Greyhawk? Eberron? Dragonlance?

[Ramael]

Hope this is in the right forum.

Yeah, that's right, I'm talking D+D, though talking from a novice POV.

I was wondering what the popular campaign settings are, maybe if there is one overall preferred universe that seems to be played by the majority?

I'm new to DnD, and the main pull of it for me is the ability to interact in one universe, and go back to a character that grows within that universe, getting to know it as well as the real world in which we live. However the multiple worlds and settings of DnD campaigns sometimes confuse me and put me off - if I DID ever play DnD, I wouldn't want to have to start all over again with a character just because we were playing a different realm that week.

Is there one particular setting that is a standard?

Also, as a second point, is there a preferred universe that is played here on E! ? If I would dip my toes into DnD, I'd do it here first to avoid the cost of books and miniatures if it's only going to be a passing phase for me.

As another sidenote, I only have in-depth knowledge of the world of Krynn (Dragonlance novels <3), but I appreciate finding a Dragonlance-set game must be hard. My local gamers seem to prefer homebrew worlds and universes.

[Brandon]

There were really only 3 I played to any extent. I dont know a thing about greyhawk but Dragonlance was a knight like setting that tried its best to be low magic by forcing arcane spellcasters to be part of an order (similar to dragon age). Eberron tries to involve "Magitech" in the world which I always found annoying but beyond that I know next to nothing about the setting.

The settings I really enjoy are Dark sun and Ravenloft but I know a bit about Forgotten realms too. FR is the definition of high magic settings and it had a wonderful pantheon as well. The issue with FR though is theres a lot of good, bad, and just meh bits. The setting doesnt really stand out as excellent IMO because of that. Ravenloft is the definition of horror games where the people or outsiders brought to Ravenloft via the mists experience what its like to live in  a truly evil world. Each doman is brought there and once existed in another world (For instance Sithicus (ruled over by Lord Soth) used to be part of krynn or the dragonlance setting). Ravenloft also brings secret societies to life which is a game aspect that often gets overlooked.

Finally, theres my favorite which is Dark Sun. To put it simply Dark sun is a Psychic wasteland. You need psychics to play in that world because everyone to some point is psychic. When magic is used in the world it robs the world of life energies and the wars between the Dragon kings of the past turned the entire world into a desert. Its a fantastic setting that I highly recomend looking into

Something else to consider, I would recomend checking out GOlarian, the setting made by Paizo publishing for Pathfinder. Its a very interesting mish mash and probably the most realistic setting Ive ever read

[Trieste]

It really seems to vary by group what the popular ones are. In my gaming group, we bounce around between sci-fi (most often Star Wars, last one I played was SAGA) and fantasy. The fantasy can be D&D default world (I've been told the name of the world many times, but I can never remember it. Forgotten Realms? Greyhawk? Argh!), or in Eberron. I personally really enjoyed the Eberron setting... I've played a few others, but they weren't my cup of tea. The thing is, though, that that's personal preference.

So, as I said, it really depends on your gaming group and who you play with.

[Ramael]

What is the D+D default world?

[Brandon]

For the 3.X versions the default world was Greyhawk. I stopped following D&D when Pathfinder came out but I've heard (and cant confirm) that with 4.0 they changed it to Ebberon

Problem is, I dont think Greyhawk stuff has been published since 2nd edition. So I always found playing in Greyhawk impossible since I could never find info for the setting that was affordable

[Ramael]

Isn't Greyhawk just a huge labyrinthine castle? (/sweepinggeneralisation)

[Brandon]

I do remember something about castle greyhawk having some kind of device in its depths that could imprison a god but beyond that I really dont know anything else except a few of the gods

After doing a quick websearch I could not find anything concrete besides a few maps. So once again it seems like the lack of information rears its head

[Xanatos]

Actually the default world is Forgotten Realms. Greyhawk is older and probably still played by the older more hardcore fans of D&D, but since 3.0, I have heard/seen nothing about Greyhawk (anything new anyways), all the effort went into Forgotten Realms, and for awhile went into Eberron, then back into Forgotten Realms. All of the Books, save for Dragonlance, are Forgotten Realms (I am not aware of any others if they exist). I don't know if Dragonlance has any new books written for it but Forgotten Realms has new books, monthly I would wager; I always see new ones whenever I visit Barnes and Nobles.

Its very safe to get into a Forgotten Realms game as most people now a days play in that world. You'll be hard pressed to find people who use Greyhawk (I have yet to meet anyone, or see any campaigns). Greyhawk was (to my knowledge) never converted into 3.5 or 4.0, thus few GM's are willing to put out the effort to try and translate the older material into 3.5/4.0.

Forgotten Realms is basically your stereotypical fantasy world, full of heroes and villains. Lots of races, lots of magic, lots of gods/goddesses, etc. Its user friendly, diverse, and engaging.

[Oniya]

Is there a default setting?  None of the campaigns I've ever been in have used any form of 'stock' setting, other than what the GM-at-the-time chose to put together.  Of course, the GMs in our group used to be repeat offenders, so we'd have, say, one character for Mike's world, one for Janet's, and one for Frank's.

[Kunoichi]

In 3.5, the 'default' in the books was technically Greyhawk, but only because that was where the deities outlined in the Player's Handbook were from.  For a while there they were also doing a 'Living Greyhawk' thing with the RPGA, but eventually that was left by the wayside.  In 4th edition, they've switched over to this sort of generic 'Points of Light' campaign setting that hasn't been outlined much.  Basically, since they've made prepping encounters and creating adventures a lot less work, they've left a lot more time to DMs to actually come up with their own worlds to mess around in.

Eberron tries to involve "Magitech" in the world which I always found annoying but beyond that I know next to nothing about the setting.

And I've always found people using 'Magitech' to describe Eberron to be annoying, especially when they know next to nothing about the setting.  It's a pulp adventure setting with focuses on action and intrigue, set in a world where the use of magic items has become fairly widespread, even if your average citizen isn't capable of performing any magic.  There are certain elements that could be considered magitech, but they're not the focus of the setting.

[Brandon]

And I've always found people using 'Magitech' to describe Eberron to be annoying, especially when they know next to nothing about the setting.  It's a pulp adventure setting with focuses on action and intrigue, set in a world where the use of magic items has become fairly widespread, even if your average citizen isn't capable of performing any magic.  There are certain elements that could be considered magitech, but they're not the focus of the setting.

True I dont know much about the setting but ever since I played an adventure where our party foiled a train robbery on those things (what are they called, lightning trains?) I have a hard time describing Ebberon as anything but a Magitech influenced world. I do admit this is probably due to the fact that I've only played two different games in Ebberon, both being surronded by Magitech elements

[Kunoichi]

True I dont know much about the setting but ever since I played an adventure where our party foiled a train robbery on those things (what are they called, lightning trains?) I have a hard time describing Ebberon as anything but a Magitech influenced world. I do admit this is probably due to the fact that I've only played two different games in Ebberon, both being surronded by Magitech elements

They're called the lightning rail, yes.  That said, that's pretty much the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that counts as Magitech in the setting.  What other magitech elements did you run into?

[GryphonCompanion]

Mmm, hi there ^_^

Greyhawk has always been the default setting for D&D, from its original days all the way through the latest (4th) edition. More appropriately, the default world is called Oerth, but the campaign itself it called Greyhawk.

Forgotten Realms is very popular (and my personal favorite). There are books from 2nd and 3.X editions. In 4th, they consolidated all the separate campaign settings into (for now) just a campaign setting and player's guide books. It is a very deity-centric world where the gods are extremely active and there are a large number of them. The world is known as Faerun.

Eberron has been around since 3.5, and in 4th is currently just two books, like Forgotten Realms. It is more of a mixture of pulp and high fantasy. It is a very intriguing world. Eberron is also the name of the world.

And the last one of the more popular ones is Dragonlance, which I seen you know about already. :)

There are also several other D&D worlds. Ravenloft, Kingdoms of Kalamar, Al-Qadim, Birthright, Dark Sun, Hollow World, Lankhmar, Mystara, Planescape and Spelljammer. Ravenloft existed from 1st to 3.x editions. Kingdoms of Kalamar is around now, starting back in 3rd. The rest were all 2nd edition games that have seen user support throughout the years of no huge publication. Ravenloft and Dark Sun will be making appearances in 4th edition later this year. :)

I hope this breakdown helps you a bit ^_^ If you have any other questions feel free to PM me :) As far as here on E, I honestly do not know what is popular and what isn't.

GC

[Brandon]

They're called the lightning rail, yes.  That said, that's pretty much the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that counts as Magitech in the setting.  What other magitech elements did you run into?

As I said, two adventures and one dealing with a lightning rail being robbed. The other one was surrounding a group of rebels in a city who were employing Power armor which were powered by spells. I dont recall what they were called but the city it revolved around was Farhaven or something like that. On top of that I find the warforge quite magitech as well, Im all for sentiant golems because they can make great story elements but an entire race of them is a bit much for me

[Kunoichi]

As I said, two adventures and one dealing with a lightning rail being robbed. The other one was surrounding a group of rebels in a city who were employing Power armor which were powered by spells. I dont recall what they were called but the city it revolved around was Farhaven or something like that. On top of that I find the warforge quite magitech as well, Im all for sentiant golems because they can make great story elements but an entire race of them is a bit much for me

*shrugs* Mass-produced sentient golems seem fine to me.  Especially since creating them required the use of what are basically major artifacts. (Creation Forges)

I can't say I've ever heard of that power armor powered by spells, though.  Maybe it's something that specific DM came up with on his own?

[Brandon]

Warforged creation still seems magitechy to me. I think the artifacts were more involved with breaking the natural order to give them free will.

As for the power armor story, I have no idea. Maybe its something in Ebberon, maybe its custom made, maybe its transported from another setting. I just know that and the train robbery both involved magitech elements and were both set in Ebberon.

[HairyHeretic]

I've played a lot in the Forgotten Realms, though I sort of lost track of the timeline advances during 3rd ed. I played Dragonlance a long time ago, and enjoy annoying people with my Kenders  ;D

Haven't really played in Greyhawk or Eberron, and I believe the next setting that is being focused on is Dark Sun.

[ZK]

The power armor bit was custom. There is no power armor in 3.X Eberron or 4.0 Eberron.

[Kunoichi]

Warforged creation still seems magitechy to me. I think the artifacts were more involved with breaking the natural order to give them free will.

*shrugs*

It sounds to me like you've just made an arbitrary association in your head, but I'm not going to try to debate the point.  Shall we agree to disagree?

[Brandon]

Sure, as I said it seems Magitechy to me. You're free to have a different opinion