Greyhawk. Forever.
Iuz, Vecna, Tharizdun, the Circle of Eight (Mordekainen, Rary, ...)
Need I say more?
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Eberron as the shell of our world. But the canon and political climate have changed since our last campaign (Age of worms) to cater for the things the players attempted.
I usually just run prerelease modules and AP's and then modifiy them to suit the Eberron world and the changes we've made to that.
Our group plays almost exclusively in the Scarred Lands, the White Wolf d20 setting that was released early into 3e. It's got like zero support these days, but I hear they're converting and continuing it with 4e.
I recently bought my DM the Golarion sourcebook, so who knows? Our next campaign might just be there.
Ugh. I hate Ravenloft with a burning passion... >.<Why is that? I think you've just never had anyone run it right for you.
Well, back in 3.0/5 it was a setting that completely screwed over the Rogue, for one thing. Then there's the whole "Detect Evil doesn't work properly in Ravenloft" thing our DM enforced, as well as the "good characters are destined to go mad and fall to the evil permeating the land" attitude he had about his campaign, which screws over Clerics and Paladins. I mean, I was playing a -good subtype- Astral Deva and I found out later he was planning on having my character corrupted and turn evil because "that's the way Ravenloft is". This was my first and last experience that that god awful setting.
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Well, back in 3.0/5 it was a setting that completely screwed over the Rogue, for one thing. Then there's the whole "Detect Evil doesn't work properly in Ravenloft" thing our DM enforced, as well as the "good characters are destined to go mad and fall to the evil permeating the land" attitude he had about his campaign, which screws over Clerics and Paladins. I mean, I was playing a -good subtype- Astral Deva and I found out later he was planning on having my character corrupted and turn evil because "that's the way Ravenloft is". This was my first and last experience that that god awful setting.Ugh. I hate Ravenloft with a burning passion... >.<Why is that? I think you've just never had anyone run it right for you.
It's not the setting that sucks, it's your GM :) Ravenloft is freakin' awesome.
Greyhawk. Forever.
Iuz, Vecna, Tharizdun, the Circle of Eight (Mordekainen, Rary, ...)
Need I say more?
The circle of eight follow my players where ever they go. I am always tempted to dock xp when they say 'floating disc' or "Mage's Disjunction'. I dont, but I want to. It will be a cold day in a non-danteish hell when I stop using the proper names of spells...
Well, back in 3.0/5 it was a setting that completely screwed over the Rogue, for one thing. Then there's the whole "Detect Evil doesn't work properly in Ravenloft" thing our DM enforced, as well as the "good characters are destined to go mad and fall to the evil permeating the land" attitude he had about his campaign, which screws over Clerics and Paladins. I mean, I was playing a -good subtype- Astral Deva and I found out later he was planning on having my character corrupted and turn evil because "that's the way Ravenloft is". This was my first and last experience that that god awful setting.It's not the setting that sucks, it's your GM :) Ravenloft is freakin' awesome.
Yeah, I agree. I've never played Ravenloft, and it's obvious to me that that's your DM having some pretty serious preconceived-notion-issues* instead of letting a PC run their own character.
* I think I'm in love with this phrase, now.
The sky is a glass ceiling resting on the Pillars of Heaven from which the four winds blow? Yup. The world really is the back of a giant Dragon Turtle who swims through the sea of night? You betcha. The Desert Kingdoms has two suns that rise and set over its burning sands? Damn skippy. And I don't mean any of that metaphorically. The sky really is a glass dome. Literally.Don't tell my players but: my setting is essentially a demi-plane created by the Genesis spell, which oscillates between the positive and negative energy planes (day and night). Deep within my world exist the dark manipulators, thousands if not tens of thousands of years old mind flayer liches bent on turning the world into perpetual darkness and cold, then subjugating its weary populace.
Nice! What a fantastic (and fantastical) non-Copernican explanation for the day/night cycle. Two thumbs up.
Cool. I like that a variety of settings are definitely still in use, and a good time is had by all.
Well, back in 3.0/5 it was a setting that completely screwed over the Rogue, for one thing. Then there's the whole "Detect Evil doesn't work properly in Ravenloft" thing our DM enforced, as well as the "good characters are destined to go mad and fall to the evil permeating the land" attitude he had about his campaign, which screws over Clerics and Paladins. I mean, I was playing a -good subtype- Astral Deva and I found out later he was planning on having my character corrupted and turn evil because "that's the way Ravenloft is". This was my first and last experience that that god awful setting.
Yeah, the GM is supposed to tempt you to want to be corrupted, but the choice should be the players. I've played in some excellent Ravenloft games. A good character struggling to stay good in an evil world is a perfectly valid character. GM's should encourage character development and growth, but control should really be in the hands of the players.
The settings I love and use are:
Talislanta
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I just wanted to say that I love Talislanta. It doesn't get nearly enough love. Everyone should go check it out since every book ever made* is available for free download on the internet. It is surprisingly easy to convert Talislanta stuff to d20 and back.
*ok, not all of them are ready yet, but most are!
Dragonlance, Eberron, and Golarion, all Pathfinder.
Exactly. I don't want to go back to the very earliest of gaming days where a Dragon would be in one room and an orc tribe in the very next, each completely separate and non-interactive with the other.
Is it strange if in one of the Pathfinder games I played in there was EXACTLY this setup (well, non-interactive until we got them to have at each other and then went in to finish off the survivors)?
On another note, all of the Pathfinder games I have ran have been in Forgotten Realms, Freeport, and now with an unexpected, random gating, right into Planescape.
Generally a home brew, easier than keeping track of the 'official' changes that are always made to established settings.
Also easier to keep certain of our players from reading the next chapter and racing ahead to make sure they get the shiny doodad in the chest around the corner. :)
I rarely get to play (except when QOshea is feeling up to running). However, almost exclusively it's in Homebrew.
Oh, in case anyone is curious :
My current homebrew world is made up of four main continents :
Vallandrus : Wild lands and remnanents of once great civilizations now turned to crude rough areas peopled by 'monsters' (kobolds, orcs, minotaurs, goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, drow, etc) by an ancient war. Only one bastion of good remains, a giant city in the center of the continent that is built into a mountain (Kotelia, the Ancient Fortress). Even it is populated with 'monsters', who were let in by the remnants of the humans, elves, halflings, gnomes, and dwarves who were besieged there, thousands of years ago.
Pallandrus : Heavily civilized continent, the same size as Vallandrus, and south and east of the equator from Vallandrus. This is where the refugee's from the great war on Vallandrus came, immigrents to an already full land. The land is divided into a dozen powerful countries, which war with each other routinely thanks to pressures of population and resources. It's a more 'standard' type of land to adventure in.
Sokavi : Sokavi is the land of mystery. Think asian themed, much smaller than either Pallandrus or Vallandrus, Sokavi is about 1/3 the size of either. It is an island nation (about the size of Australia) with mountains in the center, and civilization along the coasts. The mountains are steeped in ancient magic, and it's dangerous to enter them. They are called the Ghost Lands. Here you'll find Samurai, fuedal lords, ancient dragons (the dragons of this land are neutral, and asian in apperance), and honor.
Shavalla : Shavalla was once the greatest magic using civilization on the face of the earth. But their own hubris caused their downfall. Great magics were wrought and went awry. The island nation (about the size of Texas) was blasted 10,000 feet into the air, where it remains to this day. The survivors were badly twisted by the magic. Over the centuries, those who grew wings survived, and those who didn't died out. Halflings, Elves and Humans call it home (all three with natural wings). However, they paid a terrible price. The islands are wild with magic, and no spell can safely be cast on the islands. It's is extremely likely to backfire and destroy the caster. The inhabitants have instead learned to hone their mind to do what would need magic before (technology and psionics). This nation has firearms, steam powered airships, and the ultimate defense against magic using attackers. :) The island floats along on the jet-stream, taking 3 months to make one circuit around the world.
The sky is a glass ceiling resting on the Pillars of Heaven from which the four winds blow? Yup. The world really is the back of a giant Dragon Turtle who swims through the sea of night? You betcha. The Desert Kingdoms has two suns that rise and set over its burning sands? Damn skippy. And I don't mean any of that metaphorically. The sky really is a glass dome. Literally.Don't tell my players but: my setting is essentially a demi-plane created by the Genesis spell, which oscillates between the positive and negative energy planes (day and night). Deep within my world exist the dark manipulators, thousands if not tens of thousands of years old mind flayer liches bent on turning the world into perpetual darkness and cold, then subjugating its weary populace.Nice! What a fantastic (and fantastical) non-Copernican explanation for the day/night cycle. Two thumbs up.
Thanks! I tried to make my world seem extremely "standard" on first glance, and the planar nature of the world is not known by anyone but a handful of extremely high level Loremaster/scholars, who have since gone mad at its implications. The world IS flat, and finite, and beyond the edge there ARE dragons that lurk. It's fun to turn expectations on their ear like that.
Well, back in 3.0/5 it was a setting that completely screwed over the Rogue, for one thing. Then there's the whole "Detect Evil doesn't work properly in Ravenloft" thing our DM enforced, as well as the "good characters are destined to go mad and fall to the evil permeating the land" attitude he had about his campaign, which screws over Clerics and Paladins. I mean, I was playing a -good subtype- Astral Deva and I found out later he was planning on having my character corrupted and turn evil because "that's the way Ravenloft is". This was my first and last experience that that god awful setting.
I'm sorry to hear that. That definitely sounds like a DM issue. To be fair, Ravenloft is definitely a "screw the players" sort of world, but usually running it is all about making the players MAKE very hard decisions and tempting them to take the easy way out. Because of the nature of the world heroism really IS heroic not just standard.
I have seen (and heard) of it being run two different ways. One is to be over the top, throw evil stuff at them, hammy, silly horror. The better way is to try to make it creepy and make the characters fear for their lives. Players rarely feel genuinely frightened for their characters in my experience, because death is relatively easily overcome. Ravenloft is less about killing the players than sullying their souls. Transfiguring them as well, making them feel like they're just not wanted or loved and beat down their morale. :)
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Lately it has been Golarion only for me, as I have been running RotRL. Pre-Pathfinder I have run/played in Homebrews, Mystara, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Planescape, and Eberron. Of the published settings those last three are my favorites because of the unique flavor each has. Once the current game is done, one of my players will probably be converting the Midnight setting (by Fantasy Flight Games, check it out if you are unfamiliar; think Middle Earth if Sauron had won...) to Pathfinder, which should be a blast...
I'm sorry to hear that. That definitely sounds like a DM issue. To be fair, Ravenloft is definitely a "screw the players" sort of world, but usually running it is all about making the players MAKE very hard decisions and tempting them to take the easy way out. Because of the nature of the world heroism really IS heroic not just standard.
I have seen (and heard) of it being run two different ways. One is to be over the top, throw evil stuff at them, hammy, silly horror. The better way is to try to make it creepy and make the characters fear for their lives. Players rarely feel genuinely frightened for their characters in my experience, because death is relatively easily overcome. Ravenloft is less about killing the players than sullying their souls. Transfiguring them as well, making them feel like they're just not wanted or loved and beat down their morale. :)
Well said, Ravenloft is a great setting. And it's about horror and corruption , making the hard choices and being a big damned hero in a world with so very few. Some of the best RP moments I can recall were in ravenloft, not despite the "screw you" feel but because of it. In some worlds you play the hero in Ravenloft you damn well feel like one.
Also The wishing imp was a thing of real evil.
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Well, back in 3.0/5 it was a setting that completely screwed over the Rogue, for one thing. Then there's the whole "Detect Evil doesn't work properly in Ravenloft" thing our DM enforced, as well as the "good characters are destined to go mad and fall to the evil permeating the land" attitude he had about his campaign, which screws over Clerics and Paladins. I mean, I was playing a -good subtype- Astral Deva and I found out later he was planning on having my character corrupted and turn evil because "that's the way Ravenloft is". This was my first and last experience that that god awful setting.Ugh. I hate Ravenloft with a burning passion... >.<Why is that? I think you've just never had anyone run it right for you.
I have to back what everyone else has said: It's not so much Ravenloft as it seems to be a bad DM herp derp issue. Planning to make a player's character corrupted and evil is just bad form, period.
That said, Ravenloft is not a pleasant place, but it's really not meant to be, even for the bad guys.
We started with Forgotten Realms (I forget what the world is called)..
..then we moved to Ravenloft..
..then we started our own world where we bolted elements of Ravenloft into the northern lands and Forgotten Realms into the south.
Theeeen we had a good 'ole cataclysmic event, advance things a few hundred years and had fun reworking old characters, places and events into legends..
..no we're running a net-based campaign world that is a mix of regions/realms, some created as personal pet projects by contributors while others a collabarative efforts.
The main idea behind the campaign world follows a similar setup to the Ravenloft - i.e lots of regions/realms/areas that co-exist by means of The Mists creating borders/magical 'edges'. Something akin to a single prime material plane with many pocket planes that intersect.
The resulting effect is a world where magical, monster and thematic concepts clash. There are unifying elements - i.e how spells function, the nature of the classes, alignments etc but otherwise anything is fairplay. A troll in one realm is an amphibeous adult goblin with poisonous attacks while in another it's cave dwelling creature with regeneration and long spindly limbs.
My personal pet realm is Zor.
ZOR
Taken from so background blurb posted a while ago:
The land of Zor has a rich history of conspiracy and coin. Many have remarked on the natural tendancy of Zorians to gather together in groups, gangs, cults and the like – gather enough Zorians together and soon you will have a new company, cartel or faith.
Perhaps it’s because Zorians, unlike people from other lands, have an overwhelming bias towards Lawful alignments. Even the most crazed, irrational Zorian will claim that their crazed, irrational behavior is the result of conscious planning and follows an established method of crazed, irrational behavior and yes, they’d be more than happy to lend you a copy of the book that outlines the method and practices for a few days, if you don't mind popping over for a dinner of fava beans, liver and a nice bottle of chianti...
At the heart of the land of Zor is the Royal City, the residence of The Queen. The Queen makes liberal use of her elite martial agents, the ‘Royal Hands’ to interact with her land, preferring to personally remain within the Royal Gallery where she consults with her many advisors and informers.
So, What makes Zor unique amongst it's neighbours? Simply put, the sheer number of clubs, gangs, cults, groups and companies -- the average Zorian citisen belongs to, at anyone time, five seperate organistations!
With so many secret handshakes, guild-only sigils and members-only languages, Zor can be a bewildering place to outsiders. However, given the nature of the local people, it doesn't take long for someone to invite them to join a favourite club/group/gang/cult/faith/company/guild/institution!
no mystara?
With Pathfinder rules I have used Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Pathfinder.
When we played 3.5, we used Nyambe and Hamunaptra, plus those listed above! :)
We started with Forgotten Realms (I forget what the world is called)..
Abeir-Toril
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Abeir-Toril
MY MOTHER WAS A SAINT!
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Abeir-TorilMY MOTHER WAS A SAINT!
Just Toril. Abeir is that invading thing in 4E, which in propper FR stays away in forgotten reality ;)
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Just Toril. Abeir is that invading thing in 4E, which in propper FR stays away in forgotten reality ;)
Been called Abeir-Toril since the old 2nd-edition 'campaign set' (which came out in '87).
As for me: what setting my group plays in is pretty fluid; sometimes it'll be Eberron, sometimes Forgotten Realms, on occasion (a rare occasion, much to my dismay) even Rokugan. Been trying to pick up some Greyhawk books to run some games there.
Used Greyhawk.
Switched to Golarion.
Just Toril. Abeir is that invading thing in 4E, which in propper FR stays away in forgotten reality ;)Been called Abeir-Toril since the old 2nd-edition 'campaign set' (which came out in '87).
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3.0 already used Toril alone. I started playing after 3.0 came out, 2nd edition materials were pretty hard to find where I live.
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3.0 already used Toril alone. I started playing after 3.0 came out, 2nd edition materials were pretty hard to find where I live.
How dare you present a logical reason for your not knowing about the old name! :p
Lots of good FR material in the older edition stuff; like you said, though, it's tough to find.
I've run a pair of long-running Planescape campaigns (which also spent time on Toril/FR, Athas/Dark Sun, and referenced Ravenloft a few times).
As a player I've played in multiple FR campaigns, a few homebrew worlds, and Ravenloft several times for oneshot games.
I still have a special fondness for classical Planescape, and FR prior to 4e was my favorite non-planar setting (pretty much abandoned it at this point).
My next campaign however will be a planar Golarion game, for which I already have plans and want to do a oneshot at GenCon for any interested, schedules permitting to test-drive the central location of that game (which itself won't be for a year or so as I take a break from DMing for my home group).
Just Toril. Abeir is that invading thing in 4E, which in propper FR stays away in forgotten reality ;)
Abeir being a rogue planet or whatever it is is 4e retconn crap - showing that they were perfectly willing to retconn things but decided to destroy the setting with non-retconn "explanations" just because they hate it and its fans so much.
The FR world started as Toril, but was later renamed Abeir-Toril (rumour has it that they did that because they wanted their poster child setting to be on top - alphabetically as well as otherwise).
I can't remember what 3e sources made of it, but a lot of the novels* used the Abeir part, if I recall correctly - and a lot of those novels are from the 2e era.
*I used to have a complete collection - now it is no longer complete because I stopped buying, but it is still complete up to about the time they revealed that they'd like the realms to bend over and bite a piece of wood because they weren't using any lubrication. If I ever get the chance, I'll sell those novels, but it seems that it would be more effort than it'd be worth.
My first gaming experiences were in the Known World, later my original DM moved us from there to Forgotten Realms just as the 2nd edition boxes came out. So when I started DMing a few years into things, FR was my first setting.
Over time, supplements and such I started getting in Greyhawk back in 2nd edition and have since picked up a whole slew of the old materials. I love the way they mapped out the Flanaess and the way the nations interact in Greyhawk. Its a very different feel than FR, imo.
That being said, I love Golarion as well. I'm current running Age of Worms in Greyhawk with Pathfinder rules and will likely alternate between running Greyhawk and Golarion in the future. I love both settings, they just have a different feel to me and I'll use whichever fits my game more at the time.
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My current setting is a homebrew for two reasons. The first is that I don't feel great messing around with someone else's world as much as I would need it to fit my campaign. The second is that I'm running my campaign for a bunch of staff members at the camp I'm working at, so I figured it'd be really cool to draw people in by changing the camp into the campaign setting, so each area of the camp is a different major area, each with their own regional traits.
I started to play in the eighties in a nameless and flavorless world, known only as... the Known World, until it became much later Mystara.
Our group felt something was missing, beyond killing monsters and grabbing treasures, there had to be something else in the game, to make it alive and involving.
So I started working on a homebrew world, along with fellow DMs, each of us bringing in ideas of people, civilizations, cultures, historical references...
I am still running the same world today.
Golarion/Planescape.
Me Too
Ptolus. Ran through the initial adventures in The Brick, then the Night of Dissolution module. Now working on a homebrew campaign in the same setting.
On weeks I'm not feeling the DM vibe, one of my players DMs an all-halfling homebrew game, wherein I run my halfling barbarian, Timber Tallgrass.
Yeah, he's awesome.
3.0 already used Toril alone. I started playing after 3.0 came out, 2nd edition materials were pretty hard to find where I live.
Just in case you're still looking, the 2.0 setting stuff is available for download free on the WOTC website (or at least is was).
Thanks! I tried to make my world seem extremely "standard" on first glance, and the planar nature of the world is not known by anyone but a handful of extremely high level Loremaster/scholars, who have since gone mad at its implications. The world IS flat, and finite, and beyond the edge there ARE dragons that lurk. It's fun to turn expectations on their ear like that.
Agreed. Any world that wouldn't make the crew of the Enterprise have a stroke while spouting about how it "violates the laws of physics" isn't worth calling a fantasy world, IMHO anyway.
Again, not a criticism of commercial game designers. They have to play to the biggest potential market. I just don't understand why so many home brewed worlds (and niche marketers) tend to follow the "M class planet in orbit around a G class star" model.
Falling off the edge of the world? Oh baby, you BETCHA!
