Quote from: The Butcher;926748Do 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.

I'd have to, for sure. Maybe when I hard reboot--if we do. The current campaign is pretty immersive and developing so far.

Quote from: cranebump;926765Feeling 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.

I'd say just pick a place and focus on the lore for that region. With the first 5e game I ran, I had it set in Karakeikos. My resources were the old Gazeteer as well as the 2e boxed set. I made sure to be familiar with cities and towns, important NPCs and organizations as well as the people and their culture. Maybe read up on surrounding areas just to be passingly familiar with it. Odds are the characters are not going to be travelling more than 50 miles for the first little while, which gives you the opportunity to familiarize yourself with other places they may go to. Okay, that can be some work because players are unpredictable and may go anywhere. If they see the Princess Arc be prepared for them to attempt to steal it, and succeed.

Really though the best way to go is to keep it local. I used Karameikos because most of the B modules are set there. Running them through published adventures save you a lot of trouble to begin with, and if they're crawling around in a dungeon or keep then a political feud between rival Barons isn't something you need to worry about. Until one of them becomes a Baron and gets a rival.

Or you could have them go to exotic and isolated locations. Easiest way to do this is to put them on a ship. Have them fight pirates or be pirates and make sure they learn the hard way not to wear heavy armor. *sploosh*

It really depends on what your preference is. One of my old friends and DM liked mass combat and organized warfare, so I ended up playing a Thyatian Centurian. Heh, as I recall for one battle he used Seige of Jerusalem (Avalon Hill game similar to Squad Leader) to resolve it. That was fun, though normally we just used the War Machine. In fact his character in my Karameikos game was Thyatian.

Really though if you pick an area and just work on that odds are pretty good the characters won't wander too far astray. Your mileage may vary. A town like Verge or Threshold could work. Threshold is out of the way enough to be away from most civilization, but it's pretty much designed to be a jump point for adventures. Not to mention, there is a road that goes to Specularum, and the roads in Karameikos are really really nice so if you have to travel along a main road, travel will be quick.

Unless you have players who are Known World sages, I wouldn't worry about knowing the world. Remember in the old days, it was just the Known World, the default setting for D&D. Or run the B modules until you are comfortable enough to do your own thing.

OLD: Tekumel is the crown jewel, indisputably. I also dig the rangy Midwestern 70's geekery of Judges Guild's Wilderlands.

NEW: Carcosa. Vornheim. Planet Algol. Wermspittle.

Quote from: RPGPundit;926433Be 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 game line that I've picked up that has an inherent setting that might fit this definition of D&D is Scarlet Heroes.  Everything else that I got has nothing actively attached.

I have the various versions of Micro-Lite 74 and Swords and Wizardry, which I admit isn't a big list.

But I like the Scarlet Hero setting.

Definitely the Odd World of Into the Odd (with bits of Fallen London thrown in for good measure).

Old: Tekumel, Planescape, Dragon Warriors' Legend.
New: Red Tide setting, Zongor and Lankhmar if we don't consider the latter cheating, and if Goodman Games finish the work on the boxed set soon.

Only Tekumel is on the shortlist of my all-time favourites, while Zongor, Red Tide, Lankhmar and Planescape are on the expanded list.

Planescape and Dark Sun.

I was only thinking 'old'... if I pick from new stuff... it's probably the implied setting shared by the various LotFP modules, along with Corpathium from the Logan Knight's 'Last Gasp' blog.

I ran a group who were part of a corsair crew in an Al-Quadim game. Really fun setting, unfortunate name.

Oh, if we weren't talking about just the new stuff, then I'll pick Dark Sun, pre-2e reboot.

The only thing of Mystara I remember were the Dragon Mag stories detailing the The Voyages of The Princess Ark, or whatever it was called.  And seeing a couple of the Gazetteers in the various other issues from time to time.  Greyhawk never felt fully defined.  The Realms seemed to be a vehicle for characters that were too cool than any character any other table could create within the provided rules (which was pretty common back in that era, if I remember correctly.  WEG's Star Wars had some egregious examples as well.)

The Red Tide setting that Scarlet Heroes is up there, just not as high as Dark Sun.

Ravenloft and Known World.
I tend more towards real world period settings these days usually dipped with gothic horror and light magic, pretty much inspired by Ravenloft. Also homebrew Sword and Sorcery settings.
For pure old school DnDish fantasy though, definitely Known world.

Well, Greyhawk, of course.  I've got a fondness for small press stuff, so the weird Aztec setting from High Fantasy.  I'll give props to Wizard's Realm for the blank continent map with a single detailed town.  Cidri, oh, I know, Cidri was barely a setting but again I love the blank lines.  Ralph, Khoset and Kazan, of course, nothing says gonzo like a dragon shaped continent.  Never had much setting material, just solitaire adventure stuff like City of Terrors and The Naked Doom with their mad lord and gladiatorial pits.  Traveller's Third Imperium.  Gamma World.  I'll put the Caithness of Steve Jackson's Orkslayer in.  Sure Yrth is more of a modern setting but Orkslayer?  You live in the peacable kingdom of goodness where even a woman can be a knight when suddenly ORKS ATTACK!

But then I read the title again and realized it's OSR stuff not old school stuff.

If we're including old stuff, then Greyhawk folio/box. Love it!

Quote from: Christopher Brady;926961The Realms seemed to be a vehicle for characters that were too cool than any character any other table could create within the provided rules (which was pretty common back in that era, if I remember correctly.  WEG's Star Wars had some egregious examples as well.)

I think WEG SW played by the rules for NPCs, but you'd have to be playing the rest of your life to approach the xp totals of even minor movie characters. And giving them skills they never showed on screen. Mon Mothma had points in speeder bike operation, despite her not even being in the Endor-bearing movie.

The Realms certainly broke the rules. Elminster I guess was just a dual class fighter-->MU, but then that favored of Mystra thing. Um, okay. Why should I play in this world if these guys are tromping around?

For new stuff- Hyperborea by far.  

For old stuff- Forgotten Realms 1st ed gray box.