The world you set your campaign in has just as much impact on the tone, story and overall fun of your game as the players you choose to play in it. Every published world, from Greyhawk to Dark Sun to Ravenloft, puts a different spin on your campaign. And leaning into those differences is one of the most fun aspects of being a veteran gamer who’s played in a lot of worlds.
But which campaign worlds are the best, most fun, and most inspiring? On that, the 3 Wise DMs each have their own ideas. So this article breaks down our 6 favorite campaign worlds, 2 per DM, and why we love them. It’s a lot of Dungeons and Dragons material, but not all of it.
So if you’re looking for a new – or old – world to set your next campaign in, read on to get our thoughts on the best of the best. Then tell us which settings you like and why in the comments.
DM Tony’s Favorite D&D Campaign Settings
Forgotten Realms
Forgotten Realms is one of the most classic, archetypal D&D campaign settings, and it gives a DM all the room they could possibly want to operate and more. Over the years, this world has expanded like no other. It has everything you need to run any kind of high-fantasy campaign you want, and many of D&D’s best adventures are set there.
Some of the most memorable characters in the game can be found in the Forgotten Realms works of R. A. Salvatore and Ed Greenwood, such as Drizzt Do’Urden and Elminster. As far as locations, you could explore anywhere from the jungles of Chult to the mines of Bloodstone to the halls of the Undermountain.
Needless to say, if you’re looking for a campaign setting with both depth and history, look no further.
Greyhawk
Another oldie but a goody. If you enjoy a high-magic setting, this is the place to be.
The city of Greyhawk had a college of magic way before Hogwarts and has so many rare curiosities at its bazaar that even Jeff Bezos would be impressed. And all of this is just the city itself, which doesn’t even cover the module Castle Greyhawk – which, if you aren’t familiar with it – is a tongue-in-cheek module that takes players from levels 0-25 as one single epic campaign. Or, if you are up for a more serious dungeon crawl, could always take a trip to the Ruins of Grey hawk where you could explore the final resting place of the famed wizard Zagyg.
Regardless, this world was created by the late and great Gary Gygax, and it will not disappoint.
DM Dave’s Favorite RPG Campaign Settings
Ravenloft
DM Tony and I had to arm wrestle on who was going to talk about Ravenloft as one of their favorite settings. I won.
Ravenloft offers something in spades that escapes a lot of other settings: tone. One need only look at the cover of the original I6 module, Ravenloft, to immediately understand what this setting is: dark, gothic, even romantic, horror. And vampires. You’ve gotta be down with vampires.
One of the main reasons Ravenloft can create this gothic landscape is its encapsulated nature as a demiplane – one of the Domains of Dread. Everything within its bubble can be focused on creating and reinforcing the gothic tone. This has been built upon through all five editions of the game, including novelizations. The bubble can be as small as Castle Ravenloft itself or expand to a size that dwarfs the city of Chicago.
As I’ve said in previous episodes and articles, with its current iteration in Curse of Strahd, Ravenloft offered me the ability to play with my love of the Universal Monsters and Hammer Films House of Horrors, a favorite of mine from childhood. Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman … few things hold such a level of nostalgia for me.
Last, but certainly not least, Ravenloft is home to THE most iconic villain in D&D history: The first vampire himself … The Ancient, The Land … Count Strahd von Zarovich. If you want to play with such a charismatic, yet purely soulless creature, he absolutely NEEDS to be on his home turf.
Golarion
My first foray back into modern gaming was with Pathfinder. Starting with their Beginner Box (which is one of the sleekest products I’ve ever seen in an introductory boxset), I was introduced to the world of Golarion. It’s worth noting that Golarion is the setting for multiple adventure paths that have become legendary within gaming circles, including Rise of the Runelords, Kingmaker, The Abomination Vaults, etc.
Golarion offers all the different locales you would think of in a fantasy RPG while delivering a level of lore that can only be described as Tolkien-esque, all laid out in their own PathfinderWiki.
The first long-term campaign I ran was based in the world of Golarion. Jumping off from the introductory adventure in the Beginner Box, the party traversed massive swaths of the continent of Avistan, allowing me to see the advantage of having such breadth of lore at my fingertips.
The depth of lore on PathfinderWiki allowed me to craft sweeping narratives that let the world come alive in a way that was incredibly influential in my DM style. So much so that I will often return to PathfinderWiki to get ideas for certain lands, cultures, people, gods, etc., regardless of the setting that I’m running (including my homebrew material).
While I love my time playing and running games in the Forgotten Realms, the world of Golarion feels very similar but more polished. Maybe it’s because it was what I came to first in my return to TTRPGs – who knows? But if you love delving deep into the how’s and why’s of a world, take a look at the world built by Paizo.
DM Thorin’s Favorite RPG Campaign Settings
Dark Sun
I know it seems a little dark, deadly and insensitive for today’s culture. But when Dark Sun first came out in 1991, it had a few unique things going for it:
- It was the first new setting released since I’d really started playing seriously, and I picked it up almost immediately.
- It’s hard to convey now how the 90s felt to people who didn’t live it or were too young to feel the gestalt. But a grim and gritty setting where the PCs started off not mattering in the world and had to struggle to survive, let alone become heroes, just felt right.
- It was the only setting to intrinsically play with psionics, which had just come out and was still pretty cool.
- The idea that magic was depleting the land and stealing life force gave the arcane a realistic depth other settings don’t have.
- They gave pretty much all the art to one artist, Brom, and it turned out amazing. It wasn’t the bright, detailed, high-fantasy art of, say, Todd Lockwood, but it made the setting feel totally different and post-apocalyptic. No other campaign world looks like Dark Sun.
On top of that, the mechanics made PCs struggle at early levels and work in a survival/problem-solving way. I like that vibe as a DM. The PCs are going to get powerful eventually, don’t worry. But in the early levels, it’s not about going on quests so much as just trying to survive. And higher-level power is going to feel even better when you remember struggling to steal honey from giant murder bees so you didn’t die in the desert.
Homebrew
As fun as it is to play in a boxed set (and WotC, if you’re listening, I want my settings in boxed sets with maps, PC and DM setting books, and other goodies) there’s nothing quite as rewarding as playing in a world you’re making as you go. That’s why homebrew is one of my favorite settings to play in.
The trick to a good homebrew world is identifying a few special things that will make your setting memorable to the players. May I suggest a Lovecraftian horror gestating in the heart of the world like an egg? Perhaps a famous villain working to conquer this world from another plane? Interesting and unique factions the players interact with ala Eberron (which should get an honorable mention here because I really dig it, but I haven’t gotten the chance to play in it yet).
From there, you want to respond to the evolving needs of your party and your story. You don’t need to write the whole sourcebook to start the game, create it as you go. This way the experience is bespoke to your players and whatever inspires you as the campaign develops.
What Are Your Favorite Settings?
Those are the settings that inspire the 3 Wise DMs. What settings inspire you? What do you look for in a great campaign world? Let us know in the comments below.
Planescape, love it!
There is definitely not enough love for the OG The Known world and BECMI which would become Mystara. Moldvay/Mentzer/Heard and others were Great contributors.
My homebrew world of Nyonia (Google search for it). After that Harn. Harn shows how to build an intricate, in depth and consistent world to run campaigns in.
I’m a big fan of Kalamar which started as a systems agnostic fantasy setting but then had official 3E and 4E sourcebooks. A nice, internally consistent world where the different cultures feel realistic and isn’t TOO high magic
Greyhawk based with a 1e standard+homebrew ruleset. All the modules including Basic/Expert etc…, other brand, and homebrew adventures are in Greyhawk using a combo of the Darlene and Anna Meyers maps. There may be plane shifting to accomodate the newer Ravenloft and other settings.
Mystara and the Gazeteers have always been my favorite
My memory is that psionics came out in Eldritch Wizardry, which was waaay before 91.
I used to love the Realms in 2nd and 3rd edition. Then 4th edition came along and decided they needed to do a comic style ‘oh we have too much lore its difficult for new people. Let’s wipe a bunch of it out. It will make it easier for new fans. I’m sure it won’t upset our existing fan base.’ I don’t know about anyone outside of my friend and I, but we dropped both the Realms and 4th edition after that.
I play Pathfinder these days. Golarion is a decent setting. That said, my favorite might be the world of Exalted. I’ve always enjoyed games in that world. Not remotely D&D, but you included other RPGs so I can as well.
I’d like to someday play Spelljammer and Planescape. Both always sounded very interesting.
Eberron gets a nod in the meme but not in the meat!? Sad.
The World of Darknoth is the richest most involved setting for Dungeons & Dragons. It’s origins began in 1984 and it’s development continues today.
The history revolving around the world begins with the migration of all the races and includes every clan of dwarves and tribe of elves. The history then goes on to discuss fallen realms of the past as well as descriptions of the current kingdoms. It boasts three different types of humans with their differences being in culture. The world has several races specific to it, including variations of elves, dwarves, gnome, and halflings.
The history of the world in deeply trenched with racism with humans being lowly as halforcs.
The maps consist of a world map showing three continents. Each continent has its own map for greater detail and realm maps as well.
There are a variety of realms, one consisting of a ten province kingdom of dragons and dragonborn, an elven realm, a dwarves realm, one for hobgoblins, another for orcs along with several human kingdoms as well. Fey make up a reasonable portion of Darknoth and the have two kingdoms of their own.
The world has unique villains and heroes, dungeons, and artifacts. Every area has random encounter tables. There is a section in the world book discussing weather, fault lines, tree types, and similar nature oriented information. The world has approximately 30 deities each with a 4 page description.
The world comes as a 4 book series, one covering the world in general, the other three dedicated to individual continents with very lengthy write-ups on every kingdom.
I wish Krynn/Dragonlance had gotten a nod. Maybe because it’s AD&D?
I may have been the only one, but I enjoyed the D&D Birthright setting from the late 90’s.
This!
Also, Golarion isn’t a D&D setting so the title is a bit inaccurate.
That’s why we made it “…Dungeons & Dragons and RPG Campaign Worlds…” Because Golarion and Homebrew aren’t D&D-specific.
My own world is comprised of anything I can find I like from any campaign setting or adventure module. The edges of my world are unexplored and I just tack it on somewhere or fit it in where there is an empty area. This is the way.
Planescape. Spelljammer. Dragonlance.
For me the multiverse is the way to go. I like the planewalking ability of mtg, so I want to mix worlds and be able to change existing ones. For me, there is as much universes than there is DMs. So that explains why some events in your game did not happened in another similar but parallel universe. We are playing in mtg Ixalan right now and I just love it!
Been playing and running D&D from the 80’s through to 5e, but not Pathfinder 2e.
Last game I ran was in Exandria planned on moving it as my players wasn’t asking any questions about it.
Prefer homebrew myself I like using older scenarios repurposed even for other game systems.
I’ve also concentrated on homebrew settings through the years, though most of them have utilized the Greyhawk deities, since I’ve struggled to come up with a pantheon bigger than 6-7 gods & goddesses.
But the biggest influence on my campaign settings has always been Mystara. The Known World of the Basic & Expert boxed sets in the early ’80s that captured my teenage imagination. I remember pouring over the exotic (to me) hex maps and the evocative, magical place-names: Rockhome, and Glantri, and – best of all – the Grand Duchy of Karameikos!
I remember finding a bunch of Mystara stuff on discount at KB Toys in our mall and scooping it up. I loved the Gazeteer approach to setting building. They should bring that back.
But mine via Drive thru RPG.
Have to agree about their usefulness
I always played homebrew settings. It always felt right for me when it comes to fantasy settings. However, I do love the Starfinder universe. It’s just so wide and deep because it builds off existing lore that you can use to draw inspiration. It’s the least restrictive universe, in concept, that I’ve come across.
Good topic! I’ve been DMing about a year, after 30 years away from the gaming table. While I can’t speak to other versions of the game, it’s good to be back.