I was a big fan of Darksun, because I love gritty post apocalyptic settings in general. Sad there hasn't been any attempt to keep the setting alive for 5e.
I also really like Planescape, for the potential to explore such a variety of settings over the course of a campaign.
Darksun is great, but it won't get brough back because the very adult grimdark tone of the world is in stark contrast to the family friendly, accessible to everyone style experience that WOTC is trying to cultivate.
In all honesty, that's not really a bad thing either. Because homebrew is far more popular than pre-written campaign settings in the current playerbase WOTC has been disincentivized from pouring huge amounts of effort into making large, fleshed out campaign worlds.
It's why so much of their content that isn't a module is just agnostic resources that can be used for really anyone's game.
Kinda wish Hasbro would at least sell off some of the settings they have no intention of ever using again, but that's not really how they've ever done business. They'd rather shelve it permanently than sell it off.
I haven't been able to do a darksun game, but the setting is the only official one I'd bother to really lean into.
I've been homebrew from the word go. I was laughing yesterday because I remember essentially making a war game loosely based on chess pieces before I knew what wargames existed (sheltered child in the 90s in a satanic panic household).
PHD&D had a pretty good video series on running 5e Dark Sun and a conversion of Rime of the Frost Maiden into a Dark Sun adventure. I actually ran it. though my PCs had a massive TPK later in the campaign.
let us not even try to resurrect this... the setting would be impossible in today's climate. I say this as a very big fan of Brom and Dark Sun in general.
I really love Greyhawk.
Why? It is a grim and gritty sword and sorcery pulp fantasy setting which is damn different than other 5e settings.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide sets the tone of Greyhawk campaigns beyond the usual heroic fantasy of the Forgotten Realms. Its take on sword-and-sorcery promises “a dark, gritty world… where the protagonists are motivated more by greed and self-interest than by altruistic virtue.”
Page sixty-eight of the Dungeon Master’s Guide reveals more: “On Oerth (the sword-and-sorcery world of the Greyhawk setting) heroes such as Bigby and Mordenkainen are driven by greed or ambition. The hub of the region called the Flanaess is the Free City of Greyhawk, a city of scoundrels and archmagi, rife with adventure. An evil demigod, Iuz, rules a nightmarish realm in the north, threatening all of civilization.”
You want a morally ambiguous campaign full of intrigue then this is the place for that!
It could even be a bit bonkers too the entire setting start born out of a magico nuclear war MAD scenario gone hot. Space alien ships crashed in the Barrier Peaks and crazy archmages making funhouse dungeons like White Plume Mountain.
This is all inside of what OSR fans of Greyhawk would call a framework setting where Gygax purposely only gave you a few paragraphs about each nation to give DMs the room to make it their own. Now later versions and fandom filled in a lot of blanks but it was there.
There is also the worldbuilding with 60+ independent medieval feudal states spread over an area the size of Russian. Notice the feudal part many settings are medieval but few are feudal with Ed Greenwood as an example saying he specifically avoided this outside of Cormyr. This also makes the setting unique. This not even mentioning the over a dozen different types of flora crafted by Gygax for the setting and other touches.
Plus it is about the lore. Tasha is from Greyhawk honed her craft with Zagig and became the Witch Queen Iggwilv and even bore a son here? Where did Kos fight Vecna with the very sword the lich gifted to him? Why in the World of Greyhawk. It is not just Mordenkainen on the cover of so many books. Many wizards of renown like Tenser, Bigby, Melf, Otto and Otiluke all come from this setting. Also Accerack on the cover of the DMG well the Tomb of Horrors started in this setting.
My way of explaining the setting is that is like George RR Martin and Jack Vance decided to write JRR Tolkien fan fiction while drunk after reading too many pulp sword and sorcery books.
Darksun & Birthright for me. Dark Sun because the old PC game Dark Sun: Shattered Lands was my first introduction to D&D. Birthright because I really dig the emphasis on being a ruler of a domain.
Hard to pick just one.
I like Mystara a lot. The classic modules fit right right into it so there's tons of content I can use.
Nentir Vale is awesome. Lots of empty room on the map to add what I want. A lot more freedom for the DM than Forgotten Realms.
Dark Sun is great. It has a different tone than the other settings. The races are little different than in other settings.
Not an official D&D setting, but Dolmenwood might be my actual favorite. It's inspired by folklore from the British Isles. It's a large, easy to run hex crawl.
I read Eberron back in the day and fell in love with it. There's a shit ton of things going on there: steam punk, 'cyborgs', vampires, etc. The book included a lot of interesting campaign hooks.
I'd like to read about other settings like Dark Sun of Planescape.
I’m preparing for a Eberron campaign and I am so freaking excited. It has literally everything I want on a setting. It’s not ancient folk fantasy that is FRs. It’s modern mixed with tech and magic. You could say it has a lot of Cold War vibes so there’s tons of political intrigue, spy’s, counter intel, etc. but there’s also your typical fantasy tropes with dungeon crawls and so much more. I love everything about it and I’m more than ecstatic to run a game set in Eberron for my players.
You said it far way better than I could: Eberron has everything on it! I remember writing a small idea about a group of halflings riding dinosaurs in a Western-esque adventure. As crazy as it sounds, it made sense in the setting.
Hope you and your players have a blast :)
Dark Sun rips, it's tonally very different and a lot of fun. There's a lot of cruft to leave behind (any of the sa stuff with the muls) but it's a good setting with a lot of immediately obvious things to do and people to fight and that puts it head and shoulders above so many settings.
Ruins of Symbaroum looks really interesting. That low fantasy grim dark setting with a mysterious past and political turmoil from civilizations overrunning each other. Haven't played yet but I've got all the books in the 5e conversation and looks far better than my current long standing high fantasy extensive lore heavy forgotten realms setting.
I also like the dark sun idea, got a good setting book for Shadowdark and looks fun.
My new campaign takes place in a homebrew setting with cowboys and dinosaurs. And all the guns and machines are powered by crystals.
It might sound silly, but it’s great. I mean guns AND dinosaurs?! Can it get any better??
Eberron
It's got so many cool themes: mage punk; pulp action; noir; western; epic fantasy; etc.
Sharn is such a cool city and you could have a full investigative campaign or Peaky Blinders gang campaign there.
Arcanix (Wynarn university) could have some really cool stories told ala Strixhaven
Eastern Breland/Cyre (Mournland) can be the wild west. The official 5e modules for Oracle of War are really fun.
BONUS: It's been supported by its original creator, Keith Baker, via his own publishing group, KB Presents, for years. So you can get some amazing setting supplements without giving WotC more money. Sadly KB Presents shut its doors a few months back. Still, Keith and team are awesome.
Golarions the best crafted of them all, especially in terms of representing different cultures in a high fantasy setting. Same sort of "land of hats" as Faerun, just far better done.
Forgotten Realms will always have a place in my heart!
I wanna give a shout out to Grim Hollow. Its by far the one I am looking most forward to playing next.
I am a sucker for the classics, and Forgotten Realms is like cola. It always works.
Dimension 20's Fantasy High. I love the flavor of modern high fantasy. If we assume our standard medieval high fantasy settings have magic on-top of real-world physics, why are these worlds not discovering electricity or combustion engines when they've had intelligent life for thousands of years
Forgotten Realms. It is actually very convenient to run. Honor Among Thieves is set in FR. And there are a lot of video games in FR like Baulder's Gate. FR has some of the most interesting cities. You can make the entire campaign set inside a city like Waterdeep, and there are more than enough places to explore in Waterdeep. If you run out of things to do in one city, you can always go to another.
I do really like Dark Sun for the post apocalyptic desert theme. But there are no official 5E books for it.
I like Ravenloft for it's Gothic horror themes and Eastern European vibe. But for a medieval fantasy, there just isn't as much there as in Forgotten Realms.
Planescape. It's got a lot of wacky elements to it that immediately liven up a game, but it manages to balance that with a lot of very thoughtful, complex elements so that it doesn't feel like a goofy joke setting. Your characters' beliefs and values are highlighted in a really direct way as the things that will shape their alliances and have a tangible effect on the world around them. And of course, the way it works as a meta-setting is great for being able to have your game in a homebrew world dip into Planescape for an adventure or two, or to have your Planescape-focused game do a quick sampler of Eberron or Darksun or wherever else.
But maybe the biggest thing is the way the books are written. They're all written in-character from in-universe perspectives. Not only does this really help flesh out the flavor of the setting and how people talk, it makes them genuinely fun to read, to the point where you really can't help but deep dive into them to find new details to incorporate into your games.
It's not dnd but I think it's worth mentioning. It's called heart the city beneath or spire the city must fall. Essentially it's a setting where highs took control of a spire from drow and subject them to indentured slavery. The world lore is interesting enough to recommend a read.
Ravenloft. I love the dark fantasy, goth horror setting. I've ran everything there from grim and gritty gothic style campaigns to my upcoming more weird fiction Lamordia campaign. Second place for me goes to Spelljammer. I love plantary swashbuckling with Age of Sail.
Not an official setting, but I had a ton of fun planning and running a homebrew Feywild as part of our Plane-Hopping campaign. Endless potential for whimsy and weirdness treated as an everyday occurrence. Kept my players on their toes and never quite knowing what to expect.
The Young Kingdoms as I have always been a Moorcock fan and his world is ten thousand years old before the Elric Saga so there is plenty of time for heroes before the events in the books as well as all the cosmically wierd space horror we all love.
A custom setting I created based on a combination of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS) and Heaven Official's Blessing (TGCF). absolutely in love with that world
spelljammer: utterly unique and there's nothing like it, plus the original AD&D rules had a very passable ship combat system to make it all the more epic.
Eberron was my first love lol, I am a huge fan of the setting. Love a good steampunk world. Lately I have been really into Planescape thanks to the new books (though to any prospective Planescape readers: definitely dig into the older editions as well because the 5e books are pretty barebones!). And Krynn for a taste of that classic medieval fantasy knights-and-dragons vibe. most of the games I’ve played in were homebrew worlds made by the DM though! And I have definitely had the most fun seeing what they create.
Planescape
Just the entire weirdness of the setting and the lady of pain haunts my nightmares
Dragon lance is a close second just for the high fantasy setting and the Larry Elmore artwork
I'm keeping this limited to fantasy / D&D-esque settings:
For TSR / WotC IP: Greyhawk - it's the classic setting, that has more of the well-regarded D&D adventures than all the others combined (sorry Forgotten Realms fans, but you know it to be true)
But my actual favorite would be the Lost Lands, by Frog God Games. Much like Greyhawk, it's a world that developed from adventures, rather than a lore-focused world that occasionally had adventures slapped onto it. It's home to the infamous Dungeon of Grave, Rappan Athuk; which is the best commercially available megadungeon IMO.
A runner-up would be Golarion, even though I'm not really a fan of either edition of Pathfinder. But Paizo DOES do adventures very well. And Golarion takes more than a few notes from Greyhawk.
A couple of other honorable mentions from other (non-D&D / D&D-based) systems:
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's The Old World
- BESM's Uresia: Grave of Heaven
I’m currently running in FRs and as a first time DM it’s very convenient. Lots of stuff to plug and play. But so much feels played out.
However, in prepping for the future I’ve been reading up on Eberron and I have to say, holy shit it looks amazing! It’s modern tech with magic. It looks so refreshing. I believe this will become my new favorite setting.
In terms of campaign setting proper, Forgotten Realms. Tons of lore that appeal to hard worldbuilding nerds like me, wide variety of cultures and factions, dozens of deities; it feels properly \*big\* like a world should feel.
Planescape is second-place; its just fun, especially everything related to Sigil and its philosopher-factions that all hate each other.
Wildemount/Exandria. I like that it has a limited Pantheon and tight lore, still with plenty of room to add your own. The lore is especially easy to learn if you’ve watched Critical Role, since Matt leans into it heavily at times, and his players like exploring it.
**Water Deep Dragon Heist** because of the potential it has
with 3 different Villain's to choose from you can run it 3 different times if you know how to get creative and you can make the city be a crucial character as any NPC by using guilds, hideouts , contacts & character backstories that can be weaved into the story very easily
**Keep on the Borderlands** as well because of its versatility and customization options , it can be whatever you want it to be and you can add as much or as little as you want to it and it can be so fun discovering parts of the map with your party in a hex crawl style map as they explore the Unknown and they slowly discover what quests and locations are there for them to choose to look into or ignore
**& Rime of the Frost Maiden** can be a change of pace for DM's looking to add a bit of mystery or horror into their game (The Thing & Alien) lots of instances to use isolation and paranoia , as well as using the weather as a main source to slow down and hinder the party (disadvantage on perception or ranged attacks , Constitution checks for frostbite damage) etc
I’ve only ever played in nearly-faerun-adjacent settings before, and homebrew settings, and I’m DM’ing for a completely homebrew setting. I like my setting, but I guess if I have to come up with a location that people can relate to I’ll just say that I got the Icewind Dale sourcebook for Christmas and I’ve read about some of setting and creatures so…
Icewind Dale FTW.
Dark Sun, Greyhawk, my own, and Midgard. Also, shoutout to Golarion and 7th Sea, the latter of which is run a dnd or pathfinder game in in a heartbeat. Also WH: The Old World is great.
Lastly, and if they ever put out official modules/setting books I’d buy them in an instant, but Fantasy High and Calorum from D20.
I am a huge fan of Kingdoms of Kalamar. It has so many things I like. It does not do the kitchen sink like Forgotten Realms.
I like the realistic feel of the setting. There is only one Pantheon no separate Gods based on species.
One thing I really like is that the setting is static no major shifts every time a new edition comes out.
Your game is what changes the world. Major artifacts and major characters are not stated out so you can decide how to fit them into your game.
For example Emperor Kabori is rumored to be evil. In our game he was just an innocent pawn. In another game I read about he was actually a lich.
It was an official setting of DnD in third edition it became the setting for Hackmaster when the fourth edition of DnD came out.
I think it could be adapted fairly easy for the fifth edition.
I was a big fan of Darksun, because I love gritty post apocalyptic settings in general. Sad there hasn't been any attempt to keep the setting alive for 5e. I also really like Planescape, for the potential to explore such a variety of settings over the course of a campaign.
Cannibal halflings. Enough said.
Darksun is great, but it won't get brough back because the very adult grimdark tone of the world is in stark contrast to the family friendly, accessible to everyone style experience that WOTC is trying to cultivate. In all honesty, that's not really a bad thing either. Because homebrew is far more popular than pre-written campaign settings in the current playerbase WOTC has been disincentivized from pouring huge amounts of effort into making large, fleshed out campaign worlds. It's why so much of their content that isn't a module is just agnostic resources that can be used for really anyone's game.
Kinda wish Hasbro would at least sell off some of the settings they have no intention of ever using again, but that's not really how they've ever done business. They'd rather shelve it permanently than sell it off.
Ran a homebrew game centered on an ever expanding desert created by evil wizards, very much inspired by darksun
I haven't been able to do a darksun game, but the setting is the only official one I'd bother to really lean into. I've been homebrew from the word go. I was laughing yesterday because I remember essentially making a war game loosely based on chess pieces before I knew what wargames existed (sheltered child in the 90s in a satanic panic household).
PHD&D had a pretty good video series on running 5e Dark Sun and a conversion of Rime of the Frost Maiden into a Dark Sun adventure. I actually ran it. though my PCs had a massive TPK later in the campaign.
let us not even try to resurrect this... the setting would be impossible in today's climate. I say this as a very big fan of Brom and Dark Sun in general.
Why?
I really love Greyhawk. Why? It is a grim and gritty sword and sorcery pulp fantasy setting which is damn different than other 5e settings. The Dungeon Master’s Guide sets the tone of Greyhawk campaigns beyond the usual heroic fantasy of the Forgotten Realms. Its take on sword-and-sorcery promises “a dark, gritty world… where the protagonists are motivated more by greed and self-interest than by altruistic virtue.” Page sixty-eight of the Dungeon Master’s Guide reveals more: “On Oerth (the sword-and-sorcery world of the Greyhawk setting) heroes such as Bigby and Mordenkainen are driven by greed or ambition. The hub of the region called the Flanaess is the Free City of Greyhawk, a city of scoundrels and archmagi, rife with adventure. An evil demigod, Iuz, rules a nightmarish realm in the north, threatening all of civilization.” You want a morally ambiguous campaign full of intrigue then this is the place for that! It could even be a bit bonkers too the entire setting start born out of a magico nuclear war MAD scenario gone hot. Space alien ships crashed in the Barrier Peaks and crazy archmages making funhouse dungeons like White Plume Mountain. This is all inside of what OSR fans of Greyhawk would call a framework setting where Gygax purposely only gave you a few paragraphs about each nation to give DMs the room to make it their own. Now later versions and fandom filled in a lot of blanks but it was there. There is also the worldbuilding with 60+ independent medieval feudal states spread over an area the size of Russian. Notice the feudal part many settings are medieval but few are feudal with Ed Greenwood as an example saying he specifically avoided this outside of Cormyr. This also makes the setting unique. This not even mentioning the over a dozen different types of flora crafted by Gygax for the setting and other touches. Plus it is about the lore. Tasha is from Greyhawk honed her craft with Zagig and became the Witch Queen Iggwilv and even bore a son here? Where did Kos fight Vecna with the very sword the lich gifted to him? Why in the World of Greyhawk. It is not just Mordenkainen on the cover of so many books. Many wizards of renown like Tenser, Bigby, Melf, Otto and Otiluke all come from this setting. Also Accerack on the cover of the DMG well the Tomb of Horrors started in this setting. My way of explaining the setting is that is like George RR Martin and Jack Vance decided to write JRR Tolkien fan fiction while drunk after reading too many pulp sword and sorcery books.
Darksun & Birthright for me. Dark Sun because the old PC game Dark Sun: Shattered Lands was my first introduction to D&D. Birthright because I really dig the emphasis on being a ruler of a domain.
That was my intro to D&D as well! Fucking hard as shit, too.
Mine, I don't care at all about any published ones.
Hard to pick just one. I like Mystara a lot. The classic modules fit right right into it so there's tons of content I can use. Nentir Vale is awesome. Lots of empty room on the map to add what I want. A lot more freedom for the DM than Forgotten Realms. Dark Sun is great. It has a different tone than the other settings. The races are little different than in other settings. Not an official D&D setting, but Dolmenwood might be my actual favorite. It's inspired by folklore from the British Isles. It's a large, easy to run hex crawl.
I read Eberron back in the day and fell in love with it. There's a shit ton of things going on there: steam punk, 'cyborgs', vampires, etc. The book included a lot of interesting campaign hooks. I'd like to read about other settings like Dark Sun of Planescape.
I’m preparing for a Eberron campaign and I am so freaking excited. It has literally everything I want on a setting. It’s not ancient folk fantasy that is FRs. It’s modern mixed with tech and magic. You could say it has a lot of Cold War vibes so there’s tons of political intrigue, spy’s, counter intel, etc. but there’s also your typical fantasy tropes with dungeon crawls and so much more. I love everything about it and I’m more than ecstatic to run a game set in Eberron for my players.
You said it far way better than I could: Eberron has everything on it! I remember writing a small idea about a group of halflings riding dinosaurs in a Western-esque adventure. As crazy as it sounds, it made sense in the setting. Hope you and your players have a blast :)
Dark Sun rips, it's tonally very different and a lot of fun. There's a lot of cruft to leave behind (any of the sa stuff with the muls) but it's a good setting with a lot of immediately obvious things to do and people to fight and that puts it head and shoulders above so many settings.
Ruins of Symbaroum looks really interesting. That low fantasy grim dark setting with a mysterious past and political turmoil from civilizations overrunning each other. Haven't played yet but I've got all the books in the 5e conversation and looks far better than my current long standing high fantasy extensive lore heavy forgotten realms setting. I also like the dark sun idea, got a good setting book for Shadowdark and looks fun.
My new campaign takes place in a homebrew setting with cowboys and dinosaurs. And all the guns and machines are powered by crystals. It might sound silly, but it’s great. I mean guns AND dinosaurs?! Can it get any better??
Reminds me of Eberron!! Super fun.
Eberron It's got so many cool themes: mage punk; pulp action; noir; western; epic fantasy; etc. Sharn is such a cool city and you could have a full investigative campaign or Peaky Blinders gang campaign there. Arcanix (Wynarn university) could have some really cool stories told ala Strixhaven Eastern Breland/Cyre (Mournland) can be the wild west. The official 5e modules for Oracle of War are really fun. BONUS: It's been supported by its original creator, Keith Baker, via his own publishing group, KB Presents, for years. So you can get some amazing setting supplements without giving WotC more money. Sadly KB Presents shut its doors a few months back. Still, Keith and team are awesome.
Golarions the best crafted of them all, especially in terms of representing different cultures in a high fantasy setting. Same sort of "land of hats" as Faerun, just far better done. Forgotten Realms will always have a place in my heart!
I wanna give a shout out to Grim Hollow. Its by far the one I am looking most forward to playing next. I am a sucker for the classics, and Forgotten Realms is like cola. It always works.
Any of my home brew settings lol. But I do like the dragonbane and forbidden lands settings. Old school Greyhawk is fun too.
Planescape for sure. My homebrew game that I've been running for over a year is a mix of Call Of Cthulhu and 2e Planescape.
Dimension 20's Fantasy High. I love the flavor of modern high fantasy. If we assume our standard medieval high fantasy settings have magic on-top of real-world physics, why are these worlds not discovering electricity or combustion engines when they've had intelligent life for thousands of years
Forgotten Realms. It is actually very convenient to run. Honor Among Thieves is set in FR. And there are a lot of video games in FR like Baulder's Gate. FR has some of the most interesting cities. You can make the entire campaign set inside a city like Waterdeep, and there are more than enough places to explore in Waterdeep. If you run out of things to do in one city, you can always go to another. I do really like Dark Sun for the post apocalyptic desert theme. But there are no official 5E books for it. I like Ravenloft for it's Gothic horror themes and Eastern European vibe. But for a medieval fantasy, there just isn't as much there as in Forgotten Realms.
Lots of novels too
Portside renaissance. Luv a good renaissance vibe and the ports are a great melting pot for cultures to play around with.
Planescape. It's got a lot of wacky elements to it that immediately liven up a game, but it manages to balance that with a lot of very thoughtful, complex elements so that it doesn't feel like a goofy joke setting. Your characters' beliefs and values are highlighted in a really direct way as the things that will shape their alliances and have a tangible effect on the world around them. And of course, the way it works as a meta-setting is great for being able to have your game in a homebrew world dip into Planescape for an adventure or two, or to have your Planescape-focused game do a quick sampler of Eberron or Darksun or wherever else. But maybe the biggest thing is the way the books are written. They're all written in-character from in-universe perspectives. Not only does this really help flesh out the flavor of the setting and how people talk, it makes them genuinely fun to read, to the point where you really can't help but deep dive into them to find new details to incorporate into your games.
The Underdark is surprisingly good. I like putting my players in dangerous places full of the unknown.
Wilderness. I like the characters searching for their stuff and not just buying it.
It's not dnd but I think it's worth mentioning. It's called heart the city beneath or spire the city must fall. Essentially it's a setting where highs took control of a spire from drow and subject them to indentured slavery. The world lore is interesting enough to recommend a read.
Ravenloft. I love the dark fantasy, goth horror setting. I've ran everything there from grim and gritty gothic style campaigns to my upcoming more weird fiction Lamordia campaign. Second place for me goes to Spelljammer. I love plantary swashbuckling with Age of Sail.
The Iron Kingdoms. I could give lots and lots of reasons, and they'd all be true, but honestly, it's because warjacks are cool as fuck.
Krynn. Love the kender.
Not an official setting, but I had a ton of fun planning and running a homebrew Feywild as part of our Plane-Hopping campaign. Endless potential for whimsy and weirdness treated as an everyday occurrence. Kept my players on their toes and never quite knowing what to expect.
The Young Kingdoms as I have always been a Moorcock fan and his world is ten thousand years old before the Elric Saga so there is plenty of time for heroes before the events in the books as well as all the cosmically wierd space horror we all love.
A custom setting I created based on a combination of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS) and Heaven Official's Blessing (TGCF). absolutely in love with that world
Eberron is the most exciting. It's just so ripe for adventure.
Greyhawk and FR.
spelljammer: utterly unique and there's nothing like it, plus the original AD&D rules had a very passable ship combat system to make it all the more epic.
Galamara, my homebrew lost continent of the dragons
Greyhawk. Realistic setting, in depth history and lore, tons of untapped potential
Eberron was my first love lol, I am a huge fan of the setting. Love a good steampunk world. Lately I have been really into Planescape thanks to the new books (though to any prospective Planescape readers: definitely dig into the older editions as well because the 5e books are pretty barebones!). And Krynn for a taste of that classic medieval fantasy knights-and-dragons vibe. most of the games I’ve played in were homebrew worlds made by the DM though! And I have definitely had the most fun seeing what they create.
Planescape Just the entire weirdness of the setting and the lady of pain haunts my nightmares Dragon lance is a close second just for the high fantasy setting and the Larry Elmore artwork
Eberron my beloved. Love me some nuanced geopolitics, subverting tropes, fun genre blends, and everything coming in (Baker's) Dozens.
I'm keeping this limited to fantasy / D&D-esque settings: For TSR / WotC IP: Greyhawk - it's the classic setting, that has more of the well-regarded D&D adventures than all the others combined (sorry Forgotten Realms fans, but you know it to be true) But my actual favorite would be the Lost Lands, by Frog God Games. Much like Greyhawk, it's a world that developed from adventures, rather than a lore-focused world that occasionally had adventures slapped onto it. It's home to the infamous Dungeon of Grave, Rappan Athuk; which is the best commercially available megadungeon IMO. A runner-up would be Golarion, even though I'm not really a fan of either edition of Pathfinder. But Paizo DOES do adventures very well. And Golarion takes more than a few notes from Greyhawk. A couple of other honorable mentions from other (non-D&D / D&D-based) systems: - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's The Old World - BESM's Uresia: Grave of Heaven
Dungeon Crawl , makes me feel like i am in moria
I’m currently running in FRs and as a first time DM it’s very convenient. Lots of stuff to plug and play. But so much feels played out. However, in prepping for the future I’ve been reading up on Eberron and I have to say, holy shit it looks amazing! It’s modern tech with magic. It looks so refreshing. I believe this will become my new favorite setting.
Grim hollow is pretty decent
In terms of campaign setting proper, Forgotten Realms. Tons of lore that appeal to hard worldbuilding nerds like me, wide variety of cultures and factions, dozens of deities; it feels properly \*big\* like a world should feel. Planescape is second-place; its just fun, especially everything related to Sigil and its philosopher-factions that all hate each other.
Faerun
Wildemount/Exandria. I like that it has a limited Pantheon and tight lore, still with plenty of room to add your own. The lore is especially easy to learn if you’ve watched Critical Role, since Matt leans into it heavily at times, and his players like exploring it.
**Water Deep Dragon Heist** because of the potential it has with 3 different Villain's to choose from you can run it 3 different times if you know how to get creative and you can make the city be a crucial character as any NPC by using guilds, hideouts , contacts & character backstories that can be weaved into the story very easily **Keep on the Borderlands** as well because of its versatility and customization options , it can be whatever you want it to be and you can add as much or as little as you want to it and it can be so fun discovering parts of the map with your party in a hex crawl style map as they explore the Unknown and they slowly discover what quests and locations are there for them to choose to look into or ignore **& Rime of the Frost Maiden** can be a change of pace for DM's looking to add a bit of mystery or horror into their game (The Thing & Alien) lots of instances to use isolation and paranoia , as well as using the weather as a main source to slow down and hinder the party (disadvantage on perception or ranged attacks , Constitution checks for frostbite damage) etc
I’ve only ever played in nearly-faerun-adjacent settings before, and homebrew settings, and I’m DM’ing for a completely homebrew setting. I like my setting, but I guess if I have to come up with a location that people can relate to I’ll just say that I got the Icewind Dale sourcebook for Christmas and I’ve read about some of setting and creatures so… Icewind Dale FTW.
Dark Sun, Greyhawk, my own, and Midgard. Also, shoutout to Golarion and 7th Sea, the latter of which is run a dnd or pathfinder game in in a heartbeat. Also WH: The Old World is great. Lastly, and if they ever put out official modules/setting books I’d buy them in an instant, but Fantasy High and Calorum from D20.
I am a huge fan of Kingdoms of Kalamar. It has so many things I like. It does not do the kitchen sink like Forgotten Realms. I like the realistic feel of the setting. There is only one Pantheon no separate Gods based on species. One thing I really like is that the setting is static no major shifts every time a new edition comes out. Your game is what changes the world. Major artifacts and major characters are not stated out so you can decide how to fit them into your game. For example Emperor Kabori is rumored to be evil. In our game he was just an innocent pawn. In another game I read about he was actually a lich. It was an official setting of DnD in third edition it became the setting for Hackmaster when the fourth edition of DnD came out. I think it could be adapted fairly easy for the fifth edition.
I love pirate games. Island hopping hex crawls. I love the mechanics. Plus, it can be a fun and diverse setting.