Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Settings

Dungeons & Dragons had always been replete with campaign settings, both those officially released and those created by DMs themselves. From the grim and dark world of Ravenloft, to the noble and chivalrous Dragonlance, they span all manner of interests and themes in order to provide as broad an attraction to players and DMs of all strips.

List of D&D Campaign Settings

• Al-Qadim: A supplement to Forgotten Realms, taking place on the same planet. Fantasy medieval Middle East at the height of its wealth, science, and power.
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1 class updated for Third Edition. Got a token mention in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide as a potential location for the "foreigner" background.

• Birthright: The gods fucked a lot of mortals, and one or more of your PCs is a descendant of one.
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, unofficial porting to 3e taking place at http://www.birthright.net/

• Blackmoor: One of the three original campaign settings, developed by D&D co-creator Dave Arneson. Later retconned into Mystara as a Krull-esque distant past.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

• Council of Wyrms: You are the dragons.
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, possibly. No idea if the 1999 reprint used the old Dungeons & Dragons ruleset or not.

• Dark Sun: Dying desert world.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, though most 5e adventure modules discuss what would be needed to port them over to Athas, and the creators have stated they do plan to provide more support in the future.

• Dragon Fist: If Dragonlance were manlier. D&D set in the world of wuxia folktales from ancient China Tlanguo, the land of this setting.
  • Last supported edition: None. Uses a weird hybrid of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules. Published online-only by Wizards, never expanded or supported.

• Dragonlance: One of the more well-known D&D settings, thanks to the many books about it. Twisted D&D standards in a Brighthammer40k sort of way. Home to the kender.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, through a licensing agreement between WoTC and Sovereign Press, though mostly through discussing ways to port stuff over from other books. Unlike Athas, though, Krynn's close enough to Faerun for the conversion to be more comprehensive.

• Eberron: Magitek adventurepunk in a world literally made of dragons.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, though all content is either of the "translation guide in the back of the book" type or strictly WIP/playtest material as of now.

• Forgotten Realms: The most famous and popular setting.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

• Ghostwalk: The Monte Cook one everyone forgets exists. The Ethereal Plane meets inverse Ravenloft meets Forgotten Realms, and players can play as ghosts.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, one of two new settings created for it. Only published reference was its campaign sourcebook.

• Greyhawk: One of the three original campaign settings, and the default D&D setting for most of its existence. Revered for being the personal setting of Gary Gygax.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, in the same manner as Dragonlance, though in the 4e days it was killed off for a while around its 25th birthday in order to make way for Points of Light.

• Jakandor: Self-contained setting set on an island divided between magic-loving mage civilization, and magic-hating barbarian horde.
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

• The Horde: A supplement to Forgotten Realms, taking place on the same planet. Mongols and their related allies and enemies.
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

• Kara-Tur: A supplement to Forgotten Realms, taking place on the same planet. Ancient fantasy China/Japan with some later material detailing India and Southeast Asia
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, though the setting/land itself did not advance at all from its original publication. Got a token mention in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide as a potential location for the "foreigner" background.

• Maztica: A supplement to Forgotten Realms, taking place on the same planet. Fantasy post-Columbian America, complete with paladins exterminating and suppressing the believers of native gods.
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Got a token mention in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide as a potential location for the "foreigner" background.

• Mystara: One of the three original campaign settings, and the first one to be officially published and supported. Partially inspired Greyhawk, it paints a broad picture of the lands around Castle Greyhawk and was designed by David Cook and Tom Moldvay. (Also includes the Hollow World and Red Steel settings.)
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons

• Planescape: planes, planes everywhere — and we don't mean the flying kind. Established the Great Wheel cosmology. Made famous by the videogame Planescape: Torment
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but many elements were taken in establishing the planar landscape of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. Some tiny elements reappeared in later editions, but for the most part the setting and rules are mazed.

• Pelinore: For all you Britfag grognards out there. Somewhat similar to Ptolus in that it focused on a single city and it's surrounding environs.
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Published and expanded on exclusively in Imagine's UK edition.

• Points of Light: The "default" setting for 4e. Basically a completely blank canvas with no flavor other than "We're shitting up planar cosmology, deal with it."
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

• Ravenloft: You are evil and being punished in a magic Gothic world that hates you.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, in a very half-assed way, though it's been getting a lot of mentions in 5e settings materials.

• Rokugan: blatantly copied by the 3rd Edition Oriental Adventures from Legend of the Five Rings. At least it led to the creation of Mahasarpa, a related setting with a South-East Asia feel.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition (and every edition of L5R's own RPG)

• Spelljammer: D&D IN SPAAACE!
  • Last supported edition: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but homebrew conversion to Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition took place at [1]. Rules for using a Spelljammer ship appear in Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Manual of the Planes. The 5e team has discussed it, mentioning that it's a very love-it-or-hate-it setting that makes it a bit of a rough sell, though they have said they want to do at least a little work with it.

• Wilderlands of High Fantasy: based on the earlier single-city setting City State of the Invincible Overlord.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition

Modern & Futuristic Campaign Settings

• Call of Cthulhu: the d20 Modern version.
  • Last supported edition: d20 Modern

• Dark Matter: an "all conspiracies are true" alternate version of Earth.
  • Last supported edition: d20 Modern

• Gamma World: a post-apocalyptic future setting and one of the earliest.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

• Masque of the Red Death: a spinoff of Ravenloft, set in Grimdark version of 19th century Earth. Has its own year 2012 spinoff in Gothic Earth Eternal.
  • Last supported edition: Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition

• Star Drive: main setting for Alternity, later stripped of it's name for d20 Future.
  • Last supported edition: d20 Modern

• Urban Arcana: Did you really need whole other book to add D&D elements to a d20 Modern game? Could've been called "Not Shadowrun".
  • Last supported edition: d20 Modern, with a few web-based beta-playtest rules availible for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.

Noteworthy/developed 'homebrew' settings

• Dragonmech
• Dungeons: the Dragoning 40,000 7th Edition
• Golarion, which ended up with its own spinoff RPG
• The Iron Kingdoms, which ended up with its own spin-off wargames, then its own non-d20 RPG
• Ops and Tactics
• Ptolus: City by the Spire
• Uberstadt
• The Unified Setting for /tg/