D&D (3.5) World Info [Archive] - Wizards Community

D&D (3.5) World Info [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Salty_Pete
06-03-04, 10:42 PM I looked through a friends book called Adventure D20, which was cool, but he had to buy the D&D Players Guide v 3.5. I read through the Players Guide briefly and I was hooked to D&D INSTANTLY!

I have purchased the D&D Players Guide, DM Manual and the Monster Manual. I have read through the Players guide and the DM book (all awsome books, easily worth the $50 each)

ANYWAY, I started to go through a few things in my head like adventure Ideas, then it came to me, there is no information about ANY D&D world information in any of the books. did I miss something? I see tons of adventure Ideas, maps, baddies on the net but I havn't found anything about the "Official" world of D&D. Does such a thing exist? I am looking for info about the world, kingdoms and/or provinces, history, historic figures (both humanoid and otherwise.

I saw a book at my local gaming store called Kingdoms of Kalamar, is this close or is there no such "official" world?

Thanks!
Nagol
06-03-04, 10:51 PM The true "official" setting is the World of Greyhawk, but you will find very little published about Greyhawk by WotC. There are a couple of reasons for this. WotC doesn't want to constrain its players and the RPGA has a defacto control over the evolution of Greyhawk with the Living Greyhawk campaign.

There are a couple of other settings for D&D published by WotC: Forgotten Realms and the new setting Eberron. FR has the most published material currently. WotC is about to release Eberron this month.

There are also lots of settings published by third-party publishers. The setting to choose really depends on what sort of world-feel you are looking for.
Silverthrone
06-04-04, 12:44 AM To extend what was previously written:

"Worlds" for D&D are typically called "campaign settings". The two terms are generally interchangeable.

The official campaign setting for 3.0 and 3.5 D&D is the world of Greyhawk. Greyhawk was the original D&D world back in the late 70's early 80's, and it is from this time period that much of the material for it was written (Using the 1st and 2nd edition rules.).

When 3rd edition was to be published, Wizards of the Coast wanted a unified backdrop for their core books, a world in which everything was standard, just ike the core books were. They choose Greyhawk.

Now, Greyhawk is currently licensed out to a group called the RPGA. The RPGA is sort of like a D&D fan club that organizes D&D at conventions across the country and also has large play by mail-type campaigns in which members strive to unifiy their individual, home games into a grand, nationwide "living" campaign.

Because of this, Wizards did not go into great detail in their core books about Greyhawk itself. They intended to leave the publishing of world related material to the RPGA, which published, with Wizards of the Coast, a softback world book called the "Living Greyhawk Gazetteer", which would be the default campaign setting for 3e. Because of finicial problems, as far as I know, the RPGA has not printed more Greyhawk books, but the "Living GreyhawkGazetteer" remains the default campaign setting for 3e, so if you want the default, standard D&D world, look for this book.

Note that a smaller book called simply "Gazeteer" was printed for 3e beforehand which gave a small map and general overview of the world, but if you want a lot of detail, look for the "Living Greyhawk Gazeteer", not just the "Gazeteer".

Now there are other campaign settings for D&D as well. There are a few which are published with the direct approval of Wizards of the Coast, while others are more unofficial.

Official D&D worlds or approved campaign settings include:

The Forgotten Realms - Perhaps the most popular of them all, published by Wizards of the Coast and available as the "Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting".

Eberron - The result of a contest held to find a new official world by Wizards, this setting is soon to be released by them.

Dragonlance - Based off the previous Dragonlance D&D setting by TSR and the Dragonlance novels, this setting was intially ublished for 3.5 by Wizards of the Coast, but it is to be supported by a third party publisher. It is still official, though.

Kingdoms of Kalamar - Like Dragonlnace, it is supposed to be supported by a third party group (In this case, kenzer and Co.), but it was intially published for them by Wizards of the Coast. Again, an official setting.

Ravenloft - Another setting intially published for 3e by Wizards, but meant to be supported by a third party (White Wolf Games' Sword and Sorcery Studios.). It is also an "official" world.

Oriental Adventures / Rogukan (sp) - A feudal Japan style setting intially pubished by Wizards of the Coast set in the world of the Legend of the Five Rings. It is now supported by a third party. It is also an official world.

The Scarred Lands - Perhaps the most well known "unofficial" world, this huge setting is published independent of Wizards by White Wofl Games' Sword and Sorcery Studios. It is extremely expansive and similar in scope to the Forgotten Realms. The best, in my opinion, of the unofficial worlds.

There are many more settings, but these are the most well known. You can also make up your own setting (Its what I do.).
Mark_Plemmons
06-04-04, 12:42 PM Originally posted by Silverthrone
Official D&D worlds or approved campaign settings include:

Kingdoms of Kalamar - Like Dragonlnace, it is supposed to be supported by a third party group (In this case, kenzer and Co.), but it was intially published for them by Wizards of the Coast. Again, an official setting.

Actually, the official Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting has always been published by us, even though all of the art and text for every product is sent for 2-3 stages of review by Wizards of the Coast. That's why we get the official D&D logo on the front cover. :)

The Kingdoms of Kalamar setting is also the most heavily supported setting, in terms of published material specific to that setting. However, all you absolutely need is the campaign setting sourcebook itself, and the three core D&D books (PHB, DMG, MM). The KoK Player's Guide is a great bonus, but not required.

The direct link to more KoK info is at:
http://www.kenzerco.com/rpg/kalamar/

and message boards at:
http://www.kenzerco.com/forums/ubbthreads.php

Of course, whatever setting you choose, the most important thing is to have fun! :)
Ranger REG
06-04-04, 07:52 PM Originally posted by Silverthrone

Because of this, Wizards did not go into great detail in their core books about Greyhawk itself. They intended to leave the publishing of world related material to the RPGA, which published, with Wizards of the Coast, a softback world book called the "Living Greyhawk Gazetteer", which would be the default campaign setting for 3e. Because of finicial problems, as far as I know, the RPGA has not printed more Greyhawk books, but the "Living GreyhawkGazetteer" remains the default campaign setting for 3e, so if you want the default, standard D&D world, look for this book.
And by "financial problem," it means that WotC suddenly stopped funding RPGA the money necessary to design and publish future Greyhawk line.

As Silverthrone stated, get the Living Greyhawk Gazatteer while supplies last, and for your monthly Greyhawk fix, subscribe to Dungeon.
Shemeska the Marauder
06-04-04, 08:38 PM And there is/was of course Planescape. Back during 2nd edition all of the various campaign worlds were set within the same overall universe/multiverse as single worlds within the prime material plane. There were then the inner/elemental planes and the outer planes that embodied the various alignments, the heavens and hells.

3rd edition folded Planescape back into the 'core' as more or less the default cosmology and planar setup. It's detailed as far as mechanics go and a basic overview in the 3e Manual of the Planes. A more direct conversion of the Planescape setting itself can be found over at Planewalker.com (http://www.planewalker.com)
Arlynn
06-04-04, 09:46 PM Since Grayhawk isn't as supported by WotC (for reasons said above), all of the people I play with pretty much consider the Forgotten Realms campaign setting to be the "official" D&D setting, partially because there's tons of books out for it and partially because we all like it.

By the way Mark, thanks for the link to Kenzer's Kingdom of Kalamar page. I've been curious about the setting ever since I discovered a few of the books on Amazon.com but couldn't find any info anyway. :)
Tanuki, the Bewildered
06-05-04, 01:59 AM Originally posted by Silverthrone
Ravenloft - Another setting intially published for 3e by Wizards, but meant to be supported by a third party (White Wolf Games' Sword and Sorcery Studios.). It is also an "official" world.

Ravenloft wasn't originally published by WotC. WotC originally had no intention of doing anything at all with any settings other than Greyhawk and FR. Arthaus/Sword & Sorcery Studios licenced it and released the 2 core rulebooks without help from WotC.

Wizards still owns the licence, but Arthaus has been the one doing all the work from the start.

The only times WotC released the core rulebook then handed it back to a 3rd party are, IIRC, DL (actually, I think the core rulebook was out for a while before that, WotC just updated/touched it up), Call of Cthulhu, and Oriental Adventures/Rokugan d20.
Silverthrone
06-05-04, 05:09 AM Sorry Mark. It was not my intent to make it seem like Kalamar had not always been a Kenzer product. I knew of the setting and was a fan since the old boxed set, I just worded that all wrong. My apologies, good sir.

Is there any chance we may see the old boxed set return one day? Like maybe a commerative collector's item? (Hint hint, nudge nudge.).
Mark_Plemmons
06-05-04, 02:25 PM Well, the original boxed set won't return, because all of the info that was in it, plus more, is in the KoK campaign setting hardcover. Boxed sets take up a lot of warehouse space, and are probably (not my dept.) more expensive to make as well.

However, we will certainly consider release box sets at some point in the future, if the product is big enough and comes in enough multiple parts. For example, a regional expansion supplement on the Vast (the Kalamaran Empire itself) - covering even more detail than the setting sourcebook itself - would probably be a boxed set. And any future board games or miniatures games (like our "Final Days", and "Dwarven Dig!") will definitely be boxed.

Still, most of our stuff fits into a 32-300 page book, so that's the general trend. Even "Goods and Gear: the Ultimate Adventurer's Guide" squeezed under that limit.
http://www.kenzerco.com/rpg/Goods_Gear_preview.pdf
Salty_Pete
06-06-04, 10:26 PM Thanks for the detailed info gang. It was all great and usefull.

I went to my gaming store and I will prolly end up picking up Kingdoms of Kalamar Atlas. I think that is all I need as I will have loads of fun creating the rest on my own. Unfortunatly in Canada that puppy (& most other hard cover books for D20) is $50.00.

Again, thanks for the replies.
Mark_Plemmons
06-07-04, 12:15 AM Originally posted by Salty_Pete
Thanks for the detailed info gang. It was all great and usefull.

I went to my gaming store and I will prolly end up picking up Kingdoms of Kalamar Atlas.

Glad to hear that, of course! :) It's a beautiful work. Still, keep in mind that it's a supplemental product, and that you definitely don't have to have it to play. The two fold-out maps that come with the campaign setting sourcebook are usually more than sufficient to get anyone started.

Feel free to buy in any order you want, of course! :) But this seems to be the preferred order of most of the DMs on our forums...

1) KoK campaign setting sourcebook
2) KoK Player's Guide
3) Dangerous Denizens: the Monsters of Tellene
4) Atlas

In any case, enjoy! Be sure to drop by the KoK forums if you haven't already!
Salty_Pete
06-12-04, 12:44 AM I think I will be just sticking with the atlas and making the rest up before I play. I can always make up the area in which the players will be playing in first then fishing up the areas between games, that way if I think of anything "interesting" it isn't already made up.

I have seen a number of works of KOK and I must say that I am ceetainly impressed!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Salty_Pete 06-03-04, 10:42 PM	I looked through a friends book called Adventure D20, which was cool, but he had to buy the D&D Players Guide v 3.5. I read through the Players Guide briefly and I was hooked to D&D INSTANTLY! I have purchased the D&D Players Guide, DM Manual and the Monster Manual. I have read through the Players guide and the DM book (all awsome books, easily worth the $50 each) ANYWAY, I started to go through a few things in my head like adventure Ideas, then it came to me, there is no information about ANY D&D world information in any of the books. did I miss something? I see tons of adventure Ideas, maps, baddies on the net but I havn't found anything about the "Official" world of D&D. Does such a thing exist? I am looking for info about the world, kingdoms and/or provinces, history, historic figures (both humanoid and otherwise. I saw a book at my local gaming store called Kingdoms of Kalamar, is this close or is there no such "official" world? Thanks!
Nagol 06-03-04, 10:51 PM	The true "official" setting is the World of Greyhawk, but you will find very little published about Greyhawk by WotC. There are a couple of reasons for this. WotC doesn't want to constrain its players and the RPGA has a defacto control over the evolution of Greyhawk with the Living Greyhawk campaign. There are a couple of other settings for D&D published by WotC: Forgotten Realms and the new setting Eberron. FR has the most published material currently. WotC is about to release Eberron this month. There are also lots of settings published by third-party publishers. The setting to choose really depends on what sort of world-feel you are looking for.
Silverthrone 06-04-04, 12:44 AM	To extend what was previously written: "Worlds" for D&D are typically called "campaign settings". The two terms are generally interchangeable. The official campaign setting for 3.0 and 3.5 D&D is the world of Greyhawk. Greyhawk was the original D&D world back in the late 70's early 80's, and it is from this time period that much of the material for it was written (Using the 1st and 2nd edition rules.). When 3rd edition was to be published, Wizards of the Coast wanted a unified backdrop for their core books, a world in which everything was standard, just ike the core books were. They choose Greyhawk. Now, Greyhawk is currently licensed out to a group called the RPGA. The RPGA is sort of like a D&D fan club that organizes D&D at conventions across the country and also has large play by mail-type campaigns in which members strive to unifiy their individual, home games into a grand, nationwide "living" campaign. Because of this, Wizards did not go into great detail in their core books about Greyhawk itself. They intended to leave the publishing of world related material to the RPGA, which published, with Wizards of the Coast, a softback world book called the "Living Greyhawk Gazetteer", which would be the default campaign setting for 3e. Because of finicial problems, as far as I know, the RPGA has not printed more Greyhawk books, but the "Living GreyhawkGazetteer" remains the default campaign setting for 3e, so if you want the default, standard D&D world, look for this book. Note that a smaller book called simply "Gazeteer" was printed for 3e beforehand which gave a small map and general overview of the world, but if you want a lot of detail, look for the "Living Greyhawk Gazeteer", not just the "Gazeteer". Now there are other campaign settings for D&D as well. There are a few which are published with the direct approval of Wizards of the Coast, while others are more unofficial. Official D&D worlds or approved campaign settings include: The Forgotten Realms - Perhaps the most popular of them all, published by Wizards of the Coast and available as the "Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting". Eberron - The result of a contest held to find a new official world by Wizards, this setting is soon to be released by them. Dragonlance - Based off the previous Dragonlance D&D setting by TSR and the Dragonlance novels, this setting was intially ublished for 3.5 by Wizards of the Coast, but it is to be supported by a third party publisher. It is still official, though. Kingdoms of Kalamar - Like Dragonlnace, it is supposed to be supported by a third party group (In this case, kenzer and Co.), but it was intially published for them by Wizards of the Coast. Again, an official setting. Ravenloft - Another setting intially published for 3e by Wizards, but meant to be supported by a third party (White Wolf Games' Sword and Sorcery Studios.). It is also an "official" world. Oriental Adventures / Rogukan (sp) - A feudal Japan style setting intially pubished by Wizards of the Coast set in the world of the Legend of the Five Rings. It is now supported by a third party. It is also an official world. The Scarred Lands - Perhaps the most well known "unofficial" world, this huge setting is published independent of Wizards by White Wofl Games' Sword and Sorcery Studios. It is extremely expansive and similar in scope to the Forgotten Realms. The best, in my opinion, of the unofficial worlds. There are many more settings, but these are the most well known. You can also make up your own setting (Its what I do.).
Mark_Plemmons 06-04-04, 12:42 PM	Originally posted by Silverthrone Official D&D worlds or approved campaign settings include: Kingdoms of Kalamar - Like Dragonlnace, it is supposed to be supported by a third party group (In this case, kenzer and Co.), but it was intially published for them by Wizards of the Coast. Again, an official setting. Actually, the official Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting has always been published by us, even though all of the art and text for every product is sent for 2-3 stages of review by Wizards of the Coast. That's why we get the official D&D logo on the front cover. :) The Kingdoms of Kalamar setting is also the most heavily supported setting, in terms of published material specific to that setting. However, all you absolutely need is the campaign setting sourcebook itself, and the three core D&D books (PHB, DMG, MM). The KoK Player's Guide is a great bonus, but not required. The direct link to more KoK info is at: http://www.kenzerco.com/rpg/kalamar/ and message boards at: http://www.kenzerco.com/forums/ubbthreads.php Of course, whatever setting you choose, the most important thing is to have fun! :)
Ranger REG 06-04-04, 07:52 PM	Originally posted by Silverthrone Because of this, Wizards did not go into great detail in their core books about Greyhawk itself. They intended to leave the publishing of world related material to the RPGA, which published, with Wizards of the Coast, a softback world book called the "Living Greyhawk Gazetteer", which would be the default campaign setting for 3e. Because of finicial problems, as far as I know, the RPGA has not printed more Greyhawk books, but the "Living GreyhawkGazetteer" remains the default campaign setting for 3e, so if you want the default, standard D&D world, look for this book. And by "financial problem," it means that WotC suddenly stopped funding RPGA the money necessary to design and publish future Greyhawk line. As Silverthrone stated, get the Living Greyhawk Gazatteer while supplies last, and for your monthly Greyhawk fix, subscribe to Dungeon.
Shemeska the Marauder 06-04-04, 08:38 PM	And there is/was of course Planescape. Back during 2nd edition all of the various campaign worlds were set within the same overall universe/multiverse as single worlds within the prime material plane. There were then the inner/elemental planes and the outer planes that embodied the various alignments, the heavens and hells. 3rd edition folded Planescape back into the 'core' as more or less the default cosmology and planar setup. It's detailed as far as mechanics go and a basic overview in the 3e Manual of the Planes. A more direct conversion of the Planescape setting itself can be found over at Planewalker.com (http://www.planewalker.com)
Arlynn 06-04-04, 09:46 PM	Since Grayhawk isn't as supported by WotC (for reasons said above), all of the people I play with pretty much consider the Forgotten Realms campaign setting to be the "official" D&D setting, partially because there's tons of books out for it and partially because we all like it. By the way Mark, thanks for the link to Kenzer's Kingdom of Kalamar page. I've been curious about the setting ever since I discovered a few of the books on Amazon.com but couldn't find any info anyway. :)
Tanuki, the Bewildered 06-05-04, 01:59 AM	Originally posted by Silverthrone Ravenloft - Another setting intially published for 3e by Wizards, but meant to be supported by a third party (White Wolf Games' Sword and Sorcery Studios.). It is also an "official" world. Ravenloft wasn't originally published by WotC. WotC originally had no intention of doing anything at all with any settings other than Greyhawk and FR. Arthaus/Sword & Sorcery Studios licenced it and released the 2 core rulebooks without help from WotC. Wizards still owns the licence, but Arthaus has been the one doing all the work from the start. The only times WotC released the core rulebook then handed it back to a 3rd party are, IIRC, DL (actually, I think the core rulebook was out for a while before that, WotC just updated/touched it up), Call of Cthulhu, and Oriental Adventures/Rokugan d20.
Silverthrone 06-05-04, 05:09 AM	Sorry Mark. It was not my intent to make it seem like Kalamar had not always been a Kenzer product. I knew of the setting and was a fan since the old boxed set, I just worded that all wrong. My apologies, good sir. Is there any chance we may see the old boxed set return one day? Like maybe a commerative collector's item? (Hint hint, nudge nudge.).
Mark_Plemmons 06-05-04, 02:25 PM	Well, the original boxed set won't return, because all of the info that was in it, plus more, is in the KoK campaign setting hardcover. Boxed sets take up a lot of warehouse space, and are probably (not my dept.) more expensive to make as well. However, we will certainly consider release box sets at some point in the future, if the product is big enough and comes in enough multiple parts. For example, a regional expansion supplement on the Vast (the Kalamaran Empire itself) - covering even more detail than the setting sourcebook itself - would probably be a boxed set. And any future board games or miniatures games (like our "Final Days", and "Dwarven Dig!") will definitely be boxed. Still, most of our stuff fits into a 32-300 page book, so that's the general trend. Even "Goods and Gear: the Ultimate Adventurer's Guide" squeezed under that limit. http://www.kenzerco.com/rpg/Goods_Gear_preview.pdf
Salty_Pete 06-06-04, 10:26 PM	Thanks for the detailed info gang. It was all great and usefull. I went to my gaming store and I will prolly end up picking up Kingdoms of Kalamar Atlas. I think that is all I need as I will have loads of fun creating the rest on my own. Unfortunatly in Canada that puppy (& most other hard cover books for D20) is $50.00. Again, thanks for the replies.
Mark_Plemmons 06-07-04, 12:15 AM	Originally posted by Salty_Pete Thanks for the detailed info gang. It was all great and usefull. I went to my gaming store and I will prolly end up picking up Kingdoms of Kalamar Atlas. Glad to hear that, of course! :) It's a beautiful work. Still, keep in mind that it's a supplemental product, and that you definitely don't have to have it to play. The two fold-out maps that come with the campaign setting sourcebook are usually more than sufficient to get anyone started. Feel free to buy in any order you want, of course! :) But this seems to be the preferred order of most of the DMs on our forums... 1) KoK campaign setting sourcebook 2) KoK Player's Guide 3) Dangerous Denizens: the Monsters of Tellene 4) Atlas In any case, enjoy! Be sure to drop by the KoK forums if you haven't already!
Salty_Pete 06-12-04, 12:44 AM	I think I will be just sticking with the atlas and making the rest up before I play. I can always make up the area in which the players will be playing in first then fishing up the areas between games, that way if I think of anything "interesting" it isn't already made up. I have seen a number of works of KOK and I must say that I am ceetainly impressed!