AD&D 1st kai 2nd edition Settings
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Greyhawk
Greyhawk is a fictional world for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. It is the earliest of the D&D universes, and much of the rules design occurred in conjunction with game play by Gary Gygax and others in and around Castle Greyhawk and its dungeons. It remains popular with hardcore gamers.
Within the game world, the Free City of Greyhawk is a free city in the Flanaess, originally under the domination of the Kingdom of Aerdy.
In the Greyhawk universe, the planet Oerth has four continents, but only the Flanaess, the eastern part of the continent of Oerik, is home to "enlightened humanity".
While the Greyhawk world is primarily medieval, it includes many sly references to 20th-century culture, such as characters named "King Burger" and "General Public", and "B-Men" monsters that are half-hornet and half-government agent.
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a fictional setting created by author and game designer Ed Greenwood for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Most action in the Forgotten Realms takes place on the continent of Faerûn.
Originally designed as Greenwood's personal campaign and detailed in a long series of articles in Dragon, it became the setting most popular with D&D gamers in the 1990s.
Its fame has been boosted by dozens of novels (including the exploits of the famous drow hero Drizzt Do'Urden) and the series of CRPGs Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Pool of Radiance, Icewind Dale, and so on.
The Realms are home to diverse races and cultures, from arctic dwarves to Egyptian-like Old Empires.
Dragonlance
Dragonlance is a large series of fantasy books.
This series was published by TSR, Inc. to supplement their Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game products. It is currently published by the company that purchased TSR in 1997, Wizards of the Coast. (Wizards of the Coast was subsequently purchased by Hasbro, Inc, in 1999.)
The world of Dragonlance was the first fictional world to be professionally produced as a role-playing game world, with product tie-ins (novels, role-playing modules, figurines, etc.) prepared and manufactured when it was first released. Before Dragonlance, fictional role-playing worlds evolved from the amateur creations of the games' players (with the most notable example being the Greyhawk campaign setting). The success of the Dragonlance series encouraged role-playing game producers to invent and market additional fictional game worlds, such as the Ravenloft series.
Many books of the Dragonlance series were written by the authoring team of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
Books in the Dragonlance Series:
Chronicles
Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984)
Dragons of Winter Night (1985)
Dragons of Spring Dawning (1985)
Legends
Time of the Twins (1986)
War of the Twins (1986)
Test of the Twins (1986)
Continue of Chronicles
Second generation
Dragons of a Summer Flame(1996)
War of Souls
Dragons of a Fallen Sun
Dragons of a Lost Star
Dragons of a Vanished Moon
Minotaur Wars
Night of Blood
Preludes
Darkness and Light
Kendermore
Brothers Majere
Preludes II
Riverwind the Plainsman
Flint the King
Tanis, the Shadow Years
Darksun
Darksun is a discontinued Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting based on the harsh world of Athas, which was once a life-teeming ocean blue planet, but which has since been stripped of its fertility by uncontrolled use of defiling magic, although a small offshot of magicians called preservers tends to maintain life and ultimately restore the primeval lushness. It is a sun-burnt land forsaken by the gods, water, and hope. Another characteristic of Athas life is its lack of any serious mountain chains and therefore scarcity of metal and stone. Wood, obsidian and bone are used for weapons, tools and structure building.
Unique Characteristics
Player characters in Darksun are markedly tougher than other campaign settings - most start at third level with attributes on a 4-24 scale as opposed to the normal Dungeons & Dragons 3-18 scale. Most characters also posses some degree of psionic talent, making even the lowest slave suprisingly formidible. Athasian races include half-giants, more inteliigent than their counterparts in other worlds, muls, the unique dwarf-human breed, thri-kreen, a race of savage mantis men, and Aarakocra, a race of winged bird men. Even "normal" D&D races are substantially different - for instance, most halflings are vicious cannibals!
Psionics is highly developed on Athas even in animal minds, and almost every individual is born with a wild talent or two. Schools of the minds exist, mostly maintained by and serving the dragon kings.
Plot Arc
Playable Races
Aarakocra
Dwarf
Elf
Half-Elf
Half-Giant
Halfling
Human
Mul
Pterran
Thri-Kreen
Character Classes
Interesting Places
Draj
Interesting Personages
Athas is ruled by several dragon kings, former champions of Rajaat, one of the earliest defiler wizards who was obsessed with racial purity and ordered the extermination of all non-human Athasian races. Some of his champions failed in their tasks and some rebelled, slaying their master and working in concert to raise themselves to highest levels of power resulting in the transformation into a dragon.
Ravenloft
Ravenloft, a fictional setting from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, is a demiplane consisting of a collection of "domains" brought together by mysterious powers known only as Dark Powers. The domains are separated from each other by the impenetrable Mists. Each domain is ruled by its dark lord, who has committed a crime so foul as to attract the attention of the Dark Powers and be imprisoned, seemingly forever (though some can be killed and replaced), in their domain, which they are not able to escape by any means magical or mundane. The Mists play with them by denying their most coveted dream, be it love, glory in war, or the defeat of their enemies.
Ravenloft is primarily a Gothic horror setting. Dungeon Masters (DMs) are encouraged to use scenes that build apprehension and fear, culminating in the eventual face-to-face meeting with the nameless evil. Characters have a much greater significance attached to their acts, especially if they are morally impure, as they risk coming under the influence of the Dark Powers and gradually transforming themselves into a figure of evil, in the form of failed power checks.
Ravenloft began life as a standalone adventure module for first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It was popular enough to spawn a pick-a-path book, a sequel module, and in the early 90's was launched as a full-fledged campaign setting. The campaign setting was revised three times before TSR/Wizards of the Coast cancelled the line.
Currently Ravenloft is licensed to third-party publishers, who publish material compatible with the d20 System.
Mystara
Mystara is a fantasy world setting for Dungeons & Dragons. It originated around the concept of Blackmoor, a mysterious land filled with relics of the past in the form of highly advanced technology mingled with sword and sorcery.
Mystara includes the Savage Coast, an area under the Red Curse, which eventually kills its inhabitants by mutating them unless the metal cinnabryl is worn in contact with the body.
Planescape
Planescape is a fictional setting used by the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is not a single setting, rather it can encompass most other Dungeons and Dragons worlds, which are linked together by planar gates, also known as portals. Planescape, as it name suggests, is comprised of planes. Planes can be grouped into six categories: three sets of Planes of Substance (containing solid matter) and three sets of Buffer Planes (connecting the Substance planes and generally not containing solid matter). These six categories are (substance first): Prime Material Worlds, Inner Planes, Outer Planes, Astral Planes, Etheral Planes, and Ordial planes. They are commonly grouped into a large ring, with alternating spatial and nonspatial planes (clockwise: Outer, Astral, Prime Material, Etheral, Inner, Ordial). Planes can also be split apart into layers, with each layer representing a slightly different world.
Spelljammer
Spelljammer is a fictional setting used by the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It introduces the concept of crystal spheres (roughly the size of a solar system), which may contain mutliple worlds and are navigable using spelljamming ships (as the name implies, operated by the power of magic). Both space and alien planets are inhabited by strange and dangerous creatures unknown to material primes, and the alien races engage in spelljamming and space warfare as well.
The setting is designed to allow some fantastic space adventures to take place within the traditional swords'n'sorcery universe of Dungeons and Dragons. With their own magical gravity and atmosphere envelope, the "ships" involved tend not to resemble the spaceships of science fiction, but galleons, animals, or even more wildly fantastic shapes. Some of the ideas owe much to the fiction of Jules Verne and his contemporaries, and to related games and fiction with a steampunk flavor.
Kara-Tur
Kara-Tur is a fantasy world created by Gary Gygax, David Cook & Francois Marcela-Froideval detailed in 1985's Oriental Adventures for the First Edition Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
