Fantasy can have many variants.
High fantasy where dragon riding nobles ride their dragons to go have tea. Magic replaces technology and is common place. Magic items are common place and often discardable.
Low fantasy where a dragon is a once in a life time sighting. Spell casters are rare and often keep their secrets to them selves to their graves.(some times beyond... dun dun durn) Magic items might be held by families or generations.
Then you have Darker more gritty versions. Light hearted and some what comical.
Semi historically based. Some are only limited by the imagination.
Some have armor that has all kind of random bits on it for no reason which seem to no prohibit movement in any way. Some use very realistic weapons and armor.
I honestly think the concept of crafting a campaign and all the ways the setting can go is worth its own book. For new DMs it would be invaluable, however older DMs might not need it.
So what do you all like or prefer, run, or play in?
I like Ravenloft and Midnight. So I guess I like lower magic, grittier games with an edge of horror.
Eberron, Spelljammer, and the like. Magepunk, I think they call it. Though with 5E, I might try something a bit more magic-light and see what happens.
I like settings which seem to match the worlds depicted in games like Final Fantasy video games (though I lean more towards the Final Fantasy I through Final Fantasy VI, plus Final Fantasy IX, stylings than the other games in the franchise).
Magic is rare and dangerous (meaning that NPCs with magic are rare, not that the PC party doesn't always have magic - just that they are rare and special folk just for having it), monsters are all over the place, its psuedo-medieval but there are robots, trains, machine guns, and a few other limited-exposure technological elements - and it seems like someone is always trying to do some grand "evil" thing somewhere.
Of course, while that is what I prefer over all other things, I have zero problem enjoying other settings and styles - my favorites from D&D history are Dark Sun, Mystara, Birthright, and the Forgotten Realms (especially Al-Qadim) in a constantly changing order that usually has Dark Sun and the Realms above the other two.
Ravenloft!
Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk have been the majority for the most part, with a little bit of Planescape and Ravenloft sprinkled in. More recently Golarion is the focus. So, as far as D&D is concerned, high fantasy is definitely the go-to.
Anytime I want to stray into a far different setting or experience, I usually look elsewhere in terms of system. Samurai action? L5R. Wild West? Deadlands.
I may look at doing a homebrew high fantasy setting this time around with 5E. If the newest incarnation of the Realms passes muster, I see us doing a lot of games in that setting again.
Probably more Greyhawk levels of magic as opposed to FR. Usually set mine with around 16th technology age of exploration/merchant prince type games. Think Venice, Spain, Portugal type scenarios so semi historical based with a few knightly orders as well.
Very interesting. I enjoy the more 'modest' King Arthur/Game of Thrones style fantasy.(The level of Arthur depends on which story you want to use I guess)
I also like the Planescape and Forgotten Realms settings.
We also have played many themed games over time as well to scratch an itch or too.
That would also make another conversation topic.
Dark Sun.
Also, my own setting....It's a steampunky flooded world. All sorts of ruins under shallow water, and the wealthy live in floating cities in the sky. Well, it's all more complex than that; but eh, Maybe one day I'll transfer all of my notebooks and sketchbooks to digital, lol. Yeah.
With 4th ed I ran an Eberron game so very high fantasy.
For Pathfinder I ran Carrion Crown which was gothic horror so Victorian Era. The limits of science are being pushed, but unlike Eberron the results are often horrifying.
For 5th edition I've constructed a very low magic world. Outside of the Frontier Lands, the focus is on the other nations rather than monsters. Human wizards are tied to the courts of nobles and will have over their lifetime 0 to 2 apprentices (elven wizards will have 6 to 10 apprentices, but elves must study under a master of every school before they specialize). Warlocks operate in hiding and are considered dangerous while sorcerers are very rare. That said, rock gnomes and Ironforged (my setting neutral name for Warforged) do exist. They just typically live in one region. There's also one city on a different continent that's exploring the limits of magic so should I want to introduce a more high magic feel down the road I can.
What I WANT to run is Dark Sun, or some Sword and Sorcery type game where no player has magic.
What I end up running is often High Fantasy homebrews.
Like Brimeleydower, I’m currently using different TRPGs for different things, like Tenra Bansho for my kabuki youkai ghost stories, OVA RPG for high-octane, odd-ball settings, and Ryuutama for when all the commonfolk go on a heartwarming, introspective journey.
My current D&D setting takes place in an alien world, similar to Tree of Palme, Star Wars, or Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, a rustic world of knights and monsters, but the knights may pilot exotic flying machines as mounts and the monsters, deserts, and forests be mutant in some fashion. Add dashes of eldritch technology like floating fortresses, forcefields, and ancient satellites (not gods) that collect the souls of the dead, and you have an idea.
I usually toy with another 1 or 2 ideas, but they're underdeveloped. One is a dark fairy tale that uses contrast and surreality in its scenarios and descriptions to evoke beauty along with a vague sense of dread. The elves are ghostly, the seas churn with unnamed monsters, and magic-users might be haunted by strange, quasi-real entities on account of their craft and what they see with their "wizard eyes".
I’m mostly inspired by Japanese video games, anime, and manga when building settings. Final Fantasy, Shadow of the Colossus, Miyazaki Hayao's works. I appreciate settings with atypical subject matter and a strong sense of wonder or texture. Most currently published D&D settings seem too staid to me. Seti, your homebrew sounds interesting.
One where everyone has fun.
We've had four homebrew settings so far, one (or two) for each system:
Knights of Everest (v3.5) - A knights in shining armor setting.
Runegate (4e) - A collection of 'worlds' (mini-settings), visited via magical gateway; inspired by SG-1. Each player got to design their own world --very collaborative.
The Shield (D&D Essentials) - An evil campaign, a nod to old-school D&D (human, dwarf, elf, halfling). We played corrupt city guards.
Gauntlets & Cauldrons (BECM) - A collection of published adventures, woven together into a cohesive setting. More or less 
; it was purposely rough around the edges. I was gonna use this one as for our DDN games but chose BECM instead.
= = =
Now, I'm scratching my head, trying to decide on a homebrew for DDN. I've considered doing a darker 'what if' take on Knights ('Shadows of Everest'), evil twins and all. But, I'm not really feeling it.
What kind of setting do I like? Masque of the Red Death was one of my all-time favorites. I even wrote a homebrew supplement for it once (long ago). I just noticed Deadlands Noir (1930s) yesterday (while I was picking up my PHB). I think I'd enjoy something quasi historical. Boot Hill mixed with D&D sounds like a cool 5e homebrew .
Here, knock yourself out.
http://phaeselis.wikia.com/wiki/Phaeselis_Wiki
I prefer to play something similar to Dark Sun or Ravenloft. Also,i like the current homebrew setting my DM runs. It's kind of mid low magic,magic users are misstrusted and have Inquisition on their back to chek they don't go rogue,magic items are very rare and highly cherished possesions.
As for DMing, i like Iron Kingdoms setting,steampunk all the way. Also,Ravenloft and Dark Sun. But i don't really like running fantasy games,not my thing. I plan to run cyberpunk meets post apocalypse Shadowrun-like game set in ripoff of Mega City One using d20 Modern 
h347h50 wrote:
Running Greyhawk
I like political fantasy
Like a game where ther are 2 questgiverss with opposing quest and one of them is a trap or doomed to failure or secretly evil... you know it.
Monsters and magic just flavor it all.
I like whatever my players like. Planescape has been one of their favorites over the years as was Eberron. But I'll run whatever, whenever - just give me dice and booze.
Low-fantasy, gritty, with a certain degree of realistic/historical reference such as for weapons, armor, society, government...
That's the kind of stuff I usually like to run.
When playing official settings, I also like Dark Sun a lot. Somehow they managed to make a more high-fantasy setting feel like a low-fantasy one, possibly because its brutality makes the setting so gritty.
Distinctive settings with strong themes that lend themselves to compelling adventures. Eberron, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Ravenloft. Things that are far removed from the vaguely middle-agesish tolkienesque 'traditional fantasy'. Settings with lots of weird elements - strange magic, bizarre creatures, many races. Cosmopolitan & eclectic settings. Settings with new things to do and see and explore, things I haven't done or seen or explored before. Settings that encourage weird races and classes so that there's always new gamplay experiences to be had when rolling up a new character. Those are the kind of settings I most enjoy. I steer far clear of games where the DM starts ristricting things to the 'big four races & classes', or throws out monk because 'this is a western european game'. That's just not my style.
malisteen wrote:
Yup. To each their own.
It'd be interesting to see a chart of all the popular settings with their magic level of fantasy. I'm a late 80's D&D child so I prefer a low to mid range level of fantasy. Probably closer to mid, but favoring it on the low side. Pretty much the feel from the earlier FR and Dragonlance novels.
I strongly dislike settings where every street lamp is a continual light and every inn has magic brooms sweeping the floor. I don't mind it when PCs have that level of magic, but I want the world itself to feel more mundane.
iserith wrote:
Semi Vancian, post apocalyptic "Dying Earth" style games became my longest running campaign in the old days, I definitely have an idea of reviving those worlds for 5e.
Arcane casters use modified vancian. Divine casters use faith points. Generally divine magic is more "powerful" than arcane magic, however, it can often times be fickle. Thus is the nature of deities. Magic items scale in availability by "spell level" and how many uses the object/item has. Low spell level items are uncommon, high spell level rare. Single use items uncommon, permanent items rare.
Gritty combat using critical hits and fumbles. Depending on whether the person is skilled with the weapon used or not.
Greatly expanded skills list.
European, North African, West Asia map. Celtic, Norse, Greco/Roman, Sumerian/Babylonian/Eqyptian societies.