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D&D Campaign Settings – DND Campaign Ideas from the most important campaign settings of Ad&d 2e

This post is dedicated to the most important D&D campaign settings.

Many of them exist, some better than others, all of them deserve to be known, and only few of them exist as offical campaign setting the most recent version of D&D, especially D&D 5e.

As usual, don’t bother about the rules mechanics, but have a look at the content.

I have selected the following campaign settings:

  • Birthright
  • Dark Sun
  • Dragonlance
  • Forgotten Realms
  • Greyhawk
  • Lankhmar
  • Mystara
  • Planescape
  • Ravenloft
  • Spelljammer

BIRTHRIGHT

Birthright is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting that was first released by TSR in 1995.
It is based on the continent of Cerilia on the world of Aebrynis, in which the players take on the role of the divinely-empowered rulers, with emphasis on the political rulership level of gameplay.

DARK SUN

Athas is a devastated world, the result of magic run amok. Most of Athas is an empty desert, interrupted by a handful of corrupt city states controlled by power-mad sorcerer-kings and their spell-wielding lackeys. The brutal climate and the oppressive rule of the sorcerer-kings have created a corrupt, bloodthirsty, and desperate culture that leaves little room for chivalric virtues common to fantasy settings

DRAGONLANCE

The history of the world of Krynn, and thus the settings for both the novels and gaming supplements, is roughly split into five separate ages. The first age is the time of creation, when the gods are born and Krynn is formed. The Age of Dreams, the second age, is marked by the rapid growth of the world’s first great civilizations and the appearance of myriad new races. This era is also marked by three great wars between dragons and their minions.

FORGOTTEN REALMS

The Forgotten Realms is a fantasy world setting, described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and supernatural phenomena are quite real. The premise is that, long ago, the Earth and the world of the Forgotten Realms were more closely connected.

GREYHAWK

The world itself started as a simple dungeon under a castle designed by Gary Gygax for the amusement of his children and friends, but it rapidly expanded to include not only a complex multi-layered dungeon environment, but also the nearby city of Greyhawk, and eventually an entire world

LANKHAMR

Lankhmar is richly described as a populous and labyrinthine city rife with corruption. It is decadent or squalid in roughly equal parts and said to be so shrouded by smog that the stars are rarely sighted (the city’s alternate name is “The City of Sevenscore Thousand Smokes”). Located next to the Inner Sea, Lankhmar is visited by ships from across Nehwon and is the starting point for Fafhrd and the Mouser’s many sea voyages.

MYSTARA

Mystara is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role playing game. It was the default setting for the “Basic” version of the game throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Most adventures published for the “Basic” edition of D&D take place in “The Known World”, a central continent that includes a varied patchwork of both human and non-human realms.

PLANESCAPE

The Planescape setting was published in 1994. As its name suggests, the setting crosses and comprises the numerous planes of existence, encompassing an entire cosmology called the Great Wheel, as originally developed in the original 1987 Manual of the Planes by Jeff Grubb. This includes many of the other Dungeons & Dragons worlds, linking them via inter-dimensional magical portals.

RAVENLOFT

Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a pocket dimension or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of land pieces called “domains”, brought together by a mysterious force known only as the Dark Powers.

SPELLJAMMER

Spelljammer introduced into the AD&D universe a comprehensive system of fantasy astrophysics, including the Ptolemaic concept of crystal spheres. Crystal spheres may contain multiple worlds and are navigable using ships equipped with “spelljamming helms”.