The rules: It has to be a published setting, for D&D (any edition) or a published OSR/3rd-party-D&D setting.

It also must be a setting you actually either played in or DMed, not just read.

Which one did you have an actual experience of attempting and found the worst?

Quote from: RPGPundit;932099The rules: It has to be a published setting, for D&D (any edition) or a published OSR/3rd-party-D&D setting.

It also must be a setting you actually either played in or DMed, not just read.

Which one did you have an actual experience of attempting and found the worst?

Forgotten Realms (fused with Spelljammer)

The setting itself didn't bother me as much as the people I was playing with. I mean, I was a That Guy, but these were some Thooose Guys.

The Spelljammer parts were kind of fun (or, at least looking at the books was fun) but I didn't care for the Forgotten Realms part.
It was weirdly inspired by real-world cultures and history, but also weirdly divorced from reality.
It also weirdly kitchen-sink, but also weirdly specific about what was not allowed.
It had a lore that was incredibly dense, but at the same time very shallow.
Felt like a theme park.

Pathfinder: For some reason it totally disinterests me. Theres elements that seem interesting. But Pazio has this freakish knack for somehow presenting those elements in the least interesting ways.

Dark Sun: Didnt like the art. Setting at first seemed interesting. Then just seemed to fall apart. Players liked the new races and seemed to like the setting. Then the high end lethality set in and it became a slog in the sand.

Dragonlance: Much like Dark Sun. DMed this. Players seemed ok with it.

Kara-tur and Al-Quadim: I love the OA book itself. But the Kara-tur setting was so bleah in actual play. And not really sure what about Al-Quadim bugged me. But its really low on my interest list.

Hollow World: Looked good on paper. But just fell flat at the table. Also was never fond of Mystarra. I'll stick to good-ol BX Karameikos. Some of the gazeteers though had some interesting elements at least.

Forgotten Realms: Started off simple enough. But rapidly became so overblown that its become low on my interest list to GM or play in.

White Wolf's version of Masque of the Red Death: I really like the details given for the period. But WW's spin on the setting seemed too bleak and the new monsters too samey and unimaginative for some reason.

World of Greyhawk.

I only used two published settings in actual play, Greyhawk and Dragonlance.

Darlene's beautiful map aside, Gygax had no ear for names, and the funny, parodistic names (of everything, from countries to gods) made identification difficult. They seemed to signal "don't take anything serious" to the players.

DL worked a lot better, thanks to a massive buy-in from the players.

Never cared for Spelljammer. No vitriol, just wasn't my thing.

Birthright, just...  Not for me.

I cultivate an exaggerated dislike of Dragonlance for the entertainment of the DL-loving crew in my group.

But despite the novels being utter, festering crap, I actually think the setting is decent and serviceable. Except for kenders, of course. Fuck these guys. And gully dwarves too, while we're at it.

One of these days I swear I'll run my "grimdark Dragonlance" campaign.

Dark Sun. The first of the lets ramp up character power versions of d&d, long before 4e and 5e came along. We played a few sessions of it as 'starting' characters and it just felt wrong.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;932111World of Greyhawk.

I only used two published settings in actual play, Greyhawk and Dragonlance.

Darlene's beautiful map aside, Gygax had no ear for names, and the funny, parodistic names (of everything, from countries to gods) made identification difficult. They seemed to signal "don't take anything serious" to the players.

DL worked a lot better, thanks to a massive buy-in from the players.

Im the opposite with Greyhawk. I like the names of the countries and lands. Whereas I find Forgotten Realms naming to be way too simplistic word+word naming for 90% of the locales.

Eberron. Warforged and lightning trains. :-/

Quote from: The Butcher;932127I cultivate an exaggerated dislike of Dragonlance for the entertainment of the DL-loving crew in my group.

But despite the novels being utter, festering crap, I actually think the setting is decent and serviceable. Except for kenders, of course. Fuck these guys. And gully dwarves too, while we're at it.

One of these days I swear I'll run my "grimdark Dragonlance" campaign.

I liked the original first 6 books. One of my players read the new retelling of those books and ever after hated the setting as apparently it kills off alot of the main characters. Personally I got tired of the "Cataclysm Reset" happening over and over and the bleak tone of one of the books I picked up.

The Forgettable Realms for me. Warmed over European history, and it just felt like I could do just as well on my own.

the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance. FR is just a mess with novel bloat and the "world changing events" every year ruined the setting. I also think it shouldn't be the default setting to D&D.

I'm gonna say Spelljammer.

Now, I like the idea of Spelljammer, but I find in play that the setting is just too silly-gonzo. If I wanted to make Giant Space Hamster jokes, or put in an elven Guyver fighting Tinker Gnomes, I'd go ahead and play Toon.

Not that a Spelljammer campaign can't be cool. But I have to ignore a lot of stupid setting stuff to get there.

Quote from: The Butcher;932127But despite the novels being utter, festering crap, I actually think the setting is decent and serviceable. Except for kenders, of course. Fuck these guys. And gully dwarves too, while we're at it.

One of these days I swear I'll run my "grimdark Dragonlance" campaign.

If you ever do, ask me about my Anti-Canon. Cam Banks once called it "incredibly depressing and grim ... perfect for a Warhammer FRP campaign."