What is your favourite fantasy setting?
What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
Favourite is my own homebrew heartbreaker setting. Second-favourite is Warhammer Fantasy (pre-EndTimes version, like in WFRP). Grim and gritty fantasy mixed with Lovecraftesque magic and villains is great!
Least favourite is Eberron. They tried for the "pulp" style, but it came out forced, lame and not much like pulp fiction at all. That's out of game settings, though: novel settings are sometimes pretty bad and meant to be ignored, like in Dresden Files or Harry Potter.
>>46692768
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
Dragon Lance
>>46692768
Ignoring homebrew settings
Favorite: Thief's setting, excluding Thief 4. It is limited in scope but perfectly suited for it's job.
Least Favorite: So many candidates. Zelda perhaps.
>>46692768
>favourite
Dark Sun.
>least
Jesus, it's hard to chose, and I don't even really hate much of anything. I'll err on safety and go with this >>46693167, no matter how strong the games or puzzles may be that setting SUCKS balls.
>>46692967
I don't dislike DL. Don't favor it, but don't hate it.
>>46692896
Warhammer Fantasy is a strange beast. As long as I look at it in the context of the Miniatures game it is good. When I look at it as a P&P setting it turns bad.
And I agree Eberron doesn't work out.
>>46692768
>favorite
Elder Scrolls
>least favorite
Exlated, mostly because all three campaigns of Exalted I've been in ended up shit, despite three different GM's. But the setting itself is retarded too and doesn't know what it wants to be, it feels like a bad homebrew generally eastern inspired setting.
>>46693842
>le edgy faggot robot from the future XD
>>46692896
>>46693540
I came here to say I'm part of the persecuted minority that fucking detests Eberron (because so much of the internet seems to fellate it) but it looks like /tg/ has my back
>>46693232
It's okay, anon. I hate in anyways.
>>46692896
>>46693540
>>46693906
So why do you dislike Eberron?
I haven't played it but I read the book and it seems all right. It does just enough differently.
Although I have to agree with
>They tried for the "pulp" style, but it came out forced, lame and not much like pulp fiction at all.
It took me a while to even view Eberron as pulp. The book lists some films that inspired the setting, yet reading the setting I don't get the same vibe as those films at all. How the hell do you do The Maltese Falcon in Eberron? Or Raiders of the Lost Ark? I get the general post-war and treasure-seeking vibe, but you could do the same in any setting ever.
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Forgotten Realms, although there is plenty that I don't like about it. If you cut out the bad 20 odd %, it's fantastic.
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
For D&D, I'd say Dragonlance. I really dislike 40k. I don't like Star Wars. I don't like Warcraft.
>>46692768
>favoritemy own
>least favoritemy own
>Favorite
Obviously my homebrew is designed to appeal to me so that isn't fair. I'll pick Middle-Earth.
>Least Favorite
There are so many options, I just can't choose. I think Forgotten Realms and Golarion are up there. I might have to give it to FR because Golarion is probably worse but nobody likes it anyway, whereas FR fans insist it's just incredible.
>>46694048
It has been quite some time since I read into Eberron but from what I recall it just didn't make the cut on a point by point basis. My dominant thoughts were something like "Hm maybe this could be made cool if it's changed up a bit.", "Not interesting but it can stay, for now" and "I'll leave this out.". It became clear that just using another setting or making something from scratch would be more economic. And most of the ok stuff is general D&D flavor that is in every other D&D setting.
>favourite
Guild Wars, pre-Angel Leigh McCoy's wanton destruction of the setting wholesale.
Pern's pretty good, too.
>least favouriteGuild Wars, post-Angel Leigh McCoy's wanton destruction of the setting wholesale.
That, or Alagaesia
Havent played in many settings so my opinion is shit
>Favorite
Dragonlance. The first setting that got me into tabletop in the first place.
>Least Favorite
Warhammer Fantasy. I honestly dislike grimdark settings.
>FavoriteWarcraft
>Least Favorite
Golarian. Seriously, fuck that jumbled mess of a setting.
Favorite: LotR
Least favorite: The Mushroom Kingdom
>>46692768
Favorite: A Song of Ice and Fire
Least Favorite: Dungeons and Dragons
>>46692768
>Favorite Fantasy Setting
Besides my heartbreaker, I have a soft spot for BONE's setting. 'Magic' is animistic or pact-based, powerful without being the only way to accomplish things, and provides a good mixture of creepy and mystic that just works.
I don't like Golarion. It tries to come off as novel, but I only see a generic fantasy setting with some gimmicks thrown in to make it seem different somehow. Maybe I'm just projecting to make muh own setting seem original, but I just don't like it.
>>46692768
>FavoriteOWTHE EDGE
>Least favorite
Maybe LotR, but without it Fantasy wouldn't exist as we know it today. I just think the setting itself is empty and incoherent, except for the few parts that Tolkien cared about.
>>46693167
Zelda has no setting m8, every game is different, every Link is different, and the world is different in every game.
>>46695258
>SoIF
>DnD
You don't know shit about fantasy or /tg/ with these tastes...especially because Dungeons and Dragons is not a fucking setting.
Why are you here?
>>46695319
it is in a shared universe you tard, just different points of time of the save multiverse
>>46695842
Watch this and tell me again it is just different points in time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHIP9UtkQDQ
>>46695319
Fuck yeah, more people need to read The Edge series
>>46692768
>Most favorite
Ivalice. Final Fantasy 12 specifically has probably influenced my taste in fantasy more than anything else, but all the games are fantastic.
>Least Favorite
I can't think of any setting I actively dislike, but Elder Scrolls always seemed kind of meh personally.
>>46692768
>Favorite
Lord of the Rings. WHFB comes in at a close second.
>Least Favorite
Harry Potter I guess? Don't think about settings I dislike much.
>>46695975
>Harry Potter
That's true actually, Harry Potter is really shortsighted and stupid as a setting.
Any map makers out there who might be looking for work...? That or willing to teach?
>>46696013
Easy option:
http://inkarnate.com/
Tutorial option:
http://www.fantasticmaps.com/
Favourite:
The land of Ooo and the world of Korgoth of Barbaria (Maybe they're actually the one and same?)
Least favourite:
Gor
>>46694486
What happened to guild wars?
>>46692768
I'm assuming most everybody's favorite is probably their own homebrew, so I'll pick one I didn't create, which would probably be Ivalice. Especially XII's version, with so much extra world lore and such, it's just got a great feel. I'm not usually big on high fantasy, but it's a good one.
My least favorite would have to be Forgotten Realms. Not because I particularly dislike it... it's just super-generic fantasy shit, nothing particularly offensive about it, just nothing special either. But the real reason I hate it so much is because WotC's spent the last two years shoving it down my throat, since before 5e was even officially out...
I mean, I don't mind eating hot dogs, but if you force-feed them to me for two years, I'm gonna get to the point where the sight of a fucking hot dog is gonna make me physically ill.
>favorite
Homebrew, TES
>least favorite
Im not really sure I guess vanilla D&D
Favourite: Glorantha
Least Favourite: Faerun.
>>Favorite Setting
Wakfu. It's bright and light-hearted but still capable of being serious and epic. Time Wizards committing genocide in a children's tv show? Find anything close to that.
>>Least Favorite
Honestly, 40k. The entire universe is over-the-top in every facet, marginalizing pretty much everything about it. The vast majority of a battleship's crew dies in agony in a warp and no one bats an eye; it's how things are. Really? Every decent artwork is covered in skulls for the sake of skulls. Every depiction of humans is either them getting mowed down by the millions or them covered in sometimes literal tons of metalic shit. Even the orks of the universe, the only not-totally-grim-dark thing in the entire lore get very stale after a while. Yes, we get it, you're dumb and scream a lot and are pros at playing pretend.
Inb4 hate train.
>>46697456
>likes Wakfu
>dislikes 40k
So, how many dicks does one have to suck daily to reach your level of faggotry?
>>46697456
>Time Wizards committing genocide in a children's tv show? Find anything close to that.
Hey, he came close.
>>46697456
No, I'm with you. 40k sucks.
>>46697529
Choo Choo!
>>46697456
avatar (the last airbender) had genocide as part of it's basic premise, it's no big deal.
speaking of, i liked avatar's setting.
>>46697456
I can not take people like this seriously.
Wakfu while fun, is an under developed setting that is nothing compared to settings found in tabletop games or even some vidya lie ES games. The complexity and quantity are on whole different level.
>Honestly, 40k.
You like one quirky setting but can't comprehend why people like another quirky setting?
>>46692768
First fav is probably Warhammer fantasy (pre-End Times of course), followed by my own, and Witcher, Conan and the setting of Final Fantasy VI.
Least favorite? Hm. Eberron maybe? I don't really hate it that much, it's just my least favorite.
>>46697456
>>46692768
Favorite: The Elder Scrolls, Star Wars, Faerun
Least Favorite: Norrath, Warcraft
Favorite: 40k, Cthulhu mythos
Least favorite: Warcraft, Star wars
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Dark Souls
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
40K. It is the manifestation of bad Dark Fantasy.
>>46697882
>Dark Souls
>40K. It is the manifestation of bad Dark Fantasy.
Admit that you don't know shit about any setting and have never read any book from 40k.
Most likely you are not even a /tg/ fag and a vidya only fag instead, and a bad vidya fag at that because Souls lore is shallow shit.
Favorite: probably Dune or Conan.
Least favorite: Can't really say I actively hate any one setting. If I don't like a setting I don't read or play it.
>Favorite
Shadowrun, for all the camp silliness
>Least Favorite
Eberron was, in a lot of ways, to me, cementing the worst part of 3.5 mechanics.
>>46692768
Favorite? Old-school Robert E. Howard sword and sorcery. Mighty thews and evil wizards and foreboding ruins and everything redolent with smoke and haze and tits and violence. The kinda stuff that should be airbrushed on the side of a van.
Least favorite? Probably Glorantha or Harry Potter. The former is way too safe and modern, the latter is hardly thought-out and has too many "nerds" sucking its dick all the time.
>>46692768
>favorite
The Banished Quest setting, followed by Banner Saga, Middle Earth, Glorantha, and the Tippy-verse for its stupid-fun-ness.
>least favorite
Probably Golarion. Tries too hard to everything in my opinion while just not quite having enough of a spark to really keep me interested at all. I'm sure if I thought of other settings I'd think of one that made me angrier, but Golarion just makes me feel really disappointed.
Favorite:
Gor
Least:
Eragon
>>46698932
Tarnsman of Gor is actually a pretty good book. I dunno about all the weird IRL sex slave shit people do, but I enjoyed the "ride a giant fukken hawk and make friends with a spider" bits.
>favorite
Elder Scrolls or Warhammer Fantasy
>least
Probably the generic japanese take on western fantasy
>>46692768
Favorite? Homebrew.
Least favorite? Fantasy grab-bag-has-everything overwrought shit published setting #2487 (Eberron? Golarion? FR? Dresden? WoD? Who cares?)
Favorite: Probably Old Man's War. I like all the aliens
Least favorite: Warhammer. It just takes things too far and the player base is extremely toxic.
>>46694048
I dislike Eberron because every part of it is different for the sake of being different. It doesn't have any unifying theme. "Our Orcs are protectors of nature and our Elves are barbarian ravagers, just because!"
To make a good setting, you need to have a goal, something to make the setting make sense within itself. Eberron was just throwing darts at a wall blindfolded.
It also doesn't understand aesthetic. It is as colourful as a Pony fruitcake and has loads of exaggerated action poses courtesy of Wayne Reynolds, andd while passing itself off as a setting for stories like detectives and tough explorers. They have no excuse for it, either, because this is produced by WotC and they produce things like Innistrad.
A good setting has focus, a good setting has pathos, a good setting has a consistent style. Eberron merely has ideas. Lots of ideas, some good, some bad, but none interacting with each other in a meaningful way.
It is better to take Eberron as a sourcebook like Unearthed Arcana to pull ideas from for some other setting, rather than ever using Eberron as-is.
>>46697529
>>46697615
>>46697627
>>46697993
Warhammer fanboys need to be muzzled.
>>46697882
>>46697993
I feel like there are many types of 'dark fantasy' with enough varieties at this point to be able to sit at one end and call the other 'bad' or whatever that word means.
See, Dark Souls represents the solo or handful, the remains of a world where you are but a tick scurrying about in the ruins, it is individual, with beauty and horror mixing as the clock slowly winds down. The dead will not dye as the fire slowly burns away, and you claw desperately for something, being crushed time after time.
40K lies on the other end, where individuality is mashed away to nothingness, where the sheer scale removes all thought and ration, turning the universe into conflict after bloody conflict with no end in sight, the unending sort of death march that will only rattle down when that reality collapses and all is wiped away to nothingness.
>>46697006
With as little blind hatred as I can muster, the basics of it are that a woman with absolutely no love for the Guild Wars setting was brought on to write the sequel, which turned a truly textured and nuanced high fantasy setting into a playground for whatever fruity nonsense she felt like.
It used to be a very human-centric setting, with some excellent beast races as enemies. Centaurs that had some unique tribal history to them, birdmen Tengu that were present both in the not!Asia or the setting and in the not!Mediterranean, and some cat-minotaurs that were basically the poster species and had some bloody history with humans.
None of those races are in focus anymore, with the addition of three new ones that nobody cares about, and the interesting parts that were there got completely forgotten. The shapeshifting viking bear-people were not only pushed aside to the point of Squatting them, but they added another race of bear people for reasons I cannot imagine, instead of doing the smart thing and making them a new culture.
All so that we can get boring fairy plant people, with all the grey morality and darkness that was in their backstory completely overwritten, taking centre stage.
It used to be have one of the best African fantasy settings around, too, until they shunted it aside.
And lots of pandering.
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Hellfrost, because I like the eternal winter setting and the winter survival aspect included within the setting.
Glorantha, because I love the political politics in the setting and like how it handles magic and gods.
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
Hard to say. Most settings that I haven't enjoyed was due to the system, moreso than the setting. I'd probably say Dragonlance due to how scripted the campaigns in it tend to be, and due to Kender.
>actually had a Kender in the party
>stole our stuff, stole an entire ship the party had, sailed off leaving us stranded
>we did manage to get a map off him
>figured that we'd find the Kender if we followed the map
>followed the damn map for a month
>ended up in the arctic
>Kender Player: "It was a map to a place where he could find ice!"
>>46700965
I had no idea Guild Wars was meant to have African themes. That sounds like a damn shame.
>>46701002
>and due to Kender
Kender need to fucking die. Even in the books they're a bunch of destructive, retarded little author's pet shits and people think they can get free reign to be a lolsorandumbXD dipshit when they play one.
>>46700320
result of the mediums they both use, more than anything
It's not like a more individual, slower paced approach has never happened in warhammer. Inquisitor was literally built on the idea. I'd also wager a souls wargame would end in a similar way, if those demon's souls spreads are anything to go by.
>>46692768
>favorites
As-is: Dark Sun
Slightly modified: Ravenloft
Heavily modified: Mirrodin
>least favorite
Probably any version of WOTC Forgotten Realms
>>46701102
If you've only played 2, you can barely tell, but back in the day, you had three distinct continents.
Tyria, which was "standard fantasy", but had a really unique blend about it. Heavy coastal tropic influence, varied environments, and a neat localized apocalypse feel.
Cantha, which was Asian all the way up, to the point where if you made a character there you had to be asian looking, which was a nice touch, plus the lore was really unique.
And Elona, which was an entire setting of mixed African states.
The latter two were arguably more important to Guild Wars' identity than the former, and they just canned it to not offend the Koreans for Cantha and... I cannot think of a single fucking reason to axe Elona, since in these days of 'we need as many black people as possible or we're racist', having an entire setting of African mythos done fucking beautifully would have been a great addition.
>>46692768
Favorites: Old-school Greyhawk will always hold a special place in my grognard heart.
The Sundered Skies milieu for Savage Worlds is pretty fun.
I have a soft spot for the Warhammer fantasy milieu for "darker" rp style, and the Iron Kingdoms milieu as well for more of a "steam fantasy".
Least favorite: Dragonlance, Eberron, Dark Suns. I wasn't much a fan of the Forgotten Realms as compared to the older Greyhawk world it just seemed so bland and generic. It didn't have the sense of history. Had no "weight".
>>46692768
Favorite: Greyhawk
Least Favorite: the Blue Rose setting. Equalia, or whatever the fuck it is.
>>46695319
>the setting itself is empty and incoherent
for that you shall be given forty lashes to the back, and then you shall be put in the mangler, and then you shall be thrown into the pits with the spawn of Ungoliant, and then we will pour burning pitch into the pits, for you speak of thing beyond your understanding, and prove yourself more foul than even Tar-Mairon in his great tolerance will permit.
Fav: Warhammer Fantasy
Least: The "Lore" Elder Scrolls that resembles nothing that we see in the games in the slightest.
>>46701672
Actually, I'm a huge fan of LotR, but playing in the late 3rd age, Tolkien's setting is pretty damned empty. What used to be Arnor is now mostly empty. The Anduin valley is mostly empty. Basically, outside of Gondor and Rohan, the north is pretty bleak and desolate.
That's why ICE's MERP setting used the middle third age as it's base setting...there were actually people around.
>>46701733
but its not as if you wouldn't find anything interesting if you went to those places, or even that they were devoid of people or activity even at that low point. There might be few people, but the setting itself is plenty full. I admit that tolkien doesn't just toss out adventure hooks for games, but its simply incorrect to say the world is empty, let alone incoherent.
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Definitely what they've did in Thief and Thief 2. I don't give a fuck if that's vidya stuff. It's the best fantasy setting, perfectly suited for the job it's suppose to do
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
Ho boy... anything that can qualify as black-and-white high fantasy, anything that is grim-dark (because for me it's always derp instead). Also, settings that were created over long period of time tend to suffer as inconsistent at best, pure shit at usual.
>Favorite
Eberron is a goddamn masterpiece.
>Least Favorite
Fuck if I know.
>>46698432
I thing we should meet, talk and then play some sword and sorcery game
I'm still await some of Glorantha fans to explain me what's the appeal of this setting. Usually I get something in lines of "HURR YOU HAVE SHIT TASTE IF YOU DON'T LIKE DURRR" instead.
>>46699412
But the elves in Eberron are Lawful Good necromancers or Lawful Neutral ancestor worship horse nomads.
Stop making shit up to prove your point and read the fucking book.
>>46705112
>Missing the point this much
Not even the original anon, but ho boy...
>>46692768
>Favorite
Black Company. Perfect amount of pant-shittingly powerful magic while still keeping it mysterious enough that it doesn't lose its mystery. Middle Earth is a close second.
>Least Favorite
Wherever the Orcs series by Stan Nicholls takes place. It's an interesting premise but when one of your villain factions is just Christianity with the names filed off and the religious symbol twisted 45 degrees then you can just go fuck yourself. Bonus points for making literally every member of the faction an irredeemable shitface.
>Favourite
Anything that carries a slight dose of self-awarness instead of being dead-serious about the setting. Which means I usually play pulp fantasy
>Least favorite
Anything from White Wolf, so all the Something: The Other Thing games that are just absolutely awful when you sit for a while and think about their incoherent and inconsistient content. I still can't understand why those were one of the hottest shit a decade ago
>Favourite
The City from Thief. Jesus Christ, this is just great. The Alpha Complex from Paranoia is second contestant
>Least favourite
I know this might create an outrage, but still - LotR. I just don't find it interesting as a setting, as there is nothing to do out there, entire regions are empty wilderness and... well, nothing really is going around. For me it's a setting that just happens to exist, so the story has a place to happen, but that's all.
>>46699412
>It doesn't have any unifying theme.
Feuding noble houses and secret societies.
>>46705128
>"Our Orcs are protectors of nature and our Elves are barbarian ravagers, just because!"
Do you also complain about Dark Sun's Elves and Halflings?
>>46705181
Which part of the "our setting is different for the sake of being different" you didn't get that you clinge so hard about non-important details?
It literally doesn't matter when the entire concept behind Eberron is "we different, because". This is the type of settings that has effects, but without causes
>>46695319
>>46695966
>the edge
my redguard bretheren
>Favourite
Call of Cthulhu before it became a meme setting and meme game
>Least Favourite
TES. D&D makes more sense internally than this heap of ideas thrown together.
>Favorite
Xanth and T.A. Barron's take on Avalon are up there. Shannara has its moments, particularly during the Talismans time period. Spelljammer looks fun for tabletop but I haven't played in it.
>Least favorite
That's difficult. Golarion? Or whatever the hell you'd call the mess that is League of Legend's setting.
>>46705313
>League of Legend's setting
Wait... this is a thing? This game has setting?
>>46705327
They tried, then axed the writers and tried again. It's a pretty gnarly mess that tries too hard to make sense and fails miserably.
>>46705327
Despite Riot's best efforts, yes. They used to put out stories every now and again with their characters actually doing shit, but that got axed.
Now they're cutting out lore like it's a fucking cancer. I have a feeling their writing staff is just a stick with some ink on the end that they pass around the office.
>>46705354
I'm more amazed about the fact that someone even wanted to give this a setting. This is the kind of game that doesn't require any at all to be fully playable, so why even bother?
So let me guess - it's a very strong case of gameplay and story separation?
Favorite: Conan the Barbarian.
Least Favorite: Warcraft anything.
>>46705371
>So let me guess - it's a very strong case of gameplay and story separation?
Not particularly, honestly.
The game arena exists in the lore. Kingdoms summon champions to fight there because the last time the powers that be really went at it shit got wrecked. It's basically for fighting proxy wars and rounding up beings that are too powerful to roam free in the rest of the world.
>>46705371
Partially? They tried integrating the game play into the story by making the players summoners and the champions having varying reasons to join the league but now some of them are just in it for the lulz or something. I don't even know what's happening with the game play and story integration anymore.
>>46701247
>>46700965
You're forgetting to mention that the few parts that were actually done well about Guild Wars 2 were completely shafted by the awful mess that was the writing. It was just a complete debacle. It's one of the biggest cases of writing taking a huge downturn between games. They just plain forgot plenty of plot points or swept interesting things under the rug in favor of Shit-Tier Destiny's Edge and Mary Sue Plant Harley Quinn.I'm not bitter, shut up.
>>46705327
It was a place full of city states having to fight in combat by champion for people that "summoned" them in order to solve disputes between everyone and avoid open war.
And then they retconned the original strong point of the setting - the summoners league.
>>46695571
>You don't know shit about fantasy
>Why are you here?
For some reason I thought you guys would be fun to talk to.
>>46695232
>warcraft
Do you mean current lore of warcraft and wow or something else?
It is honestly hard to believe anyone favorite's setting would be this what warcraft is now
![latest[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/pmKqneR.png "latest[1].png")
Favourite is pic related
It's hard to pick a least favourite though. Most setting have their fair share of enjoyable/dislikable things.
>>46705525
Not that anon, but almost everything pre-Cata is good in my books. After WotLK (which wasn't amazing, but I enjoyed it) everything just takes a dive, but before that? Great. Wouldn't change a thing.
>>46699412
> I dislike Eberron because every part of it is different for the sake of being different.
That's what Forgotten Realms is.
Eberron (I'm talking 3e only; no idea what happened later) has a semi-cohesive history that ties together most of the stuff.
> It doesn't have any unifying theme.
You can treat each continent as a separate setting with a theme: ancient ruins of Xen'Drik, conspiracies of Khorvaire, dragons of Argonessen and mind-fuckery of Sarlona.
>>46692768
Favorite: Lore Elder Scrolls, Eberron
I like science fantasy and magitech settings.
Least Favorite:
Probably Ravenloft, Dark Souls' setting, and other gothic / dark fantasy. I just don't really care for them. Dark fantasy isn't really something I enjoy.
>>46700965
Hey, I actuallyalmostlike the boring fairy plant people. Their two biggest problems are a morality system that's hard-wired into them (and you cannot disagree with it without becoming stupid evil) and the fact that their hivemind barely gets any mention.
Even without playing 1 beyond the first few missions, I can agree with the rest. Good game, but such a sue-off!
Most Favorite: Fighting Fantasy's Titan
Least Favorite: ...probably the Ansalon part of Krynn, but not the Taladas, so we'll say 'half of Dragonlance'.
>>46705542
I hate how little mystery there is in this setting.
They tell you everything,show you every ruin,throw ancient alien technology at you.
This is the setting where throwing a nuke is a possible method of warfare,but armies still consist of mainly rank and file knights/barbarians.
And there are literally aliens from outer space,that came with their own gods of light,and crashed on a planet full of conflict and influences of Legion.
And they decided just to wait and chill in their spaceship
Favorite settings:
Warcraft, forgotten realms, the sanctuary book series, because it has a great setting.
Least favorite:
Legend of Zelda. Bland boring meh.
Honorable mentions- settings from books
The blue adept:
Heavy sci fi world juxtaposed with a fantasy one.
Xanth.
Florida but magical, and sometimes nonsensical. But hilariously good
>>46705583
All the while the only thing the protagonist does is nod his head and say "good idea, let's do that!" to the ever-increasing cast of oh so special supporting cast.
>>46705152
I also really like Black Company. Although, I'm not sure when I'd set it chronologically because I'm kinda interested in what happens to post-Lady empire. I don't care that much for fantasy India, though.
>>46701112
I've been trying to get into Dragonlance recently, read a few collections but not yet what I gather are the 'main' stories. There are a lot of interesting parts to the setting but every time kender show up and act like little thieving retards I get pulled out by the sheer idiocy of it all. Everyone knows what they're like. I've seen dozens of examples of one pulling out items from their belongings only for another character to recognise it and get angry. All they do is take it back, still letting the kender travel with them, they get no punishment whatsoever. And the city! How does Kendermore even WORK? It wouldn't, from what I read kender society would never operate. How has the whole race not had their hands cut off by now.
>>46700965
Fucking saddening to me, man. I absolutely loved GW1, did a playthrough of all the campaigns and EotN with a friend recently and it was cool and nostalgic as fuck. GW2 just fails to make me feel anything but disappointed, it's such a shame. I wonder if a Guild Wars TRPG could be good?
>>46697882
>>46697456
Interesting to read this polarisation, because I love 40k but also love Dark Souls and while I never finished watching Wakfu (really must do so) and never played the game, the setting does have some real charm to it. That said, Wakfu simply isn't as fleshed out as 40k unless there's a ton of stuff I'm missing. I feel like some of the comments criticising your anti-40k stances are saying "but 40k has so much lore!", but you're not denying that it's well-fleshed; you're saying that you don't like its style, and that's fine.
>>46697993
>Souls lore is shallow shit
Lmoa.
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Honestly, not my homebrew setting. Really I just made it to get into playing TRPGs with my friends with, and it's pretty uninteresting. I could definitely do better. I would probably have to say 40k, but I do also love TES and Dark Souls. If The Force is enough to make it fantasy, I'll throw Star Wars in there, too (and if we're separating the movies from the EU as we probably should, I definitely prefer the EU; more fantastical, if nothing else).
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
I don't know if I've ever had sufficient exposure to any setting I don't like to really say "yeah this setting definitely sucks", but while there's some stuff I like about Warcraft, it IS highly generic and its aesthetic ranges from the very cool to the fucking disgraceful. I can't feel comfortable with gnomes and goblins and their stupid tech, either. If the whole setting had a "fantasy but with some advanced tech thrown in" vibe it might work, but as it stands you just have ridiculous discrepancies in technology within walking distance of each other.
>>46694486
Goddammit man, stop making me want to play GW1 all over again.
>>46705650
Man, the fucking concept art is enough to ignite some urge.
>favourite
WHFB,Bionicle
>least favourite
Age of Sigmar,obviously
Modern Warcraft
I would say League of Legends have shit setting but that would be like laughing at handless children with down syndrome which are also gay
>>46700965
>>46705473
I had a strong feeling after meeting this insufferable faggot during Eye of the North that the writing was going to take a significant turn for the worse. All the more so when I found out that his descendant would play a major role in the story upon release. Which is the entire reason they introduced him and then clumsily shipped him with Gwen.
>>46705102
A lot of mythic weight. Greg Stafford is the sort of obsessive autist that I can only dream of being, and has packed a shit ton of detail and background information to the setting. If you want, you can delve into a hundred different myths, cultures, and little plot elements that are all put together really well. The way magic is handled just adds to this mythical, bronze age feeling.
Or, if you want to go out and stab a murder cow and that's it, you've got a very evocative bronze age fantasy setting with a lot of colorful details. You don't need to know what a Second Son is, because the setting manages to convey that mythical and legendary feeling even with a few details and the design of the world.
Hope that helps.
Favorite: Many.
Least Favorite: Lots.
I kinda like Planescape, WH40k and Black Company. Another Cook's (one is Glen, the other - Hugh; I tend to confuse them) Chronicles of the Age of Darkness are also worth mentioning.
If we are talking vidya, Dunmer cultures from TES Morrowind are good, but I can't say I care about by the rest of the series: Oblivion and Skyrim were too generic.
And I don't get all this Eberron hate. It's somewhere in the middle. Maybe even above the average.
The ones I explicitly don't like would be Forgotten Realms (Underdark is not bad, but falsemachine blog makes it better; the rest is an utter "meh"-tier).
Golarion got less Elminsters, but it's even worse: hideously generic. And I can't even get myself to care about factions. Apparently Paizo tried to make a rip-off of Alpha Centauri (setting I would've mentioned among the favorites, if it got properly developed), but failed utterly.
I mean, what could be easier? The possibilities: necrocommunists with the armies of undead workers against the Holy Orders; eugenicists that forcibly interbreed mortals with outsiders/dragons on a grand scale versus nazi factions; the oracle state that relies on precognition and the ultimate anti-determinist rebel league; wizard singularity faction against the druid eco-terrorists.
IT'S A FUCKING FANTASY, PEOPLE.
>>46694486
>tfw Elona was the dopest fucking setting I've ever seen
>GW2 will never go back
>any new African-inspired fantasy would drown in WE WUZ meme shit anyway
kill me now
>>46705102
Hey, it's >>46697409 here.
I like it because I find the late bronze age-early iron age style cultures great for making characters who take part in the world.
The inhuman elder races are interesting takes on the standard races. And the history provides me with some plot hooks.
All in all, I just find itfun. But I fully understand, different people, different tastes. I don't really understand the complaint of it being too modern, I must admit.
>>46705492
You were wrong, and you have bad taste. Sorry kid.
>>46705808
I fucking hate how there are people that label you as a SJW for not basing your setting on anything other then Europe/Japan
>>46705790
Not the original anon, but let me get this straight to the point:
The appeal is that you are playing someone's else fantasy, described in every detail?
No wonder it has zero appeal to me. But I guess I understand why many people would like such setting
>>46692768
Legend of Mana is my favorite. So vibrant and interesting.
Least favorite? Elder scrolls I guess. It just isn't what I'm looking for in a fantasy setting. Not at all.
>>46705852
The point I'm trying to say is that if a person wants to go into weird esoteric mythology and lore, there's an immense amount to sink into. If a person wants to ignore that, you still have a very well thought out setting with a lot of coherent detail. Cultures and settings are mapped out in pretty good detail, but there's also a lot of attention paid to how a people could deviate from the standard norm of a culture and still fit in. A lot of the Heroquest source books have pretty significant sections dedicated to creating your own clans and parts of the world and how to make them unique.
Plus, the authors have always been pretty adamant that individual interpretations of the setting always should exist. Deviations from the source material are sort of encouraged in some ways. This is true even for the esoteric mythology, since there are a great deal of mysteries and conflicting stories that may or may not be true and are down for GM decision. There's a lot to sink one's teeth into, but how deep you go and how hard you play to what is canon is up to you. This is of course true of any setting, but Glorantha is very up front about it, and has some really interesting ideas to build on.
>>46705852
Not them either, but I mean, "playing in someone else's' fantasy" could be applied to many other RPG settings.
While there's a ridiculous amount of detail, the setting's not exactly lacking for gaps for your own stuff.
>>46705814
Out of curiosity, which one of these responses is your idea of good taste?
>favourite
Probably The Witcher maybe TES outside of Oblivion and Skyrim. Souls would be cool if From fleshed it out better.
>least favourite
Super generic DnD esc settings. Dragon Age comes to mind.
Earwa from the Second Apocalypse is doubtlessly the best fantasy setting. 2gud. After that my personal favorites are Dune, Berserk. Planescape is also pretty awesome. When I was a kid I fucking loved Gregor the Overlander, does anyone remember that series? When I found out the author later went on to write the Hunger Games I shat bricks.
As far as least favorite, I really hate the derivative kitchen sink fantasy style that so many RPGs go for (yeah, looking at you, Faerun/Golarion/so many others in their stripe).
Novel-wise, Alagaesia is remarkably bad. I'll just say that because I don't feel like sifting through all the candidates and it deserves the title of Shittiest Magical Realm anyway.
> Favourite
Probably Warhammer Fantasy, though that's excluding book settings and just going off tabletop options. I actually really dig the Wheel of Time as a setting, even if the books are generally run of the mill. You've got Cossacks living next door to Samurai, holding the line against the mutant spawn of Satan. From a very nerdy place there's a lot to like there.
> Least favourite
Probably Forgotten Realms. I've never cared for any of the established DnD settings though.
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
My own generic fantasy campaign setting. Sure, it's generic as fuck. Sure, all but like 3 of the kingdoms I cribbed from other settings. Sure, it's generic as FUCK, but goddamnit, it's MY generic fantasy homebrewed setting.
Otherwise I really like dark/gothic fantasy type stuff. WHFB, Ravenloft, Innistrad, Dark/Demon's Souls, Diablo 1 and 2, I'm a sucker for that cheesy shit.
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
Eberron.Eberron Haters unite!
For all the same reasons this guy does >>46699412 Seriously my melanin enhanced brethren, it's like you're in my head.
>>46695997
Fuck why are wizards stuck in the 19th century, why is this never explained. Why do they have magical cars and buses when the rest of the world is so backwards reeeeeeeee
>>46705152
>>46705612
what makes black company setting so special, though? seems like your typical dark fantasy from what I've gathered.
>>46706099
Because progress is bad,and they live a happy live without technology.
or something
>>46705922
>>46705945
You know, this comes probably from the roots of RPG in my country.
There was very, very little material aside rules on the xeros and hand-written notebooks, because there was really no point of focusing on fluff if you didn't have budged or had to transcribe it yourself. Hence everyone was playing games with homebrew settings
When by mid 90s numerous translations of different games finally showed up in "legal" form, nobody was really interested in the fluff, since entire player base was VERY used to the concept of homebrewing their games. And this attitude prevailed as dominant till mid 00s at least, if not longer in certain places.
So even if people were in theory playing Warhammer Fantasy or Cyberpunk 2020, they were using their own settings for it, each one unique for given GM. Hell, I know people that played Call of Cthulhu based on local folklore and urban legends.
But as I said, I fully understand why people might like a well-written and in-depth setting already provided by the game itself.
It's simply not something that appeals to me.
Jesus, I sound like fucking Donald Kowalsky or any other old grump and I'm not even 40
>>46706099
If everything is going too well, society can stagnate. Why invent new things if it seems like there's nothing to improve?
>>46706001
As a Pole I must say Witcherverse is one massive convoluted mess of ideas thrown together with ZERO integrity between them.
It got especially obvious when the tabletop RPG was made and all the facts about the setting collected into something resembling a setting.
It's a mess.
And half of it its done intentionally to spite the fanbase, given the trolling attitude of the author.
>>46700965
You forgot mention that they also noblebrighted the race of gnomish dicks incarnate (remember that trial? 'I didn't have a permit for the homicidal golems, but most of the mayhem was in human territory, so no permit was required.').The norn are still there though, dunno what you meant by that
>>46706099
A lot of British people are Luddites.
>>46706099
Magic and technology don't mix, as well as fact that magic does a lot of things that were, well, magic until technology caught up. And then you have shit like Floo Network which is basically wireless communication with video link and limited teleportation. And wizards had that shit for supposedly centuries. It's not difficult to imagine why they would scoff at technology and advancements in general.
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Dying Earth. God I miss that period when SF and fantasy weren't so separate and would mingle on regular basis.
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
Most horror settings because they fail at being horror.
>>46706167
ehh, I'm a filthy westerner who's only played the games. I think I just like it because I like how CD Projekt has presented the world. Other than that it's just generic DnD fantasy with some GoT esc realism thrown haplessly on top.
>>46706174
>Trying to justify setting that never was thought through
Seriously anon, why even trying? Everyone knows the setting makes zero sense and is just a lot of random ideas put together in each book.
And if magitech is impossible, how will you justify stuff like flying cars, a bus going in its own pocket dimension and photography with movement capabilities?
You can't and for a simple reason - this is not suppose to make any sense, it's just something the woman got idea for and put it in in fucking children book.
>>46706022
I can p much agree with this post. Second Apocalypse fans unite!
>>46706201
There are - just within original short stories and books - theee distinctive universes:
- the one from "The Witcher" short story, which is COMPLETELY different world than the rest (THE Witcher)
- the one from remaining short stories (Short Stories)
- the saga (Saga)
They are literally happening in three different universes, because there is no other logical explaination for all the major differences and details between them.
Then there is the TV show (Series)
Then there is the tabletop, which tried their best to create something homogenous out of the written material, but in the end it's pretty much Short Stories+ universe with few bits lifted from the TV series. (Tabletop or Short Stories+)
And then there are video games, that luckily retconned all the awful shit from the saga, sticking with Saga universe, but giving alternative history for it in the end. (Vidya)
So in short - we are currently having 6 different universes. And 7th is incoming with the developed new tabletop RPG
Bonus point for the absolute lack of internal integrity of the Saga universe, aka the most described one.
>>46706022
HOT JETS OF BLACK SEED
>>46706201
A LOT of what makes Witcher unique is lost in translation. I've read the English version of "The Last Wish". It's just generic to the core, since all the language plays and jokes are removed, not to mention loosing the context of spoofing Poles.
Which only makes it more amazing how popular Witcher video games are.
>>46706238
Sounds like it's a mess. Anyway why does the author hate his fans so much?
>>46706251
Yeah. English translation is the worst by far. It's not that it's BAD, it just that they made it bland as fuck as opposed to creating new terms and names for Polish things in the books.
>>46706264
>Anyway why does the author hate his fans so much?
he's a crotchety old drunk. seems to come with the territory.
>>46706251
>>46706265
What made Witcher books good was how they were written. The short stories and parts of the saga were a weird mix of the Game of Thrones and Shrek. And they were great.
Later books in the saga were more "serious" and lost some of the charm they had.
And you can't forget the mary sue Ciri was
>>46705708
I'm glad I'm not the only one who refused to do his quests.
>>46706322
>Mary Sue Ciri
I find it super-ironic when people call Vidya!Ciri pretentious Mary Sue, while she is SERIOUSLY toned-down when compared with the Book!Ciri.
>>46706264
A few factors:
- small name, HUGE ego
- mean person by default - he was always like that
- his fandom has sizable chunk of people that literally worship the books and him as a person, as in overly attatched girlfriend-style behaviour, which obviously annoys him
- half-way through he literally burned out as a writer, but the contract obligated him to finish the book
- his massive ego lead to the situation he hated the books he was writing, but in the same time the sole idea someone else could continue with his precious creation made him twitch... so he burned down everything, killed almost all named characters and fucked up everything beyond repair
Or in short - old mean drunk
>>46706240
*impassively determines the branching possibilities of your next actions as you cum black seed all over my face* baby
>>46706322
>That moment when people compare Witcher to the GoT
It's funny, because early on SOIAF was compared in Poland to Witcher, as "You know, it's like Witcher, but without any humour or finess"
>>46706430
I know,I'm a Pole too and read both sagas.
While SOIAF is consistently bad, Witcher short stories and the start of the saga are where it shines,later it becames worse and worse.
I finished Witcher just for Regis but in the case of ASOIAF even Greyjoys weren't interesting enough to make books somehow enjoyable.
>>46706466
For me what killed the saga was how by... Baptism of Fire all the concept for poking fun and deconstruction is just replaced with generic and plain stuff. I mean BoF turns the saga into a shitty scenario for RPG, with each character literally playing the archetypical role of PCs within adventuring group.
>>46706500
Wasn't it Baptism of Fire where Sapkowski openly announced he's tired with the Witcherverse? And it really shows
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Toss-up between Lankhmar, The Dying Earth, Hyperborea (CAS and Howard versions), Xothique, the Urth of New Sun and Barsoom.
Tekumel isn't bad either as long as you treat it like MAR Barker did, full of pulpy fun and dungeons in the underworld.
For high fantasy stuff the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, the 1E barely-defined Greybox Forgotten Realms and the first Greyhawk boxset are all great starting points. (the latter two don't really get terrible much later "canon" wankery was introduced)
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
That's a tough one. Like half of published fantasy settings comes to mind.
Ignoring all the outright terrible ones then maybe Planescape and Glorantha for being very interesting premises that end up piling a ton of really stupid shit upon them.
That combined with their fanbases almost always insisting to make every session into a philosophy 101 course. (goes for Dark Sun as well with a serious case of "look at how grim'n'dark it is" misery tourism tour)
>>46706430
>>46706466
oddly enough in Pathfinder, the country which is designed for Game of Thrones shitfests is also the Polish equivalent.
Why does this keep happening?
>>46706870
Check Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, even wikipedia should be enough.
You will understand.
Least favorite: D&D/Pathfinder
Mainly because of alignment
Favorite: Atelier series, I suppose
>>46706973
>Least favorite: D&D/Pathfinder
>Mainly because of alignment
That's system, not setting.
Favourite fantasy setting is my own homebrew setting (A combination of my own ideas, as well as heavy inspiration taken from the video games Fable and Overlord). Obviously my favourite because I made it. It's not overly good but it's mine.
Second favourite would be Warhammer: Fantasy (pre-end times, of course).
Least favourite is any fantasy setting which obeys many/all traditional D&D cliches (i.e. can't walk down the street without tripping over a wizard, by 5th level everyone and their grandmother has five or six magic items on their person at all times, high level characters fight nothing but dragons etc).
>>46707028
Anon, have you actually read through those settings? Because don't want to burst it for you - alignments are integral part of it.
Really.
>>46707088
they're pretty easy to ditch actually. they're no more integral than the list of gods in the phb.
>>46707103
Not like half the fucking cosmology of D&D revolves around alignments or anything.
>>46705492
You probably should have lurked a little longer. This thread alone would probably be enough to tell you that "D&D" is not a setting.
>>46706973
>>46707088
>>46707129
>>46707028
Alignments in D&D/PF are pretty central to the game's cosmology
That's one of the only things I like about the alignment system
>>46707129
Like the anon you replied to said, you can drop them fairly easily. Places for demons, places for angels. No need for in-universe morality system beyond just having them as concepts.
Also, I do wish people would stop posting 'my favourite setting is my own'. Your ego-wanking has no place in this discussion.
>>46707103
If you ditch them then it's your setting, not the original one.
>>46707129
>>46707088
Alignments are not, in fact, an integral part of such games. The outer planes are not going to show up in all campaigns, they do not exist in all cosmologies, andalignments aren't remotely required for their use in any case.
100% of RPGs and campaigns will do just fine if you describe how the Abyss is a realm of relentless madness and predation without alignment being a thing.
The Far Realm and pseudonaturals have no particular alignment and yet its largely expected they will fuck everything up relentlessly.
Even the faggy Book of Exalted Deeds doesn't require the D&D alignment system. You can use it to run off Honor for example, and you don't remotely need anything close to alignment to arbitrate Vow of Being A Poor Fuck or Vow of Being a Bulletproof Peacenik.
>>46706022
Dude, Gregor the Overlander was good shit. Those books deserved to be better known.
I remember reading The Hunger Games on the first place because I'd read Gregor first, before it was super famous. It was really weird when it blew up some time after I'd already finished the series.
>>46707168
They're central to some of the game's settings and not to others. Eberron, Ghostwalk, Dark Sun and Birthright don't appear to monkey around with alignment much for their cosmology, for example.
Its not as if alignment is required for use of the outer planes, even. Absolutely nothing is lost if Zeus or Odin's home planes aren't Chaotic Good anymore (or whatever, iirc Elysium is NG on second thought), for example, or only informally chaotic good.
>>46707177
No. Its a rules element, not a setting one. Without objective alignment, virtually no one will notice. There are no cities that have paladins sitting on the gates scanning people for bad thoughts, there are no settings that will be harmed by the omission.
>>46697456
I like the grimdarkness of 40k
what i don't like is that it's literally a classic fantasy setting, but in space. Space orcs, space elves, space demons, it's lame as fuck.
If it was just humans and zerg and tao and other similar civilizations it would've been cool as fuck. Maybe chaos would be tolerable as well since its central to the story.
>>46707741
>literally a classic fantasy setting, but in space
Its really not. If you called the orks Fungus Hooligans, the elves, I dunno, Volcans, and the daemons Psi-Extruders, you wouldn't be saying that.
If archaic melee weapons and DimensionalBrainMagic are enough to classify it as LITERALLY CLASSIC FANTASY then basically the whole popular sci fi genre is fucked.
I like Glorantha a ton, but even I have to admit Greg sometimes has a stick up his ass which the likes of Kirkbride can only dream of. It's still got a really solid framework and the most comprehensive and realistic treatment of mythology in most any fantasy setting.
I don't like most WotC settings and I guess few people do because they're expressly designed with the mindset of "dice and charsheet first worldbuilding second". Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course, since DnD's tangibility and ease of getting into is part of why it's so popular.
>>46692768
TES.
Don't have one, because I don't pay attention to setting I don't like.
>>46706410
Man, so Geralt getting killed by a peasant was just a fuck you to his fans? The games make it seem like a really cool, pivotal point in Geralt's story and is kinda justified in the games given how easily Geralt can die and how normal humans can kick your ass in fist fights.
Sapolski must really hate how successful the vidya series has become.
>>46707884
How many WotC settings are there exactly? There's Ghostwalk, Eberron, and Points of Light, which is really INSERT_SETTING_HERE. I certainly hear more praise than scorn for the first two.
>>46707972
Sapkowski*
>>46707985
WotC owns Greyhawk and FR, doesn't it? Along with other lesser ones like Ravenloft.
>>46707985
There's also Age of Mortals Krynn, Spellplague Faerun, and the revamped planes (which is the replacement for Planescape).
>>46708013
I really really really don't think you can blame WotC for TSR settings
>>46708013
They own them, yes, but the last Ravenloft stuff between 2e and Curse of Strahd was all White Wolf, Greyhawk didn't get shit in 3e, FR got the Spellplague in 4e, Dragonlance got a bit of AoM stuff, Dark Sun got a release or two for 4e, and all the others have been quietly retired.
>>46708017
Its a replacement for the setting it piggybacked on. I don't consider WotC responsible for the possibly iffy continuations of prior settings either way due to there being only so much worldbuilding you can do on top of all that nonsense.
>>46708040
>FR got the Spellplague in 4e,
And was the main release line for 3e and 5e.
>>46707972
Killing your own creation so that it doesn't turn into a shitty franchise seems like a pretty principled thing to do. Few people possess that level of integrity.
>>46697409
My negro
Mine.
Eberron. Dirty, dumb, steampunk scum.
>tfw a player demands I let him play a chaotic neutral gnome artificer so he can play with robots in my setting which has almost no fucking machines
>this between his chaotic neutral kenku assassin with a greatsword and his chaotic neutral half-elf-half-orc barbarian
>>46707816
>Its really not. If you called the orks Fungus Hooligans, the elves, I dunno, Volcans, and the daemons Psi-Extruders, you wouldn't be saying that.
Yes i would be. The elves are called eldar, but they're still elves, i don't like 'em.
>>46708100
Okay. Do you get outraged during Star Trek btw?
Also, who the fuck cares? No seriously. Do you have to approve of every last faction within 40k or what? Is it that much of a problem that a dying race who usually just look to be crystalloid coneheads is actually elfs?
>>46708084
...I dont understand.
>>46697409
>>46708084
>look how contrarian I am
>why though
>...
Glorantha is the weirdest setting, because it's almost like it took every opportunity to be as bland as it could be. Like, at every single crossroad of design, it said "No, I'm going down the path that's less exciting."
Favorite:Anything noblebright. I'm a sucker for those kind of settings. I don't really experience those types of settings too often though. Everything often just grimdark.
>>46706172
I didn't want to waste time and valuable character space talking about the rats and their stupid magitech.
And you're right. The Norn ARE still there. The problem is that all of their nifty spiritual stuff has been made both trivial and silly ("Bunny Bunny Bunny!") by adding extra spirits, and more importantly, by introducing the Kodan, they've made obsolete the one thing that set the race apart. Instead of having norse bear people with spirit worship and the japanese polar bear people with tribal iceberg holds be the same species, we've got samurai polar bears and huge tittied nothings running around with fuck all to do with one another. The entire thing that made them interesting before is completely gone.
>>46705583
The Sylvari are a great idea, mechanically. Having their morality hard-programmed into them was a neat idea, having the nightmare court exist for the purpose of FORCIBLY giving them free will through trauma is also a neat, if janky idea. The soundless are cool. The fact that the entire race is less than 25 years old is cool. The fact that they're the offspring of an evil primordial god is cool. (even if the dragons themselves are stupid) However, instead of turning them into hyper-weird, Arthurian, scary fey, they're that insufferable slag's pet species that can do no wrong.
>>46708172
Can you give a few examples of what you consider "noblebright?"
>>46705152
>Orcs series by Stan Nicholls
Literally the worst book I have ever read. Awful, aweful stuff. Basically just garbage warcraft fanfiction.
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Mother fucking Harn.
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
Eberron, the posterboy of tryhard bullshit.
>>46705152
>cook the books
Did he do that on purpose? Just jumps out at me.
>>46708224
This is a lovely map. I'm snatching it.
>>46699412
>It doesn't have any unifying theme.
Actually it does.
"What if low-level magic were as common as D&D itself makes it out to be, and always had been since the creation of the world?"
That is, particularly in 3rd Edition with its community generation rules, it was probable that even the smallest settlement of like 40 people had at least one Adept, and there was a fairly good chance of it having a low-level cleric, druid, sorcerer, and/or wizard. This is huge, yet default D&D tries to convince us that the world we adventure in is basically 13th Century Europe, but with no Christianity, but with magic.
That's its unifying theme. "Magic magic everywhere."
>>46708243
Harn is probably one of the most well thought out fantasy settings in existence. It's really underappreciated these days.
>>46708224
>Nuthela
I'm pronouncing this 'Nutella', and there's not a thing anyone can do about it.
![zirguis_of_kel__yan_by_6doug9-d494pg8[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/j2yu6FA.png "zirguis_of_kel__yan_by_6doug9-d494pg8[1].png")
>>46708187
Stuff like Spacejammer and Pokemon. A bigger focus on heroism, interesting people, and a sense of adventure. I mostly see it in space opera settings.
>>46708264
Addendum. Even more specifically it's "low-level magic everywhere." Few people in Eberron exceed 3rd level; a 9th-level character is a serious force to be reckoned with. I'm not certain Eberron ever had a single character in it of 21st level or higher. Even the centuries-old vampire ruler of Karrnath, Kaius III, is only 13th level in 3rd Edition.
I feel this was probably a deliberate response to the Forgotten Realms, where a number of iconic characters are well into epic levels or at least are very high level (Drizzt is level 16, for example).
>>46708224
>>46708267
And Harn itself is only a small part of an even bigger world that's slowly been fleshed out over the years.
>>46708309
Yeah. It does lead to one problem I have (and why I don't use Eberron as-is ever, just its components), that there really aren't "stock" high level NPCs. This is fine, but its not a low powered setting: it has highly social dragons and giants albeit off in their own corners. The net effect is that classed type NPCs will tend to be very underpowered threats.
>>46708372
The giants and dragons are busy dealing with their own stuff, obviously. Like most campaign settings, published or homebrew, Eberron works best when you run it as a place that stuff HAPPENS in. The world is bigger than the PCs and has a lot of stuff going on. Not all of it is level appropriate, but that's okay, because not all of it concerns the PCs.
If your characters actually reach 17th or so level then they *should* be at a level where they're no longer facing very many NPC threats. By that point the characters are basically demigods, both in terms of personal power and public perception, and so should be facing threats appropriate to demigods.
>>46697616
>>>46698203
>>46705392
I like Conan's world a lot but certain things are a thorn in my eye.
Like it's supposed to be ancient sword&sandal fantasy but you have 16th century spain and 16th century pirates roaming the map. Totally out of place.
But the idea of Conans world is fucking awesome, just poorly executed. Could be much better.
>>46708423
>Like it's supposed to be ancient sword&sandal fantasy
It isn't, actually.
Robert E. Howard loved writing historical fiction. But he found the sheer level of research needed in order to get things accurate and right exhausting and time-consuming. Thus he invented the Hyborian Age, where basically he picked his favorite places to write about, his favorite times to write about them, and chucked them together into a single fantasy setting where he could make his own history.
So Aquilonia and Nemedia are knights in shining armor out of France. Zingara and the Barachan Isles are 16th century pirates sans gunpowder. Argos, Shem, Koth, and Corinthia are the ancient Mediterranean and ancient Greece; Stygia is ancient Egypt, Kush, Darfar, Keshan are places like the Songhai and Tuareg, the Black Kingdoms are Darkest Africa out of various 19th century tales of the place, Vendhya is Maurya India, Hykania is Mongolian-controlled Asian steps, Hyperborea is the Kievan Rus', Khitai is Yellow Peril China, and so on.
Hyperboria was never intended to be sword & sandals, it just has places where a hero CAN go sword and sandals.
>>46708520
Sure, but that's what I don't like about it.
>>46708553
...
>I like Conan's world, except for the thing that make it Conan's world.
In seriousness, you don't like Hyboria, you like sword & sandals. Since part of Hyboria can be sword & sandals, you like those parts.
But the basic idea of Conan's world is "fantasy kitchen sink", not sword & sandals.
>>46708602
I don't know, in the MMO and the movies it's all ancient sword&sandal themed. Aquilonia is roman empire themed. That's what drew me to it, a fantasy world of barbarians and great civilizations. What you describe is pure crap.
>>46708167
But anon that is wrong and entirely unsubstantiated. May a legion of tax demons drag you to hell.
>>46708157
That's the doubting stone. He's a dick.
>>46709019
>in the MMO and the movies
Which are basically "based on" and not attempts to faithfully adapt Conan.
I have rather enjoyed our group's long-standing game in Scarred Lands. We started with some of the adventure paths and are working our way through the splats.
>>46692768
So what will they do once avalanche hits them?
>>46708186
It's probably because they had to make them playable - kind of pointless, given how superficial the mechanical difference between all five is, if you ask me. I think they did mention wanting to do more with the hivemind, but couldn't because there was no reasonable way to let players into that.
And to be fair, I don't really recall anyone doing anything wrong in the game unless they're either a villainous villain or terribly misguided. Then again, I never paid attention to the story.
How would you do scary weird Arthurian if they've got good and noble hard-wired into them? Or would you rather change that?
>>46710080
Guild Wars was always high fantasy, with not a whole lot of grey morality. It was never so hamfisted, though, because the world was such a harsh place that you being the only decent people around sorta worked.
Player Characters could have easily been Soundless, with the majority of the NPCs being in the Hivemind.
The scary weird Arthurian should have been the Nightmare Court, who shouldn't have been Chaotic Evil.
The hard-wired ideal Sylvari should have behaved like curious children, with absolutely no clue about basic shit. They'd be excellent 'new to Guild Wars' viewpoint characters.
>>46700965
>>46701247
>>46705473
>>46705634
>>46705708
>>46705808
Is GW1 playable at the moment? It'd be cool to play everything from Ascalon pre storm of fire to EotN, through Cantha and Elona.
I played all the campaigns and loved it back in the day, and yeah, GW2 was missing "something", the world didn't grab me in the same way; played 3 months and left it.
>>46705680
The concept art of Guild Wars has always been amazing. I wonder how GW2's art stands up to it these days.
>>46710472
Yes. Guild Wars 1 is still up and running just fine.
>>46710513
Do I need a party of 8 for most of it? Or a party at all? I don't think there's anyone around who'd play with me.
>>46706142
It's REALLY hard to explain properly. You need to read it to feel it.
Here's the first book. Have fun.
>>46692768
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Whatever I'm working on right now.
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
Whatever I finished working on a week ago.
>I don't like Eberron because it's races feel pointlessly "different for the sake of different"
As a huge fan of Eberron: I'll actually agree with this!
But this is more of a critique of those races in general. When subverting the cliche is in itself a cliche then you know you've reached full recursive of shit.
Still though the actual cultures each race has is interesting enough on their own. Really I'd argue you could turn the elves, halflings, dwarves, gnomes and orcs of Eberron into Humans without changing anything.
But then people would've complained about the book not supporting core races and trying to hamhandedly insert them anyway and thus we get a whole new pile of shit-flingers who aren't happy with anything.
For simplicity, I'll just stick with DnD settings.
>Favorite
Dark Sun. Badass, gone to shit world where it's every man and monster for themselves, even the gods abandoned that place.
>Least Favorite
Forgotten Realms. I feel like it's got too much in the setting, as strange as that sounds. There isn't any place on the map that has some major quest or has appeared in a novel. I feel it's too constricting trying to add your own stuff in it.
>>46711085
*any place on the map that DOESNT have a major quest
>>46708157
It's referencing a myth in setting.
When the Storm God Orlanth decided to make a tribe to unite the clans of other gods, the doubting wheel came up to him and told him it was a bad idea and would turn him into a tyrant.
In the video game, King of Dragon Pass, when your clan puts on a kind of Passion Play like re-enactment of the story (to gain magical powers) the doubting wheel is depicted as a giant stone wheel being pushed by two stagehands.
>>46708202
I was reading through them in high school so I didn't actually realize how bad they actually were until my parents bought me the one-off visual novel.
The Not!Christians were literally just guys in pilgrim hats. It was so bad.
There was actually one series I started reading which was worse, which was a shame because the prologue was well executed and then the author just fucked everything up forever. Still not as terrible a setting as Orcs though.
>>46707972
He is. To the point where he's pretty much creating a never-ending stream of shit over the game, claiming how "but my books are still superior".
But since his "star power" in currently non-existing, nobody is listening to the old drunk without questioning his claims.
His latest Witcherverse creation is fan-fic tier and everyone - aside Sapkowski himself - is aware of that.
>>46708079
>Few people possess that level of integrity.
Daily reminder he sold rights to make TV series and a movie for scraps
Daily reminder he did the same with vidya
Daily reminder he got extremely butt-hurt about vidya success
Daily reminder he wrote a fucking filler "book" (more like 10 pages short story stretched into 300) based on current popularity of the franchise
Daily reminder video games are handling his setting and characters than he ever could
Sapkowski has NO integrity. People with integrity are not trying in the same time to burn their creation, profit on it, shit on it and write more of it.
Favorite is Shadowrun's. It melds my love of fantasy with my throbbing erection for cyberpunk.
>>46711952
Oops forgot least favorite. Probably Dragonlance? It always struck me as *too* noblebright, and Kender are the biggest Mary Sue race since the Drow.
Speaking of Drow, Forgotten Realms always struck me as overly developed.
>>46706022
>Earwea
Aw yeah son. You have great taste.
>>46709019
>Aquilonia is roman empire themed
In the two Howard Conan stories where King Conan leads it Aquilonia war, the main force of Aquilonia is made up of knights with lances. Both times they're fighting Nemedia, which itself is made up of knights with lances. Its structure is also immensely feudal, with various dukes and barons having innate power in their own right, and not simply agents of the king.
Aquilonia has elements of Rome, but it's very much also supposed to be Medieval France (specifically the Carolingian Empire) as well.
>>46692768
>Favorites
Hyborian Age
Middle Earth
Faerûn
The Book of the New Sun - Urth
>Dislike
Harry Potter
Pokemon
Zelda
Warcraft
>>46712142
Honestly the whole setting is pretty much 16th-18th Century except for Stygia, Shem, and the parts of the Black Kingdoms that aren't just generic early pulp Darkest Africa. And likewise, those parts (particularly Stygia) stick out like a sore thumb.
>>46711841
Pretty much this. Anyone claiming at this point anything positive about Sapkowski is seriously deluted and out of touch with reality.
And book version of Witcherverse is one of the worst settings around, since the author didn't even try to make sense with all the elements. Fucking D&D makes more sense internally.
>>46711173
... and then Glorantha fans are surprised everyone else is giving their fav setting shits
>>46705542
This. I'd even push it back to pre-Argent Tournament. Everything after went full pants-on-head retarded.
>>46713718
Most real life myths are full of dumb shit and more or less exactly like that, Glorantha started out as an exercise in fictional comparative mythology.
>>46713990
Yeah, it's not as bad as the Egyptian mythology. Like when Horus tricked Set into eating lettuce covered with his cum, so that it sounded like he'd fucked his uncle when he questioned the semen, all so he could be Pharaoh.
The egyptians were fucking weird.
>>46708418
17th level? Well, I mean, the Lord of Blades is considered a serious problem and he's a very very very unoptimized level 12, for example. Its not remotely just about personal power, of course, but you're going to run out of humanoid/classed type threats waaaaay before level 17. And that's fine, but it is a genre of antagonist that peters out in Eberron by about level 10.
>>46699412
Eberron elves are a lot more than just barbarian ravagers, not too familiar in general but they have the Undying Court as a counts-as-deity and they're heavily good aligned, so its not as if they're bizarro elves.
>>46710794
Check some forums man. Alternatively email me at [email protected] and I might be fucked to come play through with you.
>>46709019
Its funny to see an MMO kiddy wither in the harsh light of lore.
>>46692768
>Favourite
Spelljammer for sure. The fantasy space physics and opportunity to explore so many worlds really appeal to me.
>What is your favourite fantasy setting?
Fading suns (star travel level of tech which is dying off and magic is being rediscovered in a futuristic dark ages)
>What is your least favourite fantasy setting?
hard to say world of darkness probably for using the real world as it's setting any requiring everything needs to stay in hiding. (though that is smart as the world doesn't need to be explained but still boring as fantasy settings go) (that said I need to make a Hunter character for a new campaign)
>>46708602
>Conan's world is "fantasy kitchen sink"
Which is the very reason why I like it so much
>>46692768
>favourite fantasy setting
The best Final Fantasy setting
>least favorite setting
0 on my vibrator.
>Favorite
EXA_PICO Universe, colloquially known as "the Ar Tonelico setting", but since then used also in the Surge Concerto games.
I really can't pick just one thing that I love about it.
There's the fact that the games are actually pretty good JRPG, I guess it affects me too. There're obvious computer science influences everywhere, which I enjoy entirely too much. There's the entire new alternative physics based on waves being and affecting everything even on macro-level, that was ultimately done to justify why singing does magic. There's the fact that it's part AU sci-fi, since magic is made actually useful by physics exploitation. There's the entire damn Hymmnos language that was completely made up just for the purpose of this one setting, with many songs in the game being sung in it. There're massive amounts of highly specific explanatory OOC lore for a setting that's made up of 5 niche weeb games.
Then there's of course just the fact that I really do think, that giant man-build towers holding flying continents from falling onto post-apocalyptic wrecked planet are cool as hell, especially since the way they work is written out very well, with every tower having its defining features. Well, OK, the continents are used pretty often, but they're cool here.
And, well, it's also probably the fact that despite everything being set in a postapocalyptic society with barely any memory of its roots, it's still noblebright as fuck. It's just a setting I would want to live in.
Picrelated is the tower of Ar Tonelico (or its top section, more precisely). You climb the actual thing in the game, by the way.
>least favorite
Probably, Witcher.
It just makes me not care about stuff that's going on, I guess. Is there even a twist to its tropes, besides the fact everything is grimdark? It's mostly just fairy tales being twisted, a good thing in moderate doses, but not really much to even discuss there. I don't get why it's so popular.
>>46716995
>I don't get why it's so popular.
In Poland - because at least the short stories and first two books of the saga are really well written as such. It's simply fun to read, with nice plays based on words and culture. Get's completely lost in translation.
Rest of the world? Pretty solid vidya, because books translatios are dull at best and god-awful in most cases.
>>46693167
Ooo, talking shit about zelda on the internet.
I love zelda, but I admit the setting is a little subpar, especially after skyward sword. Still not a fan of any split timeline dodad, but i bit the pillow on that a long time ago
Least favorite setting for me is the Dragonball universe, a show i still love
>>46692768
>Best
Homebrew, Trudvang, Glorantha, Warhammer Fantasy, Ars Magica, Symbaroum..
>Worst
Any D&D one except Dark Sun, but that's probably that horrible system mechanics that the settings are so forced to wrap around.
>>46720209
>Trudvang
min stormländare
