What's your favorite setting?

What's your favorite setting?

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For D&D? Forgotten Realms, actually. It's everything plus the kitchen sink, kind of like Golarion, but not quite as balls-to-the-walls crazy as Golarion. Existing for an extra twenty years or so has allowed authors to smooth out its rough edges.

It's well developed, so there's always plot hooks somewhere, and it's well-known, so people will have an easy time creating characters in it. Even people who've never played in it will have an easy time finding somewhere to have their character be from.

The problem of "godlike NPCs" is solved by simply not having them show up because they're busy doing their own thing elsewhere, something that should be taken as a given and doesn't need to be explained at the start of the game. Having said that, since some of the NPCs are fairly well-known (Elminster, Drizzt, etc.), it can be fun to have them show up and make cameos, for basically the reasons that 5e's Adventures in Middle-Earth justified having Gandalf or Strider show up in a game set in Middle-Earth. It's child's play to have said NPCs simply provide advice or even just a cool "hey, look who it is" rather than overshadowing the Player Characters, who after all are the stars of the show even if they're not the most powerful people in it.

Legend of the 5 Rings

Noir NYC with Seattle's rain

Probably Infinite Worlds.

I don't think I have a favorite, but I really like Eberron at the moment.

Morrowind

I really want to know how to make a fantasy setting that feels alien and cool but also well put together and not totally unimaginable like Morrowind.

adventure time
loom (the videogame)
dying earth
80s urban-meets-magicmonsters movies

I unironicly like Age of Sigmar. Sure it's a bit barebones at the moment, the stuff they are adding to it is awesome so far
>inb4 shitty maps
Sure it had a rocky start, but it's shaping up to be something great, and I hope the AoS RPG coming in January will further expand the lore

What is totally unimaginable about Morrowind?

user was saying that Morrowind wasn't totally unimaginable.

At the moment I'm enjoying Shadowrun's blend of absurd cyberpunk fantasy. It's really nice to be able to make some historical jokes here and there and fill in some of what happens between now and the time it's set in. The magic in a high tech setting makes for some fun moments.

One more vote for Morrowind.

I also have soft spot for Planescape, despite how uneven it is, and I've really been digging Blades in the Dark lately.

There's also something really comfy about the worlds of cryptic IF games that leave a lot to the imagination, like Howling Dogs, or Pytho's Mask (and Emily Short's stuff in general).

Most cyberpunk settings, though I've struggled finding the right blend of older neo-noir type inspirations and the newer, brushed up stylings.

Samurai Jack to be completely honest

Can't decide on just one:

Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Delta Green, Adventure Time, Nechrotica and STALKER.

I guess I enjoy dystopian shit.

Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor

I only like 4 regions:
>The Underdark
For the weird alien caverns and psycho drow crap
>Amn
Machiavellian politics, moors, money, and whores
>Silver Marches
Just classic "Good PC races vs. Evil orcs" stuff
>Undermountain
For the hugest dungeon crawls

Pulpy "modern" settings like dieselpunk or retrofuturism. Pretty much anything up to the Space Race

''Updated'' cyberpunk settings like Deus Ex HR/MD and Psycho-Pass.
I was never really a fan of the ''punk'' part of early cyberpunk and I'd rather focus on social struggles, mysteries and philosophical themes.

Alt-reality. Not alt-history, just a complete rebase of human history.

Shadowrun, Delta Green, Eclipse Phase and Forgotten Realms.

One of these things is not like the others, etc

Don't judge me, but...
...um...
Final Fantasy VII.

It's kinda funny really, I played it to death back in elementary school and I wasn't paying attention to the plot at all and I can barely recall what it was even about. but I still remember the world it was set in, mostly because of how I aquired the game, I got it second-hand from a friend of the family along with a half-dozen other games and his Playstation, as a result the game already came with 2 save files, one that was made right before going into the final dungeon, and one right after. I played the latter save a few times but the former save, I would use that save to goof around and explore the nearly-completed game world for hours, eventually starting a new game just to see how everything got to the the state it was, for that reason I remember the world and setting far more than the actual plot. I don't need to tell you that it felt like this weird, disjointed setting that felt like it didn't know what it wanted to be, Cyberpunk? steampunk? strait fantasy? it was all over the place and my wee childhood mind just loved it.

And to some extent, I still do.

Mah boy

The main reason it's not totally unimaginable is because it's in a game with graphics.
If you were to translate morrowind into a novel about the nerevarine as a standalone without TES existing no one would care about it and people would say it's a shitty OC donut steel setting trying too hard to not be generic tolkien fantasy.
What the fuck are silt striders? Only because it's a game where by playing with them existing do you even know and care what they are. And even Morrowind was only popular because previous entries in TES that were far more generic of a fantasy setting. Bethesda knows this, which is why oblivion and skyrim went straight back into being generic fantasy.

Not a setting but a type of setting: fantasy settings that are actually Earth in the far future. Book of the New Sun, Dying Earth, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Vampire Hunter D and Scrapped Princess are some of my favorite works in their mediums. Sadly though the only pnp game I'm aware of that does this is Numenera, and that one didn't click with me.

What's that user?

any kind of setting where it's the real world, with all sorts of magic/creepy stuff/monsters hiding in the cracks.

Where the players escape out of the clutches of the horrifying mind bending horror and find themselves in the middle of the busy street, with people looking at them like they're nuts.

Where the magic is exploited for mundane purposes, because the people who use it are so far past *sane* it's the only thing that makes sense to do.

Where monsters made out of humanity's expectations walk amoungst us, and we don't notice, because on a low, background level, we *expect* them to be there.

Good taste

Picture related.

Roshar is pretty awesome

Been rereading it lately. Found myself craving cinnamon. Spice addiction is real.

It's a toss up between Malazan and Ivalice, but if it's favourite setting in the context of actual gaming, Ivalice wins hands down. Doesn't matter which era it takes place in, either, they're all really good.

Honourable mentions to Monster Hunter, Legends of the Galactic Heroes, Drakengard, Skies of Arcadia, Bionicle, and Morrowind.

Glorantha

Depends on context

This. The punk aspect in 80s cyberpunk always felt like propaganda in a way with how much time it spends justifying mercilessly blasting away at The Man. I also like Pre-Cyberpunk dystopian stories like Philip K Dick, because he was all about writing about bizarre aspects of the human condition that other fiction rarely bothered to ask, which was way more interesting than the same tired amoral underdog stories that later writers made.

Low or factory default

Ok, so I wasn't the only one associating it with cinnamon

doesn't it explicitly say it has a bitter cinnamon taste/smell

the elder scrolls

I unironically love Ebberon. It was the first real setting I sunk my teeth into and I found it really refreshing compared to Forgotten Realms. It also gave us the warforged, the best semi-core race in D&D.

...

The endless legend/endless space setting

Eberron can do pulpy noir detective stories set in a city of towers, it's amazing.

Are there any other examples of this in media? Honestly Ace Combat seems to be the only one that plays it straight, all other alt-reality settings I've seen go overboard on magic and shit.

Bump

Star Control!

Advance Wars
Stardew Valley
Pokémon

Strictly speaking that exploration of social tensions of philosophy is the 'punk' part of cyberpunk. Cyberpunk projects current social problems into a dystopic future and then comments on those problems in a way that speaks truth the powers that be in the real world.

What's the best way to write up a worldbuilding or setting document?

the one I'm writing based off one book I've written and the 23 others i have planned.

40k

I'd never played the previous games and I absolutely love Morrowind. Oblivion was the height of 'meh' and Skyrim was pretty dull as well.

Deus Ex
not the sequels or the prequels, but Just Deus Ex

Simple, its [yours least favourite setting]!

Endless is great, and I miss the threads we used to have about it, despite all the people trying to reduce the Broken Lords to muh Deus Vult Thousand Sons. I would happily run or play in a campaign about a group of adventurers/mercenaries bouncing between the major factions.

Fuck yeah I would be playing Endless Legend 100 hours a week if the animations didn't take 100 years...

You know you can speed those up in the settings, right? My problem is that my laptop is ancient, so late game turns take forever to process.

Shadowrun

Shieet!

RIP user's free time.

EL and ES would be great games if the combat didnt take your entire life to resolve. My neet friends love it, but Im a workin man and Ive got shit to do.

Does anyone look at the options menus of the games they play anymore?

Torn between Deadlands: Hell on Earth and Ravenloft myself.

This reads like a parody of excuses for why FR isn't awful.

I can't even tell if I'm being trolled anymore.

Does Endless LEgend run fast on good, modern PCs?

Talislanta. A rich, weird fantasy world inspired by Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith and 1970s prog-rock albums.

PCs are unadoptable, slightly monstrous orphans taken in in bulk by a benefactor, Dr. Candlewick, who has turned his manor into a "for the unfortunate and unloved". The town is full of crazies and the occult, and is a melting pot for the weird and strange, but it's all built on a base of inbred town politics.

Slowly, the orphans discover that their half-remembered memories and somewhat prophetic impressions link them to people in the Vale, and the game transforms from a comedy-horror "sandbox" to something closer to politics.

into a home*

Mine.

For Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun (Pre-Prism Pentad)

In general, and as much as I hate to admit it, but the setting of Warhammer 40,000 is probably my favorite setting of all time. I can't think of any other setting that I have been as invested in.

Hard to pick one specific settings.

I love settings where nature has taken over humanity(nier automata, prypiat in Stalker etc).

I love cyberpunk settings, both old and new.

Generally speaking I love concept of forgotten technology. Either magical, scientific or alien.

Post-apocalyptic worlds where world isn't a total shithole, nature has taken over, humanity is struggling but you still get scenes like stalkers gathering around bonfire to play guitar.

Dash of mystery, a sense of exploration.

Sadly all my players prefer generic high fantasy.

I'm sorry someone put a gun to your head and made you run the setting, then put another gun to your head and made you have the NPCs show up in every session.
Oh...they didn't?
Then why are you bothering to bitch? Isn't there some map threat where you can yell at a new GM for not knowing how mountain ranges form?

Honorable mention:
Cyberpunk 2020
Planescape
Eberron
Greyhawk
Rifts

forgotten realms 3.0
it's not perfect and I'd change lots of stuff, but it is my favorite

>alignments exist except they don't matter at all and you can do whatever you want
>warforged: why play a dwarf ever again?
>pictured: fights you will never get in or win if you do

Eberron is fun, but I'd pull some parts out and change some others. It's also kinda stuck in an E6 mindset. I do even like warforged, but I would only ever allow them in eberron as they completely obviate dwarves.

Hard call. I can give you my top four though.

Mystara/The Known World (BECMI D&D)
Earthdawn
Rokugan (Legend of the Five Rings)
Theah (7th Sea)

I love vtm metalore. The more ancient the better.

Hyperion is amazingly good, especially after the fall of the hegemony.

Jaconia is up there too, since I grew up reading the authors comics.

There's just something with having an ancient culture's corpse that a current one is depending on or trying to understand.

Ravnica: the Guildening

Without a doubt, Helldorado. It was too good for this world...

Mount & Blade is a good example.

Space westerns, unfortunately. ;__;

Does steampunk count as magic and shit?

Rifts Earth

What do you like about AoS?

Vangers
youtu.be/7QDNhZeQk-s
game-over.net/review/june/vangers/index.html

It's Mad Max in a post apocalyptic universe with aliens and acid.

Numenera

It should. I'm just a dumbass who never turns off his laptop and has 50+ Chrome tabs open at all times.

All the lore around Shadespire is definitely a step in the right direction. It needs to fully embrace the weird Spelljammer like universe they have and go full crazy instead of presenting it like another generic WoW inspired world.

My Nigga

Damn, I want to play.

>What's your favorite setting?

I've played classic 1st Edition AD&D for decades. But my current favorite is pic related - Mutant: Year Zero.

The one where she exists.

BELKA STRONK

Mah nigga

So Delta Green, Call of Cthulu, & Dresden Files?

>Islamic Europan Union
Subtle diss.

Warhammer 40k, cyberpunk in general, The Night Lands, Foundation

And another vote. I adore the TES setting in general.

>modern setting where spirits are starting to become real, and all that implies.
>modern setting where mankind fused with demonkind by some portal mishap.
>You play minor spirits that have to guide characters to solve murders.
>Post-apoc setting where mankind preserved themselves mostly by downloading themselves into crystal AI pieces. Now all the rest think these crystals are spirits or gods, depending on the function/capacity
>spirits are desperately trying to force mankind to aknowledge their existence, even at the cost of many lives.
>magic is slowly becoming real,and it's easily abused. PCs are investigators or the magical equivalent of S.W.A.T