|
Post by kamarathin on Jan 21, 2014 20:11:20 GMT
Obviously Kamarathin is your favorite Setting, but I'm willing to hear about others.
|
|
|
Post by Sketchpad on Jan 21, 2014 21:16:44 GMT
Eberron and Pathfinder's Golarion are two of my favorite fantasy settings, along with Dragonlance and Middle Earth.
|
|
kravenkor
Double Digit Master
"We're making a better world; all of them. Better worlds."
Posts: 92
|
Post by kravenkor on Jan 21, 2014 22:04:49 GMT
Forgotten Realms was, for the longest time, just "by default" as that is what my group played. I loved the Dragonlance setting as a lad, but found it less interesting as I got older and saw the cliches for what they were (and went from wanting to play a Kender in every game, around age 13, to thinking we should exterminate them with extreme prejudice as an adult ) Still, the setting had a really cool history and some of the most detailed maps ever made; loved it. Middle-Earth seems difficult to set a typical game in; but it is the grandfather to them all, and thus all fantasy settings emulate it in some fashion. I haven't really played much in any other fantasy setting. I think Golarion shows promise, but a few days on the Paizo forums had me running back to HERO. And all due to the hyper-focus on character optimization and the insane arguments that occur if you suggest a "fun" build over an optimal one. I only know of Kamarathin through having been helping update some stuff to 6E; haven't played in a campaign set there. So - unfortunately? fortunately? - my favorite setting... is my own.
|
|
|
Post by Chris Goodwin on Jan 21, 2014 22:28:35 GMT
I have a soft spot for Greyhawk. I wanted to like Kulthea (Shadow World) but don't think I gave it a fair shake. I also love the Ethshar setting from Lawrence Watt-Evans' novels.
|
|
|
Post by Tasha on Jan 22, 2014 0:35:00 GMT
I like the Western Shores from old FH.
The Forgotten Realms is just fun because it's over the top insane. Also it's very accessable to many players due to all of the Fiction set there.
Golarion (Pathfinder) is kind of a Meh world to me. It's got the feeling of something that's been slapped together. It's gotten better as it's aged and gained detail, but it's still feels half assed to me. It's very accessable to players. All of the Human Ethnicities are analogs to RL cultures. Elves are D&D elves, same with everything else. Gnomes are a bit different and that makes them fun.
Honestly I don't really like any of the Official Hero 5.x Game Worlds. Steve Long's writing just leaves me cold. His books all read like well done essays and term papers. All life sucked out of them.
I guess I should check out Kamarathin (who should include a link with their product plug...)
Shadow World never did much for me either.
|
|
|
Post by kamarathin on Jan 22, 2014 1:10:39 GMT
|
|
superpheemy
New Member
The Harbinger of Justice's Pal
Posts: 2
|
Post by superpheemy on Jan 22, 2014 1:34:54 GMT
I do like Tuala Morn as a Fantasy Setting, but especially as a HERO setting. I also love using the Young Kingdoms from the Elric of Melnibone' books. Any more, the worlds developed for "generic Fantasy Role Playing" just leave me flat, primarily because they strive too hard to include *everything* in their FRPG system. As I get older, I find that I get annoyed by games and campaigns where the players can pull characters out of a file and drop them in without much effort into making them a part of the living world around them. It's a sign of laziness when you can first describe your character as "the Half-Orc Fighter", or "Elven Sorcerer" and have that become shorthand for your character's personality, background, and future development.
|
|
|
Post by kamarathin on Jan 22, 2014 1:51:03 GMT
Any more, the worlds developed for "generic Fantasy Role Playing" just leave me flat, primarily because they strive too hard to include *everything* in their FRPG system. As I get older, I find that I get annoyed by games and campaigns where the players can pull characters out of a file and drop them in without much effort into making them a part of the living world around them. It's a sign of laziness when you can first describe your character as "the Half-Orc Fighter", or "Elven Sorcerer" and have that become shorthand for your character's personality, background, and future development. This is exactly why I made Kamarathin.
|
|
Rex
Double Digit Master
Posts: 33
|
Post by Rex on Jan 22, 2014 5:51:16 GMT
Hmmm.....LONG List here..... So....let's see. Greyhawk, DragonLance, The Forgotten Realms PRE-Silverback books, RAVENLOFT, The Marvel and DC Universe. The FemmForce Universe. Birthright, Dark Sun, Scarred Lands, Spelljammer, Al-Qadim, Glorantha, Various piles of my own stuff, The Third Imperium setting for Traveller, the Fading Suns and Blue Planet settings. Cyberpunk 2020 updated for a bit of passage of time. Got a soft spot for Kazei 5, thought the Turakian Age was more then solid, MAJOR Soft Spots for Anything Robert E. Howard. Still love the old Sanctuary Boxed Set as well as Newhon to boot. The Annals of the Black Company material is downright brilliant as a setting, so is Iron Kingdoms and the material for 13th Age. Big Fan of Legend of the 5 Rings and the Exalted Settings, and Qin, hmmm....Weapons of the Gods has a good setting as well. Any Call of Cthulu era.....the new Transylvania stuff doe Dungeon Crawl Classics is brilliant work.....That's just off the top of my head........was a long day at work.
~Rex
|
|
kravenkor
Double Digit Master
"We're making a better world; all of them. Better worlds."
Posts: 92
|
Post by kravenkor on Jan 22, 2014 20:31:06 GMT
To expand beyond fantasy I could include a few more, and had only included actual published game settings. Obviously, G.R.R. Martin's setting is incredibly awesome for a low-fantasy world, and manages to be a bit unique as well. Sadly, any gaming set there would need only the following rule: "On any attempted action, roll 1d4 and consult the following chart: 1 - Die. 2 - Die unexpectedly. 3 - Die Tragically. 4 - Just Die."
|
|
|
Post by tomd1969 on Jan 22, 2014 23:42:37 GMT
I have a soft spot for Greyhawk. I wanted to like Kulthea (Shadow World) but don't think I gave it a fair shake. I also love the Ethshar setting from Lawrence Watt-Evans' novels. Kulthea suffered from a lot of problems mostly because it was originally written for Rolemaster, and a lot of the HSR translations were... clunky at best and weren't a direct translation of ability at worst, almost as if the person who wrote the HSR stats weren't familiar with HSR at all. YMMV
|
|
|
Post by tomd1969 on Jan 22, 2014 23:49:57 GMT
As for myself, I've always done a lot more urban fantasy set in a world much like our own with the addition of clandestine secret societies striving for world domination behind the scenes, cults of mad gods, dark rituals, men in black, Greys, Seelie and Unseelie Fae, and so on.
But as far as traditional fantasy campaign goes, I've always had a soft spot for Birthright, Eberron, and Tuala Morn.
|
|
|
Post by Tasha on Jan 23, 2014 0:09:50 GMT
Most of ICE's Hero Translations seemed to be done by someone with only a passing knowledge of Hero.
|
|
|
Post by shelleycm on Jan 23, 2014 1:55:18 GMT
My absolute favorite setting was my adaptation of Teresa Edgerton's Green Lion Trilogy. Low level magic, a delightfully well-developed world, and it's esoteric enough that (even though I made the players read the books--damn, I'm bossy) I could make up what I needed to without getting any argument about genre.
|
|
superpheemy
New Member
The Harbinger of Justice's Pal
Posts: 2
|
Post by superpheemy on Jan 24, 2014 3:47:49 GMT
To expand beyond fantasy I could include a few more, and had only included actual published game settings. Obviously, G.R.R. Martin's setting is incredibly awesome for a low-fantasy world, and manages to be a bit unique as well. Sadly, any gaming set there would need only the following rule: "On any attempted action, roll 1d4 and consult the following chart: 1 - Die. 2 - Die unexpectedly. 3 - Die Tragically. 4 - Just Die." If I were to run a Westerosi game, I'd have to be very clear as to where the campaign would take place in the world. Dorne, the Wall, the Riverlands, all those city-states from Pentos to Meereen. I can see a real challenge to exposing a single group of PCs to the varied environments that Martin does. At least he's got multiple groups running hither and thither all over the place to show off the world. P.S. I think Green Ronin also published the licensed Song of Ice and Fire RPG not too long ago.
|
|