I just wanted to hear what some people thought. For me the original Ravenloft and Dark Sun boxsets were nearly perfect for me. I aways wanted to get into Spelljammers but it never seemed to work out.

Ravenloft!

Homebrewed freshness

Homebrew as well.

Setting that aside:

1. Greyhawk (lot of nostalgia wrapped up in that one)
2. Iron Kingdoms (easily the best 3.X setting)

The original (Classic) Dragonlance.

I just wanted to hear what some people thought. For me the original Ravenloft and Dark Sun boxsets were nearly perfect for me. I aways wanted to get into Spelljammers but it never seemed to work out.

Ravenloft, I agree.

Mystara had the best sense of wonder for baby adventurers.

Ravenloft was the most fun for me as a DM.

Hamunaptra is probably my favorite now, the modifications to make Egyptian style high fantasy is terrific.

As a player though, my favorite setting had to be the original Forgotten Realms. Every option a player could imagine, just one triptik away.

As a player :
- Homebrew (that i built with them, alternate DM)
- Homebrew (from a friend, a demon infested world)
- Forgotten Realms

As a DM :
- Homebrew (same as above)
- Forgotten Realms
- I also love Planescape, but i use it more as a supplement for any setting than a setting by itself.

The original (Classic) Dragonlance.

Seconded.

Best I ever played in was Planescape

Best I ever ran was Eberron

In D&D..

But I see my World of Darkness games 5 billion steps above those.

Ravenloft and Darksun were two of my favorites after our homebrew. We didn't get to play much Planescape but the little we did was great.

Best I ever ran? Dark Sun. Weird, crazy, all kinds of messed up, and everything was psionic.

Planescape had a lot of potential in it, too.

1. World of Greyhawk
2. Al-Qadim

Ravenloft is king! More craziness happened in that setting for me (both as a player and as a DM) than in any other campaign setting.

1.Forgotten Realms

2.Dragonlance

Homebrew, World of Greyhawk, Al-Qadim, Kara-Tur

Greyhawk, Dark Sun, and now Golarian, which is slowly surpassing any others the more I play it.

1.- Forgotten Realms
2.- Eberron
3.- Darksun

Ahhhhh Alqadim.... I had a couple of great adventures there.

Forgotten Realms first and foremost, followed by Planescape.

Had a blast going through the entire series of modules (heavily modified) for the War of the Lance, though.

Birthright...Definitely Birthright.

Birthright, above and beyond all others.

Planescape, because, really, it was every campaign in one.

Ravenloft & Al'Qadim, I loved the campaigns but never got much going with them.

Greyhawk, but only in 3.5e... I never really liked it before.

No other Iron Kingdoms, eh? You guys are missing out. It's the best original setting that came out during the 3E era :D

To people who answered "Birthright", may I ask, what made it so strong?

No other Iron Kingdoms, eh? You guys are missing out. It's the best original setting that came out during the 3E era :D

I've never played Iron Kingdoms but I have played in a (far far too short) Midnight game which thankfully did not succumb to my mates normal habit of drifting into the mists.

Best I've ever run though would have to be my Spelljammer campaign closely followed by Planescape.

Eberron.

I think it's interesting that so few people are offering that one up, since it's been hailed at times as the "savior of 3.5" and all. Maybe Golarion appeals to a different mindset...?

Homebrew, based loosely on Fred Saberhagen's "Empire of the East" (i.e., (spoiler ROT13'd) zntvp jnf npghnyyl n fvqr rssrpg sebz n grpuabybtvpny vgrz hfrq nf n ahpyrne zvffvyr qrsrafr).

Ravenloft!

Ravenloft!

Then Al-Qadim!

Planescape

To people who answered "Birthright", may I ask, what made it so strong?

I've not posted on this thread yet, but this is what I sent someone as a summary of the setting recently:

In the setting’s history, about 1,500 years ago the old gods and their armies banded together to fight Azrai, the evil god, and his armies, in a the Battle of Deismaar. He was a bit like Morgoth in that he’s more powerful than all the others combined, so they destroy themselves to kill Azrai. In doing so, he was defeated, and all their champions became the new gods. The surplus energy fell on the remaining forces, forming divine bloodlines. Those who were closest to the champions had the strongest (True) bloodlines, those further away gained gradually weaker bloodlines. Those with bloodlines are called scions. After the Battle, people could only become rulers if they were blooded. Some of the evil scions became (or become) warped by the blood of Azrai in their veins, and they become Awnshegh, of which The Gorgon is the most powerful. More rarely, non-evil scions of the other bloodlines become Ehrshegh, like the Pheonix or the Bruin.
Oh, and until 500 years ago, there was the Empire of Anuire, but the empire collapsed after the last member of the Roele family was killed when he tried to take down the Gorgon. Since then, the major families have been vying to become the new Emperor.
It’s a very traditional world, with a great Tolkein influence, eg. elves are ageless. Also many of them don’t like humans, as the latter took much of their land. In my Pbem, I’ve given the elves more of a Silmarilliony feel (so yes they have a level adjustment). There is also a plane somewhat like the Ethereal, which became dark and twisted after Deismaar, and became known as the Shadow World. In this setting, Halflings actually have a point, in that originally they lived in the Shadow World but fled from there after it became corrupted.
Players can be ordinary members of their races, scions, or regents (ie. rulers of realms or non-landed domains). There are also detailed rules for running realms and non-landed domains. All the realms (duchies, kingdoms, etc) are described, but there are extra layers as well, eg temples, guilds, wizards with Sources. So politics is heavily ingrained into the setting, and is more easy to incorporate that in any other setting. The main area (Anuire) is a traditional Anglo-French medieval setting, but there is a Viking-type area (Rjurik Highlands), late medieval Germanic area (Brecht lands), Arabian area (Khinasi lands), and a Russian tribes/early medieval-type area (Vos lands).
One could play a “standard” game, without bloodlines or realms, etc, but you wouldn’t really be catching the flavour of the setting. Stating the obvious, it’s better to be a scion than an ordinary person. Perhaps the best sort of campaign would be one where all the players are regents in the same realm, working together, and including both the domain aspect of the game, and the normal adventuring side of things. Although being regents, you wouldn’t necessarily go adventuring just to “kill stuff and take the treasure”.
With my Pbem game, it focuses on the domain-level angle, so adventures are handled abstractly, but the amount of preparation players include in their turn submissions affects how well they do on them. It’s quite a challenge to keep things going, as I have to give everyone the chance to shine at some point. Some players have conflicting goals though, and that may be a problem in the future, so I’ll have to see how things go. (That’s 600 words, which should be enough to give you a good idea of what it’s about!)

*****

I could also add that the area guides, as well as giving the realms their "stat blocs", each realm also gets a decent amount of background and ideas to use in a game. Birthright really rocks!

Eberron.

I think it's interesting that so few people are offering that one up, since it's been hailed at times as the "savior of 3.5" and all. Maybe Golarion appeals to a different mindset...?

Eberron is probably my second-favorite setting that was made for 3E, after Iron Kingdoms.

I haven't learned enough of Golarion yet...

Dragonlance is the one I remember with the most fondness...

Homebrewed campaign settings are always best for me. Of the published settings, I'm most fond of Planescape and I always loved Grayhawk.

Oddly, though I found the original trilogy enjoyable, I detested playing Dragonlance.

Ravenloft.

-W. E. Ray

Greyhawk, Dark Sun, and now Golarian, which is slowly surpassing any others the more I play it.

Dittoe.

Shisumo wrote:

Eberron.

I think it's interesting that so few people are offering that one up, since it's been hailed at times as the "savior of 3.5" and all. Maybe Golarion appeals to a different mindset...?

Eberron is probably my second-favorite setting that was made for 3E, after Iron Kingdoms.

Interesting. My friends and I call it "that Eberron crap" and avoid it like the plague.

Maybe now that the books can be found for half-price or less around my area I should check into it??

1. Homebrewed - combo of Ravenloft and FR 2nd edition
2. Ravenloft
3. Desert Campaign world setting based off of the I3-5 Desert of Desolation.

I enjoyed all of them in different ways, but I do need to answer the question, right?
I think that Planescape and pre-1374 Forgotten Realms are my favorites.

/d

Steerpike7 wrote:

Shisumo wrote:

Eberron.

I think it's interesting that so few people are offering that one up, since it's been hailed at times as the "savior of 3.5" and all. Maybe Golarion appeals to a different mindset...?

Eberron is probably my second-favorite setting that was made for 3E, after Iron Kingdoms.

Interesting. My friends and I call it "that Eberron crap" and avoid it like the plague.

Maybe now that the books can be found for half-price or less around my area I should check into it??

Don't bother. You and your friends are right*.

*This is an opinion that Fake Healer and others may share. Others opinions may vary.

*Others opinions may vary.

Sure, but all the opinions that are pro-Eberron are wrong.

Gosh...

Forgotten Realms
Ravenloft
Planescape
Al-Qadim
Spelljammer
Maztica
Kara-Tur

Midnight
Ptolus

And I really did like Iron Kingdoms, up until they started that silly war so they could use their line of minis...

-That One Digitalelf Fellow-

Fake Healer wrote:

*Others opinions may vary.

Sure, but all the opinions that are pro-Eberron are wrong.

This opinion is wrong.

Greyhawk - the original and still the best. Golarion's looking pretty good, too.

I enjoy playing in Eberron and the (pre-4e.) Forgotten Realms, but I never liked DMing in either setting.

Anyone play in "The Known World"/Mystara? I'm very intriqued with this setting since many of the OD&D adventures were set there.*

I'd love to get me some of those Gazetteers, but they're pretty expensive on Ebay, etc. and I'm very afraid of getting an incomplete set without a map or, in one particular case, 200 counters!

* In any of the published material for the game, is the actual B2: Keep on the Borderland's location established!?

AD&D Forgotten Realms, no other setting in the RPG history has been so deeply described as this one was.

Homebrew.

The settings that I have played or run in and enjoyed most:
Forgotten Realms (my first, from the original box set to 3.5)
Dark Sun ("What's my alignment? 'Hungry'...")
Planescape (Tony's artwork hooked me, and I still love Sigil)
Pathfinder Chronicles (my new home, with all same wonder as when FR came out)

The setting that I still want to run at some point:
Eberron (finally collected all the books I need, now just need to carve out some time to do something...)

Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"

I hadn't played Eberron till a couple of Play-by-posts got me started here, but I appreciate it's richness and wha-hoo flavor. There are aspects of the setting (Drow, aircars) that aren't the way I would have set things up if I'd been boss, but there's a lot more that's terrific and innovative and well, just, wha-hoo.

And the more you look at the setting, the more some subtle patterns emerge...like the Baker's Dozen. There were thirteen kingdoms on Khovaire, but one blew up. There were thirteen goblin gods, but one was suppressed. There were thirteen other planes, but one is forever locked away. There were thirteen dragonmarked houses, but one ...

The books never mention this, and actually go to some lengths to disguise it. But there are clues if you're lookig for them.

AD&D Forgotten Realms.

No other setting in the RPG history has been so deeply described as this one was.

This is actually a hindrance, not a boon.

But I guess I'm always thinking as a DM.

As a DM I would hate to do FR. Even if your Players no nothing about FR, if you're going to do it as is (and that's the point if it's not Homebrew) then you still have to know at least your region inside and out. There's far too many details. If you don't like that there's both a Sembia and a Westlake, or if you don't like that Elminster lives in Shadowdale -- you're pretty stuck. Changing it makes it no longer FR but a Homebrew inspired by FR.

And if your Players do know FR then you really have to know your stuff.

. . . .

Running a PC may not be as bad; the biggest "bump" is separating Player knowledge from PC knowledge.

-W. E. Ray

1. Mystara-I actually found Paizo looking for Mystara PDFs
2. Eberron
3. Dark Sun

Least Favorite-Spelljammer