As far as "standard" fanstasy campaigns, my favorite was Mystara -- much more well thought out than the Realms, which I thought was a sprawling mess.
Pax,
Krad
Oggie
The rest are pretty good too, but the above three fullfills everything I want out of D&D.
Mystara has a soft spot as well
Forgotten Planscapes Spelljamming to Dark Suns of Dragon Lances.
I really like Dragonlance as a setting, but I hated the modules. Greyhawk is okay, I enjoyed the 1st ed stuff more than 2nd ed. Don't think much of F'Realms, which should have been good but strangely never was; F'Realms fans seem to always harp on about the time before there was too much of the setting, when it wasn't over complex and too big to really use. I think that period is either some mythical ideal or only lasted 5 minutes, one or the other.
I like spelljammer a lot, but not as a means for integrating other game worlds.
If I were to use one of the d20 game settings in an OOP (for me it would be classic) game, then it wouldn't be any of the re-vamped older worlds, it would be Eberron. Its just better written and more quirky than the re-releases of other worlds for 3e have been.
When I want something a bit grittier I go for Dark Sun, Greyhawk, or Ravenloft.
Dragonlance is something I've always enjoyed reading, but playing in it always seems like a sacreligious act to me. A violation of holy canonical writs or something.
I only play in the Best-Left-Forgotten Realms when I want to loathe the setting I'm in to the point where I become vindictive against the very campaign I'm playing.
Other than that it's Greyhawk. I can see at least 2 more campaigns worth of adventures after the one I'm in, just using 1e modules.
I think I have played just about every setting there is..
My favorites have been Greyhawk (using the 1st ed. boxed set) Birthright (we tried all the domain stuff then had a blast just rolling up chracters and running normal adventures there). Then Ravenloft..I really enjoy DMing that setting.
As to a new favorite right now I am starting to get into wilderlands high fantasy. Got the boxed set for christmas. Has a 1st ed feel to it and seems to have elements of every other setting I have enjoyed, old greyhawk/ravenloft/spell jammer with a touch of keep on the borderlands thrown in. I am looking forward to tinkering with it and see how it goes
Oggie
For 2e I enjoy Greyhawk (from the ashes), Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Kalamar (the old Grey Books) and The Entire Mystara set (Karameikos Kingdom of Adventure, Glantri Kingdom of Magic, Hollow World and Dawn of the Emperors) even though not all of it was for 2e.
For 3e/3.5e I enjoy Kalamar and Midnight
I normally use a homebrew world for 2e but it is heavily influenced by Greyhawk and Kalamar.
I am one of the Mystarra crowd. Best settings I have seen published came from the gazatteers which always surprised me as they were part of the Basic game. They are incredibally difficult to find now.
Yes! Why aren't you posting at the Mystara forum then?
If you are looking for the Gazetteers and other Classic D&D / Mystara material, wait no longer. You can buy most of them as pdfs from paizo.com! Also there are lots of free Mystara (and Savage Coast) downloads at WotC's site.
Mystara is ofcourse my favorite setting too. It is sad to see that it always gets the least attention from publishers. They have yet to realize the wonders of this world...
Håvard
But it was released for basic...
Oh most definately. Back then when the Gazeteers for Mystara were being released it was made for Basic D&D. The idea was that anything for basic must be inferior or too simplistic for an AD&D player to enjoy. I myself was at first reluctant to try it, though my own group used the world as a backdrop to our AD&D campaign. Once using it though we were hooked as our DM wisely knew we would be. The gazeteers detailed their respective areas in greater detail then anything made expressly for AD&D. Political figures, issues and motivations were discussed. Timelines were introduced and conflict and cause were more realistically detailed. It even had it's own alamanac.
But it was released for basic...
Add to that the sad story that was AD&D Mystara. I have been too harsh with that product line in the past. The boxed sets were not as bad as they have been made out to be. But they were contentswise inferior to the gazetters, and in spite of color art and cds they were layout/graphicwise inferior to other contemporary AD&D lines. The great setting was still there, but TSR did a very poor job at convincing it fans how great it was.
Now that most Mystara products are available as pdfs, I hope more of those who didnt have a chance to check it out in the past give the setting a second shot.
Håvard
Its funny, you know, but every time that there's an online discussion of what your favourite D&D setting is, Mystara always gets a lot of backing. Yet so many people who grew up with AD&D rather than D&D know nothing about it. I wonder whether this goes back to the D&D/AD&D divide?
For my part, I learned of Mystara in AD&D. I think I still have the paperback full-colour Monster Manual that was released for it as a matter of fact. That book won me over more than any other. I also enjoyed the Red Steel boxed set (which I know I still have). The whole setting just reeked of Fantasy more than any other.
Ravenloft you could kep characters to their alignments beter.
In one of the forgotten realms books it stated black dragons interbreed so much that they could have between 1 to 3 heads. Stopped power gamers real quick.
For my part, I learned of Mystara in AD&D. I think I still have the paperback full-colour Monster Manual that was released for it as a matter of fact. That book won me over more than any other. I also enjoyed the Red Steel boxed set (which I know I still have). The whole setting just reeked of Fantasy more than any other.
The Mystara MMC was a pretty good book for the AD&D Mystara line, though I would have liked something a bit darker I think.
The Red Steel material (also technically Mystara) was very good IMO, even though there were things in it I disagreed with. I also really liked the AD&D adaption in that box more than any other Mystara book, and the layout was gorgeous. The Red and White art was actually much more appealing than the color art in the regular Mystara line.
Håvard
I was never very happy with settings, though. I want more detail about a specific area & less & less details about areas farther away. Not a constant level of detail over a whole hemisphere.
You kind of got that with Lankmar, but only because it was focused specifically on the city. I remember thinking the section on the Old World in the original Warhammer FRP was pretty good.
I really like Ars Magica's Mythic Earth, but only because it was exactly the kind of thing I'd wanted to create myself for years.
There will always be a soft spot in my heart, though, for those two big poster maps of Greyhawk.
I prefer our combination campaign that squishes everything together. We call it
Forgotten Planscapes Spelljamming to Dark Suns of Dragon Lances.
I played in a campaign like that. Greyhawk, Lankmar, Kara Tur, & the Forgotten Realms were all on the same planet. That was my favorite AD&D campaign as a player.
Mystara, but when it was just "The Known World".
Mystara, but when it was just "The Known World".
The Classic D&D line for Mystara was clearly superior to the AD&D version. Sadly that turned alot of people off the setting, and even the setting name even though it was introduced some time before it was converted to 2E....
Håvard
Genies & viziers, swashbucklers & pirates, merchant-rogues & tale-spinning barbers, flying carpets & flying castles, fate & Fate, rich kings & penniless beggars, deserts & pearl seas, and oh so much more!
Were the Red Steel kingdoms vaguely Slavic? I remember thinking that the whole thing with cinnabar addiction was awfully complicated. It was a nice idea if I could have got my head around it
You can download a revised version of the Red Steel box under the Savage Coast entry here http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads
(Yes its free!).
None of the Red Steel Kingdoms were slavic, but some of the neighbouring areas (The City States) were slavic. The RS kingdoms were based on various other RW cultures, mostly spanish/portuguese types. The Red Curse is simplified in the 2E version, though many prefer the classic D&D version. I'd actually recommend running the RS setting without it. It is still a great setting!
Håvard
I seem to remember one of the Ark's crew being lured to a graveyard and attacked by a cinnabar-raddled ghost. Cravings from beyond the grave. Now that's what I call addiction. Big fan of your Blackmoor website Havard, by the way.
I cant remember that story wrexham. I guess I've got to dig out my old dragon mags then (or at least the CD archive).
Thanks for the compliments on the site btw!
Håvard
As a player, I played mostly homebrew but my wife is an insane DM in a Ravenloft or Ravenloft inpired setting. So the games I played in Ravenloft can't even be compared with anything else I've seen.
I've read some Forgotten Realms products (including Maztica an Al-Qadim) and I think there is an awful lot of potential there. When I get back to games that are more down to earth than Planescape, I'll be using these.
Il also intend to use Spelljammer and Council of Wyrms to do something interesting with experimented players some day.
Like almost everybody who started playing in the '80s-'90s, I read the Dragonlance novels and liked them. At first all my games had kenders, three moons and wizzards dressed only in white, red and black but I soon found the Dragonlance setting hard to use for play. I still grab any opportunity to use the draconians though...
As for others (Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Birthright, Mystara) I don't know much about them. Eventually I'll try to get some info on them.
As for others (Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Birthright, Mystara) I don't know much about them. Eventually I'll try to get some info on them.
For Mystara, go here http://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/d/dungeonsDragons/roleplayingGames/wizardsOfTheCoast/classicDAndD/mystara and buy all the gazetteers for only 4$ a piece. Believe me, its worth it!
If you dont have that kind of cash, www.pandius.com is also a good place to look.
Håvard
But I always wanted to play a real 1st Edition campaign. *sigh* My hats off to you fine ladies and gentlemen that have and still do play 1st Edition. My players won't let me run a 1st Edition campaign.
Great books, but I think the authors should have left it at the 'Twins' series personally.
They did. That's why the later books weren't as good (or, at least, less satisfying to many of us): They weren't penned by the original authors.
Although Weis & Hickman have written one or more DL novels more recently, but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet.
I always like Krynn, but somehow I could never really imagine actually setting my games there. (Except for the one time I tried to run the DL modules.)
To DM & play is Mystara, through and through... Unfortunately all of my player's are newbies (all but one started with 3e, and that one only played 2e after WotC bought TSR and re-released the 2e core books.)
Myself having played for 2 decades am thouroughly convinced that FR is Mr. Greenwood's attempt at copying the feel or aura of Mystara... Well designed, no doubt about that, Mr. Greenwood can write. But nothing too horribaly original that didn't appear in Mystara first.
Never did play in GH or the more "alternate" settings (DS, PS, SJ) so I can't comment. But from what I've read of GH, it seems to be centered more around H/S power games. All MHO, of course.
Roger
but athas is great, too. we've played it for perhaps 3 years. and if you play it in summer and the players are allowed only one glass of water per session it has a really nice "real" touch.
I'm interested to see so many people like Mystara. I know absolutely nothing about it, but maybe I'll take a look! I kind've liked the forgotten realms too. It always struck me as a little more realistic than some: less neat.
Dragonlance, on the other hand, I loathe and detest. One man's meat...
I'm interested to see so many people like Mystara. I know absolutely nothing about it, but maybe I'll take a look! I kind've liked the forgotten realms too. It always struck me as a little more realistic than some: less neat.
www.pandius.com is the place for you
The best sourcebooks for Mystara are the Gaz series for Classic D&D (though with adaption guidelines for 2E). Most of them can be purchased as pdfs from www.paizo.com.
Håvard
Mainly that is the setting I played in and had a lousy time playing Dragonlance the Dm was just awful! I know that’s not a reason to hate a setting but after that I just purchased FR stuff.
One of my DM's was a professor and even though he ran his games in FR he said the world was geologically impossible!
Greyhawk I did not play in very much but the time I did it was fun, I personally think its the DM that makes whatever world your playing fun.
Dark Sun was awesome very gritty and just plain hard to survive! I never played in Mystara or Al Qadim, though I have some box sets coming in soon so I will check them out.
Any ways that’s just my two cents!
1. I guess for regular campaigns i would prefer Greyhawk but only after From the Ashes. This setting has a wonderful combination of a very believable pseudo-european mediaeval world with a strong touch of dark fantasy and endless possibilites for political role-playing.
2. A very close second would be Birthright. I am not not in the least interested in the strategy game aspects of running realms but the setting itself is IMHO at least as beautifully crafted as Greyhawk.
3. The third place is hold by Ravenloft. Perhaps the setting with the most dense atmosphere but sometimes plagued by the fact that it is not a 'complete' world but a pocket dimension somewhere in the mists. This leads at times to curious inconsistencies especially in domains bordering on the mists.
4. Dark Sun. I give it high marks just for the sheer uniqueness of this setting yet it easily stands out for its own merits. No other setting dared to stray that far away from the usual good heros cliché and presented such a savage and brutal world. It is Mad Max meets fantasy. Of course the biggest failure of this setting is that they nearly destroyed it with the revised boxed set.
I am still aghast how they could dare kill off most of the sorcerer kings in their damn books and even add a good one. 
All this was completely against the spirit of the original concept and it was a pure travesty to call the setting book from the revised box 'Age of Heros' when the first box made it perfectly clear that athas is a world without heros. 
I personally just use just info on the expanded area from it and otherwise keep everything else just as it was in the original boxed set.5. Al-Qadim. Arabian Nights, what else needs to be said? :D
Towards Forgotten Realms, Planescape and Dragon Lance i have somewhat mixed feelings. They have all very strong points but every one of them has also certain drawbacks that i find somewhat hard to swallow. FR seems to try to squeeze so many different styles, flavours, cultures and subsettings in it that it lacks focus. Planescape is to much focused on alignment philosophies and intrudes to much on other settings at times. And DL suffers from the 'Tolkien-Syndrome'. It is a beautiful setting but somehow i think the best stories in it have already been told in the books.
My least liked setting would be Spelljammer. Not only does it, like Planescape, intrude on other settings but it is so queer and weird that i simply fail my suspension of disbelieve checks every time. Sorry but apples orbiting galleons sailing between the stars is a little much. Although i have to admit that the movie 'Treasure Planet' made it a little easier for me.
As such, my top 3 are:
Mystara (and, in order of their types, Known World/Blackmoor/Hollow World/Red Steel/Thunder Rift, for what parts of Mystara)
Spelljammer
Planescape
I've always loved the "kooky" fantasy. Regular fantasy gets boring. If I wanted to read a Middle Earth novel, I'd go read Lord of the Rings, and if I wanted to play such I'd do that. I don't need Forgotten Realms aping what has come before.
"Kooky"?
Håvard
"Kooky"?
Håvard
Odd. Wierd. Eccentric. Kooky. ;)
I've played a significant amount of time in the Forgotten Realms. I've played a little with Mystara / Known World, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Al-Qadim, Planescape, and Birthright. But I kept coming back to Greyhawk. Other settings that I've never played (Lankhmar, Dragon Lance, Hollow World, Spelljammer, Red Steel, Red Death, Kalamar, Eberron) have sounded cool but there's only so much time one can game. There is still so much I want to do in the World of Greyhawk!
Someone in a previous post mentioned the Alternity sci-fi rpg. My favorite setting for that was Dark Matter. I loved the supernatural and conspiracy elements and the hardcover campaign setting book was both beautiful and packed with flavor.
It was the first setting that I actually campaigned in and it was also what was my first Role-Playing Game experience.
Odd to say the least... But definitely most memorable.