Be it old or new, what is (at present) your preferred D&D/OSR-game setting?

Is this different than your all-time favorite?

The only OSR-anything I have is Dark Albion: The Rose War! So that is my favorite setting.

My favorite D&D setting has been and will always be Ravenloft.

I have always had a soft spot for the Known World/Mystara.

It can be schlocky, hacky, nonsensical, and sometimes very obviously made up of "we need an article/gazatteer to complete our release schedule, get someone to write up a location and a place to throw it," but at least it grew organically. Forgotten Realms or Eberron seem very designed. I kinda prefer the low budget Ren Faire feel where you can tell that the ale stand is a repurposed set piece from a dinner theater rendition of Camelot and King Oberron's outfit is half authentic 10th Century and half ebay make-do depending on his budget the year each piece was purchased.

Hyperborea, from Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, which should surprise no one here. I've posted about it in other threads and promote their Kickstarters in the News and Adverts forum.

Presentation-wise, I like that the author has not over-detailed the setting. There's plenty of room for me to expand while still having good information about the most notable physical, culture and historical features, but that information does not require tons of time to learn. Most features get just a few sentences, yet they all integrate together well to create an evocative picture and have great adventure hooks built into them that really inspire me to develop them my way.

Content-wise, I like that it's a pulpy vision of humans (no fantasy elfs, dwarves, hobbits, etc) surviving in a dying world against alien, elder, demonic, twisted, mutated or dead things (no dozens of colored dragons etc). The world exists as a flat slice of icey, mountainous land spinning through the void, hacked away from an ancient earth, with its surrounding ocean spilling into infinity. The bloated, dying red sun skirts the horizon, never fully setting or rising. A great plague wiped out almost everything 1,000 years ago and the surviving Amazons, Atlanteans, Esquimaux, Hyperboreans, Ixians, Kelts, Kimmerians, Picts and Vikings, among others, never really recovered, leaving plenty of creature-filled ruins to explore. The gods, drawn largely from Lovecraft, Howard and Smith, all seem vengeful or at best uncaring. Overall, it feels designed to be more episodic than epic, which I love, because I don't like epic high fantasy stuff. Go raid that lost tomb and raise enough money for one last great feast!

Honestly, I think the Gazetteer is worth the price of admission alone here. You could easily jettison the rules and use the world as a lost continent or pocket dimension anywhere. Plus, the new hardback book comes with an awesome, hand-drawn world map.

Probably Arduin... but sometimes Ravenloft.

For D&D, I love Planescape, Ravenloft and Dark Sun.

For OSR, I love Carcosa and Venger's Purple Haunted Putrescence
https://www.amazon.com/Islands-Purple-Haunted-Putrescence-Venger-Satanis/dp/1500121592

All-time favorite would be Greyhawk or Grey Box FR.  I could pick up and run a campaign in those tomorrow.  Current favorite is probably Hyperborea from AS&SH because, like the old Spelljammer, Planescape, or Ravenloft, it's an interstitial setting, something that can used to link different settings.

Sentimental favorite goes to The Scarred Lands.  It's D&D, but brings a more Mythic feel without being "too weird to live" or based on real world mythology.  I just love that setting but I need a system for it because I really can't stomach 3e anymore.

The known world. I've read a lot about it, however I've never actually gotten brave enough to run it .

Probably Planescape, specifically Sigil. For city based adventures, you have it all and the Planes too.

Quote from: cranebump;926715The known world. I've read a lot about it, however I've never actually gotten brave enough to run it .

Interesting choice of words. What exactly is giving you pause, if you don't mind my asking for details?

From the TSR era, well, the one I have actual experience with is Mystara/The Known World. I've considered setting games in both Greyhawk (1e, World of Greyhawk), Forgotten Realms (1e, gray box) and Dark Sun (original boxed set, pre-Prism Pentad), but I have yet to do it.

Tékumel is a long-time favorite, too, but one I don't quite associate with "OSR" systems-wise (partial to BRP and to Dave Morris' Tirikélu ruleset).

Not TSR, but does the Palladium Fantasy world count? (It damn well should.)

From the actual OSR, I'm a sucker for both The Auran Empire (from ACKS) and Hyperborea (from AS&SH, currently kickstarting a 2nd edition). Both draw heavily from classic S&S, with the first accommodating for D&D's sacred cows and the other slaughtering a few.

From assorted modules, Dwimmermount's surrounding sandbox is not too bad either, and Anomalous Subsurface Environment reads like an alternate universe Numenera (which it predates by what, five years?) that does not take itself seriously at all; less Gene Wolfe and more Thundarr the Barbarian (including a character class clearly patterned after Ookla the Mok). DCC #84's Purple Planet is a ton of fun but sadly written up as a detour from a "regular" campaign rather than a fully realized campaign setting.

Quote from: cranebump;926715The known world. I've read a lot about it, however I've never actually gotten brave enough to run it .

Do it piecemeal. Choose a patch of land, start the PCs there, expand upon the map as required. Mystara is like a pizza with a different topping on every slice, try to stuff it all in your mouth and you're gonna have a bad time.

Quote from: The Butcher;926748From the TSR era, well, the one I have actual experience with is Mystara/The Known World.

I like this setting as well. In fact when 5e came out I made this map for Mines of Phandelver. And then after buying the Mystara boxed set for 2e on eBay my players decided they wanted to play in FR. So then I made this map so I could have it all!

For more mundane games I am kind of fond of Gothic Earth from Masque of the Red Death. So I could run something in Victorian London or the Wild West and still run D&D. I blame the 1e DMG for having Boot Hill and Gamma World conversions.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;926736Interesting choice of words. What exactly is giving you pause, if you don't mind my asking for details?

Feeling confident enough to be consistent with the lore. I'm used to using maps and then winging details. But with KW, I'd want to be true to it. As I figure the world lore would be available to players, and I don't trust that I could run things on the fly without botching historical details. The short answer would be, I like to make things up as I go (within a loose framework) and this wouldn't play to my strength. I think I might suck at it.

If Ravenloft counts, then definitely that. I've also got a longstanding interest in the Known World.