I have fondness in my heart for Greyhawk from reading the Gord the Rogue books when I was younger and had never played any RPG.

I've read some good Forgotten Realms books that I like too, but they didn't have the sheer impact of Greyhawk. Through the GtR books, Greyhawk felt like a universe.

Forgotten Realms feels like a world - A world that has more detail, but less richness - Although that may just be . I'd have to read the books again.

...That would be such a horrible choir!

Playing, only one short game in FR (3.5, then Risus) that ended too soon.

Objectively, 'The best' would be whichever has improved the overall quality of life the most.

Subjectively, asking for 'the best' generally means you're asking 'Which did you like the most' - And that's not something you can answer for someone else.

Planescape was by far the most interesting cutter...

Quote from: Drew;286601Yes. For me the key was finding a simple system. I  ended up alternating between C&C and houseruled BD&D, which allowed me to assemble encounters with minimum prep as the PCs careened around the City-State and it's environs getting into scrapes. I made sure the players understood that the Wilderlands was a reactive environment that responded to strong proactivity. The story wouldn't come to them, rather they had to forge it from their own IC ambitions. A few sessions in and they were dealing with a Skandik blood feud, a pissed off assassin cult and the unmasking of an illusion-weaving Ogre Mage who had been devouring the scholarly patrons of his book shop in the heart of the city. I barely had to write a single plot hook; I just cracked open the books, familiarised myself with their immediate environment and remained ready to wing it at a moments notice.

Thanks - yes: Proactive players, an easy to run system, and GM ready and willing to riff off the area descriptions and player actions look like the way to do it.  

In theory I love the Wilderlands, but I have had several PBEM Wilderlands campaigns die on me, so I know I'm not getting it right yet.  Longer adventures tend to fizzle out.  The most successful campaign went well for months, but fizzled when the PCs decided to turtle in a wizard's wilderness tower by Council Lake after killing the wizard.  They eventually got wiped out by a Viridistani patrol investigating why their wizard friend hadn't been seen recently....  In the Wilderlands, moving on frequently is usually key to survival!  

I have recently started a new Wilderlands campaign (online chat on Dragonsfoot Classic D&D forum, Tuesdays 11:30 am GMT, new players welcome).  I'm nervous it will fizzle like the prior games did, and looking for ways to avoid that.

Quote from: S'mon;286670I have recently started a new Wilderlands campaign (online chat on Dragonsfoot Classic D&D forum, Tuesdays 11:30 am GMT, new players welcome).  I'm nervous it will fizzle like the prior games did, and looking for ways to avoid that.

Sounds good. Unfortunately my uni timetable prohibits me from joining. Good luck with it anyway.

i can't decide. i love greyhawk, dark sun, and spelljammer equally - just for different reasons.

For me it would be Birthright hands down. I loved the legendary feel of it, like Camelot meets ancient Greece. For me Forgotten Realms felt too contrived, Dark Sun was too "Mad Max" (if I wanted to play Mad Max, I wouldn't be playing DnD). Greyhawk was good, but too "patchwork" for me. Birthright allowed us to play at the common adventurer level, or play as rulers (with rules that made sense to us).  The cultures are different, yet familiar, which was comfortable and conducive to a cultural "feel" for us. Birthright came across  as the most consistent, the most versatile, and contained the most potential for adventure.

make mine Dark Sun.
I suspect i would've enjoyed Lankhamar as well, but never bought it when it was available.

Damn...yeah, Lankhmar was pretty awesome, now that you mention it.  At least the core book and the district gazetteers were (even when they were adding non-canonical stuff it fit the spirit of the stories IMO); I didn't care for many of the adventures or the Nehwon book.

Eberron.  Only setting I've ever bought that non-generic enough that I was willing to deal with the overhead of running a pre-existing setting.

The Wilderlands never engaged me as much as the City State of the Invincible Overlord.  THAT was the coolest capital city ever!  

Planescape is certainly the most creative and challenging setting.  It was so different than anything that came before...or since.   However, it was tough for one-shots.

Ravenloft was a dream come true.   Fantasy + Horror...sign me up!  The setting was very open and added a very cool dimension to our roleplay.

Iron Kingdoms kicks Eberron's ass.   Certainly my favorite Steampunk setting.

I never got to play much Dark Sun.   It's on my future games list for sure.