Following on  from my  Setting Map review series  and my more recent thoughts on  4e's Nentir Vale  and  Dragonlance as a coming-of-age sandbox , I've decided to start a review series of published settings overall. Mostly D&D, but we'll be delving into some 3rd party settings, Warhammer and a few others. These reviews will be personal and mostly aimed at giving the reader an impression of the flavor, style and gameability of the setting. I am starting with the setting that has probably the greatest exposure of all. The forgotten realms! Everyone knows it, or knows of it, at least. Quick intro to the setting ( See also my review of the map of the forgotten realms ) Let's start by showing the realms from its most flattering side. Quote Ed Greenwood, from the old 'gray box': "Most of the area under discussion here has until recently been covered by wild forests and unsettled grasslands. Civilization is still a novelty in much of this world

4th edition really turned me off D&D, at least as far as keeping up with its current state goes. At the time, I was already souring on 3.5's existential crisis with wanting to be GURPS in a class and level based system with abstracted combat. GURPS I felt simply did that better and I was coming to realise older versions of the game did the D&D parts with class, levels and abstracted combat, better. When 4e then came out, I read all the reviews and play examples to get a feel for the game and see if I wanted to tag along. Nothing new under the sun from me there - I was instantly turned off by the extremely gamist nature of it - A roleplaying game so standardised by rules, it had abandoned all pretence of players playing out the scene and using rules as an aid - Players were playing out the rules with the scene as a background prop. Combats taking forever. 9 page character sheets. Characters defined primarily by boardgamey tactical roles. The hours spent on the mini-game o

For links to all instalments in this series,  go here . Final instalment in my review series of classical maps is my own - The Mythlands of Erce! The main large map is more or less finished by now. Click here to download the full size 6000x4000 map It would seem a bit puerile to review what I like and don't like about my own map, so I am just going to talk a bit about what I am trying to do with it, the process and how I feel about the result. One of the touches I am pretty happy with (and which really helped me figure out the proper scale of symbols as well) is that this is actually a hex map. Each mountain is a hex, woodlands border to hexes, albeit lazily, so do hills, etc. So this can actually be used a table, players can be told what hex they are in and see what can of primary terrain it has, calculate overland travel, etc (I didn't go for hexes for the seas because imo, sea travel is almost always a pointcrawl anyway). I feel like I have to show a slightly

For links to all instalments in this series,  go here . For the fifth instalment, we come to Cerilia of the Birthright setting. And I move from admiration to love. First Impressions:  I first became aware of birthright when the  Birthright Conspectus  was included in one of the boxed sets I bought at the time, which included the fullsized map above. It was, simply put, love at first sight. I adored the the woodlands, the mountains, the colour scheme and the stapled borders  - It seemed like a world truly alive. More than anything, it was the map that made me want to know more about this setting. Further Thoughts: This is is still one of my favourite maps, maybe my alltime favourite. Although the scale of Cerilia is clearly more localised than Faerun or even the Flanaess , the sense of there being plenty of opportunity for exploration and adventure is developed with stunning level of detail instead - Where the Forgotten Realms gives a sense of never running out of new land

For links to all instalments in this series,  go here . For the fourth instalment is yet another iconic map piece - Faerun. I've gone for the 3rd edition one as that is probably the most widespread one out there and also (imo), the best. Ed greenwood does a lot of the same things right as Gygax did with his Flanaess map. He understands that placement of seas as separators; points that cultures congregate around; and routes that open up and connects different adventuring areas really makes a difference to a good map. He nails it with the Sea of Fallen Stars and the multitude of bays, lakes and reaches that feed into it. One boat can set sail in the sea of salt in Mulhorand in the deep south and meet up in the Sea of Fallen Stars with a vessel that started from the tortured lands near the great glacier, passing through Damara, Vaasa and Impiltur before entering the sea proper. Great stuff. What is really striking about this map is the scale of it. It feels larger than th

For links to all instalments in this series, go here . Next up is another map many will know but few have praised - The map of Ansalon from the 2nd edition Dragonlance boxed set "Tales of the Lance". First Impressions: My initial impression is not as favourable as the preceeding ones, but there are still some interesting things going on here: The gulf of the new sea tells a story about how kingdoms shape up in central ansalon. Southern Ergoth looks like a kickass island of adventure. And I want to know more about that southwestern strip of the mainland bordering Southern Ergoth. I'd also like to know more about those island kingdoms up in the northeast corner. And what's going on around the Bay of Balifor? Besides that, the north and south just sort of... end, with wastelands at each end (plains of dust/Icewall, Northern Wastes/Nordmaar). The bloodsea puts a downer on what could have been an eastern Ansalon full of vitality. And the centre of the mainland

For links to all instalments in this series,  go here. Second instalment in the series gives a strong showing with another iconic example - The Flanaess as depicted in the World of Greyhawk Folio from 1980: First Impressions: It is with a certain amount of awe that I delicately unfold my original Darlene maps from the Greyhawk folio - Still in top notch shape after 35 years thanks to the sturdy paper the folio edition were printed on. From a gamer's perspective, you can't ask for more  - They are huge, sturdy enough to take to the table and have a lot going on. Not as beautiful and flavourful as Middle Earth, but still a work of art. And hex-mapped. All awesome. Further Thoughts:  The Flanaess is to me the gold standard of how to draw up a setting map. No borders are drawn and none are needed. The geography naturally points out how regions are shaped and interact with each other. You can learn a lot about the Flanaess just from this map: The Sheldomar Valley countri

For links to all instalments in this series,  go here. We're off to a somewhat lacklustre start with perhaps the most iconic fantasy map of all - J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth First impressions: Love the style, it is immensely flavourful and says something about kind of world Middle Earth is. It makes me want to dig into its pockets and see what mysteries have been scribbled on to this piece of lore. Second thoughts - As a setting map, Middle Earth is, geographically speaking, dull as dishwater. Just a slab of land with a coastline, a few mountains and woods dotted here and there. For an entire setting, it doesn't give you much to explore or evoke many impressions about the realms there and how they relate to each  other. Some will argue that there is more to Middle Earth than this, but not effectively so. This is the main campaign map the same way the Flanaess is the main area of Oerik and Faerun is the main area of Toril. As a setting map, it falls flat - Ju