http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyhawk
The oldest D&D setting. Not too extensive, and doesn't contain many adventures apart from one or two standout ones such as The Temple of Elemental Evil and some classic ones (classic meaning "very old", not "very good" -- I don't know about their quality) such as Against the Giants, which are mostly dungeon crawls, so they can be easily imported into other settings and integrated into bigger campaigns there instead. It is the story-heavy adventures that can't be easily modified, but the combat heavy ones can be, and most of the officially released Greyhawk ones fall in this latter category.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance
Another old setting. Classic epic Good versus Evil high fantasy. D&D's Middle-earth, essentially. Again, not too extensive, and without many official adventures, but it does contain The DragonLance Saga, an 8-part series of adventures written concurrently with the NYT best-selling novels that are the best fantasy novels I have ever read, including Tolkien. Basically, if you want to PLAY Lord of the Rings, this is how to do it. But these are adventures that reach very high levels and require a solid knowledge of the system and your chosen characters' abilities, so we will only tackle it after months of playing in other settings, possibly after your party is wiped out and we need to start over.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms
The biggest role-playing setting ever (including non-D&D stuff). It has everything you want: medieval fantasy in the middle, an unexplored "America" complete with native tribes resembling Aztecs and Incas to the west, Mongolian-like hordes and Orientals to the east and far east, Viking-like tribes to the north and ice-themed adventures. It's a thinly veiled copy of Earth and history, basically, with more adventures and accessories released for it than probably all other settings combined. So that is where we are starting. It even has a slightly lower caliber "Lord of the Rings"-style series of adventures, again written concurrently with a series of NYT-bestselling novels, which are the second best fantasy novels I have read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenloft
This was initially a stand-alone adventure titled "Ravenloft" that could be used in any setting, but after its huge success it was expanded into an entire setting of its own, with plenty of accessories and adventures. The good thing about this setting is that it is a Transylvania-like land that appears in a demi-plane fashion and sucks players in, so it can be used from any setting. So we will be integrating it into our Forgotten Realms campaign at some point, if not repeatedly, to add some spice and change of mood and scenery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape
The final 2e setting. Lushly designed and printed, and very complex and unusual setting consisting of alternate planes of existence which can be added on top of every other setting, and used to travel between them. So of course we will be integrating it into our Forgotten Realms campaign.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Sun
The Mad Max inspired setting that I am always raving about. Best setting ever hands down, but also very difficult because of added Psionic powers to every character and every monster, harsh dehydration and magic-using rules, and general weirdness of the setting that makes it hard for players to understand it and figure out what they should do. So, very advanced setting that we won't be tackling for a long time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthright_(campaign_setting)
Underdeveloped setting which the only thing it has going for it is that it includes rules for playing out wars and leading armies, the successor to the generic Battlesystem rules [ > ] for the first edition of AD&D. So, if your characters ever get to the point of leading armies or being embroiled in huge-scale battlefields, we'll just take the rules and use them in the Realms.
There are also a couple of other minor settings which we will definitely never be playing in because they suck, and the Spelljammer space setting [ > ] which I always found dumb, though I've never taken the time to read up on it properly. If it comes to setting-hopping, I prefer Planescape, so that's what we'll be using if it comes to that. It just breaks the immersion if you try to introduce planets and space in a fantasy setting (the opposite of which would have occurred to PA if it had tried to stick with the flat maps, as I explained in my PA review).
So, we are basically playing on Forgotten Realms + Ravenloft + Planescape.
NOTE: We are playing Forgotten Realms 1st edition, not 2nd. I will explain why in my next post, just make sure you don't read anything from the 2nd edition boxed set in the meantime.
