To answer the OP, I'd say Red Steel / Savage Coast or Maztica. They barely made it past the initial setting write-up.

Quote from: David Johansen;833021What about the one set on the other side of Krynn?  Talandis or something like that?

At the time I really dug Taladas.  NOBODY wanted to adventure there, though...

Another one comes to mind.

The Polyhedron version of Spelljammer. I havent met anyone who has had anything good to say about it so far.

What about Urban Arcana? Was it disliked or just WOTC didnt promote it well?

Quote from: Angry_Douchebag;833440At the time I really dug Taladas.  NOBODY wanted to adventure there, though...

I still think about it from time to time.

What reasons did they give for not wanting to adventure there?

since I pretty much owned everything from 1e and 2e I made it a point to utilize all of it at some point. Hands down the least popular in my group was Maztica. But I got them to go there and we still had fun.

My personal least favorite is Ravenloft. I don't think D&D handles gothic horror very well.

Quote from: tenbones;833705My personal least favorite is Ravenloft. I don't think D&D handles gothic horror very well.

I agree there.  I've done wonderfully with the newer version of Dragon Warrior though.  Castle Ravenloft was AMAZING with DW.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;833698I still think about it from time to time.

What reasons did they give for not wanting to adventure there?

Same reason someone else gave up thread; it wasn't the Krynn they knew with the familiar landmarks and characters.

Quote from: tenbones;833705My personal least favorite is Ravenloft. I don't think D&D handles gothic horror very well.

I think D&D can handle gothic Horror darn well. The trick is you need a writer who can actually write gothic horror setting. Same with a Conan-esque low magic setting. Wrong writer and its going to come across as Forgotten Realms.

Quote from: Omega;833766I think D&D can handle gothic Horror darn well. The trick is you need a writer who can actually write gothic horror setting. Same with a Conan-esque low magic setting. Wrong writer and its going to come across as Forgotten Realms.

The writing is not the issue, it's the mechanics.  In my case it was the Magic System.  In a horror game where magic SHOULD go wrong, it can't because of how D&D works.

And after a while (level 4+) hit points (especially 3.x) got silly to where there was no tension.  And if you keep the Players down at level 3 or less, they can sometimes feel cheated, after all, the whole point of D&D is character improvement, right?

And then there's the lack of magical toys for the PC's...

D&D as written does not work all that well with Ravenloft.  The setting itself has wonderful ideas and presentations throughout the years.  But that's not the issue for me.

Quote from: Angry_Douchebag;833440At the time I really dug Taladas.  NOBODY wanted to adventure there, though...

Taladas was pretty much the first *mature* (not as in content, but as in "coherence" and, uhm, worth of retelling); I also think Taladas still remains popular. There was a guy, James O'Rance was his name, I believe, who wrote huge fanbooks and posted them online, about 15 years ago, that became my entry into the WWW aspects of roleplaying. And then there was a series of novels, published in the late 2000s that were actually pretty good - not just for D&D fiction, but for fantasy fiction, in general -  which makes them a rarity.

I am pretty sure the (sub-) setting is still getting some love, here and there, as the DL community by itself is still going fairly strong.


I think the setting getting the least love is Spelljammer - because, apart from some godawful crossover material, á la "Drows in Krynn", etc. the setting's stand alone material never really got great recognition by the fans. Like, yeah giant hamsters, and all, but really, I know probably a hundred people that each have probably a hundred D&D books, and SJ stuff, I have never seen in any private collection. - Like, that would be my gutt.based estimation, sorry if sounded all too subjective.

Quote from: Omega;833462What about Urban Arcana? Was it disliked or just WOTC didnt promote it well?

I think that one is even more explicitly like how I view Greyhawk.  I don't think it's used as a setting so much as a unifying label for homebrew.

Quote from: Angry_Douchebag;833762Same reason someone else gave up thread; it wasn't the Krynn they knew with the familiar landmarks and characters.

Yeah, basically.  The vibe I've always got from it is that it's Krynn for people who don't like Dragonlance.

For people like me, it was off putting because I like Dragonlance, Analon, and the War of the Lance stuff.  Taladas didn't seem to offer me anything.

For many people who didn't like Dragonlance, it was still Dragonlance, so it didn't offer them anything either.

I understand it has a cult following, though.

Quote from: Omega;833766I think D&D can handle gothic Horror darn well. The trick is you need a writer who can actually write gothic horror setting. Same with a Conan-esque low magic setting. Wrong writer and its going to come across as Forgotten Realms.

My problem with D&D and Gothic horror is not the setting per se. I think the system itself doesn't lend itself well to the genre.

the abstraction of HP and the general gung-ho nature of D&D players makes creating the feeling of danger or dread (npi) challenging for veteran players without going into gonzo-campy mode.

YMMV

Quote from: Christopher Brady;833779The writing is not the issue, it's the mechanics.  In my case it was the Magic System.  In a horror game where magic SHOULD go wrong, it can't because of how D&D works.

Then you write magic out of the setting or at least vastly curb its usefulness and work out classes appropriate to the setting that do not get so overpowered.

IE: You end up with Call of Cthulhu.

Quote from: tenbones;833824My problem with D&D and Gothic horror is not the setting per se. I think the system itself doesn't lend itself well to the genre.

the abstraction of HP and the general gung-ho nature of D&D players makes creating the feeling of danger or dread (npi) challenging for veteran players without going into gonzo-campy mode.

YMMV

That is the thing though. If the setting says "No magic" then that impacts everything else. Like Dragonlance or Dark Sun and "No Clerics" for example.

If you write a D&D gothic setting and Mordenkeinen is wandering around then thats not very gothic aside from the look and atmosphere. IE Castle Ravenloft module.

Youd need to adjust some things. But the core AD&D system is readily adaptable to a gothic setting. Even a gothic Earth one. Limit the PCs to humans, limit the access to classes or write new classes. Make magic either damn hard to come by, or really limited in scope, power or reliability.