What Is Your Favorite Campaign Setting?

[Reynard]

Any game system. Any era. Just what is your favorite campaign setting? Why? What do you love about it? What is the best adventure you had there?

When I was in high school, we played in Krynn a lot when I GMed. Dragonlance was a huge influence on me, and you can still see threads of it in campaign settings I make up today. I can't say it is still my favorite setting, but it definitely was for a long time. The only other published campaign setting i ever cared about was Eberron, which i still think of as the best D&D setting -- not just because the stuff in it is cool, but because it reflects the kind of D&D aesthetic and world building I find fascinating.

Outside of D&D, I really loved the Alternity Star*Drive setting. That's how you do game oriented space opera.

And, if it counts, the DC Universe. I have played pretty much every licensed DC game. Some are better than others, but the post Crisis, pre-Nu52 DCU is the best super hero universe to play in.

 

[aco175]

I grew up with Forgotten Realms (FR) and gone back and forth with it over the editions of D&D. I have a soft spot for the Under Illefarn supplement from '87ish. It was more a mini campaign sandbox rather than just a dungeon and had a town and smaller adventures that led to the larger one. I made a couple campaigns there back in high school. FR has so much and for so long that I find I can take what I need now and leave the rest.

I also liked 4e Nentir Vale and wish there was some more support for that.

 

[delericho]

Eberron, Spelljammer (original version), Dark Sun, Ravenloft (original version). In that order, for now - they do move around a lot.

As for why, I'm not actually sure. I just like the settings that show us something new.

 

[overgeeked]

D&D. Dark Sun. Spelljammer. Known World/Mystara. Al-Qadim. Ravenloft. Eberron.

Nom-D&D. WoD. Marvel Comics. Star Wars. Star Trek. Victorian London (various games). Lovecraft Country. WFRP Old World.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Any game system. Any era. Just what is your favorite campaign setting? Why? What do you love about it? What is the best adventure you had there?

When I was in high school, we played in Krynn a lot when I GMed. Dragonlance was a huge influence on me, and you can still see threads of it in campaign settings I make up today. I can't say it is still my favorite setting, but it definitely was for a long time. The only other published campaign setting i ever cared about was Eberron, which i still think of as the best D&D setting -- not just because the stuff in it is cool, but because it reflects the kind of D&D aesthetic and world building I find fascinating.

Outside of D&D, I really loved the Alternity Star*Drive setting. That's how you do game oriented space opera.

And, if it counts, the DC Universe. I have played pretty much every licensed DC game. Some are better than others, but the post Crisis, pre-Nu52 DCU is the best super hero universe to play in.

I do remember liking Krynn. In particular, the Taladas boxed set. Interestingly Krynn is what led me to my favorite setting.

My favorite settings is Ravenloft. I also loved Harn, Masque of the Red Death's Gothic Earth, and TORG's Orrorsh.

What drew me to Ravenloft was the novel Knight of the Black Rose, which I read because Soth was on the cover. I am not sure why Ravenloft resonated with me so much. I remember being insanely curious about the setting after reading KotBR (I had seen the boxed set on the shelf and was aware of the original module but had never explored it at that point). This was probably about a year after the Realm of Terror boxed set came out. As soon as I finished the novel I picked up the boxed set and Feast of Goblyns. As soon as I started reading the campaign setting, I couldn't put it down. Growing up on classic horror movies and on hammer films, the setting really energized me. I had never really run many campaigns and all of a sudden I was running two separate groups.

I loved the art (the Stephen Fabian art, which is why I love the Taladas boxed set so much) was so evocative. I was also reading it at the time I was joining a death metal band in high school and the Obituary album Cause of Death had come out. It used the same art as the Del Rey Lovecraft anthologies that came out that same year. I mention this because the boxed set made heavy use of his quotes, and one of the first things I did after reading it was begin buying and reading the Del Rey lovecraft books. The boxed set also spurred a deeper interest in reading classic horror and gothic horror. It quoted the section in Frankenstein where the creature says "I ought to be thy Adam..." and that piqued my curiosity because I was more familiar with the Boris Karloff interpretation of the creature. So I read Frankenstein, then Dracula, then The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Island of Doctor Moreau, Sheridan Le Fanu, etc (basically all the stuff on the suggested reading list).

It was just one of those settings that clicked with me, but also sparked an interest in a genre and made me want to learn more. The adventure Feast of Goblyns was pretty helpful too in selling me on the setting and how to run it.

 

[jdrakeh]

Oh, Shadow World for Rolemaster without a doubt. The Thousand Realms of Maelstrom Storytelling is a very close second.

 

[nevin]

Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Taladas (non Krynn side). All the players that wanted to have game's that recreated the choices in the books destroyed dragonlance for me. Nothing like watching a table disintegrate and a game end not because of normal player stuff but because the kinder in the party didn't do what tasselhoff did, or the knight in the party wasn't acting like Sturm. playing / DM'ing those modules was like crawling through fields of broken glass with the players I tried it with.

 

[billd91]

I suppose Greyhawk, Zakhara (Al-Qadim), Kara Tur (OA), and the Third Imperium (Traveller).

 

[eyeheartawk]

Fantasy: Greyhawk, Lankhmar and The Old World.

Sci-fi: 40K, Star Trek and the WEG version of Star Wars.

 

[nevin]

i always wanted to play Al-Qadim but never managed to sell it to any of my groups.