Post/Author/DateTime	Post
rbrt_Spade 08-22-05, 12:42 PM	i need some advice from dms and players both bad and good feedback. i am tired of my homebrew world and are curious what are some of the good/bad things about the certain premade worlds. im buying one and need a good world to buy. im not one for buying a ton of supplements, are the campaign settings books good enough just to use and have a good world to play in? fr-whats some good and bad things about it? ive read some of the books and thats it. whats the history and magic like? also say is the timeline detailed so say if i want the world to have war will i cause the fr players go, the cant happen because of this... that new one ebronn. whats its like? dont now anything about it. greyhawk- whats it like in playing wise? is it basicly just a world for the core flavor? also is the worlds like dl in some way? also is any of the worlds a pain in anyway to dms?
Bartleby_GoC 08-22-05, 01:37 PM	FR is very detailed in several books. You don't need all of them, but each adds deapth to another aspec t of the world. Greyhawk. Um... I think I have the 2nd Ed world box, but I havn't seen anything 3.x, other than the fact that most of the core flavor is supposed to be from it. I have Dragonlance, and it's interesting. There's only one book (afaik), so it's easier to get all at once, but as a trade-off, there's less detail. Eberron looks good, but like FR, there's anumber of supplimental books to add deapth. My biggest quarrel with pre-made worlds is that I'm just not good a remember every little detail. A few of my players are. With a week's worth of access tot he book ,they'd know LOTS more about the world than I would. I would be constantly arguing about whether some little detail is correct or not. So, I use my own world. I know all the details because I created them all. I can say the Red Wizard PrC doesn't exist because unlike FR, there's no Thay. I can say "elves don't work like that" because in my world they don't. I can say "there are no water-breathing humanoid races" because there aren't (or at least, there aren't yet, getting Stormwrack asap). Essentially, I am the foremost expert and final authority on what exists in the game world. It's a lot of power to hold over your PC's and it means I am fully responsible for any aspect that goes wrong (can't blame WotC for publishing a woogie feat/PrC/critter if I'M the one that put it in the world). It fits my DM style. I run things often by the seat of my pants. I tend to make things up as I go. I operate with a general outline of what exists and fill inthe details as needed. I prepare sections of the world and let the PCs pick what to do when they get there. It often means some intense creative work done at the table, but that seems to be what I'm good at. I guess I'm a Chaotic DM. If you're a Chaotic DM, this method might work for you. If you're not, it could explode in a your face. Like most things, it comes down to the style you;re comfortable with. If you regularly spend hours studying books and memorizing details, hey a worldbook might be just the thing for you. Bartleby
mike_beavers 08-22-05, 03:21 PM	Whats the reason that you are tired of your world? Try expanding the area that you have in your setting. Try reading things about different cultures, this usually inspires me to expand the horizons of my setting. As the previous poster mentioned there are a decent amount of settings and you dont have to shut out the non WOC settings. Check them out, the city of freeport from green ronin is intrigueing as is the Iron kingdom setting. I agree that in a published setting you will run into players whose knowledge of that setting exceeds yours and it can be annoying when they bring it up
kaeso 08-22-05, 03:47 PM	1) Faerun: You need the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book if you want to run the Realms. If you're running it in 3.5, then you need the Player's Guide to Faerun, too. Besides that, you don't have to have anything else. The FRCS is VERY detailed, and I recommend this setting. The biggest pain is that what Bartleby said is absolutely true about this setting. There are so many novels, games, etc. out there that many players will know about it and will be willing to debate w/ DM's. 2)Eberron: I know nothing about it, sorry 3)Greyhawk: You might want to get the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, which has a lot of details of world, but which I found extremely boring, almost like sitting down and reading a history book. Still, it is a setting that is extremely open to DM changes, since most players know nothing of it.
Karota 08-22-05, 03:54 PM	My favorite is Dragonlance. It contains lot of information about the world story and his feeling is not decadent as Eberron or Dragonlance, it is more fantasy oriented, less political (in my opinion). There are not many suplements to it, and the ones you can find are nor officially official, if you understand. Chech the board on Dragonlances and get some downloadable accesories. FR is enormous, but confusing and difficult to get some coherence on the world. The good thing is its variety of options; the regional feats is a very intelligent rule. I like the Shining South and Underdark suplements; and the Serpent Kingdoms, wich can be easily used on any setting. Eberron is a low magic setting, political oriented (spiky topic). As it is just growing, you can get the things you need more easily, because there are no many published material. I donīt even have any other book from Eberron besides the CampSetting. But it seems to be interesting to get the Shadows of the Last War. Ravenloft, from White Wolf, is nice. Low magic, high supersticion, all horror. If you like books as Dracula, Frankenstein (flesh golem) or the Grat God Pan, you will love this one. I donīt know about Greyhawk.