Sell me on Scarred Lands!

[Cinder]

Hello everyone!

Here's the deal: I usually feel like I have more to offer as a GM with games that aren't D&D, but my players and I talked a bit and, while they agreed to play some of "my" games in the near future, they also basically begged me for a fantasy D&D game since our Starfinder campaign ended. I thought this could be a good excuse to check out Scarred Lands. Nothing against vanilla D&D, but I think I'd do better with a different setting.

So, long story short, it's as the title suggest: sell me on Scarred Lands. The little I know about it seems promising, that's why I'm asking, but I could use to hear from multiple sources what you think makes the setting special and also how's the Player Guide. Basically anything you think to be worth talking about.

Thanks in advance!

[Moirdryd]

Scarred Lands takes the classic ideals of western fantasy genre and meshes them with myth lore themed off of Grecian creation legends, and this happens in a time period that some PCs may even remember and most peoples parents or grandparents certainly will do so. The premise is classic fantasy in feel and theme but with a bit more grit and integration between the concepts of the creatures that fill the setting, Divine Races and Titan Spawn for example (those who worship and follow the gods and those who were/are armies and fodder (and blood creations) of the Titans the gods cast down. A staple of the Scarred Lands adventure theme (along with the classical D&D tropes) is often very much of protecting a community that is on the edge of one oblivion or another with the most powerful and stable kingdoms being those of a Lawful Evil tyranny(ies) with the more Good aspected lands tending to be under siege in one form or another or isolated beacons of hope in the dawn of an age free from capricious Titans but not the legacies ad influences they've left behind. There's space for everything from High Magic with a novel approach (Hollowfaust City of Necromancers, not evil btw), Post apocalyptic/last hope of a people (City of Fangsfall, or the Dwarven Kingdom of Burrock-Torn), dangerous explorations of exotic regions (Swamps of Kan-Thet or the Hornsaw Forest), Arabian Nights meets intrigue and conspiracies and secret societies (Shalzaar city of sins), some more traditional adventurers protecting the kingdoms (Kingdom of Vesh), Hyperborea style adventures (Albadia), Robin Hood style stories (Literally any one of the several kingdoms that make up the Calastian Hegemony), Arthurian knights in armour and quests against evil (City state of Mithral, city of the Golem) and a stack of other things too and all the places where these ideas meet and meld together.

The gods and their interplay is interesting too as the Pantheon is fairly small (8 major Deities, 1 former Titan, around a dozen lesser / demi deities). Everyone pays heed to the Pantheon entire and even the holy orders of Corean's Paladins in Mithral City have a small shrine with a sharp knife and bowl where monthly offerings are given to Belsameth the dark goddess of murder and witchery. The gods have a very real and immediate feel in the setting and the actions of their followers can reflect and draw upon that, likewise the Titanspawn add a dynamic of their own to the classic morality interplays in D&D. The Players Guide is a good book and manages to condense a lot of the OGL d20/3rd edition books into one volume.

[Cinder]

Moirdryd , I "liked" your reply but, now that I have the book next to me, I just wanted to say thanks for what you wrote. It was a detailed and useful post that helped me decide.

I'm loving what I've seen of it already.