What does Blackmoor have that Mystara doesn't?

[finarvyn]

I am making a joke -- or at least trying to poke at Havard a little.

Seriously, I think that there are so many cool settings out there ... and the neat thing is that most settings are such that you could strip away the game elements and run them with any rules you like.

I happen to like Mystara, although I've not played it much. I liked it enough to buy all of the gazetteers, at least, so that says something. As for Forgotten Realms, I never got much into 2E so I didn't really follow its development much and if you don't know it, it's not really fair to love it or hate it. And I loved the concept of Ravenloft, although more at the module-level and not so much when it became its own setting.

From a historical perspective, my favorite settings are probably (1) Blackmoor, (2) JG's Wilderlands, and (3) Greyhawk. In that order.

From a literary perspective, my favorite setting has to be Middle-earth, hands-down. I also enjoy Conan's Hyboria, and Leiber's Nehwon. I even like DragonLance, although I know it's not cool to admit it. So many fun worlds to explore there.

Another couple to mention are Carcosa, in its OD&D form, Empire of the Petal Throne in the old TSR OD&D-like form, and the feel of the new DCC RPG modules. Those are weird and creepy and something about them draw me in.

Not intended to be a setting list. Just sort of happened.