What do you consider the best setting in RPG history?
 

One of the Tamrielic provinces? The "Continent" of the Witcher? Ferelden? The Forgotten Realms? Sigil? Britannia? Somewhere else?

For me, it's a much easier question to answer than my favorite RPG. It's Morrowind, easily. No setting has been as orginal, as interesting, and as fully considered. It's one of the few truly great settings in gaming even when compared to all other media. (And the #1 reason why improvements in other areas have still never allowed BGS' subsequent offerings to touch Morrowind as an experience)

Morrowind for me, too. Somewhat alien yet familiar.

The whole planet of Nirn (I think that's the name from Elder Scrolls?) was a mighty good one. Blackreach was pretty cool, in particular.

ELEX is showing some promise.

Hmmm…. looks like I'm a sucker for interesting moons!

It can be answered in different ways. What is the best one in a rpg that I played?

I think the Baldur's Gate setting and lore in those games was great. Classical and traditional fantasy setting done superbly. Also have to say the same of Gothic 1 - an amazingly designed fantasy world with tons of "immersion" and atmosphere, one that really drew you in.

What about yet unrealized fantasy settings that are rich and would be awesome?

I think the Warhammer fantasy setting is criminally overlooked and while I know they have set a game or two there (most recently an action rpg) but its not even close to tapping the vast potential of the setting in terms of rpgs. I have read a ton of Warhammer fantasy books, what can I say. :beam: And am a fanboy of the setting.

For largely unrealised settings with great potential I would cite Raymond E. Feist. Among his fantasy novels The Riftwar Saga has alot of potential and the setting as a whole has already been proven by Betrayal at Krondor.

Another one that needs a modern iteration would be Dark Sun. So much interesting lore and history in that setting. I got a kick out of reading the Dark Sun manuals and seeing all the different races and history in there. There needs to be a Baldurs Gate type game in that setting (with Pathfinder: Kingmaker improvements). An action RPG as a sole protagonist, Morrowind style, would also work well.

Traditionally I like the TDE setting more, but in my case that's just kind of a favouritism. ;)

Currently I like Eberron most, because it has several things - like Steampunk + Fantasy - combined. Plus, it is one of the few fantasy settings with real pirates.

Morrowind for me, with the Forgotten Realms a close second.

It's not an easy question for me considering how many RPGs I've played over the years. I could probably narrow it down though to Fallout, The Forgotten Realms, and The Witcher.

Btw, Morrowind is a location not a setting. ;)

This really

Probably Krondor for me. I had such a great attachment to the books when the game came out, and nothing has quite duplicated that feeling for me, even though it's been over twenty years by now. Some products have come close, but that game was really quite the watershed for me, and sits in a class by itself, in terms of writing and the environment in which one played.

I have always liked AD&D stuff so Forgotten Realms I have a lot of fondness for. But also really enjoying Pathfinder with Kingmaker and like these areas I have seen so far. I tend to like the high fantasy with lots of nature, ancient dungeons and ruins, old castles, medieval style towns, hidden glades, etc.

I'm a big Warhammer fan too, and Total War: Warhammer is one of my favorite games. And you're right, while they keep tracking out games in the (especially) Warhammer 40K setting, there has never been even a decent RPG in either the fantasy or 40K world. And there could be!

Krondor is a good one. I liked Betrayal at Krondor a lot.. I was a sucker for how literate it was compared to contemporaneous RPGs… but I never finished it.

For D&D, I gravitate toward the oddball settings, the less heralded and less traditional ones. Planescape Torment is therefore an obvious favorite. I never played the Dark Sun game; I probably never will, now, because of its age, but I would love for a new game to be set there. I'm not familiar with Eberron, but I'd be immediately intrigued by that possibility too.

I'm betting the Witcher games have the same problem, along with BattleTech and Tolkien-based worlds. Movies never have the time to get into those details but games never bother, either, even though they can be quite long. If they do reference the depth, it tends to be via (ironically) in-game books you can read.

I'll go with the mass effect universe. I particularly like the different species and their background.

The fallout setting is pretty cool, too, but sometimes too cartoonish for me (not just fallout boy). And of course, it copies alot from the real world with its alternate timeline setting.

There's plenty of good settings transfered from other media (forgotten realms, star trek, star wars, warhammer, warhammer 40k, vampire: masquerade etc.) and they're all nice. Of course these all come with the benefit of the sheer amount of lore and background information. So I can see why they are contenders.

And with respect to some others:
*Tamriel / Nirn is fine, but not particularly exceptional, definitely fleshed out quite well but feels derivative too me.
*Elex has its qualities, but the setting feels completely inconsistent to me
*On world scale, I feel the same about the Gothic series
*While I liked Greedfall, it's missing alot of context on anything that is not immediately covered during the game.
*Grim Dawn setting is nice, but lacking detail.
*Path of Exile has good atmosphere, but the setting is kind of too ambitious (at least, in its current state).
*I liked the very simple setting of the original Diablo, but am doubtfull about what was added later on.
*The Witcher setting is sometimes great, sometimes too real, and it still misses alot of context of the world.
*Britannia is fun but patchwork.

Ok, I think that's enough for now. ;)

I came out of playing the trilogy thinking the Mass Effect universe was quite generic. Years later, I replayed Mass Effect 1 and it was more interesting than I had remembered. I liked Mass Effect 4 more than many, but one thing I thought they entirely missed the boat on was the opportunity to use the premise to create some really unique things…. it felt like 99% of it was just stuff from the trilogy brought over.

"*Tamriel / Nirn is fine, but not particularly exceptional, definitely fleshed out quite well but feels derivative too me."

Tamriel, yes. Oblivion was entirely bland as a game because Cyrodil was given almost no unique character. Skryim did a very basic job of importing the usual Viking stuff.

But Morrowind, specifically, is not derivative AT ALL. At least not of the usual suspects (Tolkein, D&D, medieval Earth history)

I second this, I am also a sucker for high fantasy settings - so Forgotten Realms and Golarion

I'll have to disagree with you on that. Have you tried Warhammer 40K: Inquisitor – Martyr yet? It's pretty good, and I say that as someone who normally isn't a fan of Diablo clones.

I reckon it has to be Kingdoms of Amalur ;)

Nah, Tamriel wins but it was a much better world, not games mind you, back when it was Daggerfall and Morrowind. I find Oblivion and Skyrim to be games, but Daggerfall and Morrowind had a more compelling world view.

Nothing would be able to beat Feist's stuff if there was more of it.

Wizardry, Might and Magic, and Ultima are all great…for their time.

As far as an author that I'd love to see get some RPG love, I'll go with L.E. Modesitt Jr. and his Recluce saga. In a very real way, Modesitt would be an awesome author for a crafting type rpg with magic.

Probably the enigmatic setting of Fallout 1, before it got regurgitated with little to no evolution in sequels.

Planescape and Ptolus are pretty amazing as well - most stuff by Monte Cook.

Ooh, I forgot about Planescape. Also a favorite of mine. Hoping to see some games actually set in Planescape in the future.

There are just too many good ones to fairly choose the best i.e. Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Britannia, Midkemia, Morrowind, Fallout etc. If I had to choose one I would probably choose Dark Sun - something about eking out an existence in a harsh desert world just really appeals to me.

I don't know if it counts as a setting but the old Might and Magic maps just made my imagination run wild. You see a giant scorpion on the map in the desert, head in that direction, and you are fighting a giant scorpion boss.

Why's there a sword on the map in the mountains? Fighting trolls and giants for a powerful magic sword.

Spelljammer or Star Wars.

Gimmee my Dark Space game, gorram it!

I haven't, but I've peeked at it a few times. The story bits I've watched seem pretty on point to me. I should go check what it's at right now in the Steam sale.

No love for Arcanum's world?

My thought exactly when reading through the thread.

Arcanum, Numenera, Morrowind… all settings that aren't the usual high fantasy/low fantasy medieval. I appreciate a lot of games made in settings like Forgotten Realms, but the setting itself isn't that interesting to me. (There's few surprises).

Another nod to the Might and Magic maps. For me, even today the maps (what little there is) comes close to setting the mood for a gaming session. Another nod to the sunrise and sunsets in those games.

However for me the best RPG setting was Skyrim. It did not have the diversity of landscapes of some of the other great RPGS. But the multiple snow settings just kept me gaming for hours. And couple that with some stunning atmospheric background music and its like you are living in a movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyczq3l1yms


And finally I too would have to give a big thumps up to Morrowwind. The fantasy, alien and ancient dwarf locales were spectacular and no one has come close to making that compelling a setting with those weird combinations.

I have always like roman history so actually really found age of decadence a good setting set in a post apocalyptic roman world.

Other than that I really found the setting of tyranny fun too. Being part of an evil empire is really something that isn't done often.

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1. Planescape.
2. Ultima.
3. Tamriel.

a pibbur who thinks pibburworld is too realistic

Pibbur you changed names again ? :D

Did he get infected by Dart?

I bet many of the games you think are set in Forgotten Realms aren't actually set in the FR but are just cheap knock-offs cashing in on its brief periods of popularity. Unless you meant from years of playing p&p, of course.

The number of computer games actually set in FR are actually extremely small and amount to about five game series, none of which lasted for more than a few years. And most of which are chock full of surprises.

AFAIK the last FR game was nearly 15 years ago to-boot, meaning a whole generation of people hasn't even been given the opportunity to get bored of it yet.

Its not normally the original source people get tired of, it's usually just the fatigue generated by the unending crappy unofficial copy-cat cash-grabs.

You're might be right of course @lackblogger, but I was mainly referring to the BG games (Which together with the IW and NWN games are the only ones I know of set in that realm, making it 6 games in total). Although I love those games I still feel they are pretty typical High Fantasy? Of course additions like the Sphere in BG2 can make pretty much anything possible, I find I'm more fond of settings where I don't quite know what to expect.

Like in the Wizardry games where the Fantasy tropes are turned on their heads with Space ships. Or in Arcanum where technology and magic can't coexist, and the new world and the old are mutually exclusive. Or what the heck, Buck Rogers Pulp Sci Fi with Martians. Awesome.

What did you expect? Can you elaborate?

I don't mean the writing in those games isn't top notch, so of course there are surprises but only within the context of the story, not the setting. You expect to fight Dragons, Orcs and evil Sorcerers, and that's exactly what you get.

Of course the problem there isn't really the setting itself, but my familiarity with the setting. Playing something like PS:T or the newer Torment:TON I went in blind, which made everything more interesting because I had no idea what to expect.

I don't recall any Orcs in Baldur's Gate 1?

I think you could choose to play as a half-orc? Which was original at the time?

Does Planescape not have Evil Sorcerers?

I know it isn't really important for the discussion at hand but there are a ton more FR games, including the 4 "pools" Gold box game, the 2 savage frontier gold box, Hillsfar, Menzoberranzan (Using the ravenloft engine), the 3 eye of the beholder games, pools of radiance 2, Dungeon Hack, Al-Qadim, Sword coast legends, the BG Alliance games (2), Descent to Undermountain, Demonstone, Daggerdale, Tales from Candlekeep, Lords of Waterdeep (based on the boardgame) and a few more.

I meant 6 that I knew of, I wasn't implying there weren't more but I never played the other ones.

No orcs no, I was thinking of the Goblins. My bad. And yes, I don't mean it wasn't original in the sense of computer games, just in the sense that "standard Fantasy" (if there is such a thing) is no longer my preferred setting. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it, but I find the less used ones (Cyberpunk, Steam Punk, Science Fantasy, Sci Fi etc.) more interesting. I still prefer Fantasy to realistic contemporary or historical settings.

In the end though, the setting isn't what makes or breaks a game, it's what the developers actually do with it. It's not like I would ever skip a game based only on the setting.