Dungeons and Dragons was a huge part of my hobby hours as far back as elementary school. Countless hours were spent delving into dungeons or exploring continents while our characters grew in power and wealth. When we started, each game was really a one-off encounter until we stumbled onto the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. From that moment forward our games were set in some type world with its own people, history, and geography. It made our games more exciting to see the world change to our successes and failures.
Everyone had their own favorite setting. I think Forgotten Realms always held a special place if not the favored setting for most of the people I adventured with over the years. Others favored Dark Sun with its post-apocalyptical fantasy setting or Dragonlance with the heroic focus on characters. None of us played in the Greyhawk setting with the exception of playing Greyhawk Wars. Some even preferred home-brewed settings where you had the complete control to create the setting, cultures, and history. With the launch of Birthright in 1995, it became the favored setting for me. No setting released before or since can hold a candle to cultures and history of the continent of Cerilia as far as I am concerned.
One of the design elements that made Birthright so compelling to me was that it merged the character development in standard play with the mass battles of Greyhawk Wars. Up to that point your D&D character could attract followers and build castles at high levels but there were really no rules for running your own realms. Often there wasn't much your small personal army could do but garrison your castle for you while you were exploring dungeons. Birthright changed all of that and even let you run a realm right at the start of character creation.
I ran a campaign for almost two years in this setting before graduating college and taking a Commission in the Army. The new career didn't give me much time for my old hobby, but I kept my box set and a few of the books from the 1995 release. After 25 years, it's about time to return to Cerilia but this time as a player. With 'GM emulators' prevalent after the COVID outbreak, I am free to explore and rule my own kingdom in Cerilia.
I hear the Giantdowns is a good place to start.
