Favourite or Best Original RPG Fantasy Setting?

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Best or Favourite Original Fantasy Setting

  • Total voters
    69
Hârn. I've had so much fun in that setting over the years, and the depth of detail is great. One has to (IMO) not be afraid to break the setting into whatever shape you want it to be. Some treat it as an inviolate masterpiece, which makes it less useful. While it's certainly a masterpiece, it's meant to be played. If that means Orcs overrun Tharda, then go for it. If it means Melderyn gets taken over by the return of Lothrim the Foulspawner, so be it. You can even include the dreaded potâto.

I do love the other artsy settings like Tekumel, Glorantha, and Artesia, but I really enjoy some old school stuff like Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Arduin, and Greyhawk.

Another setting I feel that doesn't get near enough recognition is Terry K. Amthor's Shadow World. There's so much going on in that setting. Sometimes it seems that every other goatherd is in a secret society, but that's part of the fun.
 
Spartan said:
Hârn. I've had so much fun in that setting over the years, and the depth of detail is great. One has to (IMO) not be afraid to break the setting into whatever shape you want it to be. Some treat it as an inviolate masterpiece, which makes it less useful. While it's certainly a masterpiece, it's meant to be played. If that means Orcs overrun Tharda, then go for it. If it means Melderyn gets taken over by the return of Lothrim the Foulspawner, so be it. You can even include the dreaded potâto.
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Harn was really well detailed
Spartan said:
I do love the other artsy settings like Tekumel, Glorantha, and Artesia, but I really enjoy some old school stuff like Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Arduin, and Greyhawk.
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Greyhawk is pretty much what I envision for D&D, kitchen sink Dark Ages, not Forgotten Realms which is Renaissance flavoured
Spartan said:
Another setting I feel that doesn't get near enough recognition is Terry K. Amthor's Shadow World. There's so much going on in that setting. Sometimes it seems that every other goatherd is in a secret society, but that's part of the fun.
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Love Shadow World. It doesn't get enough love, namely because it was the setting for Rolemaster, and many people were turned away by it's 'rulemaster' reputation. I think it would have been great for Shadow World to be reproduced with no stats, keeping it system-neutral to encourage tinkerer GMs to pick it up and run with it. Very rich high fantasy setting!
 
Nippon (as seen in Bushido or sengoku) is my fantasy setting of choice. It should have been an option.

But it seems we are mostly going Western fantasy.

Pendragon is my primary published fantasy setting. Follow that up by Elizabethan England.

then it becomes a fight out between Tekumel and Harn.
 
I liked Harn a lot, and it was nice for my first Cold Iron campaign, and it was the first "world" map that I felt was comparable to or better than Judge's Guild's Wilderlands maps.

Unfortunately as Harn gained more detail (I got in with the original Harnworld release), it became more and more clear that Cold Iron magic was a poor fit for Harn and I never used Harn again after that campaign came to an end. My next Cold Iron campaign was set in Blackmoor using The First Fantasy Campaign and later the color maps from the TSR DA series modules (including Valley of the Ancients from those modules rather than hooking to the Wilderlands).
 
My favorite fantasy setting is Aihrde, which is the default setting for Castles & Crusades. It’s similar to, and heavily inspired by, Greyhawk.

Like Greyhawk, it isn’t very detailed. The history and lore is very extensive, however. This all means there’s plenty of room to plug whatever you want into the setting and tie it all together with the lore of the world. Also, where Greyhawk has some gonzo and science fantasy stuff in the wilderness, Aihrde has more of a fairy tale feel.

Aihrde could be replaced for me if there was a fantasy campaign setting that was dark ages, lower magic, and humanocentric, with a rich history full of legends. Kind of like a sword & sorcery setting, but with strong good vs evil/redemption elements. I’m a big fan of David Gemell’s ‘Legend.’
 
Ossian said:
My favorite fantasy setting is Aihrde, which is the default setting for Castles & Crusades. It’s similar to, and heavily inspired by, Greyhawk.

Like Greyhawk, it isn’t very detailed. The history and lore is very extensive, however. This all means there’s plenty of room to plug whatever you want into the setting and tie it all together with the lore of the world. Also, where Greyhawk has some gonzo and science fantasy stuff in the wilderness, Aihrde has more of a fairy tale feel.

Aihrde could be replaced for me if there was a fantasy campaign setting that was dark ages, lower magic, and humanocentric, with a rich history full of legends. Kind of like a sword & sorcery setting, but with strong good vs evil/redemption elements. I’m a big fan of David Gemell’s ‘Legend.’
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Glad you specified which Legend :wink:
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There's a lot of settings I really like (Moorcock's Young Kingdoms is right up there, and Jack Vance's Lyonesse), but ultimately I settled on Dolmenwood (OSR). Just the perfect blend of fairytale weirdness and gameable stuff.
 
Nick J said:
There's a lot of settings I really like (Moorcock's Young Kingdoms is right up there, and Jack Vance's Lyonesse), but ultimately I settled on Dolmenwood (OSR). Just the perfect blend of fairytale weirdness and gameable stuff.
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Damn, forgot Dolmenwood! Good mention.
 
I want 'none of the above'. My pick of published worlds would be ICE's Shadow World/Kulthea. Generic fantasy, but had a lot of fun with it over the years, and it doesn't pretend to be what it's not.

I also like the Palladium Fantasy setting, Forgotten Realms, and Artesia a lot. (Hmm. One of these is not like the rest.)
 
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I voted for TSR setting.
(1) Blackmoor, because it was the first (but technically not published by TSR)
(2) Greyhawk, because it was Gary's and because it was really "traditional" fantasy
(3) Dark Sun, because it was non-traditional fantasy
(4) Ravenloft, because it was the first gothic fantasy I'd encountered
 
Tekumel for me, though like many of the posters above some of my favorite settings don’t qualify for the poll because they are not original.
 
Favorite would be PoLand (4E D&D), which nailed the sweet spot between too much definition and too little.

Honorable mention to the Dragon Empire (13th Age), Dolmenwood, and Sigil.
 
I chose RuneQuest from the list, but I'd like to have a word with you about excluding Talislanta.

In practice, my favorite settings to actually play in that aren't either Traveller (ahem! also missing - inexcusable!) or "real world with a twist" are Barsoom, Amtor or the Hyborean Age, but with the serial numbers filed off in pretty much every case.
 
None of the above? Shadow World would be mine. I like Eberron, Birthright, and Planescape, but Shadow World gets the MERP treatment and it's great. I also like 7th Sea and L5R.
 
Lessa said:
My vote is for Runequest's Glorantha. Quoting @philig from an older thread, "It's Cult of Prax supplement took Runequest from a fantasy combat simulator [...] to a way of running meaningful games with culture, religion and history." Spot on.

My honorable mention goes in the contrary direction with Planescape, for the way it destroys the sacred with it's cosmopolitan, blasé spirit in the original box set (sadly diluted in the new edition).

Edit: ninja'd by bleys21 bleys21 . Haha
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Great minds think alike! :gooselove:
 
I voted for Glorantha, but I would also vote for wfrp Old World. Some say its just a grungy take on Tolkien, but I think it deviates sufficiently and has its own quirks to be considered original. Certainly original enough for countless of other rpg settings to use as inspiration.
 
I chose Harn, as best from the list provided. Excellent setting for a grounded, medieval-authentic campaign.

For a more sword & sorcery vibe, I like Midlands - Low Magic Sandbox Setting. It's published as a stand-alone, but forms the default setting for Low Fantasy Gaming.

I use Krevborna for gothic horror.
 
If nothing else, this thread has taught me that Tékumel was a roleplaying setting first. I honestly thought it was the other way around.

As for my favorite fantasy setting, I've long been partial to Hollow World, though it's a tough call. I was also fond of the old RPGA "living" campaign, Living Jungle, so you can see where my pulpy roots lie.
 
I'm a fan of the Hyborian Age and Dark Sun like many here, but I'm also a big fan of the Forgotten Realms.

I'm going to toss in a non-traditional one - the Sixth World, Shadowrun's setting, as an Urban Fantasy setting.
 
MoonHunter said:
I love the setting, but I have never done anything in it (as a GM or player). I had forgotten to mention it, but it is after all the settings I have played in.
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Same here! I feel like it would be a big ask for some of my players (others would jump at the chance), and I'm sure it would take a little while for everyone to get their heads around it. And the mechanics...I'd be strongly tempted to tinker at the very least.
 
Rated Aargh said:
If nothing else, this thread has taught me that Tékumel was a roleplaying setting first. I honestly thought it was the other way around.
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Well, as Voros Voros said in the O.P., it first gained wide dissemination through RPGs. Barker had apparently been thinking about it for decades before that and had published a few stories about it in fanzines as far back as the late 1940s. But AFAIK, it only became known to anybody but Barker and a small circle of his friends with the publication of Empire of the Petal Throne.
 
Lofgeornost said:
Barker had apparently been thinking about it for decades before that and had published a few stories about it in fanzines as far back as the late 1940s. But AFAIK, it only became known to anybody but Barker and a small circle of his friends with the publication of Empire of the Petal Throne.
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That's the key. I wrote all sorts of stories for me and my friends before I started working professionally, and I wouldn't expect anyone to count those as part of my bibliography.
 
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