Maceswinger Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 So I finally decided to get back to D&D after a couple of years absence. Mostly because my players are looking for a game where they can level ,kill beasts and take loot from dank smelly dungeons opposed to my low powered Roleplaying driven Gurps campaign which I still run. Since I spend years planning my Gurps campagin so I was thinking on using a published game world for D&D so I have less work. Now the only published campaign I played in was Ravenloft (as a player). What Campaign settings can you guys recommend me? For me info on what I like: I am more of "Traditional" fantasy type guy, I'm not the biggest fan of Forgotten Realms and I hate Eberron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlavanish Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Greyhawk is always a nice nuts and bolts setting, if you're not looking for too much pizazz. And if you're at all a fan of Robert Jordans books, The Wheel of Time setting was done fairly well (hasn't had much in the way of supplements though). Kingdoms of Kalamar is nicely developed, and fairly straightforward. The Game of Thrones setting looks promising (especially if you like the books), and I hear the Conan setting is decent. And if you're looking for something with a little twist, the Midnight setting (where the dark gods won the war) is good. I think Kalamar is probably the most traditional of those, but they're all worth looking into to see what suits you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHorde Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 Agreed, Greyhawk is a classic and can easily accept plenty of monster-trashing, villain-bashing, dice-rolling, village-protecting, damsel-rescuing, dungeon-looting, 'traditional' fun. It's pretty much the original and longest running published world. My own, personal problem with it is pulling it all together into a cohesive campaign because it ran for so long. Original D&D, AD&D 1st & 2nd Editions, the world-changing Greyhawk Wars, post-Wars adjustments collectively referred to as 'From the Ashes', another major revamp and finally Living Greyhawk before Eberron replaced it as the 'default' setting. (I don't know much about Eberron, but it doesn't strike me as something I would be interested in.) I have not played Midnight, but I own it and have read a fair amount of it. Well, 1st edition, anyway. I understand a second edition was released right after I bought the whole set on eBay. I should have known there was a reason I was getting such a 'bargain'. It is definitely a high-tension setting, but rather like Ravenloft meets LOTR if Sauron had won and regained the One Ring. Scarey and wild, but kind of the reverse of traditional because characters will draw too much attention if they go marching into town as 'adventurers'. Non-humans are hunted to the brink of extinction. Magic use is illegal and sniffed out, so items and spells must be low-key and disguised. Gods other than the 'dark lord' are anathema. Stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, I really like the setting and all, but I'm not sure it's the straightforward, 'patience my butt, I'm gonna kill something' type of setting it sounds like you are looking for. Lankhmar -- based on Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series -- is an interesting and detailed setting. It's high fantasy and might be worth a look. Here's a little more on the author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haldir Posted February 25, 2006 Share Posted February 25, 2006 love Eberron, but if you want traditional low magic kinda fantasy, then Greyhawk is a good way to go. As the 3.0/3.5 books are by default set in Greyhawk, you really wouldn't need to much in terms of books & such. recently in Dungeon Magazine, they put out a giant 4 part poster map of Greyhawk, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me, defeintly try & get that if you do go with Greyhawk (every adventure that has been set in Greyhawk up to the publishing of the Map is shown) speaking of Dungeon, the generic adventures in there are all set in Greyhawk as well. Anther interesting setting I think, might be Iron Heroes setting from Malhavoc Press. Just something about it sounds pretty cool (more focus on combat & not as much on magic, & this coming from a guy who loves the Eberron setting, ha ha) here the link to the FAQ of the setting http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?mpress_IL_FAQ (hmmm 14 bucks for the PDF version, hmmm might be tempted) RM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decado Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 I cast another vote for Greyhawk as I have been using it for over 20 years. It has enough info to get you started but isnt so overly detailed that you have a hard time putting in your own stuff. The maps that Dungeon released are awesome and are even referenced in the Saltmarsh section of DMG II (an awesome book btw). One of the things that drew me to Dungeon mag was the amount of Greyhawk adventures they produced. I am running my players through one now and it has been kicking thier butts! Decado Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreyHorde Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 I sit corrected on my earlier point -- if Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine still 'default' to Greyhawk, that's even better. I thought I read something several years ago, around the time my subscriptions expired, that only Living Greyhawk would have ongoing support and all official content would be Eberron. Now, again, I could be wrong, or maybe 'they' changed their mind and kept Greyhawk as the default setting, but that's what I remember reading; it was one (of many) reasons I did not renew the subs. Another was that I had no contacts, membership or desire to keep up with Living Anything. So, thanks for the clarification. I apologize if I confused the issue. Greyhawk is still my old favorite setting, regardless of the rules system applied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I can't recommend The Iron Kingdoms enough! Their ENnie award winning campaign The Witchfire Trilogy is jam packed with cool intrigue for plenty of RP and lotsa cinematic action. It's designed to take characters from 1st to 7th level but after a read through, there is enough material there for a much longer campaign. See more cool stuff here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maceswinger Posted February 28, 2006 Author Share Posted February 28, 2006 Greyhawk eh? Guess I will use that. I was considering Kingdoms of Kalamar but is it updated to 3.5 yet (as you can see, I don't have a clue on what changed from 3.0 to 3.5 since I sold my rulebooks a few years ago)? Iron Kingdoms won't work for me...to steampunk-y. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlavanish Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Greyhawk eh? Guess I will use that. I was considering Kingdoms of Kalamar but is it updated to 3.5 yet (as you can see, I don't have a clue on what changed from 3.0 to 3.5 since I sold my rulebooks a few years ago)? I can't say for sure, but it looks like they've got some update pdfs at least on their website. Kenzer & Co. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tiger Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Most of the guidline changes from 3.0 to 3.5 where minor things like spell effect changes (making the resist elements spells better and so forth). Among the bigger changes involved making druids and rangers tougher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haldir Posted March 4, 2006 Share Posted March 4, 2006 they made a downloable pdf booklet to outline the changes from 3.0 to 3.5 You can get it in the download section at wizards.com but yah KT is right, they ironned out the ranger, makin him more versitle (instead of having just 2 weapon fighting & tracking, he now get his choice after 2nd level on what style he wants, 2w or archery + some other tweaks as well, sounds like they did a good job. RM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firebird Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 My group and just started D&D again and we play in Dragonlance. There is a campaign book out for 3.5 now. The only problem is everything is set in the current age of Dragonlance. So we backed up and are playing during the War of the Lancre era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krztoff Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 If you're thinking about Kalamar, I have two copies of the Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting book. I was going to eBay the extra one, but I could certainly sell it to you if you are interested. Kalamar is definitely the setting to go with if A) you like the idea of PCs being able to advance to a point where they are actually some of the most powerful beings in the universe B) if things like magical trains annoy the heck out of you C) you're like me and you like a campaign setting that is so detail oriented that the atlas you can buy has trade routes and wind/ocean currents etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haldir Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 Firebird want offical WotL stuff here yah go http://www.dragonlance.com/products/SVP-4002.aspx homesite for that page is also good for DL content as well hope that helps RM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzor Posted March 7, 2006 Share Posted March 7, 2006 Well if you are looking for dungeon crawaling, one option is to simply ignore the notion of a scenario per se. Dungeon does a nice job of progressive scenarios for a group from 1st level to 20th. Their first series I think made it to hardcover: Shackled City. There are also mega adventure modules: Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and Word's Largest Dungeon. (One of these days I have to take that book out of the shrink wrap and actually read it.) Lankhmar: the world of Leiber is a wonderful and fantastic place. Lankhmar the AD&D 1st and 2nd Edition campaign settings was one of those things you loved and hated at the same time. Trying to ber overly faithful to Leiber given the general rules of AD&D wasn't always easy and the rule modifications were often flat out ignored by the scenario writers. My favorite was a Lankhmar module that was mistakenly wrapped in the Forgottem Realms logo on the cover. But under 3E where were-rats only go to dire rat size (M) and normal rats are (T) which is still large compared to the original descriptions in 1E and 2E that implied a size that would relate to fine is an interesting exercise for anyone with far too much time on their hands to waste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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