*Puts on her flame retardant suit*

Favorites
1. Dragonlance (dodges the rotten tomatoes thrown her way)
2. Dark Sun

Did Not Understand
1. Planescape

Disappointed In Because I Wanted To Love It
1. Ravenloft-come on at least do horror right

Wished Burned In A Fire
1. Spelljammer

Don't Care Either Way
1. Forgotten Realms
2. Greyhawk

Dragonlance and Spelljammer were the ones I thought were the coolest.  Dragonlance had the neatest stuff going on.  Spelljammer was the neatest concept.

Dark Sun and Planescape were the ones I didn't like.  They weren't entertaining to me in any way.

Quote from: Marleycat;759438*Puts on her flame retardant suit*

Favorites
1. Dragonlance (dodges the rotten tomatoes thrown her way)
2. Dark Sun

Did Not Understand
1. Planescape

Disappointed In Because I Wanted To Love It
1. Ravenloft-come on at least do horror right

Wished Burned In A Fire
1. Spelljammer

Don't Care Either Way
1. Forgotten Realms
2. Greyhawk

Just curious; what was you initial exposure to Ravenloft like?

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.

Dark Sun was probably more for the Dune crowd. That may be one of the reasons it appealed to me, it had a Dune/Mad Max vibe.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;759442Dark Sun was probably more for the Dune crowd. That may be one of the reasons it appealed to me, it had a Dune/Mad Max vibe.

I will say that I did like the piecemeal armor rules and Jazst kit from the 2e Dark Sun splatbook (complete gladiator's handbook)

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;759442Dark Sun was probably more for the Dune crowd. That may be one of the reasons it appealed to me, it had a Dune/Mad Max vibe.

I also love how in the Dark Sun setting the Gods are long gone or even dead.
Everything, plant or animal is likely to murder you.
Bards are Assassins.
No Paladins. (And Paladins are my favorite class in dnd)
Irresponsible use of wizardry has ruined the planet; defoliated most of it, mucked up the Sun itself.
The Oceans are gone; turned to dust.

It's a refreshing change of pace.

I loved Dark Sun, Al-Qadim, and Ravenloft - I still like using those for games. Birthright was really cool, too, but I never got to play too much of it (though I did play a blooded paladin who used his position to create a youth corps of zealous followers to smite heretics of our god).

Never got much into Greyhawk or Dragonlance, I used Forgotten Realms for my more standard fantasy setting (which I thought had a wealth of good stuff). But its just too much now; I'd only play it if a game was based solely off the original gray box set.

Planescape is one I never got the love for. Didn't like the name, didn't like the concepts, really didn't like the art. Not much on planar adventuring.

Similarly, Spelljammer is so far from what I'm looking for with a D&D experience that I can't see why it exists (too cartoony for me).

I can't recall any other settings for 2e that I know more about than hearing the name once.

Quote from: Bill;759444I also love how in the Dark Sun setting the Gods are long gone or even dead.
Everything, plant or animal is likely to murder you.
Bards are Assassins.
No Paladins. (And Paladins are my favorite class in dnd)
Irresponsible use of wizardry has ruined the planet; defoliated most of it, mucked up the Sun itself.
The Oceans are gone; turned to dust.

It's a refreshing change of pace.

"Everything's dead!  It's refreshing!"

Quote from: Bill;759441Just curious; what was you initial exposure to Ravenloft like?

Mind now I initially really got into RPG's as more then I'm just there because of my friends via Vampire then Mage and things like Whispering Vault, Kult, Neliphim and others so Ravenloft felt staid too classic 1950's almost to me. And then it got stupid as it matured.

One problem is that it's too small and straightforward for me I like my horror to be subtle or off kilter in some way and mysterious. Or hopeless but big like WHFP and 40k.

Quote from: Marleycat;759448Mind now I initially really got into RPG's as more then I'm just there because of my friends via Vampire then Mage and things like Whispering Vault, Kult, Neliphim and others so Ravenloft felt staid too classic 1950's almost to me. And then it got stupid as it matured.

One problem is that it's too small and straightforward for me I like my horror to be subtle or off kilter in some way and mysterious. Or hopeless but big like WHFP and 40k.

I would agree with you it is more classic horror movie (it kind of ran the gamut from 1930s universal horror to 70s Hammer and ealier Hammer Horror). I see that as its strength though. I never really liked the white wolf vibe but I did like Call of Cthulu, Orrorsh and what I saw of Kult (the last one kind of reminded me of Clive Barker).

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;759442Dark Sun was probably more for the Dune crowd. That may be one of the reasons it appealed to me, it had a Dune/Mad Max vibe.

Correct. It wasn't Goth.

Quote from: Marleycat;759448Mind now I initially really got into RPG's as more then I'm just there because of my friends via Vampire then Mage and things like Whispering Vault, Kult, Neliphim and others so Ravenloft felt staid too classic 1950's almost to me. And then it got stupid as it matured.

One problem is that it's too small and straightforward for me I like my horror to be subtle or off kilter in some way and mysterious. Or hopeless but big like WHFP and 40k.

Warhammer as a horror setting works for me. very off kilter.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;759418haha.  You see, I was never into the whole Goth scene, so Ravenloft didn't hold any great appeal.  

  Ravenloft was Gothic, not Goth. There's a difference. It must be remembered that Ravenloft predates the World of Darkness by a full year.

  Seriously, Ravenloft's ambiance is very much Universal/Hammer/horror literature, as Brendan points out. You can find that fact going all the way back to the Black Box and its recommendations for reading, viewing and designing adventures. But that's probably why I love it--I grew up reading about the classic monster movies, playing the Castlevania video games, etc. So Ravenloft hits those buttons just perfectly for me.

  And to really work, the setting requires a stronger sense of contrast than most horror games. This is perhaps a result of it being designed as the 'Twilight Zone' of D&D. But it really doesn't work so well if you embrace the nihilism that so often goes along with Cthulhoid, WoD or 40K horror.

Quote from: Marleycat;759452Correct. It wasn't Goth.

Goth at Burning Man?

Favourites: Al-Qadim and Planescape.

I've always loved Arabian Nights flavoured stuff and I like DiTerlizzi's art in PS. The other settings never interested me that much.

However, nowadays I might swap out Dark Sun for Planescape. While I love Sigil and the concepts surrounding it, I now feel that it seems rather uneasily dropped into the Great Wheel cosmology. Dark Sun seems to be a gem I overlooked at the time.