D&D General A Chart of D&D Campaign Worlds (v 3.0)

Mercurius · May 4, 2022

Some of you are familiar with my chart of 5E books (I also have one for every edition that I posted a couple years ago, but they could use prettying-up to be comparable to the 5E one). With all of this talk of campaign settings, I thought I'd do a slightly different chart, to get a sense of setting support over the years.

I consider this a work in progress, mainly because I'm not sure I feel confident with the designations for each setting and each year. For instance, the difference between mid and dark range setting books - what I call "major supplement" and "full setting product," respectively. Sometimes major supplements are as or more significant than full setting supplements.

But this is how it looks now. You'll also note that I include a few other settings that almost seem like official settings - Kalamar, Golarion, and Midgard.

Anyhow, let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for revision. Again, this is a work in progress and just a bit of fun.

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Mercurius · May 4, 2022

A couple comments.

For one, I a struck by how some settings that loom large in our collective minds have actually had relatively short-lived, or sparse, support. Birthright stands out - just four years. And even Dark Sun, Eberron, and Planescape - they were really only significantly supported for five (Planescape), six (Eberron), and seven (Dark Sun) years at a time, with bits and pieces after.

One of the reasons I decided to include Golarion and Midgard was as a counterpoint to the recent decades of WotC. Paizo and Kobold/Open Design have covered those two settings far more consistently than WotC has of any setting over that similar fifteen years or so - especially Paizo (although it looks similar).

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if more words have been about Golarion than any other setting, for any game.

Speaking of Midgard, that was one setting that I struggled with designating colors. I gave dark squares for the two Midgard setting books, but also the Southlands books - but that isn't really consistent with how I covered Golarion - I mean, if Southlands is considered a "full setting product," then Absalom and Mwangi probably should be, as well. And I also called City of Greyhawk and various Mystara and FR products "full setting products," even though they were just expansions of the original setting.

So all that is pending revision.

Parmandur · May 4, 2022

Very interesting.

I think that counting the various Magic Settings as one line is problematic, since they are all extremely distinct and do not connector each other: they are even seperated out from each other on the DMsGuild, same as individual D&D Settings!

Which brings up another point: it might be worth notaries when Setting was opened up for DMsGuild support, since that changes the dynamic of support for any Setting considerably.

Mercurius · May 4, 2022

Parmandur said:
Very interesting.

I think that counting the various Magic Settings as one line is problematic, since they are all extremely distinct and do not connector each other: they are even seperated out from each other on the DMsGuild, same as individual D&D Settings!

At first I was going to separate them, but then decided that--if only because of the nature of 5E publishing--one line made a certain amount of sense. I know they are distinct, but are all part of the "uber-setting" that is Magic.

Parmandur said:
Which brings up another point: it might be worth notaries when Setting was opened up for DMsGuild support, since that changes the dynamic of support for any Setting considerably.

Oh boy, I didn't even consider DM's Guild (I rarely even browse it, tbh)...not sure I want to open up that can of worms.

Parmandur · May 4, 2022

Mercurius said:
At first I was going to separate them, but then decided that--if only because of the nature of 5E publishing--one line made a certain amount of sense. I know they are distinct, but are all part of the "uber-setting" that is Magic.

But there isn't really an overarching Magic Setting at play in those books: Ravnica is q distinct Setting, as are Theros and Strixhaven. They don't crossover at all, and are treated differently on the DMsGuild. They don't even address Magic cosmology or the Color system at all, keeping tonentirely D&D terminology.

Mercurius said:
Oh boy, I didn't even consider DM's Guild (I rarely even browse it, tbh)...not sure I want to open up that can of worms.

It's probably more simple in practice than it sounds: just determine what year a Setting was opened to Guild development, and shade the subsequent years. Thing is, Guild support may even be more significant in scope than what TSR used to do.

overgeeked · May 4, 2022

That's awesome. You might want to shift your grey several shades darker. The light version almost disappears into the background.

JEB · May 4, 2022

You forgot Rokugan.

And if you have Conan/Red Sonja and Lankhmar, you should probably include Diablo as well...

JEB · May 4, 2022

Also, I'm guessing you simply forgot to add the 3E Ravenloft products? (You included the Sovereign Press Dragonlance, which was just as official.)

JEB · May 4, 2022

And if you break out Kara-Tur and Al-Qadim from the Realms, you should probably separate out Hollow World and Red Steel from Mystara. The obscure Thunder Rift might also be properly treated as separate.

There's also the Ravenloft spin-off Masque of the Red Death (in both 2E and 3E).

Paul Farquhar · May 4, 2022

If you are going to lump MtG settings into one, Forgotten Realms needs to go in there.

By your own definition, Birthright can only qualify as a minor setting, since it only features in one edition.

D&D General A Chart of D&D Campaign Worlds (v 3.0)

Mercurius

Legend

Mercurius

Legend

Parmandur

Book-Friend

Mercurius

Legend

Parmandur

Book-Friend

overgeeked

B/X Known World

JEB

Legend

JEB

Legend

JEB

Legend

Paul Farquhar

Legend

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