I think Dark sun is meant to be more dangerous than Ravenloft. Famously a dark lord is from Athas, and when the people arrived in Ravenloft with her they were like "wow, this place is paradise! Water, metal, magic doesn't kill the earth, there's no giant dragon that's going to suck your soul to power it's world-shattering spells, we never want to go back!"
Ketch all settings with multiplainer cross over Ravinloft: Gothic Horror Plainscape: otherworldly freak show Spelljamer: Outer space themed Traditional settings Forgotten Realms: Kitchen Sink Birthright: Game of Throwns Dark Sun: Post-apocalyptic Eeberon: Pulp fiction Steampunk Mystara: Exploration happy Dragon Lance: Epic quest heavy Greyhawk: J.R.R.Tolkien meats J.R.R.Marten Al-Qadim: 1,001 Arabian Knights, part of Forgotten realms Kara-Tur: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, part of Forgotten realms I liked how you described Dark Sun.
Agreed. Between the post-apocalypic setting, the green bug people, the abundant psionic abilities, and the nearly nude humans (most of whom are described as having "coppery skin" by the way), it's like a dark reflection of Barsoom. Plus the avian Aarocockra remind me of the Klenga of Borroughs' Amtor/Venus series.
Amen. And it's something that I took Wizards to task about on Twitter. Everytime they brag about a new book it's either something else from Forgotten Realms - but with any kind of edge filed off of it because Forgotten Realms had a lot of items that could be considered problematic these days. And then there's critical role, and I may be in the minority at calling it a cancer on our Hobby. Nothing against Mercer he clearly is a fan of a hobby and he enjoys what he does. It's not his fault that something he put together became a Frankenstein monster. He took Dungeons & Dragons, created a bunch of Homebrew rules, and then had a bunch of people playing in his setting taking it about as seriously as a comedian does on stage. So what is now popular enough to get 3 official Wizards supplements, a series of graphic novels, and multiple books about the creation of the setting. Add to the fact that it has caused an entire generation of players to think that the only correct way to play is his way, and it leads to a lot of frustration. Then you have their supplement books which all assumed Forgotten Realms is the base setting. I was so stoked when they announced that they were going to be releasing a new exciting book only to find out it was another source book from Mercer. I was among the many who asked them what about any of the settings that this video list. And of course they didn't respond. Opinion? To start, Wizards is probably continuing to try to make the IP they purchased, D&D, theirs. They want to downplay anything that they don't have complete license control over, as well as make sure that they don't hear from the Die Hard fans if they alter a setting drastically. Another factor is them trying to avoid the perpetual motion machine that is the Twitter Lynch Mob. They've been dragged for half races, for the inclusion of characters such as the drow or the vistani, and most recently I had seen people flipping out that dragonlance was a setting that promoted rape culture because one of the stories involved a love spell. What Mercer puts out is pop culture less than gaming, and they do have a wealth of settings that go woefully underutilized in their magic the Gathering. At this point I'm just hoping that something happens for wizards to be forced to sell off all the IPS, and maybe people can purchase the rights and do what they want with them
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
@@cthulhupthagn5771 it's more insidious than that. The focus of WOTC is to complete ignore and discount older loyal customers in search of new fans. Someone brilliant said " dont give companys who hate you your money " wotc does not care about the old settings and the great writing that made the hobby. Inky getting the Critical Role fan to buy their new book.
Thank you! This channel is a goldmine. As a DM trying to start reverse-engineering old D&D settings (I started in 5e) this channel is so helpful. People always talk about the old nostalgic grognards but there are younger players trying to find goodies from the past too.
@@maxmccullough8548 I've started running the harsher settings like Dark Sun and eventually Ravenloft with the game Torchbearer. A lot of it is mechanics I feel, the storyline can easily be tweaked.
@@mariic2 5e Spelljammer was a low effort cash grab. There wasn't enough attention given to the different ships, or making new planets, or structuring a campaign. Ship combat was replaced with a single paragraph that boiled down to "Just have them board each other." The phlogiston and crystal spheres were replaced with the astral sea, and while it wasn't a completely bad idea to do that, it does mean that a character with a decent Intelligence score can out pace a ship in the astral by thinking really hard. There were barely any useful rules for a setting that demands several, and they didn't even put in enough setting detail to make a DM want to run it. They also sold it as three books with a total of half as many pages as Ebberon's setting book, and for a higher cost.
Wouldn’t exactly call Greyhawk Low magic seeing how it gave us famous wizards like Mordenkainen and Tenser. It’s more like a hodge podge of different sword and sorcery tropes with some historical references and a pinch of tolkien. And Laser guns if you’re feeling weird.
Tolkien is low (occurrence of) magic, though. Sure, there were powerful wizards and all, but most peoples' life was as mundane as it gets. Aragorn, who IIRC was a twice-over accomplished 80-something adventurer at the start of LotR, had *a* magic sword, not a metric bitchload of magical items and potions of heroism bought by a six-pack you'd see in FR or something where magic is both high and common.
Human centric and low fantasy... So for me it's gotta be Greyhawk. Never played Birthright but we were less interested in ruling and more in just simple adventuring.
I expect Planescape and Spelljammer to be combined into a setting from WotC in 2020. The core city vs. the ships can be seen as two sides of the same coin. The ability to span so many worlds is common to both, just differences in method.
I wouldn't be surprised by this, either, ever since they tried to unify the various cosmologies starting in 4e seemed to be a way to justify why you can bounce between them as easily as Spelljammer. Nevermind that Dark Sun, Mystara, and Eberron don't really have the same planes as the Realms or Dragonlance...
There is a certain amount of overlap in the settings for adventuring. For example we played a political game in Greyhawk when our party took the port city of Hardby for Greyhawk and ruled it as a vassal city. It's on a smaller scale than Birthright, but it had a lot of the same features. In another game set in Dark Sun, we were merchants traveling from one city to another. It combined action of fighting bandits and monsters in the wilderness with intrigue of out maneuvering our business rivals.
When I first picked up AD&D, I thought the whole fun of it would be to create your very own campaign world. But...... I was 10 years old. And my ideas were stupid.
Although not technically a seperate Campaign setting. I do love the Idea of Oriental Adventures and some kind of world like the Forgotten Realms's Kara-Tur
The World Of Legend of the Five Rings/ Legends of the Burning Sands was licensed during 3.5 to be the campaign setting for Oriental Adventures. That deal has been over for nearly a decade.
Wow, so glad I found your channel, you've filled it with so much great content! I only had a very barebones idea of some of these planes, but now your descriptions of them have really opened my eyes to their diversity and unique flavours. Now I'm itching to learn more about them and get a game going in one of these fantastic worlds.
Same here!! My first foray into D&D was when I borrowed a friends Ravenloft 2e dungeon master's sourcebook. I was hooked! Read up on everything D&D related on Wikipedia back in secondary and now here I am!! Love Forgotten Realms, The Underdark, Eberron, Dragonlance and Dark Sun!! 😁 I'm looking forward to play D&D soon!!
Just wanted to comment saying I can't wait to listen to a lot more of you. Your tone and way of presenting information kept me engaged, which is rare! Really want to dive into Mystara just off your enthusiasm.
I prefer 2e Ravenloft campaign setting. I avsolutely favor this type of rpg though. In this setting I can create any type; even my own, of horror narrative.
I go with 3e Ravenloft core rule book campaign setting. It does not have any adventures prewriten it or any Darklords states either. But it is a good over view on each domain culture. Also it gives a full time line of when and where important events happen. And good clissic monster templates . When in comes to 3e. I just like the way multi-classes works and skill ranks for just about anything. Count Strahd, home brew rewrite. Aristocrat 2nd/ Fighter 4th/ Wizard 6th/ Loremaster 4th. CR: 16 Spell caster level : 10th. Weapon specialization : Bastard Sword. Magic items: " self made," War Banner, spell Emotion. +3 bastard sword. +3 heavy chain mail. Knowledge(arcane lore 10 ranks/ tactics 10 ranks/ nobles 10 ranks) In his War with the Trog warlords. "The Murderous Wedding Day" Aristocrat 3rd/ Fighter 4th/ Wizard 6th/ Loremaster 7th/ CR :20 Spell caster level : 13th, BAB+12 ,: HD: 3d8+4d10+13d4= 48hp.+avg As a new Vampire CR:22,: ECL: 25 Note: When Strahd kill off all of the remaining wedding guests and hire assassins he did not cast any spells. So treat the combat actions as a 12th-level fighter vampire CR:14 :ECL: 17 for him to earn XP. "Treat Strahd as a fully skilled commanding military officer and semi public local national ruler. All "village/ towns" have a early night life just after dark and have all night guard patrols. Strahd also maintains a stander army. with 20 to 50 troops marching patrols down the village roads. His castle is protected by living guards of lawful neutral alignment . Half his castle Ravenloft is the spooky death trap, the first two floors are very civil and ran as a military office. The grand hall music room is made use of four days and nights a week. And two nights out of the week it is safe to go there for drinks and walk home after wards. Even if you are a lowly dirt poor farmer. My local game shop players are "skilled" in running and playing 20th-level + characters. Werewolf Low level: Barbarian 2nd/ Ranger 2nd/ Rogue 3rd CR: 9 : BAB:+6 flanking sneak attack: +3d6 "late teens early 20's year old." Mid level: Barbarian3rd/ Fighter 2nd/ Ranger3rd/Rogue3rd. and three levels of a given spell caster class. CR:14 ; ECL:17; BAB:+11 They make their own magic items. "mid 20's to 30's" High level:"Elders" 30+ years old. +6 class levels of any type. There are eight to fourteen clans/ tribes that raid and fight each other hunting rangers. Food hunting and fighting against rival packs our how the earn XP. Every once in awhile, one pack tries to go after Strahd, and he has to fight for his undead life. So sometimes he gets misted . Have a good weekend.
Thanks for doing this. I’ve been playing for a long time, had the first Basic set. To me a slightly modified Greyhawk 1E always seemed to work best. I liked Gugax’s vision, I guess it matches the way I think best.
No mention of Nentir Vale? I recently started reading 4e material, and it's certainly an interesting spin on the "generic fantasy" setting, being set in a post-apocalyptic world of ancient kingdoms and focusing on traveling outwards into uncharted territory (that the GM is expected to fill in)
I love when fantasy, especially Medieval, focuses on being post-apocalyptic while not falling into Mad Max. Medieval Europe was basically post-apocalyptic. Ruins of Rome scattered throughout the land, the old empire divided into factions held together by an influential but unstable power, people living on the fringes, its got it all!
First thing I was introduced to, setting-wise, was forgotten realms. But I think the thing that really made me fall in love with dungeons & dragons was the Lady of Pain and the city of Sigil. The Great wheel, and everything that came with it, was intrigue that I just had to know........ everything I could about it. That, and the computer game Planescape Torment had no level cap........ Level 93 Nameless one. It was the original mega grind.😂🤣 But I think each setting has its own certain flavor, that's worth playing at least once.
Good video! Very late thoughts as I try to put the worlds into one world: Planescape: Roleplay (like playing the Role and not the Game) Ravenloft: Mystery (because you have to find out each Darklords history and what makes them tick) Mystara: Adventure! (Adventure everywhere! And more Adventure with the Hollow World included) Forgotten Realms: Intrigue (between the gods and their factions and the Devils and the Demons and...) Dark Sun: Survival (I mean, you try...) Eberron: Okay, two words: Too much (can't get into it :-( ) Dragonlance: Religion (The gods are even more involved in the setting, than in other ones...) Those are the ones I experienced
Im sorry to say but I believe WOTC will never try to bring back any of the Mystara Line. They seem intent on distancing themselves from the OD&D. I think it is due to the old Gary vs Anderson law suit.
Foreboding dread, shocking horror, vehement terror and all that is Ravenloft. All other realms are just places to be from and try and get back to. I introduced Ravenloft to my players a few years ago. My players love it, their characters hate it. How often do your players love something their characters hate? My players may still complain about their characters being stuck in Ravenloft, but every time a campaign comes to an end and I give them the option what kind of campaign they want to play next, they always pick Ravenloft. Like moths to the flame.
i've been reading through the books released for Lankhmar and they're hot garbage. It might be an interesting setting but the old TSR books fail to capture that in any consistent way. most of the art is decent
I always liked how open-ended Planescape was. I read the Spelljammer material (Especially the Complete Spacefarer's Handbook) and loved how funny it was! I didn't know how serious Greyhawk was. I own the module [WG7 Castle Greyhawk], and thought that the entire setting was a goof-ball comedy!
Castle greyhawk is a strange module. And it was largely a giant middle finger to Gary after he left because he was always trying to get a super dungeon created in Castle greyhawk instead they turned it into a joke
5e has added some, slowly but surely. We got a bit of Ravenloft a while back with Curse of Strahd, and Eberron is in the works for a hardcover release. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is plainly set in Greyhawk, and we also got a setting that's new to D&D, Ravnica. I know a lot of the old guard are crying "money grab" over bringing in a Magic: the Gathering setting, but the book is actually REALLY good. If you're doing any kind of urban or highly political campaign, then Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica has a boatload of ideas ripe for the picking.
I think forgotten realms was the best setting until they brought in all the new races and subraces. Enough options but still simplistic in 2nd E. Seems after drizzt everyone just wanted to go against the stereotype to stand out. I also feel it made humans lose their viability or uniqueness which seperated us from the fey races.
Nice rundown. Spelljammer & Planescape for me...that leaves most (all?) of the other settings up for a visit or longer though! I'm curious about Mystara and others that I've never got to play in even though I've played off-&-on since the late 80's.
This was GREAT!!!!!! Thank you. Also the way you present the info is quite enjoyable. Dry, with added personal comments about the UN... again thank you.
This was super helpful and informative as a general ... :handwaving: guide thing. I've played almost strictly homebrew and transplanted (warcraft, final fantasy, etc) settings, so I'd only partially gleaned this stuff about different settings from the class and critter splatbooks.
Really an interesting video, thanks. I started playing and DMing in Mystara, but then shifted to the Realms when 3e came out, mostly because of the beautiful manual and the fact that my first ever fantasy books were the Avatar Trilogy (I had been hooked with that setting ever since). Would be curious to try Planescape, Dark Sun and Eberron: among those that I haven't played yet, they look the more interesting to me.
Planescape is the best DND settting for my buy far. The potential for DM's to use the tools provided and for it to not break canon or mess up the world is insane. Especially since getting stronger isn't always a good thing, since the LoP might not want a god-tier level 20 running around in her city.
I don't know what sourcebook in Birthright says that goblins or gnolls are playable; anyone have any clues? And what few people remember is that Dragonlance may not have let draconians be playable until 3rd edition, but it did let you play some very odd races, notably the Irda (a shapeshifting elf-like proto-ogre) and the Minotaurs, and this was the first setting where minotaurs had a civilization and weren't just random curse-spawned beasts living in dungeons.
I would love Ghostwalk Birthright and Council of Wyrms if I had to chose some more minor settings but Dark Sun, Mystara and Planescape if it's the more major settings.
I wonder if there is more than just 10 looking at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_campaign_settings If it's a top 10 list from that list I just posted then groovy, but there may be some forgotten settings that could make a good part 2 or 3 to this video.
Correction to the elves of Dragonlance: Both the Silvanesti and Qualinesti were high elves. Wood elves were called the Kagonesti. Drow _did_ exist in the campaign world, and there was even and adventure that featured them. The "dark elf" that nearly killed Raistlin in the Tower of High Sorcery was sometimes referred to as a "drow," rather than just an evil elf. There were also the Dargonesti and Dimernesti, which were two different varieties of sea elves. And you forgot to mention the minotaurs. =P
@Waynem Lambert - Yes, the Irda, plus their nemesis, the evil Nzunta. Goblins and hobgoblins play a big role as bad guys, and in 5th edition, they could probably be PCs too. Halflings were replaced by the less-Tolkien Kender, and there are no orcs, though their replacements, the draconians would be almost completely wiped out in a post-War of the Lance setting.
Not to split hairs, but in Dragonlance the Kagonesti are the wood elves. The Qualinest are the High Elves, The Silvanesti are the Grey Elves (Which I know are not a part of 5e).
Am I the only one that combines settings to keep things interesting for my players? For example, I placed the Dark Sun setting in the Hollow World in Mystara because I preferred it over the existing setting. Also, I used the Netheril Setting for the flying islands. Good times but a lot of work. :-)
You did a great job of covering all the settings! There's a couple I had never considered, but now would like to try based on this. For Forgotten Realms, I just ignore the literary Mary Sues and make sure they never get near my game, problem solved.
Heh, my first experience with D&D (if you can call it that) was a rp server for Neverwinter Nights. The 'setting' was based on the forgotten realms, but vary loosely. The DMs (people who ran the server) honestly didn't care if you knew anything about the setting or not, and it was obvious playing there that no one could care less about the official lore. Pretty much the only thing they did keep was 'play whatever race you want', and oh they did that in spades. The options in 5e actually look puny to me, even with all the races you can find in the supplements. I mean, they had over a dozen subraces for elves alone! Dwarves had another half dozen, you had three different subraces for each of the halfings and gnomes. Plus an uncountable number of monster races. You could play as full-blooded orcs, hobgoblins, kobolds, fairies, goblins (I recall the latter two being particularly popular), aasimar, tieflings (and the latter two didn't have to be half-human either, I believe there were several avariel players on the server), the genasi and more that I can't remember. And the most infamous race of all: you could play as a good drow and no one would care. You didn't even have to be a drizzle (I don't recall any of the good drow players being drizzles). This experience, however, has alienated me from other players. The forgotten realms comes closest to what I want, but I absolutely HATE how everything is pre-planned for you. To me the game is about being able to play whatever the hell you want. If the game had a character model for it, you could play it. I mean, I once saw a guy play a bone golem! Again, nobody cared if you knew the lore or not. You could literally make up your own country that your character was from for what anyone cared. And no, it wasn't planescape-like. The setting took place on an island in the middle of nowhere, which saw people coming over from everywhere and also had a rather unique culture because of its isolation. You had absolute freedom to make whatever the hell you wanted, and none of the offical settings satisfy that for me, even if everyone at my local shop wants to play weird things (I don't think there's anyone that plays a core race from the PHB).
Have not played in close to 12 or 14 years in a game shop. Wow how time flies. 1.)Last couple of table top I played in Forgotten Realms. My characters adventurer group bought enough seed grain to feed a population of a thousand for four years. Then we built a fortify township outside of a local barony 2.)In the best game played. I was one of the few bastard heirs to Cormyr of the Dragon Coast. Since I could gain the Crown do to the Queen Mother and my character's half sister fighting the northern orc hoard . I merchant pirate captain's life for me. a.) Spent 5 months of game play at the game shop building up a Merc Sea King. Hearing, " I don't care how much Gold you have ! There are just not that many pigs, cattle, and chickens to buy in this area. Gods ! Why do you need to buy that much grain for ? Our you building up an Army ?" Well you have to give farmers seed grain to grow the crops to feed the people within a city state. The wood cutters/ lumber jacks to fell the trees. Have the timber moved to a portside city. Pay ,feed, house, an entertain the ship builder. Have carpenters build the housing for the growing villages. There are close to 20 different groups of people just to get a ship yard built and going. b.) We played short side adventures and did social skills dice rolls to make allies. A fail dice skill check roll means you have a fight on your hands. We run the game it four months increments to determman building progress for all of the urban locations. Normanly no DM/ or game shop wants to deal with building or run armies in the hundreds or thousand of troops. Stander D&D: combat + roll playing Our Shop: Math game + roll playing + combat The end of the five month game that cover 12 years in the campaign setting end with my character becoming the open Emperor of Cormyr and the western side of the Dragon Coast. Had a good size military , but everyone wanted my Council's advice on building up Urban Centers and troops fighting humanoids. Have a good weekend.
11:47 I once met a former Kenyan UN ambassador and he told me the main upside to the UN is "A place where ambassadors of countries who can't officially send each other ambassadors can meet without their nations losing face." and that's it. Tht's basically the only upside.
Loved the video. One small, irritating remark, though, actually Ravenloft Module was written by Tracy & Laura Hickman. As far as i can recall Margaret Weiss never was actually a gamer.
@@michaelkornecki5613 Weis has lived in Mo. and Wi. so being a regular at a game store here in Indiana is a bit far fetched. She's publicly stated she's never read Fantasy, she only writes it.
I want to say she was credited on the retconned ravenloft 2 module. But I think just for Strahd's dialogue as a the phantom, can't remember where I heard it no source cause I no longer own a copy.
My brother in law got me the Glantri gazetteer last year and I'm using it for my first campaign ever in a couple of months. Most of the party - and me - are younger than the setting. So yeah :D
You forgot a couple...Gamma World, Boot Hill (Wild west & fantasy mixer), and also Star Frontiers. I do love Mystara's versatility and that it lets us build our characters and gives us something to work with when we have amassed a large amount of wealth via the investments which I always like to distribute wisely, sinking it into the local economy by growing investing in the trades. How I do it is I invest in smiths, shipwrights, cartwrights, caravans of explorers, militias, merc companies, various guilds, 1 monastery, etc...Also the fae as well.) Hints why most of the time when I play I will have several ships, maps. mercs, militia, fae spies, adventurers, etc working for me by lower to mid expert. As GM/DM, I like to throw in things from Eberron and SpellJammers into the setting!
Never liked the Realms even back in the day and everything was the Realms. Spelljammer and DarkSun were fun in spurts. Ebberron is the go to for 3rd edition but Mystara is the only one still being played after thirty years so yeah, the RC is the only book you'll ever need.
I can see why FR would be popular with today's audience. People want high fantasy and random nonsense. I bet a lot of today's players imagine their games like Saturday morning cartoons. Although, with the recent popularity of the multiverse in Marvel films, it seems like a good time for WotC to re-introduce Planescape. It could even be a doorway (or PORTAL) to material for other settings. edit: I just realized this is an old video and I'm not actually a D&D fan. So if more settings have been (re-)introduced since 2018, then forgive my ignorance.
Yes Dragonlance was massive one of the most popular novels at the time, TSR made a ton with the novels and tie in games. But squandered it. TSR went bankrupt shortly after. Was not into it.
To be frank, Universal Century is the best Gundam universe ever so of course the One Year War is super popular and keeps bringing back the fans because it allows smaller scale stories regarding conflicts within the One Year War that don't have to involve the protagonists of the story.
The drow share very little with shadow elves. They both live underground and don't like surface elves. That is about it. The differences outweigh the similarities.
I think Dark sun is meant to be more dangerous than Ravenloft. Famously a dark lord is from Athas, and when the people arrived in Ravenloft with her they were like "wow, this place is paradise! Water, metal, magic doesn't kill the earth, there's no giant dragon that's going to suck your soul to power it's world-shattering spells, we never want to go back!"
Really? Who is this dark lord?
@@TheGoodLuc Thakok-Ahn.
Ketch all settings with multiplainer cross over
Ravinloft: Gothic Horror
Plainscape: otherworldly freak show
Spelljamer: Outer space themed
Traditional settings
Forgotten Realms: Kitchen Sink
Birthright: Game of Throwns
Dark Sun: Post-apocalyptic
Eeberon: Pulp fiction Steampunk
Mystara: Exploration happy
Dragon Lance: Epic quest heavy
Greyhawk: J.R.R.Tolkien meats J.R.R.Marten
Al-Qadim: 1,001 Arabian Knights, part of Forgotten realms
Kara-Tur: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, part of Forgotten realms
I liked how you described Dark Sun.
Kara-Tur was preceeded by the rare Oriental Adventures book in AD&D 1983
For dark sun don't forget the massive influence of Edgar.R.Borroughs' Barsoom series, that stuff was brutal.
Agreed. Between the post-apocalypic setting, the green bug people, the abundant psionic abilities, and the nearly nude humans (most of whom are described as having "coppery skin" by the way), it's like a dark reflection of Barsoom. Plus the avian Aarocockra remind me of the Klenga of Borroughs' Amtor/Venus series.
Mars isn't dead, but it is dying.
Weeping after seeing how much has been lost, half of this stuff has been relocated to the dustbin of history
Amen. And it's something that I took Wizards to task about on Twitter. Everytime they brag about a new book it's either something else from Forgotten Realms - but with any kind of edge filed off of it because Forgotten Realms had a lot of items that could be considered problematic these days.
And then there's critical role, and I may be in the minority at calling it a cancer on our Hobby. Nothing against Mercer he clearly is a fan of a hobby and he enjoys what he does. It's not his fault that something he put together became a Frankenstein monster.
He took Dungeons & Dragons, created a bunch of Homebrew rules, and then had a bunch of people playing in his setting taking it about as seriously as a comedian does on stage. So what is now popular enough to get 3 official Wizards supplements, a series of graphic novels, and multiple books about the creation of the setting. Add to the fact that it has caused an entire generation of players to think that the only correct way to play is his way, and it leads to a lot of frustration.
Then you have their supplement books which all assumed Forgotten Realms is the base setting.
I was so stoked when they announced that they were going to be releasing a new exciting book only to find out it was another source book from Mercer.
I was among the many who asked them what about any of the settings that this video list. And of course they didn't respond.
Opinion? To start, Wizards is probably continuing to try to make the IP they purchased, D&D, theirs. They want to downplay anything that they don't have complete license control over, as well as make sure that they don't hear from the Die Hard fans if they alter a setting drastically.
Another factor is them trying to avoid the perpetual motion machine that is the Twitter Lynch Mob. They've been dragged for half races, for the inclusion of characters such as the drow or the vistani, and most recently I had seen people flipping out that dragonlance was a setting that promoted rape culture because one of the stories involved a love spell.
What Mercer puts out is pop culture less than gaming, and they do have a wealth of settings that go woefully underutilized in their magic the Gathering.
At this point I'm just hoping that something happens for wizards to be forced to sell off all the IPS, and maybe people can purchase the rights and do what they want with them
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
@@cthulhupthagn5771 it's more insidious than that. The focus of WOTC is to complete ignore and discount older loyal customers in search of new fans. Someone brilliant said " dont give companys who hate you your money " wotc does not care about the old settings and the great writing that made the hobby. Inky getting the Critical Role fan to buy their new book.
@@ronniejdio9411 I can say the same thing for their other product Magic the Gathering
@@fadhil5749 I never understood how MTG got so big and became so profitable. But it was a cash cow.
Thank you! This channel is a goldmine. As a DM trying to start reverse-engineering old D&D settings (I started in 5e) this channel is so helpful. People always talk about the old nostalgic grognards but there are younger players trying to find goodies from the past too.
I've been reading 5e cause my group wants me to run curse of strahd. It is very.....politically correct compared to older editions...
@@maxmccullough8548 I've started running the harsher settings like Dark Sun and eventually Ravenloft with the game Torchbearer. A lot of it is mechanics I feel, the storyline can easily be tweaked.
Check out the 3.5 ed setting called Midnight by Fantasy Flight Games. In short, a dark god won. Low fantasy, some horror, survival, and politicking.
I’d love if they brought back: Dark Sun, Greyhawk, and Spelljammer. In that order.
No-ho you fucking don’t! Hindsight 2020 on spelljammer right there.
What's wrong with Spelljammer?
@@mariic2 5e Spelljammer was a low effort cash grab. There wasn't enough attention given to the different ships, or making new planets, or structuring a campaign. Ship combat was replaced with a single paragraph that boiled down to "Just have them board each other." The phlogiston and crystal spheres were replaced with the astral sea, and while it wasn't a completely bad idea to do that, it does mean that a character with a decent Intelligence score can out pace a ship in the astral by thinking really hard.
There were barely any useful rules for a setting that demands several, and they didn't even put in enough setting detail to make a DM want to run it.
They also sold it as three books with a total of half as many pages as Ebberon's setting book, and for a higher cost.
Wouldn’t exactly call Greyhawk Low magic seeing how it gave us famous wizards like Mordenkainen and Tenser. It’s more like a hodge podge of different sword and sorcery tropes with some historical references and a pinch of tolkien. And Laser guns if you’re feeling weird.
Best Low Magic Game in my experience is Backswords and Bucklers.
Tolkien is low (occurrence of) magic, though. Sure, there were powerful wizards and all, but most peoples' life was as mundane as it gets. Aragorn, who IIRC was a twice-over accomplished 80-something adventurer at the start of LotR, had *a* magic sword, not a metric bitchload of magical items and potions of heroism bought by a six-pack you'd see in FR or something where magic is both high and common.
I6 Ravenloft was written by Tracy and Laura Hickman, not Margaret Weis.
It is known.
Tracy and Margaret wrote Dragonlance
I'm basically here to learn about greyhawk due to it having the default gods in 3.5
Same lol
BPL sent me, been going through your archive of videos. I like how you convey your information keep it up Mr. Welch!
Human centric and low fantasy... So for me it's gotta be Greyhawk. Never played Birthright but we were less interested in ruling and more in just simple adventuring.
I expect Planescape and Spelljammer to be combined into a setting from WotC in 2020. The core city vs. the ships can be seen as two sides of the same coin. The ability to span so many worlds is common to both, just differences in method.
Them getting put into the same world book would not surprise me in the least.
I wouldn't be surprised by this, either, ever since they tried to unify the various cosmologies starting in 4e seemed to be a way to justify why you can bounce between them as easily as Spelljammer. Nevermind that Dark Sun, Mystara, and Eberron don't really have the same planes as the Realms or Dragonlance...
Jakandor is my favorite D&D setting! I also love Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Planescape and Mystara.
Planescape all the way, berk ;)
I do have a soft spot for ravenloft, dark sun and birthright though.
For the last years i use the "Iron Kingdoms" campaign world. It gives me steampunk with magic. LOVE the setting.
I personally think that it does it better than Eberron. But it's a hard sell because of lack of anime antics.
There is a certain amount of overlap in the settings for adventuring. For example we played a political game in Greyhawk when our party took the port city of Hardby for Greyhawk and ruled it as a vassal city. It's on a smaller scale than Birthright, but it had a lot of the same features. In another game set in Dark Sun, we were merchants traveling from one city to another. It combined action of fighting bandits and monsters in the wilderness with intrigue of out maneuvering our business rivals.
When I first picked up AD&D, I thought the whole fun of it would be to create your very own campaign world. But...... I was 10 years old. And my ideas were stupid.
Although not technically a seperate Campaign setting. I do love the Idea of Oriental Adventures and some kind of world like the Forgotten Realms's Kara-Tur
Oriental adventures came about because of the slide on the bottom level of the castle greyhawk dungeon, if you know you know...
The World Of Legend of the Five Rings/ Legends of the Burning Sands was licensed during 3.5 to be the campaign setting for Oriental Adventures.
That deal has been over for nearly a decade.
Yep, Robilar, Terik, and Tenser traveled to China in Gary Gygax's home campaign via a slide through the centre of the world
Do, like, Greyhawk's Valley Elves totally talk in Valley Speak?
Wow, so glad I found your channel, you've filled it with so much great content! I only had a very barebones idea of some of these planes, but now your descriptions of them have really opened my eyes to their diversity and unique flavours. Now I'm itching to learn more about them and get a game going in one of these fantastic worlds.
Same here!! My first foray into D&D was when I borrowed a friends Ravenloft 2e dungeon master's sourcebook. I was hooked! Read up on everything D&D related on Wikipedia back in secondary and now here I am!! Love Forgotten Realms, The Underdark, Eberron, Dragonlance and Dark Sun!! 😁 I'm looking forward to play D&D soon!!
Just wanted to comment saying I can't wait to listen to a lot more of you. Your tone and way of presenting information kept me engaged, which is rare! Really want to dive into Mystara just off your enthusiasm.
FR is best played with the 2nd ed setting, before the spell scourge nonsense.
Indeed.
I prefer 2e Ravenloft campaign setting. I avsolutely favor this type of rpg though. In this setting I can create any type; even my own, of horror narrative.
I go with 3e Ravenloft core rule book campaign setting. It does not have any adventures prewriten it or any Darklords states either. But it is a good over view on each domain culture. Also it gives a full time line of when and where important events happen. And good clissic monster templates .
When in comes to 3e. I just like the way multi-classes works and skill ranks for just about anything.
Count Strahd, home brew rewrite.
Aristocrat 2nd/ Fighter 4th/ Wizard 6th/ Loremaster 4th. CR: 16
Spell caster level : 10th. Weapon specialization : Bastard Sword.
Magic items: " self made," War Banner, spell Emotion. +3 bastard sword. +3 heavy chain mail.
Knowledge(arcane lore 10 ranks/ tactics 10 ranks/ nobles 10 ranks)
In his War with the Trog warlords.
"The Murderous Wedding Day"
Aristocrat 3rd/ Fighter 4th/ Wizard 6th/ Loremaster 7th/ CR :20
Spell caster level : 13th, BAB+12 ,: HD: 3d8+4d10+13d4= 48hp.+avg
As a new Vampire CR:22,: ECL: 25
Note: When Strahd kill off all of the remaining wedding guests and hire assassins he did not cast any spells. So treat the combat actions as a 12th-level fighter vampire CR:14 :ECL: 17 for him to earn XP.
"Treat Strahd as a fully skilled commanding military officer and semi public local national ruler. All "village/ towns" have a early night life just after dark and have all night guard patrols. Strahd also maintains a stander army. with 20 to 50 troops marching patrols down the village roads.
His castle is protected by living guards of lawful neutral alignment . Half his castle Ravenloft is the spooky death trap, the first two floors are very civil and ran as a military office.
The grand hall music room is made use of four days and nights a week. And two nights out of the week it is safe to go there for drinks and walk home after wards. Even if you are a lowly dirt poor farmer.
My local game shop players are "skilled" in running and playing 20th-level + characters.
Werewolf
Low level: Barbarian 2nd/ Ranger 2nd/ Rogue 3rd CR: 9 : BAB:+6
flanking sneak attack: +3d6 "late teens early 20's year old."
Mid level: Barbarian3rd/ Fighter 2nd/ Ranger3rd/Rogue3rd.
and three levels of a given spell caster class. CR:14 ; ECL:17; BAB:+11
They make their own magic items. "mid 20's to 30's"
High level:"Elders" 30+ years old. +6 class levels of any type.
There are eight to fourteen clans/ tribes that raid and fight each other hunting rangers. Food hunting and fighting against rival packs our how the earn XP. Every once in awhile, one pack tries to go after Strahd, and he has to fight for his undead life. So sometimes he gets misted .
Have a good weekend.
So you can keep gaining power?
Heh. I always do the original 1e setting before the Time of Troubles nonsense.
Thanks for doing this. I’ve been playing for a long time, had the first Basic set. To me a slightly modified Greyhawk 1E always seemed to work best. I liked Gugax’s vision, I guess it matches the way I think best.
I liked the S series because you could drop them in on any world ...like Barrier peaks .
Fit in any scenario
No mention of Nentir Vale? I recently started reading 4e material, and it's certainly an interesting spin on the "generic fantasy" setting, being set in a post-apocalyptic world of ancient kingdoms and focusing on traveling outwards into uncharted territory (that the GM is expected to fill in)
I love when fantasy, especially Medieval, focuses on being post-apocalyptic while not falling into Mad Max. Medieval Europe was basically post-apocalyptic. Ruins of Rome scattered throughout the land, the old empire divided into factions held together by an influential but unstable power, people living on the fringes, its got it all!
Probably due to unwarranted hate towards 4e.
But yeah Nentir Vale was awesome.
First thing I was introduced to, setting-wise, was forgotten realms. But I think the thing that really made me fall in love with dungeons & dragons was the Lady of Pain and the city of Sigil.
The Great wheel, and everything that came with it, was intrigue that I just had to know........ everything I could about it.
That, and the computer game Planescape Torment had no level cap........ Level 93 Nameless one. It was the original mega grind.😂🤣
But I think each setting has its own certain flavor, that's worth playing at least once.
Good video!
Very late thoughts as I try to put the worlds into one world:
Planescape: Roleplay (like playing the Role and not the Game)
Ravenloft: Mystery (because you have to find out each Darklords history and what makes them tick)
Mystara: Adventure! (Adventure everywhere! And more Adventure with the Hollow World included)
Forgotten Realms: Intrigue (between the gods and their factions and the Devils and the Demons and...)
Dark Sun: Survival (I mean, you try...)
Eberron: Okay, two words: Too much (can't get into it :-( )
Dragonlance: Religion (The gods are even more involved in the setting, than in other ones...)
Those are the ones I experienced
Wow dude, your videos about these settings are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT correct! I think it just gets to the point where you wind up making your own.
Planescape, Dark Sun, and Spelljammer for me :) Though when I run I typically run Planescape.
Im sorry to say but I believe WOTC will never try to bring back any of the Mystara Line. They seem intent on distancing themselves from the OD&D. I think it is due to the old Gary vs Anderson law suit.
I would rather WotC leave Mystara alone. The Mystara fan community continues to develop and detail the setting in creative and quality ways.
You have Black Hack, Labyrinth Lord, BECMI, and B/X Essentials now for rule systems.
I so badly want Hollow World as 5e...
This is disappointing. Makes it harder to share the setting
Foreboding dread, shocking horror, vehement terror and all that is Ravenloft. All other realms are just places to be from and try and get back to. I introduced Ravenloft to my players a few years ago. My players love it, their characters hate it. How often do your players love something their characters hate? My players may still complain about their characters being stuck in Ravenloft, but every time a campaign comes to an end and I give them the option what kind of campaign they want to play next, they always pick Ravenloft. Like moths to the flame.
Really good summary of the settings! Good work!
I wish they would bring back Lankhmar. It was the most old school setting, even more than Greyhawk.
i've been reading through the books released for Lankhmar and they're hot garbage. It might be an interesting setting but the old TSR books fail to capture that in any consistent way.
most of the art is decent
I was expecting a 30 second clip where you just say "Mystara" and drop the 🎤
I always liked how open-ended Planescape was.
I read the Spelljammer material (Especially the Complete Spacefarer's Handbook) and loved how funny it was!
I didn't know how serious Greyhawk was. I own the module [WG7 Castle Greyhawk], and thought that the entire setting was a goof-ball comedy!
Castle greyhawk is a strange module. And it was largely a giant middle finger to Gary after he left because he was always trying to get a super dungeon created in Castle greyhawk instead they turned it into a joke
5e has added some, slowly but surely. We got a bit of Ravenloft a while back with Curse of Strahd, and Eberron is in the works for a hardcover release. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is plainly set in Greyhawk, and we also got a setting that's new to D&D, Ravnica. I know a lot of the old guard are crying "money grab" over bringing in a Magic: the Gathering setting, but the book is actually REALLY good. If you're doing any kind of urban or highly political campaign, then Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica has a boatload of ideas ripe for the picking.
I think forgotten realms was the best setting until they brought in all the new races and subraces. Enough options but still simplistic in 2nd E. Seems after drizzt everyone just wanted to go against the stereotype to stand out. I also feel it made humans lose their viability or uniqueness which seperated us from the fey races.
My favorites are Al Qadim, Ravenloft, Planescape, and Spelljammer. Although I have been itching for something low fantasy and gritty like Greyhawk.
Nice rundown. Spelljammer & Planescape for me...that leaves most (all?) of the other settings up for a visit or longer though! I'm curious about Mystara and others that I've never got to play in even though I've played off-&-on since the late 80's.
This was GREAT!!!!!! Thank you. Also the way you present the info is quite enjoyable. Dry, with added personal comments about the UN... again thank you.
I6 Ravenloft had the first CAD-CAM produced and 3D map ....blew me away as a 13 year old kid
This was exactly the video i was looking for. 👍❤️
I'm a Greyhawk man through and through
This was super helpful and informative as a general ... :handwaving: guide thing. I've played almost strictly homebrew and transplanted (warcraft, final fantasy, etc) settings, so I'd only partially gleaned this stuff about different settings from the class and critter splatbooks.
birthright is my favorite, but it does seem like you convinced me to have another look at mystara and some of the others
Good thing about Birthright, you can perfectly adapt it into Mystara.
Really an interesting video, thanks.
I started playing and DMing in Mystara, but then shifted to the Realms when 3e came out, mostly because of the beautiful manual and the fact that my first ever fantasy books were the Avatar Trilogy (I had been hooked with that setting ever since).
Would be curious to try Planescape, Dark Sun and Eberron: among those that I haven't played yet, they look the more interesting to me.
This dude sounds like if Ron Swanson became a nerd
Planescape is the best DND settting for my buy far. The potential for DM's to use the tools provided and for it to not break canon or mess up the world is insane. Especially since getting stronger isn't always a good thing, since the LoP might not want a god-tier level 20 running around in her city.
I don't know what sourcebook in Birthright says that goblins or gnolls are playable; anyone have any clues? And what few people remember is that Dragonlance may not have let draconians be playable until 3rd edition, but it did let you play some very odd races, notably the Irda (a shapeshifting elf-like proto-ogre) and the Minotaurs, and this was the first setting where minotaurs had a civilization and weren't just random curse-spawned beasts living in dungeons.
I would love Ghostwalk Birthright and Council of Wyrms if I had to chose some more minor settings but Dark Sun, Mystara and Planescape if it's the more major settings.
Well done. I think this explains the D&D settings better than I have ever heard. Also you sum up my problem with FR to a T. Thanks again.
used to have that Planescape CCG named , Blood wars, had a ton of that one, loved it.
you missed the Council of Wyrms where you play as a dragon
I really miss Kara Tara and Al Quidm
I wonder if there is more than just 10 looking at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_campaign_settings If it's a top 10 list from that list I just posted then groovy, but there may be some forgotten settings that could make a good part 2 or 3 to this video.
He did leave out one-off experiments such as Ghostwalk, though I wouldn't hold that against him.
Correction to the elves of Dragonlance: Both the Silvanesti and Qualinesti were high elves. Wood elves were called the Kagonesti. Drow _did_ exist in the campaign world, and there was even and adventure that featured them. The "dark elf" that nearly killed Raistlin in the Tower of High Sorcery was sometimes referred to as a "drow," rather than just an evil elf.
There were also the Dargonesti and Dimernesti, which were two different varieties of sea elves.
And you forgot to mention the minotaurs. =P
@Waynem Lambert - Yes, the Irda, plus their nemesis, the evil Nzunta. Goblins and hobgoblins play a big role as bad guys, and in 5th edition, they could probably be PCs too.
Halflings were replaced by the less-Tolkien Kender, and there are no orcs, though their replacements, the draconians would be almost completely wiped out in a post-War of the Lance setting.
Still have my original Mystara books.. Immortals had some of the craziest rules!
Not to split hairs, but in Dragonlance the Kagonesti are the wood elves. The Qualinest are the High Elves, The Silvanesti are the Grey Elves (Which I know are not a part of 5e).
Am I the only one that combines settings to keep things interesting for my players? For example, I placed the Dark Sun setting in the Hollow World in Mystara because I preferred it over the existing setting. Also, I used the Netheril Setting for the flying islands. Good times but a lot of work. :-)
Dark Sun in the Hollow World sounds really interesting... Did you keep the Immortals intervening bit of the HW or just got rid of it?
I'm playing The Scarred Lands now in 3.5. Scarn is a awesome world!
You did a great job of covering all the settings! There's a couple I had never considered, but now would like to try based on this.
For Forgotten Realms, I just ignore the literary Mary Sues and make sure they never get near my game, problem solved.
Good Sir, what are those issues you said? As a new DM I'm curious.
I can’t figure out why you don’t have 1 million subscribers
Heh, my first experience with D&D (if you can call it that) was a rp server for Neverwinter Nights. The 'setting' was based on the forgotten realms, but vary loosely. The DMs (people who ran the server) honestly didn't care if you knew anything about the setting or not, and it was obvious playing there that no one could care less about the official lore. Pretty much the only thing they did keep was 'play whatever race you want', and oh they did that in spades. The options in 5e actually look puny to me, even with all the races you can find in the supplements. I mean, they had over a dozen subraces for elves alone! Dwarves had another half dozen, you had three different subraces for each of the halfings and gnomes. Plus an uncountable number of monster races. You could play as full-blooded orcs, hobgoblins, kobolds, fairies, goblins (I recall the latter two being particularly popular), aasimar, tieflings (and the latter two didn't have to be half-human either, I believe there were several avariel players on the server), the genasi and more that I can't remember. And the most infamous race of all: you could play as a good drow and no one would care. You didn't even have to be a drizzle (I don't recall any of the good drow players being drizzles).
This experience, however, has alienated me from other players. The forgotten realms comes closest to what I want, but I absolutely HATE how everything is pre-planned for you. To me the game is about being able to play whatever the hell you want. If the game had a character model for it, you could play it. I mean, I once saw a guy play a bone golem! Again, nobody cared if you knew the lore or not. You could literally make up your own country that your character was from for what anyone cared. And no, it wasn't planescape-like. The setting took place on an island in the middle of nowhere, which saw people coming over from everywhere and also had a rather unique culture because of its isolation. You had absolute freedom to make whatever the hell you wanted, and none of the offical settings satisfy that for me, even if everyone at my local shop wants to play weird things (I don't think there's anyone that plays a core race from the PHB).
Have not played in close to 12 or 14 years in a game shop. Wow how time flies.
1.)Last couple of table top I played in Forgotten Realms. My characters adventurer group bought enough seed grain to feed a population of a thousand for four years. Then we built a fortify township outside of a local barony
2.)In the best game played. I was one of the few bastard heirs to Cormyr of the Dragon Coast. Since I could gain the Crown do to the Queen Mother and my character's half sister fighting the northern orc hoard . I merchant pirate captain's life for me.
a.) Spent 5 months of game play at the game shop building up a Merc Sea King. Hearing, " I don't care how much Gold you have ! There are just not that many pigs, cattle, and chickens to buy in this area. Gods ! Why do you need to buy that much grain for ? Our you building up an Army ?"
Well you have to give farmers seed grain to grow the crops to feed the people within a city state. The wood cutters/ lumber jacks to fell the trees. Have the timber moved to a portside city. Pay ,feed, house, an entertain the ship builder. Have carpenters build the housing for the growing villages.
There are close to 20 different groups of people just to get a ship yard built and going.
b.) We played short side adventures and did social skills dice rolls to make allies. A fail dice skill check roll means you have a fight on your hands. We run the game it four months increments to determman building progress for all of the urban locations. Normanly no DM/ or game shop wants to deal with building or run armies in the hundreds or thousand of troops.
Stander D&D: combat + roll playing
Our Shop: Math game + roll playing + combat
The end of the five month game that cover 12 years in the campaign setting end with my character becoming the open Emperor of Cormyr and the western side of the Dragon Coast. Had a good size military , but everyone wanted my Council's advice on building up Urban Centers and troops fighting humanoids.
Have a good weekend.
Haha dude this is best breakdown of all the settings!
Love hearing you talk about Greyhawk
11:47 I once met a former Kenyan UN ambassador and he told me the main upside to the UN is "A place where ambassadors of countries who can't officially send each other ambassadors can meet without their nations losing face." and that's it. Tht's basically the only upside.
For me Old School Greyhawk.
If I ever get the chance to round up a group and DM, it’s planescape all the way.
Mystara.
With that out of the way, I'm going to watch the video. ;-) (Which will be great since it's by Mr. Welch.)
Cheers,
V
As far as I'm aware there still aren't Dragonborn and Tieflings in Greyhawk
Man, I was really hoping I'd fall in with greyhawk, but it Only Dragonlance and Ravenloft catch my eye.
My favorite is the forgotten realms and Spelljammer.
Planescape and Birthright were my jam!
Loved the video. One small, irritating remark, though, actually Ravenloft Module was written by Tracy & Laura Hickman. As far as i can recall Margaret Weiss never was actually a gamer.
I think I ran into the owner of a gaming store in Indiana who claimed that Weiss used to be a regular at the store, and a gamer.
@@michaelkornecki5613 cool, I always thought that she Was rather a freelance writer hired by tsr with no earlier connection to the Game. My mistake
@@michaelkornecki5613 Weis has lived in Mo. and Wi. so being a regular at a game store here in Indiana is a bit far fetched. She's publicly stated she's never read Fantasy, she only writes it.
@@mountedpatrolman You are correct! I had my famous female authors mixed up (I went to the store and asked recently.)
I want to say she was credited on the retconned ravenloft 2 module. But I think just for Strahd's dialogue as a the phantom, can't remember where I heard it no source cause I no longer own a copy.
I like several settings. There is no right one for me. It’s whatever I feel like at the moment.
The only one I've ever played was Mystara. And I do have an interest in history, so Mystara it is. Do people play Mystara anymore?
Of Course :)
My brother in law got me the Glantri gazetteer last year and I'm using it for my first campaign ever in a couple of months. Most of the party - and me - are younger than the setting. So yeah :D
My first campaign was set on Mystara, my first attempt as DM and it was a epic BLAST!
I like Greyhawk as a setting and GURPS as a system.
The only one worth a damn. Greyhawk.
You forgot a couple...Gamma World, Boot Hill (Wild west & fantasy mixer), and also Star Frontiers.
I do love Mystara's versatility and that it lets us build our characters and gives us something to work with when we have amassed a large amount of wealth via the investments which I always like to distribute wisely, sinking it into the local economy by growing investing in the trades. How I do it is I invest in smiths, shipwrights, cartwrights, caravans of explorers, militias, merc companies, various guilds, 1 monastery, etc...Also the fae as well.) Hints why most of the time when I play I will have several ships, maps. mercs, militia, fae spies, adventurers, etc working for me by lower to mid expert. As GM/DM, I like to throw in things from Eberron and SpellJammers into the setting!
The 3 you listed are not D&D settings. Those are different games.
I love Ravenlift, have been since the original module came out. And my friends fear when I DM there.
Grey elves and high elves my friend. Kagonesti were the wood elves
Never liked the Realms even back in the day and everything was the Realms. Spelljammer and DarkSun were fun in spurts. Ebberron is the go to for 3rd edition but Mystara is the only one still being played after thirty years so yeah, the RC is the only book you'll ever need.
Probably my favorite is eberon because magitech is awesome
Alphabetical was a strange choice for how to organize these. I guess it works though. I'm going to share this vid for newer players.
We're somewhat partial to Blackmoor.
So cool to see you comment here sir!
Great video, thanks for posting it!
I can see why FR would be popular with today's audience. People want high fantasy and random nonsense. I bet a lot of today's players imagine their games like Saturday morning cartoons. Although, with the recent popularity of the multiverse in Marvel films, it seems like a good time for WotC to re-introduce Planescape. It could even be a doorway (or PORTAL) to material for other settings.
edit: I just realized this is an old video and I'm not actually a D&D fan. So if more settings have been (re-)introduced since 2018, then forgive my ignorance.
Nope still just the three
Dark Sun = Zothique. It's pretty damn one-to-one, only real difference is the names of stuff.
My favorite part was the sound of someone tired of reading a script lol
What's pulpy about Ebirron over any other setting or am I working from a different definition?
Yes Dragonlance was massive one of the most popular novels at the time, TSR made a ton with the novels and tie in games. But squandered it. TSR went bankrupt shortly after. Was not into it.
I know I am in the minority here, but I loved the birthright campaign. Great video my friend.
Spelljammer was crazy awesome
Forgotten Realms is to D&D what the One Year War is to Gundam.
Some day I will get into gundam and maybe I will understand the reference.
To be frank, Universal Century is the best Gundam universe ever so of course the One Year War is super popular and keeps bringing back the fans because it allows smaller scale stories regarding conflicts within the One Year War that don't have to involve the protagonists of the story.
There is also the Nentir Vale:
mythlands-erce.blogspot.com/2017/06/4th-editions-implied-setting-is-old.html?m=1
Will they ever re-release Mystara?
Mystara has drow, they are called shadow elves. See the basic dnd gazetteers
Completely different in past the living arrangements. Different abilities, different backgrounds, different appearances different mentalities
The drow share very little with shadow elves. They both live underground and don't like surface elves. That is about it. The differences outweigh the similarities.
What about wildemount, theros and Ravnica
One's a Homebrew setting that got official support because it became the face of 5E, the other two are imports from M:TG.
Also, Wildemount is garbage and the other two are incomplete causing enough work that you might as well create your own with them as a baseline.
Greyhawk has Grugatch Elves
Swords and Wizardry White Box, White Box Omnibus, White Box Gothic in the Midderlands World with Dolmenwood.