"Most personally influential fantasy settings?" Topic

So, was thinking recently about the fantasy settings that have had the biggest impact on my gaming (and view of fantasy in general) and trying to sort them into a list. By personally influential I mean settings that YOU find yourself going back to over and over again for games and scenarios, or just to mine for cool ideas for your own settings. So it's not 'bestest fantasy settings evah' (though you might feel that way), just the ones that have spoken to you the loudest.

My top 3, in rough order:

1. Middle Earth – I admit I when I first read the books in high school I liked them but didn't love them. However, my appreciation of the world has only grown with time as I learned more about the setting. Something about the weight and age of the world and the sweep of it's history really speaks to me. And I've become attached to JRRT's language obsession and how it influenced the world he built.

2. Westeros – Starting reading in college, loved, loved, loved, and still mostly like, this series. The political intrigue and warfare is interesting, Martin does a decent job of creating a familiar but not-just-Europe setting, and still leaves lots of mystery at the edges of the story (and map).

3. Glorantha – So I'm a complete and total Glorantha neophyte, learning of the world in college, and only really starting to understand it recently. But I find the way the myths of the world are woven into the setting and each other to be fascinating, the cultures are really neat, and the 'everyone has magic' concept has been a refreshing change for folks that a I game with.

My Honorable Mention is Tekumel: Tekumel has become my standard for 'weird fantasy' settings, with really interesting and alien culture and tons of amazing detail. But alas I haven't really had a chance to game anything based in or inspired by the setting.

Interested in seeing what other people have on their lists; it can be books, movies, comics, settings created specifically for gaming, whatever. You're welcome to tear my list apart if you like, but I'm more interested in seeing what your list is. :)

-Will

I'd have to say Nehwon, with Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, taught me that fantasy worlds (and life in general) could still be filled with humor and a touch of sarcasm.

Elric's world, probably. I read all the Elric stories when I was in 8th grade and the nihilism appealed to me.

Middle Earth by far--the depth and colour to Tolkien's world is pretty much unsurpassed, in my opinion. Although it's written for a younger audience, I love Narnia also.

Third for me would be Glorantha. I agree that its bronze age vibe (that alone makes it a refreshing change from the above), the fascinating cultures and levels of myth and religion make it a fascinating place, and it has had a big effect on me over the years. I also love the creatures: trolls with a genuine culture of their own, elves as walking vegetables, dwarves as part of a "world machine"--it's all clever, different and fun to research. And not an orc in sight! Glorantha's take on chaos is likewise really interesting, and quirky at the same time; I find I like it as much or more than the better known GW/Warhammer version. And I for one love the ducks!

In spite of the wordiness of the above, Middle Earth is still number one. I've never read Fafhrd or Elric. Perhaps I should one day…

The Hyborian Age

link

1 – The setting from "The Fantasy Trip"
2 – Yrth from GURPS.

I like the mystery of Howard's Thurian Age (the one that preceded the Hyborian Age), with Kull of Atlantis and Brule the Spear-Slayer. I developed more detailed maps for it, city names, some of the minor countries, and some characters for RPGing it, and I have (on a backburner unfortunately) mass battle and skirmish miniatures projects for it.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars

The Fantasy Trip reminded me: the worlds of Thundarr the Barbarian and Hiero's Journey (both post-apocalyptic settings) had a huge influence on me as well.

The Fantasy Trip was an awesome set of old school rules – I wasn't really taken by its setting Cidri. For me the most influential settings were Middle Earth, Hyborian Age and Gene Wolfe's Soldier of the Mist series

Middle Earth followed by the Hyborian Age followed by Barsoom.

The Hyborian Age

1. Middle Earth – the granddaddy of all fantasy

2. Warhammer up to 5th edition

3. D&D (OD&D to AD&D)

My top 3 are probably
Viking Myths & Legends
Middle Earth
Arthurian

1) Middle Earth

2) Midkemia (up to the Deamonswar Saga)

3) Mark Smylies Artesia

For some reason, the very first setting that influenced me was Shanara. Probably because it was one of the first series that I read as a youth.

I suppose in the order I read them:

Tolkien's Middle Earth
The Multiverse of Elric
Lankhmar of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser

Others follow but these made me conceive of a fantasy world.

For wargaming I have armies for Middle Earth in both HOTT and Strategy Battle Game by GW and Hyborean HOTT armies for most of the nations.

Tolkien was my first love, but Howard comes second by a whisker. I have always been drawn to wargaming through stories.

At the moment I'm toying with Glorantha as I just won some Bison and would love to "do" Nomad Gods on the table-top.

The glorious thing about Tolkien wargaming is the time and scope. If you want to drill down and do First Age Armageddon or War of the Orcs and Dwarves under-ground or kin-strife in Gondor or Fall of Arnor then you have a lot of detail to hang your wars on.

Ditto Conan. There is albeit less detail, but almost every "ancient" people or army gets a revamp with a twist. If you want to do Greeks with Hippogriffs then who's to stop you battling Persians with Hydras. Perfect.

Other things that grab, but don't have suitable figures are:

Moorcock. Oh how I'd love a good Granbrettan army to take on Tragic Europa.

How do people picture The Black Company and that world setting?

No end of good things.

I read Moorcock before most of the others – LoTR came later, so did Conan, but used to subscribe to the like of New Worlds SF first. Also Lankhmar of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser – again, from general reading of Fantasy fiction.

Some of the later ones such as Glorantha I still haven't really looked at even now.

Based on my number of volumes on my Library shelves:

0) Tarzan – is that fantasy?

1) Lord of the Rings.

2) Conan/Hyboria

3) Barsoom

4) Witch World (or is that some variety of SF?)

Single Volume – Shadow by Anne Logston

1. Tolkien.
2. GW Warhammer, love the setting.
3. Artesia, I find the interaction with the gods interesting and well done.
4. AD&D Forgotten Realms, mainly 3rd edition, as that is when I started playing it, but I have lots of 2nd ed. stuff too.

Hyboria

Tolkien first. Glorantha second.

After that, a bunch of third-plaes: Conan, Narnia, Tarzan (yes, definitely fantasy).

Our own Splintered Lands are not anywhere near that league, but I love creating it.

Middle Earth most strongly, and bits of Narnia (does a division of Telmarines count as only a 'bit"?), and some Arthurian legend thrown in. But then the influence of science fiction figures strongly, too. For example, an entire campaign (1st Ed. AD&D) was set in a desert where one could find sand worms and spice (and some PC's chose to become blue-eyed) (from Frank Herbert's Dune, for those of you who haven't read it). Characters, settings, and ideas from Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld, and George Lucas's "galaxy far, far away" all contributed to my fantasy setting as well.

1. Conan
2. Middle Earth
3. Thieves' World
4. Barsoom

Yes, in that order.

Rob

Warmachine, and on a similar note, the Bas-Lag trilogy. Certain D&D settings, Scott Westerfelds' Leviathan trilogy, and some Pirates of the Caribbean, GW Dark Eldar, multiple Weird Westerns, Skulduggery Pleasant, and perhaps even Ghost Rider can make their presence felt. And, lately, weird war settings, from the obvious-collision-of-fantasy-and-history that is Kaisers' Gate, to Contested Ground Studios' Cold City and Hot War are becoming major contributors.
Might even find a little of the SCP Foundation in there sometimes too.

The three that most influenced me have been:

1) The Land (from the Thomas Covenant books)
2) Middle Earth
3) Hyboria
4) Nevia (from Heinlein's 'Glory Road')

LOVE those settings.

As a writer:
Middle-Earth The perfect balance of detail and "fuzzy edges," that feels like a real world without being a copy of our own.
Narnia. Just fun, if a bit too fuzzy.
Pern(in terms of cultural concepts)
Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword, with it's terrific quasi-Victorian era quasi-Afghanistan setting.
Neil Gaimon's Neverwhere and Stardust settings. I love the idea of "magic on the borders" of the world, and he pulls it off. beautifully (The Ocean at the End of the Lane is another example).

For gaming:
Mystara(D&D "Known World"). In depth and nicely conceived, with plenty of campaign flavor choices. I wish a few of them fit together better (The Orcs of Thar is just too silly), but overall it's an impressive creation.
Greyhawk. The classic wonderfully open-ended world, with a flow of cultures that makes surprising sense, while not feeling like "let's stick Japan here next to Scandinavia, and Arabia here north of England, and…" A little sparse on detail, but if you want to wing it and flavor it as you like, it's perfect for DMs,

I love fantasy of all sorts and even more if here is a map to pour over. Some of my favorite fictional worlds (which influence my gaming in various ways).

Middle- Earth (Tolkien)
Dying Earth (Vance)
Nehwon (Leiber)
The Multiverse (Elric & Corum) (Moorcock)
Hyperborean Age (Conan) (Howard)
Pern (McCaffrey)
The Worlds Between the Gates (Morgaine) (Cherryh)
Earthsea (Le Guin)
Arkham (Lovecraft)
Redwall (Jacques)
Zothique (Ashton Smith)
The Underworld (Nifft the Lean) (Shea)
Mythago Wood (Holdstock)
Bas-Lag (Mieville)
Belkan Empire (R. Adams)
Neverwhere (Gaiman)

Warhammer Old World
Middle Earth
Game of Thrones
The Forgotten Realms
Total Annihilation Kingdoms
Ultima Online
Warmachine The Iron Kingdoms
Dinotopia
Magic the Gathering

Only recently have started to take an interest in the Conan setting for gaming. I will have to take a look at a few mentioned here like Yrth and Glorantha.

Middle Earth
Mithgar(Dennis L McKiernan)
Greyhawk
Midkemia – Raymond E Feist's world

Middle-Earth, indelibly and often annoyingly.

Warhammer, because it's really hard to shake that influence off, and why bother when it's so much fun? Well, except the last decade. Better to ignore GW, really, and rely on the Warhammer that lives in my heart.

The Dying Earth, although it's not my favourite of Vance's worlds.

The Black Company…

…although if Graydon Saunders' second book is half as good as his first then poor Croaker may wind up tying for first place for military fantasy, both as a story and as a world. The March North was amazing, and some of the concepts have been quite inspirational – the Standards, the List (and the Short List, and the first page), the combination of magical cannon and exotic fluorine compounds!

In no particular order:

Midkemia – Feist
Dragonlance – Hickman and Wies
The Wheel of Time – Jordan
Greyhawk – Gygax

Warhammer 3rd edition. Got me into miniatures gaming, started in fantasy and then historicals.

For me personally Middle Earth, Turtledoves Videssos, all of Eddings work and Greyhawk from my early d&d days

1. Middle Earth
2. Thieves' World/Sanctuary
3. Early D&D modules

Great set of lists here, and some stuff I have not heard off and will need to research. Thanks for sharing everyone! :)

-Will

Chronopia.

For gaming? Warhammer Old World and Howard's Hyborian Age.
For writing? Tolkien and Howard with Moorcock a distant third.

Middle-Earth.

'nuff said.

John T