I’m gonna google it because I don’t know where it technically falls but I’ve always been fascinated with the Feywild. I’m still newish to DND but love the concept of the Feywild. My group has been playing Dungeon in a Box campaigns getting our feet wet. I’m hoping we do a Strahd campaign at length eventually!
The Feywild is a sort of setting-neutral concept. It was originally part of the 4th Edition "Nentir Vale" default setting, but it seems to have been ported to a general part of the planes system in 5e, so presumably most worlds like Forgotten Realms each have their own Feywild.
Or... are all equally connected to the Feywild? Or... however the multiverse is supposed to be working now. (It would really make far more sense if each setting had its own separate associated "instances" of each plane rather than only the Material Plane having many worlds. That would account for settings with their own distinct cosmology and why shared characters sometimes behave differently or have different backstories across settings, while still letting you travel the multiverse. But instead we have this huge self-contradictory mess that seems to serve no purpose other than maybe being vaguely helpful for Planescape I guess?)
Anyway, point is, assuming the "echo" thing is still true, the Feywild can be part of most settings, but most recent Feywild-related content is probably focused on the Forgotten Realms' version of it.
The only "official" setting I've played D&D in for the last... I'm not sure, twenty years? is Birthright.
<big snip> Birthright is just our group's favorite so every new game ends up there.
While I loved the PC domain-running focus of the original campaign boxed set, I'd be perfectly happy to see WotC reboot the setting without that as the default expectation. Birthright is easily my favorite setting from a flavor standpoint.
The only "official" setting I've played D&D in for the last... I'm not sure, twenty years? is Birthright.
<big snip> Birthright is just our group's favorite so every new game ends up there.
While I loved the PC domain-running focus of the original campaign boxed set, I'd be perfectly happy to see WotC reboot the setting without that as the default expectation. Birthright is easily my favorite setting from a flavor standpoint.
I checked out Birthright this morning. I’m not really good at the whole running a domain thing, but the setting itself looks really cool.
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I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
Since there are no recent proper setting volumes from WotC, we play in Birthright, Mystara, Karameikos and some FR. Until 3e there is really good material, in 4e and the general demise of the old world was not much good left. Yes I also have 4e material and also the sword coast book of 5e, but all this is far away to build a whole world. The Dragonlance book from 5e is also very far from usable and simply requires too much time to build it reasonably as a world. Yes Dragonlance through the Chronicles is very popular and maybe. we'll take a detour there sometime, but as much as I would have loved to buy the book. Only 34 pages of basic material at the beginning is just too little. The players and I were looking forward to it.
The only "official" setting I've played D&D in for the last... I'm not sure, twenty years? is Birthright.
<big snip> Birthright is just our group's favorite so every new game ends up there.
While I loved the PC domain-running focus of the original campaign boxed set, I'd be perfectly happy to see WotC reboot the setting without that as the default expectation. Birthright is easily my favorite setting from a flavor standpoint.
I am of two minds on this because while I would love to see new material for the setting, the people who were responsible for it are no longer with WOTC. Rich Baker is writing for Elder Scrolls Online now, and I think Colin McComb has his own company last I saw. So while the new material might be good, it wouldn't be the same. I would really only want new Birthright material if it involved both of them.
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I have a unique relationship with Lady Luck. She smiles on me often. Usually with derision. -- https://linktr.ee/aurhia
I’m gonna google it because I don’t know where it technically falls but I’ve always been fascinated with the Feywild. I’m still newish to DND but love the concept of the Feywild. My group has been playing Dungeon in a Box campaigns getting our feet wet. I’m hoping we do a Strahd campaign at length eventually!
The Feywild is a sort of setting-neutral concept. It was originally part of the 4th Edition "Nentir Vale" default setting, but it seems to have been ported to a general part of the planes system in 5e, so presumably most worlds like Forgotten Realms each have their own Feywild.
Or... are all equally connected to the Feywild? Or... however the multiverse is supposed to be working now. (It would really make far more sense if each setting had its own separate associated "instances" of each plane rather than only the Material Plane having many worlds. That would account for settings with their own distinct cosmology and why shared characters sometimes behave differently or have different backstories across settings, while still letting you travel the multiverse. But instead we have this huge self-contradictory mess that seems to serve no purpose other than maybe being vaguely helpful for Planescape I guess?)
Anyway, point is, assuming the "echo" thing is still true, the Feywild can be part of most settings, but most recent Feywild-related content is probably focused on the Forgotten Realms' version of it.
There's very little detail on the Feywild outside of the DMG in 5e. There's the broad idea of the Courts, of course, a few big names if you dig around a little, and some other odds and ends, but in a lot of ways it's honestly a bit too free-form. Like, WBtWL doesn't provide any thoughts on running Feywild-themed stuff in general, just the specific set of adventures. Really you could say it's one contiguous Plane that touches all the worlds of the Material Plane, but in such a way that a given portion of the Feywild would only interact with a few of the worlds of the Material Plane. Most of the lore I've seen, outside of the Eladrin's city-state, derives more from the classic bits of folklore often used in urban fantasy stories than anything FR based.
I've actually never used pre-made settings. I played CoS once years ago (DM dropped it after we finished first escort mission), and had two sessions of Lost Mines (that DM stopped DMing), but I've primarily played in and used homebrew worlds.
I like using them because I can control it how I want, change things on the fly, and fill it with irrational terrors to my liking. I don't need to worry about standard lore I don't agree with, I can make the gods much more petty and involved like mythology ones, and plus when I screw up my economy I built in the IRS (Internal Raccoon Service) to bust in and take some gold to prevent bloating in the dead of night. One of the PCs now has a hilariously bitter hatred of raccoons.
I've never enjoyed premade settings as much as homebrew, but I also only played a handful of those games that were then left in the unfinished campaign landfill. Plus my players can wiki up spoilers if they have no idea about the world more than I give them.
Why so much hate on FR I grew up reading and playing everything about FR's for me it's like a 2nd home.
Its lore is super messy and contradictory, and the setting is pretty generic.
But those are the very reasons why I like FR. It's super easy to change/add things because the lore's a mess. And Faerûn is a really good starting point for new players, as it's such a standard medieval European fantasy world.
Other settings are probably better for a more consistent campaign, but FR is a good drag-and-drop setting, so to speak.
Why so much hate on FR I grew up reading and playing everything about FR's for me it's like a 2nd home.
Its lore is super messy and contradictory, and the setting is pretty generic.
But those are the very reasons why I like FR. It's super easy to change/add things because the lore's a mess. And Faerûn is a really good starting point for new players, as it's such a standard medieval European fantasy world.
Other settings are probably better for a more consistent campaign, but FR is a good drag-and-drop setting, so to speak.
I think it has less to do with messy and contradictory lore (though that is inevitable given just how much has been written by dozens and dozens of different people centered in the Realms) and is just generally the fact that people often find reason to fault or outright dislike the "overdog". If something / someone is clearly dominant in a field there are always going to be people who are not fans -- it's just human nature. Plus FR is quite a standard high fantasy setting, so those looking for something that feels more unique are going to gravitate elsewhere.
You'll notice in the OP's poll that FR has almost 4x as many votes as the next most played-in setting. It gets the most hate but also by far the most use. Obviously "home brew" is the top vote getter. No doubt some of the personal settings people play in are amazing. Creating and using your own world is one of the joys of DnD even if, to an outsider, it's not publication-worthy.
I'd also guess that if you were seeing this data from the community at large, rather than people passionate enough about the topic they are in this forum and responding to the poll, that FR usage would be even higher. Using the Realms is less work for the DM who doesn't have the time or inclination for full world building since there are so many resources. You don't even have to spend any $$ - the FR wiki is an amazing resource.
I’m gonna google it because I don’t know where it technically falls but I’ve always been fascinated with the Feywild. I’m still newish to DND but love the concept of the Feywild. My group has been playing Dungeon in a Box campaigns getting our feet wet. I’m hoping we do a Strahd campaign at length eventually!
The Feywild is a sort of setting-neutral concept. It was originally part of the 4th Edition "Nentir Vale" default setting, but it seems to have been ported to a general part of the planes system in 5e, so presumably most worlds like Forgotten Realms each have their own Feywild.
Or... are all equally connected to the Feywild? Or... however the multiverse is supposed to be working now. (It would really make far more sense if each setting had its own separate associated "instances" of each plane rather than only the Material Plane having many worlds. That would account for settings with their own distinct cosmology and why shared characters sometimes behave differently or have different backstories across settings, while still letting you travel the multiverse. But instead we have this huge self-contradictory mess that seems to serve no purpose other than maybe being vaguely helpful for Planescape I guess?)
Anyway, point is, assuming the "echo" thing is still true, the Feywild can be part of most settings, but most recent Feywild-related content is probably focused on the Forgotten Realms' version of it.
There's very little detail on the Feywild outside of the DMG in 5e. There's the broad idea of the Courts, of course, a few big names if you dig around a little, and some other odds and ends, but in a lot of ways it's honestly a bit too free-form. Like, WBtWL doesn't provide any thoughts on running Feywild-themed stuff in general, just the specific set of adventures. Really you could say it's one contiguous Plane that touches all the worlds of the Material Plane, but in such a way that a given portion of the Feywild would only interact with a few of the worlds of the Material Plane. Most of the lore I've seen, outside of the Eladrin's city-state, derives more from the classic bits of folklore often used in urban fantasy stories than anything FR based.
seems like we need a 12th Night adventure…
I wonder if I can squeeze out the time to craft a Shakespearean Feywild adventure. There’s three distinct tales I could use, but I do dread going back to that well for my own peace of mind — I always come away from in depth reading with a habit of speaking in pentameter….
which is a way of saying yes, we need more stuff for it.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Really happy there's finally a 5e Dragonlance book. Dragonlance is my favorite setting to build my own campaigns in because the lore is well consolidated into the core novels and a couple AD&D books.
Contrary to most people, I actually don't mind Forgotten Realms... it's my default generic setting to use, because everyone is familiar with the main cities, key people, pantheon, and regional areas (i.e., Icewind Dale). But I don't go so far as to know the particular mayor of Daggerford or whatever. It serves a good purpose, but it's boring to me and I only choose it when my story is localized to a region or linear in nature. I prefer Dragonlance or Dark Sun or Ravenloft or Spelljammer for sandbox where I can make whatever up.
I love the fact I that almost every town of note will have detailed information available on them, the leaders, notable citizens etc. Forgotten realms if so, filled with Lore.
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The Feywild is a sort of setting-neutral concept. It was originally part of the 4th Edition "Nentir Vale" default setting, but it seems to have been ported to a general part of the planes system in 5e, so presumably most worlds like Forgotten Realms each have their own Feywild.
Or... are all equally connected to the Feywild? Or... however the multiverse is supposed to be working now. (It would really make far more sense if each setting had its own separate associated "instances" of each plane rather than only the Material Plane having many worlds. That would account for settings with their own distinct cosmology and why shared characters sometimes behave differently or have different backstories across settings, while still letting you travel the multiverse. But instead we have this huge self-contradictory mess that seems to serve no purpose other than maybe being vaguely helpful for Planescape I guess?)
Anyway, point is, assuming the "echo" thing is still true, the Feywild can be part of most settings, but most recent Feywild-related content is probably focused on the Forgotten Realms' version of it.
Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral
While I loved the PC domain-running focus of the original campaign boxed set, I'd be perfectly happy to see WotC reboot the setting without that as the default expectation. Birthright is easily my favorite setting from a flavor standpoint.
I checked out Birthright this morning. I’m not really good at the whole running a domain thing, but the setting itself looks really cool.
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
Since there are no recent proper setting volumes from WotC, we play in Birthright, Mystara, Karameikos and some FR. Until 3e there is really good material, in 4e and the general demise of the old world was not much good left. Yes I also have 4e material and also the sword coast book of 5e, but all this is far away to build a whole world. The Dragonlance book from 5e is also very far from usable and simply requires too much time to build it reasonably as a world. Yes Dragonlance through the Chronicles is very popular and maybe. we'll take a detour there sometime, but as much as I would have loved to buy the book. Only 34 pages of basic material at the beginning is just too little. The players and I were looking forward to it.
I am of two minds on this because while I would love to see new material for the setting, the people who were responsible for it are no longer with WOTC. Rich Baker is writing for Elder Scrolls Online now, and I think Colin McComb has his own company last I saw. So while the new material might be good, it wouldn't be the same. I would really only want new Birthright material if it involved both of them.
I have a unique relationship with Lady Luck. She smiles on me often. Usually with derision.
--
https://linktr.ee/aurhia
I’ve only ran a couple of one shots so far, both in homebrew. I’d like to run a Ravenloft campaign some time though.
There's very little detail on the Feywild outside of the DMG in 5e. There's the broad idea of the Courts, of course, a few big names if you dig around a little, and some other odds and ends, but in a lot of ways it's honestly a bit too free-form. Like, WBtWL doesn't provide any thoughts on running Feywild-themed stuff in general, just the specific set of adventures. Really you could say it's one contiguous Plane that touches all the worlds of the Material Plane, but in such a way that a given portion of the Feywild would only interact with a few of the worlds of the Material Plane. Most of the lore I've seen, outside of the Eladrin's city-state, derives more from the classic bits of folklore often used in urban fantasy stories than anything FR based.
I've actually never used pre-made settings. I played CoS once years ago (DM dropped it after we finished first escort mission), and had two sessions of Lost Mines (that DM stopped DMing), but I've primarily played in and used homebrew worlds.
I like using them because I can control it how I want, change things on the fly, and fill it with irrational terrors to my liking. I don't need to worry about standard lore I don't agree with, I can make the gods much more petty and involved like mythology ones, and plus when I screw up my economy I built in the IRS (Internal Raccoon Service) to bust in and take some gold to prevent bloating in the dead of night. One of the PCs now has a hilariously bitter hatred of raccoons.
I've never enjoyed premade settings as much as homebrew, but I also only played a handful of those games that were then left in the unfinished campaign landfill. Plus my players can wiki up spoilers if they have no idea about the world more than I give them.
Why so much hate on FR I grew up reading and playing everything about FR's for me it's like a 2nd home.
Its lore is super messy and contradictory, and the setting is pretty generic.
But those are the very reasons why I like FR. It's super easy to change/add things because the lore's a mess. And Faerûn is a really good starting point for new players, as it's such a standard medieval European fantasy world.
Other settings are probably better for a more consistent campaign, but FR is a good drag-and-drop setting, so to speak.
[REDACTED]
I think it has less to do with messy and contradictory lore (though that is inevitable given just how much has been written by dozens and dozens of different people centered in the Realms) and is just generally the fact that people often find reason to fault or outright dislike the "overdog". If something / someone is clearly dominant in a field there are always going to be people who are not fans -- it's just human nature. Plus FR is quite a standard high fantasy setting, so those looking for something that feels more unique are going to gravitate elsewhere.
You'll notice in the OP's poll that FR has almost 4x as many votes as the next most played-in setting. It gets the most hate but also by far the most use. Obviously "home brew" is the top vote getter. No doubt some of the personal settings people play in are amazing. Creating and using your own world is one of the joys of DnD even if, to an outsider, it's not publication-worthy.
I'd also guess that if you were seeing this data from the community at large, rather than people passionate enough about the topic they are in this forum and responding to the poll, that FR usage would be even higher. Using the Realms is less work for the DM who doesn't have the time or inclination for full world building since there are so many resources. You don't even have to spend any $$ - the FR wiki is an amazing resource.
A similar poll currently on DnDNext Reddit.
dndnext/what_setting_do_you_play_in_currently
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
seems like we need a 12th Night adventure…
I wonder if I can squeeze out the time to craft a Shakespearean Feywild adventure. There’s three distinct tales I could use, but I do dread going back to that well for my own peace of mind — I always come away from in depth reading with a habit of speaking in pentameter….
which is a way of saying yes, we need more stuff for it.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
My favorite campaign settings are still Kingdoms of Kalimar from Kenzer and Company; and of course the original: Greyhawk.
I also like Ravenloft which got my vote on your list; and of course these days who doesn't at least peak at some Exandria resources?
Thank you for your time and please have a very pleasant day.
Really happy there's finally a 5e Dragonlance book. Dragonlance is my favorite setting to build my own campaigns in because the lore is well consolidated into the core novels and a couple AD&D books.
Contrary to most people, I actually don't mind Forgotten Realms... it's my default generic setting to use, because everyone is familiar with the main cities, key people, pantheon, and regional areas (i.e., Icewind Dale). But I don't go so far as to know the particular mayor of Daggerford or whatever. It serves a good purpose, but it's boring to me and I only choose it when my story is localized to a region or linear in nature. I prefer Dragonlance or Dark Sun or Ravenloft or Spelljammer for sandbox where I can make whatever up.
I love the fact I that almost every town of note will have detailed information available on them, the leaders, notable citizens etc. Forgotten realms if so, filled with Lore.