The 5 Best DnD Settings You've Never Heard Of 

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Most videos you find with titles like this usually cover settings like Eberron, Dragonlance or Ravenloft and only occasionally throw in a curveball like Scarred Lands, for example. Useful for beginners but boring for people who have been playing for a while. This video was a genuine, refreshing surprise.

1:30 - Yoon-Suin 2:24 - Hot Springs Island 3:43 - A Red & Pleasant Land 4:54 - Veins of the Earth 6:04 - Dolmenwood (Wormskin printing)

I thought to myself: "Hah! No way I've never heard of them!" Huh. I've never heard of them. You win this round.

I suppose you could say these Realms are... *Put’s on Sunglasses* Forgotten... *YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!*

Please do a part 2 of this video, I'd love to hear more fascinating and unique settings like these

1:30 - Yoon-Suin 2:23 - Hot Springs Island (the one I will be buying super soon!) 3:43 - [REDACTED] 4:54 - Veins of the Earth 6:04 - Wormskin For those that want to jump around. Before watching, I had heard of 3 of these and will be buying one here shortly. The other two... THANKS!

Even though it is a part of Forgotten Realms, my favorite setting was Al-Qadim. I also was a fan of Mystara and Hollow World.

PLEASE NOTE: This video mentions A Red and Pleasant Land, a book by Zak S. I made this video prior to the numerous allegations of sexual assault leveled against him by ex-girlfriends. As a result, I have removed the link to that book from this description.

My favorite official TSR/WorC campaign settings are: Greyhawk/Oerth Mystara/The Known World Ghostwalk Mahasarpa Rokugan But as for 3rd party campaign settings, I'd have to agree that your list is high quality and some of the best

Remember, was it Spelljammer? That was the one that was Scifi-ish that explained that each world(game settings, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Darksun and so on) was part of these "Shards" and you could, in a sense "Jump" from world to world (if you choose to) spaceships etc... Game breaking for sure, you take those magic users from Darksun that exploit the life force of nature (and pretty much kills it) for their magical powers and plop them in a Forgotten Realms setting or a lush jungle setting etc.. I may be WAAAY off as I am pulling dusty ass memories 30+ years old but I think this is what I remember..

Hot springs island is amazing. Planning on marooning my players there soon

Thanks for this. Been playing for 30+ years and it's exciting to find new stuff to explore.

Although it's a "new school setting," I have repeatedly found myself returning to 4e's Nentir Vale/Points of Light setting, which has been absolutely amazing for running sandbox games. There is a lot of DIY sensibilities to it, as the setting exists mostly in sketched form, relying upon the GM to fill-in-the-blanks of the details, particularly in the wilderness that exists between those points of light/civilization.

Hah! Not only have I heard of Yoon-Suin, I've played in a campaign in the setting! Hadn't heard of the others, though.

My two books of Hot Springs Island are on their way thanks to you, mate. I have been DMing for 30 years, used dozens of settings for my D&D games, and i had never heard of these five before this video. Great job!!

At the beginning of the video I was thinking I would make a witty comment in the comments about how my pay check for this week will be gone from this video. Turns out at the end of the video I looked over at my desk and already own 4/5 recommendations because of your earlier videos lol.

This is an incredible video. I had Red & Pleasant land before but you sold me on Veins of the Earth & I'm still vacillating on Hot Springs Island. Great stuff & an incredible shopping list.

I feel like Hot Springs Island just by the sound of it could make for a good what I'm going to call a Vacation Campaign, cause if you can fit it into the world, you can have your characters go there preparing for vacation then the mystery unfolds, that sounds cool to me at least

Oh my God!!! Best video ever for an old GM as I am. I need those amazing books!!!

It's amazing how well White Box Gothic works with the Dolmenwood Setting.

Forgotten realms is one of the weirdest settings in Epic Fantasy. In Waterdeep you have Renaissance trading house politics. In the Underdark you have HP Lovecraft madness occasionally pausing for Drow Matriarchal politicking. Chult is a land of dinosaurs straight out of an Edgar Rice Burroughs book. The Sword Coast is a Tolkein style fantasy world. Kara-Tur and Maztica are campaign settings in their own right. We definitely need more campaign settings but Abier-Toril is a good setting. It has problems for sure (like too many gods, no consistent tone and 20th level NPCs running around) but it is a good and diverse setting with a lot of dnd madness to keep it interesting.

Dolmenwood looks awesome! The Wormskin zines I’ve read so far are really captivating and well written, and I’m hoping for more content soon, like the promised KS launch for the campaign. Thank you for the discovery!

Yoon Suin sounds somewhat like Red Tide by Sine Nomine lots of uniquenss and half of it can be used to flesh out a sandbox of your own design.

Huh. I wasn't expecting much from this video. But to my pleasant surprise, I found five books I now want to own. Thanks for making this!

Look "Tormenta" up. Brazilian RPG setting. You'd have to be able to read Portuguese tho, but it's a freaking awesome setting! One of it's main attractions is the "Tormenta" itself: a crimson acidic storm, that comes out of nowhere, and once settled, never leaves, corroding and corrupting the place and reality itself. Along with the acid rain, comes innumerous monsters that are so alien to us, that we can't even comprehend their forms, driving to madness anyone who tries to even fathom what are they... Other than that, there's a goblinoid army (the size of it could put Saruman's to shame) being lead by a prophesied ginormous bugbear; a bloody interplanar traveling flying city-market, build on the base of a upside down mountain, by one of the (two) most powerful wizard (s) in the setting... It's a setting where anyone can become a minor God, with only a decent number of follower being required... A setting where the gods (20 main ones) act and interfere with the humans on almost a daily basis... And of course a setting full of dungeons to be crawled on! It has at least 5 novels written about it that I know of, and literal decades of supporting articles adding new stuff to it. Totally worth checking and having to learn a complete new language 😅

Well, I was surprised, but delighted. This list is some of my favorite settings. Excellent picks!

Stumbled upon your video and I’m hooked. I was unaware of the material you reviewed. Plus, I like how you present the information. I’m happy to subscribe to your channel. Keep up the good work!

It's nice to see things other than the Forgotten Realms get some attention. I really hate the idea that the Realms are the "standard," or "default" for D&D. I'm always glad to see more people either using different settings or creating their own. Thanks for giving these things the spotlight

Excellent video. My favorite setting is probably Oriental Adventures, although even the name is very dated. I also love Council of Wyrms and Planescape.

Those books all look gorgeous. Like real collector's items.

I miss birthright. That was an interesting setting.

Ironically, Veins of the Earth and A Red and Pleasant Land are now two of the single most expensive "collector-priced" books out there

Thanks dude, as a new d&d player this is very helpful. I think that after i run my own campaigns ill check these out.

You’re quite correct. I’ve never heard of any of these. They sound amazing.

The best, most detailed setting most D&D players have never heard of... Glorantha, the setting for The Runequest RPG. The MOST detailed setting ever developed for an RPG [that wasn't initially a novel], hands down.

I swear, I'm addicted to home brew.. I'm genuinely lucky that I get to play with the same people and they are all creative enough to keep a solid storyline going, but I love this video and everything it puts across.. I can't stress enough how important it is to "make things up as you go" the players get so much more encapsulated in everything that's going on around them.

Pre-spellplague Faerun is one of the best to this day!

Love what you do here. You are a gift to our community and my own personal business. Thank you, thank you, thank you

Wow these are great! I already have Red & Pleasant Land, it is brilliant. After seeing this vid I am likely to check out Yoon-Suin, Hot Springs, and possibly the Wormskin mags Some great stuff here, thanks for posting!

Jakandor is my favorite AD&D campaign world, it was basically Australia that had a magical disaster so the surviving people ruled my mages vs the invading barbarians.

I'm so sleep-deprived that I stared at the title for like 2 minutes, thinking settings as in like settings on your phone.... I was so confused... 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

I've heard of Veins of the Earth before in conservations between some of the long times DMs I've played under, but all of the others I didn't even know existed.

I found your channel yesterday, and this is the RPG stuff I love. Sitting here now pondering the (mental) logistics it’d take to buy one of these systems and adapt it for my English-learning students given how popular Harry Potter is amongst them. Which classes would bite, etc. Plus, I just want to read them. Half of the fun growing up buying RPGs was learning the new worlds - my love for Star Wars comes from playing the Westend(?) Games RPG of it.

Man. This may be the most exciting video for settings, you -really- sold these to me. Thanks!

I really enjoyed playing Dark Sun. Athas was a great setting for those who wanted a gladiatorial scorched earth feel to their game. The realm had minimal magic and loot, so the gear that a player had was very valuable indeed. My campaign had the one remaining dragon as the scourge of the whole realm and the party and other NPC's did everything they could to find a way to end the tyrants rule.

There's a also Carcosa (OD&D) and Tekumel (a number of custom systems, but the first one is basically OD&D).

I'm gonna have to check out Veins of the Earth. I am a big fan of AAW Games which does mainly underdark type stuff for 5e. Their Rise of the Drow book is fantastic and they just launched a new book called Survivalist's Guide to Spelunking which has some great rules and options to really make the underworld fun and challenging and real. Sounds like Veins of the Earth would be right up my ally.

Greyhawk, Mystara, Empire of the Petal Throne, Jorune are some of my favourite places, also the Lost Coast, kingdoms of Kalamar, Ptolus, and Harn.

This got me thinking so I checked my shelf of things I have gathered over the last 40 plus years. 1st ed Greyhawk boxed set 2nd ed Al Qadim box set plus extras Horde box setting Spelljammer bax setting plus Wilderness survivors guide Dungeoneers survival guide Oriental adventures Greyhawk adventures Dragonlance adventures Menzoberranzan box set And City State of the Invincible Overlord box set (Judges Guild) Almost all the Harn modules and world map. That should keep me busy.

I stopped playing in 1986, when between a combination of a PCS move and the change by TSR of only supporting "Dragonlance" based gaming pushed me out of the game. We ran freestyle campaigns, loosely following the modules, or made our own with house rules to accommodate play for us. Originally the rules were intended as guidelines not hard and fast but open to interpretation by the players and DM as agreed by them in play. I am now bringing my grandsons into it, to get them offline, and harnessing their imagination. Hoping to enjoy it, but I still own 1st edition books so they won't know the difference.

In the world f clickbait, this sooooooo genuinely good.

Dude, happy to see you are getting more views! Great video, thanks!

I would toss in Hubris from DCC in this list as well. A more gonzo swords and sorcery setting.

I only heard of 1 of those settings. Great video. Normally someone does a video like this and I already know all the settings. Not this time. Thanks.

This video was excellent. I expecting: Dragon Star. This was great and you have made me have a mighty need.

Awww no Scarred Lands? Its one of my favorite settings, that has a 3.5 and 5th edition updates! Check it out!

great video as usual. cant wait to see your next map video!

Already have them all. And I agree, they're way better than anything you'll find from WotC. I'd also mention Anomalous Subsurface Environment; it may ostensibly be an adventure, but there's a fully fledged setting that's sketched out in the first half of the book. Also, Operation Unfathomable just came out with a different take on the "Underdark." It's not quite as literary and weird as Veins, but that's the high bar for weird, so that doesn't say much.

Great mini reviews and recommendations....I must pick up Hot Springs Islands soon, heard nothing but great things about it. Veins is a masterpiece, a truly terrifying exploration of the underdark, jam packed with flavourful nightmares that will cause your players to lose their s**t 😊

A Red and Pleasant Land: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/... Veins of the Earth: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/... HERD OF THESE! Veins won a few awards in 2017

You are the first person I have ever heard say they actually know anyone who liked Dark Sun.

The best setting imo is Eberron. But for my OSR game I want to run using Castles & Crusdaes I plan to use The World of the Lost Lands from FGG. I just love the feel of the world. In my dad's AD&D game he is running he is using Greyhawk.

Thanks for the tip on hot springs island

Fantastic, FANTASTIC video. Earned a sub.

I ordered Yuin-Suin based on your recommendation. It sounds like EPT a bit.

Well, I knew two of them. :) Wormskin is great!

Nice, I've actually heard of 4 out of 5 settings on this list.

Would be interesting for you to talk about Pelinore, Blackmoor, Birthright.

For the last ten months I've been GMing a conversion of Tales of Equestria to AD&D 2nd. It's an open world survival with majorly grimdark scenes and paradox. There are factions, full immersion, and untold surprises to be uncovered. My party is half way done with the main campaign and have found three side quests- apart from bounties and faction missions. I wish the comment section was large enough to truly go into detail about this unique setting.

Curse of Castle Ravenloft, hell yeah, that was my shit back in the day. I still run it in Pathfinder.

very nice, but i was hoping for lesser know settings created/published by tsr/wotc such as the Wilderlands, Mahasarpha, or Aris. I imagine thia would take at least a top 10 list

Thanks for the review, some really wonderful inspiration in those resources you mentioned by the sounds of it.

These are great. I'm a little late to this party so I hope I can still get my hands on those hot springs books.

KINGDOM'S OF KALAMAR, the most underrated and cheap 3rd editions settings

Ever since I first read it, I have had a lovestory with Red and Pleasant Land. I intitally got it as one of my regular players is a big fan of Alice in Wonderland and the Alice games by American Mcgee. I got the book thinking it would be something akin to the old D&D module Dungeonland...boy was I wrong....in a great way.

I'm thinking about do a "Dark Sun Lite" setting with a bent for the surreal. The idea started with me conceptualizing a sapien species of anthromorphic backpacks.

Spell Jammer and heck, created my own. Thanks to a DND app creator, calling a forgotten ritual saying it must be a homebrew I do not bother with dnd beyond.

5e books are being sold at the same price you can get a 2e book for.

Modern zines may have roots in the '60's punk scene, but small circular literature in the form of pamphlets go back further than Galileo and Martin Luther. Galileo's "Discorso" can be classified as an early version of a zine or pamphlet, as can Thomas Paine's writings for "Common Sense" in the 1700's.

I would love to play D&D someday as both a player and DM. Yet I would love to homebrew a setting, but I might start with some homebrew in existing settings and then do original content. I might even use the science fantasy book that I'm writing as a campaign setting if it comes to it.

THANK YOU, for thinking out of the box. I have been looking (not as hard as I should have been) for someone that doesn't go with the norm or thinks they are but uses the same old books. P.s. 40 y gm, old dog.. (you're unique)

GLOG, Goblin Laws of Gaming, as made by Arnold Kemp and refined by Skerples are perfect for these settings, especially VotE.

Yoi have just got me excited again to GM! Thank you.

I thought to myself: "Hah! No way have I never heard of them"..."Just like that guy Charles said a year ago..."..."Lets find out!..." Me: Ha! I was right. :) Heard of every single one...and own two of them. Thanks for reminding me of Wormskin though! :)

Pretty top shelf choices.

This is pure gold.

I want to visit the Dolmenwood again, despite the near death experience I had there.

AHH! GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL!!! Wait... what game are we playing? But yeah, need all those.

For Planescape fans, you can get the pdfs on Drivethrurpg, and then head over to printme1.com to get it printed and bound.

More "best ofs" like this please!

If I had my way, I'd put something together using the races that D&D kind of has that make it unique - humans to start, of course, but then the rest of the makeup would include thri-kreen, warforged, dragonborn, and tiefling. The things that kind of say to you "you're reading a D&D supplement." What I'd really like to see, though, is strange and exotic places to be FROM and DEFEND, rather than VISIT and CONQUER.

Great video... never heard of any of these. Thanks!

Such a good video, earned a subscriber sir, well done!

The wormskin zine no longer exists. Soon it's going to be turned into it's own 3 books, around 1000 pages combined, the campaign setting book alone is 400 pages.

red steel and hollow world are also good, but red steel can be complicated because it uses second edition rules.

My half-giant with genuine STEEL sicle - no obsidian crap

Two of these; A Red & Pleasant Land as well as Veins of the Earth come from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess role playing system, which contains taboo things not common to standard D&D game tables. Things like; sex, drugs, graphic violence and the like. The books do contain great ideas but they are NOT kid friendly or SFW. I mean these guys published Tower Two which contains DeathFuck Magic and there is another book called Vaginas are Magic, I love the name but definitely not for younger players. EDIT> There is also a lot of conversion with regard to stats and such so the books are not plug-n-play compatible with D&D. Again, great ideas but they will take quite a bit of work to fit into your D&D game.

These all sound really interesting! Thanks! :)

Huh.... I expected dark sun and plane scape etc. And I've never heard of these. Well played....