Since I first started running Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) fifteen years ago I have largely run my games within the world of Greyhawk. It was the sort of setting that allowed me to push the boundaries without having to run against the narrative constraints that are found with the current official setting of D&D: the Forgotten Realms. Although I have run against those constraints at times when players would push the standards of the Realms onto my beloved Greyhawk.
This year though I’ve decided that I’m going to begin exploring a new setting in a game I’m running for my brother and some of our friends but I haven’t yet decided on which one. You see two of the players have never really liked D&D and have tended to enjoy the Vampire setting that White Wolf published back in the 1990s. They’re willing to try D&D again because I’m running but they have a more than a few hang ups on the idea of the system and the settings they remember (at the time they played in either the Forgotten Realms or an offshoot of the Realms).
That said they like all kinds of wild, weird stuff and the more unconventional I go the better. So laser guns and orks would be fine with them as would Eldritch Horrors and Fallout Shelters. What they’re not looking for is something that they associated with the old Forgotten Realms that bound them up in a world they had no knowledge of and no interest in learning but that other players forced on them.
I can work with that.
The weirdness is why I love the Planescape setting. The first session I ran ended up in a philosophical debate with a combat thrown in at the end (that almost wiped out the party, but that’s another story). The ability to pop in and out of anywhere is great, and the social complexity with the factions might tickle the fancy of your former Vampire players.
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I’ve been thinking a lot about Planescape too. It’s a fun setting and one that I’ve never fully explored before. It’s definitely something I’ve got to consider. Thanks for suggesting it Jeff!
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Glad to help!
The best part is though, that you can start anywhere else and end up there, either by going through a portal or even by Spelljammer ship.
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Man, Spelljammer ships are so much fun. Absolutely bat shit insane but fun all the same!
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