heh I can see how it might not be a problem for the DM (and I agree with your viewpoint). But I can see it messing with the suspension of disbelief for some players who really like to read the novels.
That’s another advantage to using original settings. There ain’t no novels to worry about
And let me drop another plug for Dungeon Magazine, if it still exists. My group eventually got to the point that everyone was DMing a game…we’d run one campaign for several sessions, and then let another person run a different game for a few sessions. This allowed us to almost always have a game ready to run, but still give the DMs time to do “housekeeping” stuff without also having to prepare somethng for the players for a few sessions. We would get the magazine, and each DM could claim one of the modules for his world, usually based on the level range suggested for the module. We had a gentleman’s agreement not to read or run modules claimed by another DM until after it was gamed fair and square for our group.
It’s been some time since I’ve done any gaming, but I still occasionally purchase some product that catches my eye (spend money on gaming without actually gaming? --why no, not crazy at all). A while ago at a used bookstore I ran across a crate of relatively new-looking supplements for a D20 setting. The top book looked mildly interesting-- Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers, for the **Scarred Lands ** campaign setting. Everything was half off cover price, so I decided to pick it up. A couple days later I went back and bought up the entire contents of the crate.
Something about the **Scarred Lands ** just tickled my fancy for some reason. It’s a fairly conventional milieu as such things go; various societies struggle to rebuild in the wake of a divine war, etc. etc. One amusing wrinkle is that the carcasses of the defeated titans are still lying around poisoning the earth, causing mutated races to spring up overnight. Also, arcane magic produces heat as a side effect, so wizards and sorcerers have to be mostly naked to avoid heatstroke when casting spells. While gratuitous nudity is not unknown in the artwork of other fantasy RPG settings, few actually go to the trouble to build it into the game mechanics.
Anyhoo. After allowing myself to get all jazzed up about Scarred Lands, I was suddenly distracted by a little voice that said, “Hmmm… now why do you suppose a big pile of fairly new d20 game materials would be sitting in the half-off box at a used bookstore?” So I checked, and sure enough, the **Scarred Lands ** setting had ceased to be… rung down the curtain, joined the choir invisible; this is an ex-game setting. Ah, well. Anyway, I’ve been picking up the various supplements when I run across them, just for the hell of it, and by now I think I have a mostly complete set. They also managed to publish one trilogy, penned by Richard Lee Byers; not a bad read as gamer fiction goes.
Thus ends my belated panegyric for the Scarred Lands game setting. Hollowfaust, we hardly knew ye. (You really deserved a better map, too.)
Well, this is relevant, I think. Over on the D&D boards, in a thread titled “1001 tips for newbies to Eberron”, somebody said this:
“206) Reading all the sourcebooks and novels will also not help you in any way. There exists an official Eberron in theory only (never in fact). If the setting hasn’t evolved away from the books within one year of game time, the DM isn’t doing his job.”
My first and only love is Ravenloft. I love the feel of the setting, the way it gives a new spin to the usual fantasy D&D. (nothing wrong with that, but eventually I craved something different). I admire the other way out there ones like Dark Sun and Planescape, but something about adding gothic horror to fantasy just works for me. And on the whole it seems to me that the Ravenloft modules, books, etc. make much more sense as far as NPC motivations and adventure goals. Yes, there are some Ravenloft duds, and I’m sure there are great products in the other lines, but despite all the weirdness of the mists and darklords and such, Ravenloft just feels more viscerally real to me. The NPCs have lives and goals and grow and change over time. The stories are compelling. The grounding of the cultures in real world analogues gives a deeper connection to each one.
I dunno, I could just keep expounding, but that’s the gist of it. I like it. Of course, the trouble is you need a good DM who really understands the place and doesn’t just use it as a PC meat grinder…
Phase42, if you take a closer look, you’ll find I’ve posted to that thread.
Ha!
Between my five-person high school gaming circle of friends, we owned virtually all AD&D 2nd edition sourcebooks in existance between the years 1989-1993 (the fact that I worked at a bookstore and got 40% off purchases for myself and my friends [plus first dibs on new shipments, and the ability to special order] helped quite a bit). We took turns DMing campaigns, and after sampling each setting at least once or twice, I decided my campaigns would always be custom settings. While a lot of them were very rich and fascinating, eventually everybody would know the lore and mechanics, and it became incredibly difficult (and/or time-consuming) to separate in-character knowledge from out-of-character knowledge. So to answer the OP, my favorite setting is one I created based off of ancient Greek mythology and politics (lots of intrigue, sprawling metropolitan cities that were shiny to see but rotting from within, far-out magical locations of interest, etc). I allowed almost anything that could be found in any of the many 2nd-ed sourcebooks we had access to, as long as the players could justify its existance in my game world. In this way, the players were also able to contribute to the lore and geography of the world.
We made our own. Lilbro still has the maps.
We once had some success with a campaign world based on late 19th-century Earth. Geography and politics was more or less the same, but the inhabitants were a little different. France was about half Elven since the Revolution (and had more half-elves per head of population than anywhere else in the world); England was mostly human but with enough of a mixture of other races that it was nothing out of the ordinary to see any particular kind of demi-human in a short stroll in a bustling metropolis; Ireland was heavy on “little people”, Germany was largely populated by dwarves, gnomes were principally found in the Low Countries and Switzerland (Gnomes of Zurich, obviously), and so on.
There were railways, but they worked by magic; ocean liners; foreign colonies… much the background you’d expect in a 19th century novel, but all slightly different.
I dislike non-original settings. They just seem like someone else’s ego trip. D&D is about creativity for me so I think it is pretty lazy for a DM to not invent their world.
you’re worried about the suspencion of disbelief abilities of a group of people sat around believing they are elves and dwarves and stuff?
by-tor, when I was in high school and shortly thereafter I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you.
Today, however, finishing a degree, work and kids take their toll on my free time. It takes a good hour or two of planning for each session of the game I’m running as it is and I set it in the Realms because everybody knows it and all the relevant info is available (that and I spun a campaign out of a one-shot).
That sounds really interesting. I have done Mediterranean Campaigns in Greek Times and my current campaign includes magical technologies and lots of clockwork tech. Magically powered mine carts, magical power forges and volcanic smelters. There is even a magical dirigible.
Jim
I used a ton of AD&D stuff, ran through the giant and drow modules but then when Forgotten Realms came out originally it was also AD&D so I picked up the box set. from then on we ran custom campains based on the FR world. the group attempted a coup on a small kingdom that ran into stalemate and the last time we played they were trying to clear out a very old very well defended fortress deep in the woods of someplace. this after they came to FR from another universe/world. ( I just decided it would be easiest and create some new ways to go if they left their old world where everyone knew of them)
I once ran a trad AD&D game, set in a subarctic/arctic environment.
Harsh weather & strange terrain really changed the dynamic of the game.
Both Dragon and Dungeon magazines are still published, but they’ve been outsourced to Paizo. Dungeon’s been running Adventure Paths - essentially ready-made campaigns - for the past couple of years.
I’m DMing an Age of Worms campaign right now
On the money there… Using an existing setting frees up a lot of prep time. Even using the Ravenloft Setting, I do a heck of a lot of work before each session. I can’t imagine how much more I’d have to do if I didn’t have a pre-made backdrop to work from.
Not everyone should be writing their own worlds. I’ve seen dozens of custom worlds, and can count on one hand how many that were any good. It’s way too easy to make a one off (its like X but with Y) or a one shot (this world has X, but thats pretty much it) or just something so wierd it doesnt feel right to play it (in my world everyone is a vampire except cows, which are all holy). I’ve tried to make an original custom world in the past, and realized how hard it really is. It isn’t something you do on a whim.