What about RPGA's Ravens Bluff and the Plateau of Chult? I only saw them at the trailing end of RPGA's demise. Chult looked interesting with the new half-kobold PC race. But never heard much of it after that.

Quote from: Omega;701592What about RPGA's Ravens Bluff

That would be the Forgotten Realms.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;701632That would be the Forgotten Realms.

Chult's FR too, allthough Chult's located rather far from the Heartlands.

Quote from: Omega;701516Yes, but steampunk tends to be more defined by its misplaced tech. Or a focus on the steam-tech side. Unfortunately rampant misude of the term progressively muddles things. Kinga like how RPG gets applied to things not even remotely an RPG.

Simmilar to how cyberpunk focuses on the cybernetics and cyberspace.

I am waiting for someone to call D&D swordpunk... deaths will ensue I am sure...

The original Steam Punk Opener  (in color so as to not shock the young ones here)

When, 35 years later, I saw kids playing this theme as an RPG, it was amusing to say the least.

As someone who discovered (A)D&D through the 90s, I love, love, LOVE all the TSR settings (and then some).  I think I was conditioned to.

Years later, I realize the setting "ADHD" robbed me of something very valuable: a long-term campaign based on my own personal fantasy "milieu".  One that has grown organically from a hole in the ground next to a no-name town into a grand world of its own.

Instead of my campaign memories being one big, beautiful redwood, it is a forest of tiny, stunted saplings

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;701632That would be the Forgotten Realms.

Yes, but they were put forward as more or less their own isolated settings, especially Chult.

Quote from: Arduin;701678The original Steam Punk Opener  (in color so as to not shock the young ones here)

When, 35 years later, I saw kids playing this theme as an RPG, it was amusing to say the least.

Nah. Wild Wild West is not steampunk though. It is... Westernpunk combined with Spypunk and a little MadScientistpunk.

Closer would be something like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMOR4bs5wrk

So much punk, but nobody wears army boots nor mohawks .

Quote from: Rincewind1;701807So much punk, but nobody wears army boots nor mohawks .

Wasnt the 80s the mohawkpunk era? What about the Discopunk era?

Actually for a while in the 80s youd see alot more mohawks and army boots in fantasy art... Swordpunk comes full circle!

For me it was Spelljammer.  I just really hated that setting.  Totally subjective but, it just rubbed me the wrong way.  I didn't play in all TSR settings though.

Quote from: Omega;701806Nah. Wild Wild West is not steampunk though. It is... Westernpunk combined with Spypunk and a little MadScientistpunk.

Steampunk:  is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery,especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century.

So, yes COMPLETELY Steampunk.  In fact it was the first mass media Steampunk production.

Quote from: Rincewind1;701807So much punk, but nobody wears army boots nor mohawks .

Allow me to introduce my friend Magpie.
http://birdsbeforethestorm.net/bio/

Quote from: Nicephorus;524251Yes.  And I believe it comes from being faithful to the novels.

That's because the novels sucked, my brother loved them and bought them.  I tried to read the first one he bought, but couldn't get through the first chapter, it was just so damn boring from what I recall.  Then he had the nearve to get the AD&D Dragonlance Modules and ran them, boy was that shit bad.  I wanted to kill Kender at every chance I got, more so than if they were Orcs.

Quote from: flyingcircus;701904That's because the novels sucked, my brother loved them and bought them.  I tried to read the first one he bought, but couldn't get through the first chapter, it was just so damn boring from what I recall.  Then he had the nearve to get the AD&D Dragonlance Modules and ran them, boy was that shit bad.  I wanted to kill Kender at every chance I got, more so than if they were Orcs.

The original novels takes one or two chapters to get rolling. It starts off like a standard adventurer tavern gathering. Setting the scene and introducing characters and backgrounds. That is fairly common in novels. Sometimes the writer likes to lay things out, who is who before getting to the action. The Hobbit is another example. Some read off the first chapter or two and are bored to death.

But yeah. Kender get alot of flack. Tinker Gnomes get alternating love hate as they overwrote gnomes thereafter. As said elsewhere. Its hard anymore to see a gnome in a setting that isnt tech or steam oriented. Sometimes overflowing into dwarves as some seem unable to tell the two apart. And Krynn gnomes essentially are dwarves at that point.

I think the real problem is that Kender are basically D&D's Jar Jar Binks / Scrappy Doo / Orko / Nelix.  The annoying comic relief character that the guys who designed the story wheel insist is essential to a successful show but actually ruins it utterly.

That said, Dragonlance is a reasonable competent piece of formulaic genre fiction.  I would argue there's nothing wrong with that.  Did D&D's fans deserve better?  Maybe but it also brought in many new fans.  I'm not sure where it would have gone.

Actually in my recent GURPS games I've been tolerating an anime fox/girl assassin, maybe Kender aren't so bad.

Even so, the worst D&D race is the Fremlin from The Complete Book of Humanoids.  Imagine an all male race of flying, invulnerable, Kender with no pants.  Yes, they went there.