Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Golden Zealot 09-04-06, 03:59 AM	I'm looking to buy an official campaign setting, and I was wondering what there was out there. What canyone recommend as a pretty easy, standard dnd setting? I was thinking of Forgotten Realms, but looking on amazon all the reviews talked about it as AD&D, so I don't know if it's been updated to 3.5 or not, but any advice would be appreciated
anki 09-04-06, 04:08 AM	If you want the Forgotten Realms setting in 3.5 you must buy Players guide to Faerun since it carries the updates...Otherwise the full 3.5 Ebberon. But i suggest FR setting since it doesn't really matter what edition it is since most of the book contains data about Faerun:people,places,customs,stories...
Azezel 09-04-06, 09:18 AM	I recomend the Realms. And since I like the Forgotten Realms so much, I am the ideal person to tell you what is wrong with that setting (perhapse someone who likes Eberron a lot will post with the faults of that setting?) Understand - I am only posting the bad things - the good outweighs the bad. The main thing people complain about with the Realms is that there are many very powerful NPC's. Which is accurate. Elminster, the most powerful figure in the Realms is CR35. CR35! In d20 Call of Cthullu Cthulu himself is only CR32 or 33 (something like that, it's been a while, you get my point...). There are lots of high level NPC's and this can make games hard. One wanders why it is up to four unknown level five idiots to save the world when Blackstaff Arunsen could do it in a weekend and still have time to mow his lawn. Another thing that people don't like is the Divine Soap Opera. The deities in the Relams (and there are scads of gods and goddesses) are essentially a lot of bickering schoolchilderen. and they cannot be ignored. Everything is touched by religeon in the realms. The Realms are very very densely detailed and have a long history and canon. Almost everything you encounter has already been set out in one book or another and it can be difficult to play a game without violating something canon. Also, there is little room for DM manouvering. Drow - Drow are bloody everywhere... The Ecology and Geography of Faerun is not 100% sane. Places like the Anouroch Desrt and the Frozen North do stretch the suspension of disbelief somewhat. Alignment - if you do not like Alignment - or, more accurately, if you do not know how to use Alignment propperly, you will hate playing in the realms. That's off the top of my head - these are the bad points of the Forgotten Realms. I still like the setting lots, and think the good outweighs the bad, but you should have a fair picture.
babysamurai 09-04-06, 09:24 AM	Go with Planescape, than you have the best of "all" worlds.
Azezel 09-04-06, 11:30 AM	The OP asked for an official setting. Planescape is no longer officially supported. Neither are Dragonlance, Black Sun, Spelljammer, Greyhawk or Ravenloft (though there is a Ravenloft book on the horizon, hooray!)
Board_Rider 09-04-06, 11:48 AM	Well the most popular two are Forgotten Realms and Eberron with Eberron being both newer and fully 3.5. FR's sourcebook is 3.0 (though it matters little) and has more than its fair share of 3.5 books. Bothe campaigns have something to offer depending on what you are looking for. Currently, there is a thread which has our fellow posters debating the merits of both. I personally like FR but Eberron has its merits too. http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=682199
Identitystolen 09-04-06, 10:27 PM	I play Eberron, so I'll try to give a good overview of it. Eberron is great low to mid levels, but can get tough to make high level and epic level adventures. Many of the NPCs you run to will be more warriors and adepts than fighters and wizards. Very few epic level characters exist in Eberron, and most of them have their existance kept secret. Magic is everywhere in the setting and can make Eberon a lot more technologically advance than most D&D settings. Things like elemental powered airships fly around, lightning rail's are the trains of Eberron, and of course the warforge were developed here. For areas of adventure, you got Khovaire (Starting contient for most adventures) where you can play lots of urban and intrigue adventures, and still be able to through in some wilderness fun. Xen' Drik is basicly frontier land filled with ruins of the destroyed giant civilization and is an adventurer's playground where anything can happen. Then there is Serlona, a mysterious land ruled by extraplanar pysionic beings, Aerenal which is ruled by elves who venerate their dead by making them positive energy charged undead as to keep their knowledge and wisdom, and Argonnessen, a contient than dragons soley rule over to study the prophecy and push forward their own agenda's. If you don't particularly care for D&D alignment, Eberron tends to play is very loosely. For example, clerics no longer have to be one step away from their dieties alignment to keep their powers, they only need to remain faithful and believe they are forwarding their dieties will. Speaking of deities, they don't really exist, or so it would seem. They simply aren't there or are on a plane of existance that is not in contact with the rest of Eberron's cosmology. Well, I hope that helps :) On a side note, I would personally like to see a 3.5 spelljammer, the setting looks intresting to me.
Kazeofwinds 09-04-06, 10:33 PM	I've always liked Dragonlance, but then again, I've read a hideous amount of the books. BTW, Dragonlance is official, but not printed by wizards, its just weird that way.
Pennarin 09-05-06, 01:55 AM	The OP asked for an official setting. Planescape is no longer officially supported. Neither are Dragonlance, Black Sun, Spelljammer, Greyhawk or Ravenloft (though there is a Ravenloft book on the horizon, hooray!) You meant Draglance, Die Sun, Spunkjammer, Earlgrey, and Ravenflat, didn't you?! :P I recommend Eberron. It is a great dumping ground for all things D&D and is more flexible than other settings by its different handling of alignments and the addition of Action Points. So if you ever find something you like and it isn't in Eberron, be confident there's a way for it to be incorporated in the setting as if it had always been there (the designers are currently doing this, adding to the setting most of the stuff found in new WotC products).
Beavisfett 09-05-06, 04:24 AM	I would say Eberron or Greyhawk(the realms should be nuked from orbit just to be sure) you will find more for Eberron then Greyhawk, but Greyhawk is the father of all worlds and the default in the core books.
Golden Zealot 09-05-06, 07:19 AM	Thanks for the info, I think I'll be going for the realms on account of me being new to the game. Can anyone tell me though, will I need to buy millions of source books for every new part of the world, or is there enough detail in the main book for me to make up the little details of everywhere?
Gemstone 09-05-06, 07:31 AM	Thanks for the info, I think I'll be going for the realms on account of me being new to the game. Can anyone tell me though, will I need to buy millions of source books for every new part of the world, or is there enough detail in the main book for me to make up the little details of everywhere? The only thing you need is the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, and possible the players guide to fareun if you don't want to update the setting yourself :)
Ithilien 09-05-06, 07:50 AM	For something completely different. There is another Official Campaign setting. Kingdoms of Kalamar official D&D Setting. Although it's not published by wotc, it is official D&D. More info The Kalamar Homepage (http://www.kenzerco.com/index.php?cPath=25_28&osCsid=50459475d8ff338b3771d2132011fff7)
The Axeman 09-05-06, 08:14 AM	Dark Sun isn't exactly "official" but it is supported and fully updated to 3.5. It's not for the faint of heart though, it tends to be rather lethal. mauuahahaahhhha
striderII 09-05-06, 09:45 AM	While I'm still a big Realms fan, but I do have a new love, in terms of awesome campaign settings. Ptolus. Monte Cook wrote the massive, massive tome, and it is "the d20 system with the volume turned up" - and it really is. However, it has a lot of depth, intrigue, and layers. It's very, very good. The biggest issue there may be with it is the cost - it's a bit salty, at around $120 bucks. But you get a *lot* of stuff with it. A 668 page book, a 96 page adventure, an envelope of handouts and maps, and a CD-Rom with another 400-odd pages of stuff. I really like it - and if you want to spend that kind of money, I think there are enough plots, hooks, events, etc. going on that the replay value is great. Once I get through a campaign or two, I'll let you know. ;) strider
wvmmafan 09-05-06, 10:11 AM	Go Forgotten Realms, 1. The most material you can find is on the Realms. 2. The Realms are diverse (you can jump of into Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, and the Underdark). 3. Established NPCs (you can stay away from the big ones like, Drizzts, Elminster, and the seven sisters and still have lots of options left). 4. Plenty of maps and online extras. 5. If you enjoy reading, there are a lot of good FR novels. Plus in my personal opinion, Eberron is horrible. I love Greyhawk, but it just hard to find stuff for it. Dragonlance is nice for some people, but it lacks the diversity of the Realms. Some friends of mine are in the process of converting spelljammer and planescape to 3.5, but you can not get official material. Last but not least, there are a lot of realms mods out there
Azezel 09-05-06, 11:53 AM	Thanks for the info, I think I'll be going for the realms on account of me being new to the game. Can anyone tell me though, will I need to buy millions of source books for every new part of the world, or is there enough detail in the main book for me to make up the little details of everywhere? You've made the right descision. As I suspected you would - the Realms have seen other settings come and go, and will continue to reign over lesser settings. All you will really need is the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. This book (and it's a biggie) is 3.0, but you will almost never notice. The Player's Guide to Faerun is essentially the 3.5 update to this book, but you can get along fine without it (I have). I recomend that you skip the novels set in the Realms, they are second rate at best. If you are looking for an aditional Realms book, I'd recomend The Underdark (despite the Drow) or the Magic of Faerun.
Beavisfett 09-05-06, 12:18 PM	You've made the right descision. As I suspected you would - the Realms have seen other settings come and go, and will continue to reign over lesser settings. All you will really need is the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. This book (and it's a biggie) is 3.0, but you will almost never notice. The Player's Guide to Faerun is essentially the 3.5 update to this book, but you can get along fine without it (I have). I recomend that you skip the novels set in the Realms, they are second rate at best. If you are looking for an aditional Realms book, I'd recomend The Underdark (despite the Drow) or the Magic of Faerun. the realms are nothing compared to greyhawk
Draco Strang 09-05-06, 12:28 PM	I'm looking to buy an official campaign setting, and I was wondering what there was out there. What canyone recommend as a pretty easy, standard dnd setting? I was thinking of Forgotten Realms, but looking on amazon all the reviews talked about it as AD&D, so I don't know if it's been updated to 3.5 or not, but any advice would be appreciated The FRCS was updated to 3.0 specs, with most books after that run to 3.5. The differences weren't major enough to warrant a re-publish, and you can easily correct stuff on the fly. I love this world, and am a self-confessed FR junkie. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a pre-made world. OotH, the Eberron setting was written to 3.5 specs, and is for all intents and purposes a brand-new world. It's substantially different than FR, but that doesn't mean I don't like it. Check both out, and see what ya like.
Pennarin 09-05-06, 01:47 PM	The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book is indeed chocked-filled with details, so one does not actually need to buy other Forgotten Realms books to have a very detailed campaign going on. But...so is the Eberron Campaign Setting book. It too has lots of details and describes several regions of the game world. One needs not buy additional Eberron books either. This is unique to both these settings. Any other setting out there published by WotC or the old TSR contained but a fraction of the needed information in their main books.
ArcTan 09-05-06, 02:46 PM	The most generic setting -- in fact, *the* generic setting, the one that contains all the gods that are named in the core materials and where all the races are exactly as described in the Monster Manuals and such -- is Greyhawk. Greyhawk itself as a setting is no longer supported, but if you buy the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and use the core PHB, DMG and MM as-is you have enough for a campaign setting.
Joseph_Silver 09-05-06, 03:01 PM	Go for Eberron. You won't be disappointed.
Sapp 09-05-06, 04:12 PM	The main thing people complain about with the Realms is that there are many very powerful NPC's. Which is accurate. Elminster, the most powerful figure in the Realms is CR35. CR35! In d20 Call of Cthullu Cthulu himself is only CR32 or 33 (something like that, it's been a while, you get my point...). The rest of what you were saying made sense, but I thought Elminster was CR 39? CR 39 is not that much of a problem, so I'm not sure why you are surprised by CR 35. There are plenty of others that would give Elminster a run for his money. Karsus, the Sceptenar, Daurgothoth (CR 50), etc, all over CR 40. The OP asked for an official setting. Planescape is no longer officially supported. Neither are Dragonlance, Black Sun, Spelljammer, Greyhawk or Ravenloft (though there is a Ravenloft book on the horizon, hooray!) Dragonlance is supported I believe, just not as much as Eberron and the FR. Spelljammer and Planescape might be officially supported anymore, but you'll really only use the settings for their flavor. The 2nd Edition books will do you just fine. The same applies for FR. The 2nd Edition books were mostly superior if you're concerned about flavour and not going to use the ruinous numbers/statistics in the 3rd Edition FR sourcebooks.
Joni-san 09-05-06, 04:22 PM	The Other Worlds forum has the boards for some of the older settings that are no longer officially supported (With the exception of Dragonlance [Sovereign Press], Dark Sun and Planescape[Fans]) Quick (and innacurate) descriptions (and analogies) Dragonlance: Standard-ish Fantasy D&D, epic fantasy, low-magic. Has many of the most memorable D&D characters ever, like Raistlin and Lord Soth for example. To say there are lots of novells is a understatement. Birthright: A wartorn place (That's the impression I have) where the nobles have strange magical power (Something about gods and people near the place where they died or something like that) Dark sun: The whole worlds turned into a desert, sorcerer-kings rule the lands, survival is a daily chore, wizards hated because their magic uses plantlife as fuel (well, for some). Think Fallout meets D&D - technology. Greyhawk: The granddaddy setting, pretty much everything started here. Greyhawk is D&D. There's a Living Greyhawk book you can use if you can find it. Mordenkainen and many other famous mages come from GH Mystara: Standard fantasy realms. AKA The Known world. Used to be the standard setting in basic D&D. Contains the settings Red Steel (wierd magic mutant curse and pirates?) and Hollow World (Journey to the Center of the Earth!) Planescape: Philosophers with Clubs. A very interesting setting where belief is reality. Centered in the city of Sigil 'ruled' by the Lady of Pain. Planar adventures with angels and fiends. If you can find the PC game "Planescape: Torment" you must buy it, it's the best D&D CRPG ever. Ravenloft: "I do not drink... wine." ravenloft is the gothic horror setting of D&D with the standard Vampires, Werewolves and other beasts. There's an upcoming Mega-Adventure set in Castle Ravenloft coming next month. So be on a lookout for Strahd. (Used to be supported by White Wolf, but declined to relicense). Van Richten is a known NPC. Spelljammer: D&D in Space! Using special flying ships called spelljammers you travel between the Crystall Spheres that contain the setting worlds. Inbetveen these speher is the substance called Phlogiston (Warning: Flammable) Then there's Kingdoms of Kalamar as mentioned earlier. WoW has a D20 book too. Be on a lookout for Blackmoor which is also one of the Dave Arneson and Gygax era settings. Now back in Arneson's hands. There are a few others settings like Iron Kingdoms and Dragonstar, but You'll have to search those for yourself. I feel like I'm forgetting something... Oh yeah! Forgotten Realms: Many consider it the default D&D. It's more or less the kitchen sink of D&D in that pretty much everything is found there. Gods play a active role in the history of the setting and it's filled with many known figures such as Drizzt and Elminster. Eberron: The new kid on the block, released just two years ago. The main continent has just stopped with a war that raged for more than a century. During this war a whole new race of enslaves warrior constructs was created (the Warforged). Magic is used in daily life (eg. Everbright lanterns and spells that help crafting items) and it's comparable to science. It's also something of a pulp-noir setting (Think "Indana Jones meets Aragorn in Casablanca to get the Maltese Falcon from Dr.Doom). Home to the Lord of Blades (a prophet-warlord of the Warforged) and Erandis d'Vol (Elf half-dragon who leads her own religion)
Pennarin 09-05-06, 09:35 PM	Golden Zealot, as you can see there are many answers, all claiming to be the right one. A suggestion: Go to a rpg store near you, ask if you can browse the books for an hour or so each (I suggest limiting yourself to the Campaign Setting book for each setting, to get the broad picture of it), and then make your choice based on what you like. No one here can tell you what you like, and seeing how you readilly chose Forgotten Realms - even though you never opened one of its books before - does not bode well for your gaming future. Take the time. Make your choice, hands on. You may be surprised. ;)
Legendarius 09-05-06, 09:42 PM	I'd say if you're just starting and want a pre-canned setting that represents the classic D&D experience you should go with either the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. The former is very well supported and has numerous novels and source books although you can probably do well with just the Campaign Setting book and Player's Guide to Faerun. If you find a particular region that is of interest to you there's probably already a source book out there that provides greater detail. Dungeon magazine semi-regularly features stand-alone and 3-adventure campaign arcs set in Realms. Greyhawk as has been said is THE classic setting and while there are almost no recent supplements supporting it from WotC, the core rules spells, deities, etc. are the Greyhawk ones. The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, while 3.0, does give the broad overview of the setting, as does the smaller, also 3.0, D&D Gazetteer produced around the same time. Adventure wise, I'd probably lean in this direction since all of Dungeon magazine's recent campaign adventure paths (Shackled City, Age of Worms and the just starting Savage Tide) are nominally set in Greyhawk as was the mega-3.0-adventure Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Two other classic D&D Greyhawk adventures recently updated to 3.5 are available here free from WotC: Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain. Either way, happy gaming, L P.S. Given how old these settings are there is tons of 'canon' out there, lots of history and NPCs, etc. I'd feel free to ignore anything really, especially at lower levels. If you can narrow the campaign to a smaller region for a while and limit the number of world spanning meta-plots and organizations, you can keep from stepping on toes and still get a great feel for the setting. My opinion of course.
Chairman7w 09-05-06, 11:33 PM	Eberron.
Beavisfett 09-05-06, 11:46 PM	Looking back at it Eberron is a good one for beginners there is a low level module in the campaign book that leads up to a 3 module series.