setting too.