Homebrew vs. official D&D campaign settings

Dr Zaius

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Which campaign setting do you prefer? The one I am most familiar with is Forgotten Realms, but I also read a little bit about Greyhawk a long time ago. I'm hearing about a new one called Eberron, but I don't know anything about it. Has anyone played in that one or know how it differs from FR?

There also used to be a setting for Ravenloft and Dark Sun, however, those may have fallen by the wayside over the years.
 

Aries

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FR in spades, it has it all. But I have never had the real interest in leaving Fearun.
Maztica was just to out of my reach and Kara Tur I find hard to get gamers that can relate to the orient.

Planescape has some attraction, but, I have nearly zero interest in Dark Sun.

My fav locale is Waterdeep.

I have a good DM friend who is fond of Greyhawk though.
 

Dr Zaius

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Wow, I forgot all about Kara Tur. I guess it has been a long time since I heard anything about it, so I didn't even think about it. I'm not sure this one was ever really that popular except with a very small core of dedicated fans, but I could be wrong about that.
 

Aries

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Hard to say sales of Legend of the 5 Rings rolegaming books has always been very successful.

Then again, it's based off the second best card game after Magic The Gathering.
 

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Because I piece together what I want in my world I don't have one setting as such but I do include the Forgotten Realms material.

I started my players around the City of Waterdeep: which in my altered earth world replaces Lisbon, Portugal. The City of Lankmar system (Fafrad & Grey Mouser stories) anchors the eastern end at what would be the Suez Canal area. The City of Blackmoor holds the north at @Danzig. The south is all unknown except for strange humanoid-feline people & elvish jungles. Central world at @Munich Germany I have a city based on a AH wargame "Caesar’s Alesia." I took that map & made the forts around it castles which protect the open "UN" type city. Scattered in between are adventures & towns from every other system.

The players enjoyed Waterdeep the most & made it their home base. A ancient portal dicovered in NW "Spain" allows them transport to Middle Earth, near Bree, post Sauron.
 

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The biggest differences between Greyhawk, FR, and Ebronn is the amount of magic in the world. Magic is quite rare (by D&D standards) in Greyhawk, commonplace in FR, and taken for granted in Ebronn. Ebronn is VERY magic heavy with streets being lit by permancy continual lights, dock cranes working thru levitation, and low level characters having +1 and +2 weapons. Personally, like Planatir, I had created my own world using many different game systems for reference material and the level of magic fell inbetween Greyhawk and FR. IMO, Ebronn is just another product of 3.5 Ed.
 

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I like the feel of the FR- Waterdeep setting but, it's to "top-heavy" for me. The abundance of high level NPC's in one city makes one wonder why they all weren't out ruling their own kingdoms.

I run a fairly middle lvl world, at 7th lvl you're getting going & by 12th level you're a nice force on your own. By 16-18th you should be looking to rule "something." At 20th you run small kingdoms after that the amount of "power" you can draw from the world is limited and the "mana" users move on to new dimensions/worlds to keep advancing.

"Magic" itself is limited overall so any items gained have to be hunted down & taken/recovered. The number of Mages / spell casters is low as well.
 

freightshaker

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Palantir said:
"Magic" itself is limited overall so any items gained have to be hunted down & taken/recovered. The number of Mages / spell casters is low as well.
That's the way I like it. Once magic becomes too commonplace it ceases to really be magic and is more just the norm. I'll have to dig thru my old Dragon magazines and find the article about the intergalactic dragon that seeks out magic heavy worlds and devours them. It's quite good. "The first indication your world is about to be devoured is as you stand atop your +20 Adamite castle walls, adorned in your +15 Holy Plate Mail Armor, the sun dissappears..."
 

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I like a world not unlike Terry Brooks Sword of Shanara series. Sure you have dwarves and elves, but I try to get away from the cliche variant of the demi human races.

Economy in my game. I loathe games where a beer costs x gold pieces. Man, if I could get gold for beer, do you think I would be out in the dark, risking death, when I could be selling beer!?

My entire world is based on a common schmucks wages per month. Thus, your treasure is a reflection of this, and the cost of everything makes some sort of sense.

I usually like to game on earth. Not OUR earth, I just shamelessly use all my atlases so I don't have to draw anything hehe. "Let's see, the ranger said the fortress is a days walk north of Toronto". As you can see, I don't have to go into a lot of detail explaining the terrain :)
 

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You almost have to base an economy on the common wage if you want any sort of realism to flow behind your fantasy world. I agree that if a beer cost a gold no one would risk wandering around in a dungeon.

I base mine on the cost of a chicken. If the "average" family can't afford to eat / have a chicken then the population would be in constant revolt.

That cost then sets the common weekly/monthly wage earned in that area, which sets housing costs, building & labor costs, ship-building & shipping costs, overland stage costs etc all the way up to the passage fair on "air-ships" and hippogriff transport. (All of this "background" is mostly hidden from the players so all they have to contend with is surviving.)

"Magic" value in all it's forms however is in it's own catagory outside of the entire common economy. It's expensive as heck which drains the banks of the PC's or else they'd be buying up entire villages/towns.

All that "background" allows me to know the value of buildings & the cost per foot to build in a town or city. Which came in handy as my current group of players pooled their money to buy a villa in Waterdeep. Then for their help in locating/exposing & breaking up a syndicate controlling the flow of food & trying to starve out the city (coupled with exposing the citizens to a pestilence) they were awarded (because they gained almost no treasure in that adventure) an Inn, warehouse & small merchant ship.

With those "awards" (coupled with their word to keep their mouths shut about the entire episode) I opened up at least 5 new adventure arc's for them. 1. Running the inn, 2. Smugglers around the warehouse 3. New travels in their ship 4. The surviving syndicate members now have bounties on their heads 5. The "city" has a new group of adventure's at their disposal.

And all because my world economy background is based on a chicken! :clown:
 

Whizbang1963

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Don Maddox said:
Which campaign setting do you prefer? The one I am most familiar with is Forgotten Realms, but I also read a little bit about Greyhawk a long time ago. I'm hearing about a new one called Eberron, but I don't know anything about it. Has anyone played in that one or know how it differs from FR?

There also used to be a setting for Ravenloft and Dark Sun, however, those may have fallen by the wayside over the years.
Has to be Forgotten Realms...mostly because there is so much well developed material available. Of course you have to balance that with how much of your own world will you use to modify the realms to suit your players and campaign?

I prefer to have players in the more unknown regions where there has not been all that much published so that I don't have to listen to "but in the books (insert FR novel title here) it says"

Want places like Waterdeep to be available so I can use them to my advantage, but don't want them to be the core of the campaign...
 

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Harn. Nice maps. Early medieval tech (chain and plate, no field / full plate), feudal economics with earls and barons, early guild organization, little magic. I do not use the Earthmaster history and the monsters (Gargun, Ilme, Ivashu, etc.) as presented.

I do add more magic but not like Forgotten Realms where cities are lit by post mounted continual light orbs. I substitute normal AD&D monsters. I adjust the deities and religions to conform to AD&D rules. The setting is not as popular as FR, Greyhawk, etc. but that means there is less player knowledge to metagame the setting.
 

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I bought the Port of Aleath pdf and used the copy feature and enlarged the city map to key the buildings. Took it to a printer who printed in on a 32" x 32" vinyl back (similar to the square grid / hex grid, wet/dry erase play sheets) for city adventures. I have what business is located in each building and am working on owner names, shop names, etc. right now. Hope to have it ready by fall.

Edit: Removed the pic.
 
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RandyT0001

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I have five regular players and two intermittent players for a 2E game Sunday afternoons into evenings. Male Halfling F/T Cartographer, Female Elven Ranger, Female Human Thief Acrobat, Male Dwarf F/C, Male 1/2 Elf Druid, Female 1/2 Elf Mage, and Male Human Fighter (gender is indicative of player and their character). Another person might play a human cleric or mage. Story arcs involve the thieves guild, an ancient prophecy, and a king's unacknowledged bastard son. There is a lost buried temple just outside the city. Two adventures are located in the city sewers, Skulks and Wererats. With 36 story plots and details like this:

I doubt I will run out of adventures for them.

Edit: Removed the pic.
 
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Dr Zaius

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I'm not currently a member of any RPG group. But I have a friend who is a DM, so I get regular updates and get to live vicariously through his campaign. :love:
 

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I just started a new campaign game. We've had two sessions so far and things have been going great.
I use my own homebrew world which draws bits here and there from every source I find interesting along with a ton of my stuff thrown in.
We had a session 0 to start, where discussions were had as to what everyone's goals and desires were for the game. I gave the players a questionnaire which gave me the information necessary to incorporate the background they gave me into my world. The players were given a brief outline of game rules and world background to go along with the questionnaire.

Once I had their inputs, I wrote up a background incorporating the character's knowledge that included a few contacts and details of the area in which they would start and likely remain for at least a dozen or so sessions.
The attached files are the backgrounds the players were given at first level. I haven't edited these so there are typos and grammar errors, but the gist of the thing is discernable.
 

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timelegend

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I mix original D&D with RPG on line and some Warhammer. My style of DM is keep it simple and flowing so eliminate a lot of in depth RPG no demons, no super monsters, no psi rays, no outrages weird monsters, no flying machines or other big weapons. Play Elves, Dwarfs, Humans, and halflings.
Other races as monsters Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Snotlings, Skeletons, Were creatures, Mummy's, NPC, I use simple spells, nothing elaborate. I replace the stuff I eliminate with realism and intelligent problem solving and interacting notes and behavior at the game table is counted as part of the adventure if someone is doing something stupid during play I incorporate that into the game which can cause problems for the rest of the adventures. No large elaborate treasures, or fast pace up the level ladder its hard to get to the next level. The players goal is to establish a home, an Army and go adventuring.
 

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You almost have to base an economy on the common wage if you want any sort of realism to flow behind your fantasy world. I agree that if a beer cost a gold no one would risk wandering around in a dungeon.

I base mine on the cost of a chicken. If the "average" family can't afford to eat / have a chicken then the population would be in constant revolt.

That cost then sets the common weekly/monthly wage earned in that area, which sets housing costs, building & labor costs, ship-building & shipping costs, overland stage costs etc all the way up to the passage fair on "air-ships" and hippogriff transport. (All of this "background" is mostly hidden from the players so all they have to contend with is surviving.)

"Magic" value in all it's forms however is in it's own catagory outside of the entire common economy. It's expensive as heck which drains the banks of the PC's or else they'd be buying up entire villages/towns.

All that "background" allows me to know the value of buildings & the cost per foot to build in a town or city. Which came in handy as my current group of players pooled their money to buy a villa in Waterdeep. Then for their help in locating/exposing & breaking up a syndicate controlling the flow of food & trying to starve out the city (coupled with exposing the citizens to a pestilence) they were awarded (because they gained almost no treasure in that adventure) an Inn, warehouse & small merchant ship.

With those "awards" (coupled with their word to keep their mouths shut about the entire episode) I opened up at least 5 new adventure arc's for them. 1. Running the inn, 2. Smugglers around the warehouse 3. New travels in their ship 4. The surviving syndicate members now have bounties on their heads 5. The "city" has a new group of adventure's at their disposal.

And all because my world economy background is based on a chicken! ?
Never kill chickens in FR, one is a chromatic dragon.
 
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