Any idea?  Out of the TSR or WoTC settings: which one was probably the least played overall? Which was the least influential?  Are those two different settings?

TSR Settings:

If Masque of the Red Death counts as a separate setting? Or one of the Historical settings - A Mighty Fortress, Charlemagne's Paladins et al. The historical setttings suffered from being way too historical, not enough fantasy - Charlemagne was all real Franks & Saxons, not Roland in shining plate armour wielding Durandala against 500,000 Moors...

Leaving those aside, I think Birthright was moderately popular, so probably Spelljammer.

The Masque of the Red Death had a fair amount of fan-driven support, so I don't think it would qualify (see Secrets of the Kargatane).

Jakandor comes to mind. Three books, but now it's almost completely forgotten.

From when I knew TSR staff back near the end.

2nd ed Dark Sun did not fare well. Something about it just did not click for some. (many?) That is the one mentioned most. I have to agree. I have/had it and it was oddly... meh. Like it was missing some spark the first had.

Red Steel was another that seemed to not catch on. And was then exlipesed by Birthright which has a very simmilar setting premise.

TSRs DragonQuest seemed to get some resistance. That is the one I heard the least about.

Outside of D&D

Zebulons Guide as a reboot of Starfrontiers met with all sorts of resistance.
The total reboot of Buck Rodgers didnt thrill many. Would have thrilled them even less had they been aware back then of what it really was.
The 3rd ed of Gamma World met with resistance. Especially since the EQ books painted it as a slapstick Wacky World instead of Gamma World.

The rest just seem to have slipped under the radar or never really caught on.

Quote from: Omega;8329762nd ed Dark Sun did not fare well. Something about it just did not click for some. (many?) That is the one mentioned most. I have to agree. I have/had it and it was oddly... meh. Like it was missing some spark the first had.

Wasn't the problem that it changed a lot of political and NPC assumptions in frustrating ways (the dreaded metaplot), and detailed so much of the world compared to the first one that a lot of the adventure potential dried up?

Quote from: Omega;832976Red Steel was another that seemed to not catch on. And was then exlipesed by Birthright which has a very simmilar setting premise.

I read that one. It felt very hodge-pogy, thrown together, like they had too many good ideas and didn't edit them down. Birthright may be extremely generic, but at least it feels like a thematic whole.

This is also a criticism frequently thrown at Eberron, but I disagree with it enough that I'm currently running Eberron in 5e.

Quote from: Omega;832976Zebulons Guide as a reboot of Starfrontiers met with all sorts of resistance.

The first four alien races in Star Frontiers were so well thought out that when you saw the uninspired ones they put in Zebulon's Guide you knew the rest of the book was going to be disappointing. At least some of the other added setting details were useful.

I would guess Hollow World, which was like a sub-setting for Mystara.

I mean, they literally got rid of it when they switched Mystara to 2e AD&D, saying it didn't actually exist.

I think the thing with Birthright is that the main boxed set only focused on one region of the setting, and that all the additional regions seemed like afterthoughts.

I'll opine al-Qadim.  I don't recall ever hearing of anyone playing a campaign in it*, nor seeing the lone dusty boxed set move from the RPG store shelf until...well wait, no, it was still there the last time I cared to look.

Also for some reason it sticks out in my head that tons of it got pulped when WotC took over from TSR, because they had tons of it still sitting in the warehouse because it hadn't sold.

...

* - now patiently awaiting 2 or 3 posts from people going NUH-UH!  I PLAYED IT!

Al-Qadim was successful enough in its day to get extended for an extra year.

  Birthright, by contrast, got a major 1998 relaunch cancelled at the last minute (after the catalog went to press).

Birthright was hurt by being their last big setting before TSR collapsed, so it was competing with too many others to really stand out, and they'd already lost a fair number of their regular buyers. Spelljammer was probably the greater underperformer though, in terms of the chances it got and the way it's near competition did.

Hollow Earth and Red Steel. They both felt shoehorned into Mystara. I know that sounds weird as Mystara itself, is a jumble of everything. Just my take on it. I really like Red Steel, none the less.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;833001Al-Qadim was successful enough in its day to get extended for an extra year.

  Birthright, by contrast, got a major 1998 relaunch cancelled at the last minute (after the catalog went to press).

Yeah, Birthright was a drag, especially the intro adventure where one of the PCs gets assassinated, no saving throw. Yeesh.

Quote from: Doom;833011Yeah, Birthright was a drag, especially the intro adventure where one of the PCs gets assassinated, no saving throw. Yeesh.

Lol. I recall a Ravenloft adventure (might have been from the shadows but could be wrong) where the players are beheaded at the beginning.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;833013Lol. I recall a Ravenloft adventure (might have been from the shadows but could be wrong) where the players are beheaded at the beginning.

  That's the one--RQ3 From the Shadows. Similar tricks were tried in RM2 The Created, Adam's Wrath, and Hour of the Knife. It was never permanent, but it smacked of railroading and unfairness based on comments I've seen.

I love Ravenloft, but it did suffer from some poor trends in adventure design--largely based on the theory of some designers that the only way to scare players was to threaten and/or kill the PCs.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;833013Lol. I recall a Ravenloft adventure (might have been from the shadows but could be wrong) where the players are beheaded at the beginning.

Don't forget the one where they are unfairly killed and brought back as flesh golems.

I vaguely recall a setting that looked interesting, can't remember the name of it though. Not published by TSR but a secondary company. As I recall it was in a purple-ish box and the map had no continents but lots of islands scattered across a vast sea. Came out around the late 80's or early 90's. Anyone know what I'm remembering? Was it worth anything?