Best settings for “vanilla” D&Desque fantasy

[Mankcam]

I personally find the reprints lack the charm of the originals and as a Font Nazis find the reformatting disappointing.

Just ordered this. If you keep your eyes peeled online you can snag good copies for a reasonable price.

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Nice find! Yep they did have a charm to them.
They also just felt so handy - my mate used to bring AFF Dungeoneer and AFF Titan to school in his bag, it was a good size.
I would love to see them reprinted in a small hardcover digest format (like Evil Hat books - see Fate Core, Blades In The Dark, etc).
A good homage to the original paperback novel size, yet feeling refreshed and better produced at the same time.

 

[Voros]

Excellent idea. Something along the lines of the 1e or WEG SW reprints would be awesome.

 

[Sloth_in_a_bowl]

Mystara is a solid place for classic fantasy as each Kingdom has a theme that contrasts yet vibes from a fantasy or historical trope. The Viking country the Arabia country the elf forests etc.
It is easy for the GM to pick and choose which of these places to include or ignore based on their personal tastes.

Titan is good but, from the main book it is a lot more empty and would require a lot more work from the GM to flesh out. The only exception to this is Blacksand that has an excellent book of its own.

Both are what I would term as 80's gonzo fantasy where setting elements will jar if you try to define them with real world history/ geography, etc. I handwave this by saying that as the world is basically a massive ball of magical rock then stuff happens and be thankful that even basic physics is surviving in some form.

 

[TJS]

It's funny. When I was a teenager Titan seemed absolutely stuffed full of detail.

 

[Johndesmarais]

It's funny. When I was a teenager Titan seemed absolutely stuffed full of detail.

I suspect that, like many of us, when you were young your imagination more easily ran free and added to what was there.

 

[Fenris-77]

I like Midgard from Kobold Press a lot. Pretty standard D&D, but with enough twists to keep it fresh. It also has a great urban sandbox, and a lot of different and flavorful kingdoms. I find it a lot more engaging than the FR or Greyhawk. It also has a metric shit ton of support, so that's good too.

 

[Ladybird]

Nice find! Yep they did have a charm to them.
They also just felt so handy - my mate used to bring AFF Dungeoneer and AFF Titan to school in his bag, it was a good size.
I would love to see them reprinted in a small hardcover digest format (like Evil Hat books - see Fate Core, Blades In The Dark, etc).
A good homage to the original paperback novel size, yet feeling refreshed and better produced at the same time.

I do prefer the mechanical improvements in 2e, though; I think spellcasting works better as it's own attribute, the alternate magical traditions all feel more distinct (And are also all in the main book rather than split through expansions), the changes to skill selection make rolling a high SKILL not quite as much the be-all and end-all of your character, and the heroic feats aren't much but are a nice aid to character differentiation. It's not revolutionary but it tidies a lot of rough edges without really changing the feel of the game.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

I do prefer the mechanical improvements in 2e, though; I think spellcasting works better as it's own attribute, the alternate magical traditions all feel more distinct (And are also all in the main book rather than split through expansions), the changes to skill selection make rolling a high SKILL not quite as much the be-all and end-all of your character, and the heroic feats aren't much but are a nice aid to character differentiation. It's not revolutionary but it tidies a lot of rough edges without really changing the feel of the game.

Definitely. Having run both, I definitely think 2e is the better edition mechanically, although I used its mechanics with the old adventures which are great.

 

[Black Vulmea]

Wilderlands?

Unquestionably, and still my favorite published setting for D&D.

For our 5e game, I used Minaria from Divine Right, the TSR fantasy wargame. The map is by Dave Trampier and it remains one of the most intriguing, evocative fantasy maps I've ever seen.

I didn't turn to the Dragon articles for the setting history, only the sketchy descriptions which came with the original boxed set and a bit of my own extrapolation. The adventurers started in Colist, in Mivior, and set off in search of a companion to a medallion purchased by a mercenary sea captain. They discovered a forgotten necropolis on a small bay north of the Tombs of Olde - you can just make it out on the map southwest of the larger embayment and estuary southeast of Zefnar on the Sea.