Quote from: JeremyR;832980I would guess Hollow World, which was like a sub-setting for Mystara.

Wow, I loved Hollow World! It was really well done & I'm looking at using it in my Classic D&D Karameikos campaign once the PCs are higher level and won't be scared at large scale exploration. Sending them to the Land of Ancient Traldarans seems like a great fit, but almost everything is great (the Merry Pirates are a bit much maybe).

What about the one set on the other side of Krynn?  Talandis or something like that?  I've heard it was better but got the bad stink of being Dragon Lance's kid brother so people who liked Dragonlance didn't want it and people who didn't like Dragonlance didn't want it.

I also recall, that TSR had Lankmar and Hyboria but the Conan modules weren't around for long and might not even have gotten a setting box other than the rpg.

Quote from: David Johansen;833021What about the one set on the other side of Krynn?  Talandis or something like that?  I've heard it was better but got the bad stink of being Dragon Lance's kid brother so people who liked Dragonlance didn't want it and people who didn't like Dragonlance didn't want it.

   Taladas has a small but devoted following, but it didn't really seem to have legs. Dragonlance as a whole seems to be the same way, handicapped by the identification of the setting with Weis & Hickman.

  Of course, I'm one of the half-dozen people on the planet who positively likes the SAGA Rules System and the original Fifth Age.

I'd say Al-Qadim.

BirthRight is the setting that got me into the hobby. I purchased the box set at my local comicbook store one summer, not knowing that I actually needed anything else to play. So, when I got home, and read that I needed the core books I didn't actually have the money to buy those and play. It wasn't until that Christmas that my parents got me the Introduction to AD&D box set. BirthRight is a really underrated setting. It's not generic at all if you actually read the setting.

Quote from: Pat;832974SNIP

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

I second this though Matzica would come in second place since it  at least was tied to the Realms coattails though I doubt many wanted to play Conquistadors  or D&D Aztecs/Maya/Inca whatever ...

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;833015That'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.

That stuff was pretty ubiquitous by that point. I don't mind the set ups as long as they aren't railroaded. The possibility of players having their heads cut off and ending up in Azalin's laboratory is fine, but it shouldn't be a foregone conclusion. The problem with those adventures was they basically said the GM should make these things happen. I ran the Created again a few years ago and the railroading was pretty heavy. At one point there is an NPC it says flat out, no mater what they players do, they can't kill him (and not because he had physical immunities or protections, just the GM was supposed to fudge rolls so he couldn't die). That said, there was still cool stuff going on in those modules. You just have to work around the stuff that was fashionable at the time.

Pelinore.

Quote from: Ulairi;833024I'd say Al-Qadim.

BirthRight is the setting that got me into the hobby. I purchased the box set at my local comicbook store one summer, not knowing that I actually needed anything else to play. So, when I got home, and read that I needed the core books I didn't actually have the money to buy those and play. It wasn't until that Christmas that my parents got me the Introduction to AD&D box set. BirthRight is a really underrated setting. It's not generic at all if you actually read the setting.

I quite liked Birthright. I remember playing some really fun campaigns for it. I think we are looking at this though through the lenses of our own experience.

Is there any actual sales data on the different lines from that period?

My experience with what people were playing is so different from what I am seeing reported on this thread. Red Steel was something that got played quite a bit in my group for example (and we had at least 3 Masque of the Red Death Campaigns). Spelljammer was popular. Dark Sun was just huge with us. A lot of guys in my group read the forgotten realms novels and bought the setting material or modules, but I don't remember all that many actual campaigns.

Quote from: Opaopajr;833030Pelinore.

Is that the one with all the King Johns?

Masque is a difficult one to account for because it was the foundation for the second RPGA Living campaign, which may be skewing results.

  I've been given to understand that a lot of this stuff can be local or regional--Spellfire was apparently a big hit in some markets but not others--and even basing things on what product lines were continued or abandoned can be iffy due to contractual issues (TSR/WotC has to produce X amount of FR material a year to retain the rights), internal politics (appeasing Salvatore, Weis & Hickman had an impact on certain products happening or not happening at the start of the WotC era), marketing plans and other factors.

  It's like William Goldman said about Hollywood: NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;833031Is there any actual sales data on the different lines from that period?

  I've heard persistent rumors that Ravenloft was second only to the Forgotten Realms at some points (and at others nearly dipped to cancellation levels), but the only solid numbers I've ever seen come from the early 90s TSR catalogs, and even those require some parsing and have been disputed. Unfortunately, my copies are half a continent away at this point.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;833035Masque is a difficult one to account for because it was the foundation for the second RPGA Living campaign, which may be skewing results.

  I've been given to understand that a lot of this stuff can be local or regional--Spellfire was apparently a big hit in some markets but not others--and even basing things on what product lines were continued or abandoned can be iffy due to contractual issues (TSR/WotC has to produce X amount of FR material a year to retain the rights), internal politics (appeasing Salvatore, Weis & Hickman had an impact on certain products happening or not happening at the start of the WotC era), marketing plans and other factors.

  It's like William Goldman said about Hollywood: NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING.

Things were definitely fragmented back then. You could go one town over and find a whole cluster of gaming groups with completely different sensibilities than those in your community. In my case it was just an extension of liking Ravenloft and games like Call of Cthulu and TORG (for the Orrosh setting). The RPGA wasn't something anyone I personally knew participated in (though I was aware of it through ads). I am sure people in my area were in the RPGA, it just never seemed to be something that interested anyone in our group.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;833036I've heard persistent rumors that Ravenloft was second only to the Forgotten Realms at some points (and at others nearly dipped to cancellation levels), but the only solid numbers I've ever seen come from the early 90s TSR catalogs, and even those require some parsing and have been disputed. Unfortunately, my copies are half a continent away at this point.

No idea. They released a huge amount of material for Ravenloft in the early 90s. I was never short on new releases. So it wouldn't surprise me. With the people I played with, it wasn't really like you had to pick just one setting and go with it. I usually ran Ravenloft. One guy ran Dark Sun and Spelljammer (often in shorter campaign cycles). Another ran Birthright and so on.

Quote from: Opaopajr;833030Pelinore.

No idea if it got played much, but Pelinore was pretty influential in that a lot of WFRP material (especially Marienburg) drew heavily from it for ideas and presentation.

I would say Greyhawk.

Failed settings are just that, failed.  They don't go back to them, because they failed to grab people, they were never memorable enough for people to remember them.  But Greyhawk is that one setting that very, very few actually go back to, despite both TSR's and WoTC's attempts at bringing it back.  And everyone who's played D&D knows of Greyhawk.  But again, very few actively play in it.

So that's my answer.  Which is purely opinion.