Quote from: cranebump;932140Eberron. Warforged and lightning trains. :-/

Same!
I really tried to get into the setting because my friend ran the crap out of it, but there was still a lot of crap in it.
I just could not get into Eberron. I thought it was dumb and took me right out.

Quote from: RPGPundit;941704The only good part of Dragonlance was Taladas.

Taladas was my favourite part of DL and was created by the underrated David 'Zeb' Cook, who wrote a number of my favourite early modules (Isle of Dread, Dwellers of the Forbidden City).

DL gets a lot of flack these days as everyone remembers how rail roady Dragons of Despair was but going back and re-reading you'll find by the mid-point they've changed their approach and PCs and NPCs can die at anytime, major battles can be lost, etc.

More importantly Dragonlance Adventures I think is full of good, distinct setting material. I particularly like the approach to magic with the white, red and black orders, relationship to the moon cycles, etc.

I think the endless series of novels and nerds obsessing about making their play at the table agreeing with nonsense ideas like 'canon' hurt the setting more than the actual content produced for it.

In terms of Planescape, obviously the suits at TSR loosened up about the use of devils and demons as a lot of the setting was about the Bloodwar. City of Dis by Steve Perrin is a pretty good module based around that setting.

FR was ironically the weakest setting in 2e D&D but also the most popular. There is some gold in the mountain of material produced for it though, the Skullport supplement for instance is wonderfully imaginative and packed with adventure hooks. Highly recommend it for use in any homebrew as it can be pretty easily dropped anywhere.

I mostly just make up my own settings, but...

Forgotten Realms: Land of the Mary Sues.  I hate that shit.  Anything important has and will be done by an in canon character.  Don't bother trying to be the greatest wizard in the land, you will NEVER top Elminster because Word of God says so.

Eberron: this one pisses me off, because WotC announces this big contest where they say anyone can enter to determine what the new setting will be, and they get all these people to send in ideas (which WotC now owns), and then they announce that the winner is someone who works for the company!  The way they dealt with that pisses me off.  (I will admit that much of what I HAVE read is of the setting does interest me, and that just pisses me off even more.)

Dragonlance:  This one gets a pass from me.  My original D&D group, one of the few non-dysfunctional groups I've been a part of, had a guy in it who was dyslexic, was in high school, but couldn't read past the third grade level when we started playing D&D.  After a session he said that it was a lot of fun, and was looking for something to read that was of the same spirit as the game.  I lent him the Dragons of Autumn Twilight.  Last I heard he had gotten a PhD in comparative literature.

Ghostwalk: they only did ONE book!  BASTARDS!

Quote from: remial;943373I mostly just make up my own settings, but...

Forgotten Realms: Land of the Mary Sues.  I hate that shit.  Anything important has and will be done by an in canon character.  Don't bother trying to be the greatest wizard in the land, you will NEVER top Elminster because Word of God says so.

Mary Sue WIZARDS you'll find anyone that was a true world shaker, and not part of the Drizzle's circle of friends (and even they've all done relatively minor things compared to being accepted into being a Gods 'Chosen'), has been an 'arcane' magic user, first and foremost.  The 'Seven Sisters', Khelben Blackstaff, the aforementioned Elmunchkin, any time an 'important' character came up in the Realms it's been a Wizard.

Forgotten Realms during 2ed era. Im not very keen on 1ed FR either but it had a certain charm despite the Fantasy-Fucking-Cosmopolitan-Capitalist-Hippie-Village vibe I get from it. The 2ed FR supplements was at large so boring I dont know what bad I should say about ut since it was so forgettable( I am sure thet there were at least some diamond amongst the dust somewhere) . I have no love for its sub-setings like Maztica or Kara-Thur either. Baldurs Gate CRPG is very dear to me but not that iteration of the realms in which it is set. 3ed era FR was not much better either.

Another would maybe be Spelljammer. I like the concept. But the setting and modules just fell flat after reading it.


Dark Sun. Really awesome illustrations on the covers. Text never lived up to them. I think this might as well had been its own game rather than an AD&D title.

Greyhawk 1ed/2ed. "The Narevhionoghptruorthn-what did you say Gary?". Dry and not very exciting to read. Sure it have all those old classic adventure modules set there but I am not talking about those.;

Quote from: Christopher Brady;943379Mary Sue WIZARDS you'll find anyone that was a true world shaker, and not part of the Drizzle's circle of friends (and even they've all done relatively minor things compared to being accepted into being a Gods 'Chosen'), has been an 'arcane' magic user, first and foremost.  The 'Seven Sisters', Khelben Blackstaff, the aforementioned Elmunchkin, any time an 'important' character came up in the Realms it's been a Wizard.

Thats actually part of Greenwoods "point" to the Realms. To take down several pegs the idea that the PCs are the center of the universe. In FR they arent. Theres a couple of other concepts he likes to use too.

Quote from: Omega;943699Thats actually part of Greenwoods "point" to the Realms. To take down several pegs the idea that the PCs are the center of the universe. In FR they arent. Theres a couple of other concepts he likes to use too.

That would be far more convincing if Elminster weren't basically the ultimate DM player character.  (With Mr. Greenwood being the DM and Eliminster his character).

Quote from: JeremyR;943707That would be far more convincing if Elminster weren't basically the ultimate DM player character.  (With Mr. Greenwood being the DM and Eliminster his character).

I remember reading a Greenwood interview in which he admitted he used Elminster in his home games as a Deus ex machina to save PCs from certain death and/or reveal secret passages in the dungeon.

I ain't protesting because it's his home game but that is lame as fuck.

I remember my first MERP game, where we were tasked with looting the Barrow Downs by Gandalf! He hung around outside for us to come back when we were too badly injured to continue and cast his high-level healing spells on us before we went back in again. We were 1st level characters going up against Barrow Wights! Any MERP aficionados can tell you that is death-wish stuff.

Didn't put us off Middle Earth though. From then on we ignored all the NPCs in the setting (unless we sought them out) and did our own thing - they never entered our orbit. The exact same thing is easy to do in FR or any other setting. Which is why i always dismiss setting NPCs as a reason to dislike a setting. Yank 'em out, ignore 'em, kill them when you reach their level, don't talk about them, remove them from your game. Whatever.

If you've got cannon nazis in your group who complain about that not being canon, get a new group or tell them to grow the fuck up.

You know, the Forgotten Realms Campaign box set (the gray one) tricked me a bit.  Looking at the subdued cover of a brooding plains warrior astride a wild horse against a cold and dreary backdrop....  hiding the fact that the realms is this wa-hoo wild and wooly batshit place of super magic.

Quote from: RunningLaser;943719You know, the Forgotten Realms Campaign box set (the gray one) tricked me a bit.  Looking at the subdued cover of a brooding plains warrior astride a wild horse against a cold and dreary backdrop....  hiding the fact that the realms is this wa-hoo wild and wooly batshit place of super magic.

Ive never seen the original set. But wasnt it actually alot more subdued than everything that came after?

Dragonlance.  God, I hated that setting.

OT question: Am I wrong for loving Spelljammer?





Because I love Spelljammer.

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

Be careful.

I only started liking Dragonlance to be a contrarian among my group and overtime my faux-like became a genuine fondness to the point it's my favorite D&D setting now.

Quote from: noman;943998OT question: Am I wrong for loving Spelljammer?





Because I love Spelljammer.

Nothing.  One man's hate is another's love.

Quote from: noman;943998OT question: Am I wrong for loving Spelljammer?

Because I love Spelljammer.

Im in an ongoing one thats been running since 2008, but didnt actually hit the Spelljammer part till 2009. So about 8 years now of weekly sessions.