Me, I loved Planescape, Birthright and Ravenloft.

Didn't much care for Spelljammer or Jakandor.

Never got into the 2e setting craze.  Stuck with my own game world (heavily pulled from Grayhawk).  I know I'm an outlier, but I had no desire to play Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, or Ravenloft.  In fact, planescape just turned me off.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;759392Never got into the 2e setting craze.  Stuck with my own game world (heavily pulled from Grayhawk).  I know I'm an outlier, but I had no desire to play Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, or Ravenloft.  In fact, planescape just turned me off.

That's cool. Sad they didn't do much for Greyhawk during that time.

Ravenloft was and remains my all-time favorite, and I like what I've seen of Al-Qadim, and selected portions of Planescape. OTOH, Planescape fans could sometimes annoy me with their attempt to dictate to the D&D 'multiverse' as a whole.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;759398Ravenloft was and remains my all-time favorite, and I like what I've seen of Al-Qadim, and selected portions of Planescape. OTOH, Planescape fans could sometimes annoy me with their attempt to dictate to the D&D 'multiverse' as a whole.

Al-Qadim was good times.

I loved Ravenloft, Dark Sun and Al-Qadim (think the last one was officially part of Forgotten Realms). Also liked stuff like the Glantri material they put out at the time and enjoyed being a player in Spelljammer. Lankhmar was good too. Was not very into Greyhawk. Not that it was bad, it just never jumped out at me or got me excited about running it.

The thing about AD&D 2e settings is that, despite the abundant and well-documented failings of the AD&D 2e-era editorial line, they were all pretty fucking good. Not flawless, but even the worst were very good. Compare to the average setting supplement line nowadays and you'll see.

Dark Sun is awesome, and made even awesomer by dint of being gritty S&S in an age in which D&D was adopting a bowdlerised, kid-friendly Romantic high fantasy trade dress and art direction.

Birthright conversely took the fairy-taley high fantasy angle and ran all the way with it. The regency mini-game was okay, I guess, but the setting was really, really cool. You had nobility stealing each other's bloodlines, and "the king and the land are one", and grudges between noble houses dating back thousands of years. You had archetypal monster patriarchs, the awnsheghlien (THE Gorgon, THE Chimera, THE Vampire). You had scary, fey elves. You had mysterious baddies like the Swordhawk, the Magian and the Cold Rider. You could ignore the kingship stuff entirely and run an absolutely kick-ass sandbox game with the setting material alone.

Ravenloft was really cool too, and I got to play it quite a few times, but I'm not sure how the "all Hammer Horror all the time" schtick would hold up for a long-term campaign, especially at higher levels.

Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance were marred by novel-shilling lameness, but really, the settings were big enough that there was plenty of room to set a game that ignored whatever it is that irked you.

My old gaming crew had an epic Al-Qadim campaign back in the early 2000s but I was studying my butt off back in medical school and missed out on it. They loved it, but I understand the DM took great liberties with the setting, up to and including hand-inserting the serial numbers to the real world Middle East back in. He did use many of the classes and monsters, though.

Never really got to play with Greyhawk (but it looked like a great alternative to DL and FR), Spelljammer (odd duck but I think I could make it work) or Planescape (heard lots of hype, never played, read a couple things but the "cant" put me off).

Never even heard anything about Council of Wyrms or Jakandor, other than that they existed, until much later. Don't think I would've enjoyed either.

You're dead on about Birthright. Love that setting.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;759392Never got into the 2e setting craze.  Stuck with my own game world (heavily pulled from Grayhawk).  I know I'm an outlier, but I had no desire to play Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, or Ravenloft.  In fact, planescape just turned me off.

Sorry Man, but if you don't have a burning desire to play Dark Sun or Ravenloft you are dead to me



I can definitely see why Spelljammer or Planescape might not be everyone's favorite though.

Dark Sun was awesome all the way. Ravenloft started out good, but then quickly got overplayed like a Top Forty song on the radio.

Spelljammer was stupid from the get-go.

Quote from: Bill;759412Sorry Man, but if you don't have a burning desire to play Dark Sun or Ravenloft you are dead to me


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haha.  You see, I was never into the whole Goth scene, so Ravenloft didn't hold any great appeal.  And Dark Sun just didn't fit.  I'm from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, so I like forests and plants in my fantasy setting.  Dark Sun just seemed to overdo it, making everything spiky and brown.

Quote from: jeff37923;759415Dark Sun was awesome all the way. Ravenloft started out good, but then quickly got overplayed like a Top Forty song on the radio.

Spelljammer was stupid from the get-go.

I love Ravenloft but once the players are intentionally metagaming dark powers checks....blah!

Works best with either players unfamiliar with ravenloft, or with players capable of not metagaming.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;759418haha.  You see, I was never into the whole Goth scene, so Ravenloft didn't hold any great appeal.  And Dark Sun just didn't fit.  I'm from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, so I like forests and plants in my fantasy setting.  Dark Sun just seemed to overdo it, making everything spiky and brown.

And the 'plants' might have psionics, might be mobile, and probably want to kill you.

Quote from: The Butcher;759403Ravenloft was really cool too, and I got to play it quite a few times, but I'm not sure how the "all Hammer Horror all the time" schtick would hold up for a long-term campaign, especially at higher levels.

I managed to run two full campaigns through highschool. One lasted many years amd continued after graduation. I ran another long campaign after that as well. I think what makes it work long term is to embrace some if the campiness. But then I was raised on Universal and Hammer. The harder I trued for high end horror, the less well it held up. The more i tried for classic horror movie vibe, the better it worked. You also have to contrast heavily. If it is all horror all the time, people stop reacting. You need to break it up with some light hearted stuff and less horror-based stuff.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;759428The harder I trued for high end horror, the less well it held up. The more i tried for classic horror movie vibe, the better it worked.

That's the money tip right there. There's a similar old trick to running World of Darkness like an 80s splatter-horror flick, you get much better results. Less Interview With the Vampire, more Fright Night.