Whew, it's dusty!

I've been gone a while. Writing takes time, as many of you know. And I've been writing other things. Mostly stuff for work, or letters for my child's schooling, or reviewers for same child.

And then there's the fiction that I'm trying to get back into.

Will I come back to this? We'll see -- dipping my toes again into it. Some quick things:

• D&D 5th Edition is the rough basis for the current game I'm playing in. Not sure what elements aside from the game summaries I'll be posting. Maybe an alternating post -- game summaries, plus one or two elements from the game as a useful bit of crunch or fluff in the next day's post?
• Fading Suns has a lot of possible new systems out there, and I've not even gone through the current system and updated setting yet.
• And of course, Things I Learned From Champions has a few more posts, and options for expansion into other games...

Winding Down The Year: Fading Fantasy, Starting Up Science Fiction

Shift from Fantasy RPGs

Perhaps it's because I'm actually playing in a D&D campaign now, I'm kind of winding down my rules forays into fantasy RPGs. I do like picking at rules systems from the point of view of playing, but it's very different from the usual Armchair Gamer approach of distance and theoretical play.

So, I think I'll just practice that offline for a while, though I'll probably still schedule the play summaries for posting for those following the Isle Imperium and Echoes posts.

Shift to Science Fiction RPGs

In its place, I'll be focusing more on Science Fiction RPGs (and maybe some Science Fantasy -- the line gets blurry, you know) when I find the time to post. No shortage of RPGs there, and I do have some loose ends in my blog concerning this genre, after all.

BUT WAIT: Fantasy Settings

Interestingly enough, there is no shortage of settings that I'd like to begin exploring with D&D 5E or perhaps some of the other options out there.

There's Calidar: In Stranger Skies, by Bruce Heard. Some promising options there for a colonized world with flying ships and an old school setting feel. Lots of great maps, great art, and great source material for a fantasy romp.

There's Uresia: Grave of Heaven, by S. John Ross, which I picked up in the recent Indie Bundle of Holding and have been skimming through and enjoying.

There's A Red & Pleasant Land by Zak S., whose general premise I've kind of grokked through various posts on his famous / infamous blog, but have been intrigued and excited by in my initial skims.

Last but not least, Arrows of Indra by the RPGPundit. Hopeful for an RPG and setting that will open up more ideas on dealing with other cultures in the fantasy realm -- but I'll be looking largely at the setting stuff rather than the rules. And trying to extract parallels with Spears of the Dawn by the machine that is Kevin Crawford.

So, let's see how all this planned blogging works out.

R.I.P. Vic Cabazor

A friend, Vic Cabazor, passed away this morning due to a stroke.

In the recent half-decade, we just didn't see him as often due to changes in life schedules, but he was one of the anchors of the local gaming organizations (A.E.G.I.S.) and the local Sci-Fi / Fantasy organizations (New Worlds).

One of his major impacts on our life: being the selfless engine behind the monthly Gaming Meets that merged the wargamers and the role-playing gamers and the larger SF/Fantasy fandom.

Rest in peace, Vic and thanks for all the blood, sweat, and tears for the community.

The pic above is Vic doing some of his voice acting work -- which I did not know about until I googled for a picture of him just this morning. Just goes to show that people are always changing, growing, and have many, many facets, just like the dice we roll from time to time.

I Was A Geek At Heart

My very first RPG purchase, when
TSR was the entire gaming universe.

I attended my first convention in July of 1986. I was a month shy of my fifteenth birthday, and didn't quite know what to expect when my cousins brought me down from the SF Bay Area to Los Angeles for this strange event.

Not yet a year in the U.S., still unaccustomed to the local slang and patois (though I could speak English quite well -- it was Math that gave me difficulty), and not yet aware that trusting complete strangers could be a dangerous thing -- I attended the Origins Game Fair with my cousins.

My geek cred could have been considered quirky at best and laughable at worst.

I had read the entire Lord of the Rings series of books, had enjoyed The Hobbit, and had been stymied by The Silmarillion. Dune was not a mystery to me, nor were some of the other works of Herbert (like Hellstrom's Hive and The White Plague). But due to the ordering policies of Philippine bookstore chains, there were gaps in my collections -- there were nagging holes in my Eternal Champions books by Moorcock, and I'd never been able to the existence some of the books listed in the D&D Appendix N acknowledged in the school libraries that I'd scoured. Authors were just names to me, their histories limited to the short bibliographies found on their hardcover dust jackets or just before / after their short stories in SF/Fantasy anthologies.

You don't think B.J. and the Bear was
Science Fiction or Fantasy? Maybe
it was horror.

Exposure to Fantasy & SF via TV was even more challenged. Growing up, everyone in Grade School watched the same thing at night or on weekends, because there was usually only one channel showing anything worthwhile to growing kids at any given time. And what a mix of shows we got. We knew Space: 1999, Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rodgers as well as we knew B.J. and the Bear. We watched The A-Team and Sealab 2020 and The Herculoids and Knight Rider. On Sundays, we'd try to sneak in the shows my grandfather watched: The Wild Wild West, Star Trek, Green Hornet. We also got a healthy dose of Japanese animation, and -- amid a slew of U.S. detective shows and sitcoms -- managed to sneak in rare episodes of Sapphire & Steel (which we didn't even know were rare) when the parents were away and unable to enforce our slumber curfews.

Movies were delayed, but we soaked them up in the movie houses and via BetaMax. That's right, BetaMax was the go-to standard in the Philippines when I was growing up. By the time I was in Los Angeles, I was familiar with Star Wars, based on the movies and the toys and the occasional compilation of Marvel Comics hardcover annuals that came to the Philippines by way of the U.K. I knew Mad Max and The Road Warrior from the BetaMax rental stores (apprently, outright piracy) that were everywhere at the time. Yes, even the Star Wars Christmas Special was well known to us, because of these stores.

My gaming exposure came from the two local hobby shops, which also sold toys and games and models (cars, planes, tanks) to growing boys and girls. And one out-of-the-way hobby store that was more focused on martial arts gear, I think. They never had the main rulebooks (when I went there -- I had to get those from the bookstores, when they finally started carrying the rulesets), but it had D&D modules and other TSR stuff like Top Secret and Star Frontiers. No Champions or Traveller.

It was with that rough mindset that I attended Origins, and was blown away. Thousands of people interested in the same weird things that I liked. A huge selection of SF/Fantasy/Horror paraphernalia in the Dealer's Room. A panel discussion where George Takei spoke about his experiences in acting, and promoted Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. RPGs and modules made by TSR, and RPGs and modules made by non-TSR companies!

He was dressed kinda like this guy, but older.

I was so aware of the gaps in my knowledge when walking around -- I remember asking who a guy dressed in a very long, multi-colored scarf was supposed to be... and why someone greeted him as a doctor. References to Silent Running and Darkstar eluded me, but I was able to offer plot and character answers to discussions with absolute strangers about Planet of the Apes, Conan the Barbarian, Westworld and Soylent Green.

My memories, possibly softened by nostalgia and definitely blurred by time, tell me that people were generally eager to share their knowledge about their respective fandoms. I felt like I could admit absolute ignorance about certain things, indicate interest, and I would be enlightened by people happy to add a potential fan to their ranks. I can remember vague surprise at my ignorance in some areas, despite my knowledge of other things, and helpful people pointing my this way and that way to find out more. I can remember no negative memories, similar to the ribbing that I got later in High School for not being a jock or for excelling in academics or for not being part of the cool crowd.

By standards of the time & certainly by modern standards, I may not have been a true geek. But I was a geek at heart, and was happy I was welcomed into their ranks at that time. This is why it saddens me immensely when I hear about excluding people who are deemed to be Fake Geeks (male or female).

Life Is Tough, But Still Good

Sleep well, my son. Enjoy
it while you're young.

Work, writing, and welcome obligations to family and friends have been particularly demanding on my time.

Any time I try to put together a post on gaming, I do feel like I'm spending time on something less important, and I've had to prioritize.

But someday soon, beyond just reading the RPGs I have, keeping up to date on the industry news, and searching for stories about other peoples' game sessions. Right now, I just want to sleep one long night's sleep without work or family stress waking me up too frickin' early!

So, I tend to post a lot of these recorded game sessions from the past few years.

Happy First Week of 2013!

Slicing through to the heart of the matter! Go, Amaya!

What I want to do this year in Gaming

• My first Google+ Hangout game (tough due to the time differential and crappy internet)
• Run a Gumshoe-powered game
• Run a LOTFP game
• Run a Fading Suns game
• Play in a Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space game
• Play in a Champions game
• Try out Fiasco with friends face-to-face

What I want to write more of on this blog

• Champions Complete mini-campaigns
• Doctor Who mini-campaigns
• Reading Room: Lamentations of the Flame Princess 
• Reading Room: all the Stars Without Number books
• Enigmundia posts (possibly RQ6)
• Earth-641 posts (various systems)
• all my pending reviews

But you, what do you want more of?

More Output, Man!

As you know, I'm doing a PBEM thing with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. It's slowed down a bit with my two players, and I'm wondering if it's just fatigue, real life business, or the fact that we're playing with new characters, rather than established characters.

In addition, I'm trying to crank out more Armchair Reviews (especially on that new RPG that seems to have come from the original Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game), and have encountered something odd for me.

The new Fading Suns RPG and the new Blue Planet RPG are hard to get through because they're not new. A lot of what is there is the same, or familiar enough that I get the feeling I've read the paragraph and end up skipping forward faster -- until I hit something new. It makes it harder to read, then review.

Actually, Blue Planet is more of a problem for me -- I think I'm going to have issues about the editing. Bad tense shifts in what is meant to be a straightforward history of the universe makes me worry about the rest of it. I'm going back to my older copies to see if they're pretty much the same there -- I know I didn't have those issues then, but I hadn't edited an anthology yet when I did that reading so...

Anyway, another project I'm trying to do to tie together these disparate interests is to combine Gods of Gondwane, Weird Adventures, and Doomed Slayers together somehow. It'll be nice to return to some pulp-inspired stuff.

LOTFP has sparked my interest for the Dark Corners of Mystara work I've been doing.

RuneQuest6 is currently my system of choice for Enigmundia, though it means ditching a lot of the great OSR source material out there. Anyway, LOTFP / Dark Corners of Mystara will tackle that anyway.

And what about that combined universe of Marvel & DC? Dammit, more hours in the day!

Downtime: The Messenger, The Minotaur, and the Floating Skull

This week sees a number of deadlines, including the completion of a story involving a messenger a minotaur, and a floating skull. I won't be able to post anything until after this week; sorry to all!

I do expect that as a result of this story, I'll have a lot to post on The Emerald Eye of Ekron, Ba'al, Hermes and Iris, and perhaps some things about labyrinths and libraries.

Till then!

Online Tabletop Gaming

Like me, a number of my friends are unable to really carve out a respectable amount of time to run/play RPGs via chat.

However, we are game to retry a play-by-post game. It allows us to play at our respective speeds and availability (except for the poor GM who has to run things), and get a gestalt gaming experience.

Some wild thoughts:

• Investigation + fast combat -- this is what seems to appeal to me for online games, though I'd appreciate some tactical options and variety in the combat;
• A shared world approach -- try to convince some other person to run games in his corner of the setting, while I run games in my corner of the setting;
• Encourage side-quests -- in a semi-sandbox setting, there are any number of side-quests to get involved in, usually due to interesting NPCs;
• Storylets -- taking a cue from the Fallen London browser game, it helps to craft very specific, stand-alone, clear resolution mini-stories that eventually add up to a larger picture story if the players follow up on them;
• Easy setting -- trying to find a good online resource for the setting without having to deal with 'canon' issues.

More on this later.

Real Life Update: Upcoming Anthology

My short story "The New Teacher" was recently accepted for publication in a local horror anthology.

It's going to be titled Horror: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults.

That's all. Back to your regular programming.

Things we don't handle in RPGs (usuallly)

In the past (and in the present, and I'm sure, in the future), there have been many discussions on realism / plausibility in RPG systems.

Which is fine -- we do shoot for some kind of internal consistency and some kind of congruence to the reality we're trying to emulate (real world physics, TV physics, movie physics, fiction physics).

There are some things that we don't tackle because, really, part of the game is an escape from reality. You can talk about how (like other media) RPG holds up a mirror to our reality, helps us realize truths, and so on and so forth, but you can't get away from the fact that we're selective about what truths we try to tackle. For example:

• how often do your PCs have to answer the call of nature?
• how often do they suffer from colds or the flu?
• how often do they catch an unforeseen mundane disease and die from it?
• how often do PCs deal with things like cancer, heart problems, gout, and so on -- unless they get points from it in a point-buy system?

RPGs are a selective reality, and I'm comfortable ignoring certain things from 'real life' because -- the dignity and wonder of the human condition aside -- sometimes it can be a real drag.

Real Life Chronicles: Fevers, Children and Work

It was tough finishing the first Kitchen Sink Expeditions set, because a combination of a feverish child and sudden complications at work on top of some sideline projects ate into my time.

Thankfully my child is now fever free (though having difficulty understanding that fireworks displays don't happen every day), allowing me to focus on burgeoning work problems and slipping deadlines.

My next posts will likely be short ones.

Like this one.

Introspection: Gaming Preference Categories

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, spurred on by the many demands on my time and resources.

My current gaming preferences are broken up into two major categories: reading, GMing, and playing.

Lexx, for example, was a read or play setting. But I'd never
run a game in the setting -- I'd be worried about getting the
feel of the setting and the tone of the stories right.

Game Reading refers to the games that I get a kick out of reading.

It may be because the premise is intriguing or particularly difficult to realize in the realm of RPGs. It may be because the art and layout are impressive, or because the rules and/or the setting or the writing are fantastic. It may be because the reviews of gameplay are outstanding. I want to read it and see for myself -- but it's unlikely I'll GM or play it because I just don't have the time or the readily available game posse yet.

As you might imagine, this category has the broadest selection of products in it.


Game Playing refers to games that I want to play in.

I may be attracted by the premise, or the setting, or a new game mechanic. I may even be interested in seeing how people I know run the game or play in the game. I'll want to see how combat is handled, where the edges of the 'sandbox' are, where the rails of the 'railroad' are, and find out how the gameplay feels.

As an avid gamer, this category has a slightly less broad selection. For example, I'm no longer into the whole World of Darkness setting/system -- though I will pick up books and leaf through them out of curiosity -- so I'll usually give playing in a WOD or nWOD game a pass.


Game GMing refers to games that spark my imagination and desire to run a game (either out of the box or modified setting- / rules-wise).

The game premise is particularly important here -- what kind of adventures and experiences will the players go through, and are they interesting enough for me as a GM to go through the reading and prep time necessary in addition to running the game? The setting comes a close second, and a unique system will count for a one-shot try -- provided I can use that system for some other game I'll be running in the future.

This is the narrowest selection of games despite my apparent interest in a lot of the developments in the RPG industry. These days, the desire for experimentation --  wanting to try out a bunch of systems and settings -- is tempered by the reality that I just don't have that many people interested in trying them out, and even then my learning/prep/running time is limited.

For the young ones and the young once who do have the time, enjoy all the industry offerings while you can!

Things were bad, now they're better

Was gone for a while, but now I'm back. My child was ill, and he's well now.

Thank God.

And now we return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Tricking Your Own Mind

Worldbuilding is a tricky thing. And with folks like me who obsess about details, sometimes you get sucked into unnecessary details while leaving critical core ones undefined.

So, this comics inspiration week is also there to allow me to take a step back and look at what folks are doing in the blogosphere, to read up on unrelated games, and to look back at my Enigmundia stuff with fresh eyes.

Oh, and to make sure that I finish my short story by the end of this month. Our focus for this round of writing is setting (while still maintaining competent -- if not excellent -- plot, character, and storytelling). And to read the set of readings due for this weekend's short story critique!

If I didn't do this, it's likely I'd be scribbling away at the smallest things here and there.

Creating Gaming Sourcebooks: What Tools To Use?

It was during the time that I was running Star Wars (d6) and Cyberpunk (Interlock) that I was bitten by the graphic layout bug. Computers and printers had made it possible to put together your own source material. Of course, printing them out and binding them were a problem but you could make do with several copies on acceptable paper stock and 3-ring binders but it didn't feel the same.

This is an open post asking: what are the tools that folks use out there to create their sourcebooks? I'm only asking because legal copies of my favored tools (InDesign and Photoshop) are 'spensive, mehn.

Above and beyond that, what are some good map-making tools (hex and otherwise) that are out there? I'm searching online right now and boy howdy there's a lot of 'em out there.

Cross-posting: Call for submissions

Apologies to my regular readership, but I'm targeting possible authors with this cross-posting. Some fellow bloggers have been included in this year's Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology, namely Pointyman, one of the mad geeks behind Nosfecatu, and -- yes -- I made it this year as well, so it's not unheard of that some folks out there may not have heard of us yet and may want to submit for the next anthology.

People are still basking in the afterglow of the successful book launch of PSF6 (you can read about it here, here and pictures here), which makes this the best time to open our virtual doors for the next volume: Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 7 (PSF7), to be edited by Kate Osias (my beloved wife and fellow writer) and some guy name Alex Osias, is now officially open for submissions.

Please read the guidelines below. Don't be afraid to email or message us if you have questions.

On a related note, PSF6 immediately sold out last Saturday. We are thinking of doing another print run, so if you want a copy or several, drop us a note so that I can forward it to our publisher, Dean Alfar.

___________________

Editors Alex and Kate Osias invite you to submit short fiction for consideration for Philippine Speculative Fiction -- Volume 7.

Philippine Speculative Fiction is a yearly anthology series, which collects a wide range of stories that define, explore, and sometimes blur the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all things in between.

The anthology has been shortlisted for the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award, and multiple stories from each volume have been cited in roundups of the year’s best speculative fiction across the globe.

First-time authors are more than welcome to submit; good stories trump literary credentials any time.

Submissions must be:

1. speculative fiction—i.e., they must contain strong elements or sensibilities of science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, alternate history, folklore, superheroes, and/or related ‘nonrealist’ genres and subgenres

2. written in English

3. authored by persons of Philippine ethnicity and/or nationality

Submissions are preferred to be:

1. original and unpublished

2. no shorter than 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500

3. written for an adult audience

In all cases, these preferences can be easily overturned by exceptionally well-written pieces. In the case of previously-published work—if accepted, the author will be expected to secure permission to reprint, if necessary, from the original publishing entity, and to provide relevant publication information.

Submission details:

1. No multiple or simultaneous submissions—i.e., submit only one story, and do not submit that story to any other publishing market until you have received a letter of regret from us. We don’t mind if you submit to contests.

2. All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (saved under the file extension ‘.rtf’), and emailed to kate.osias at gmail.com, with the subject line ‘PSF7 submission’.

3. The deadline for submissions is midnight, Manila time, September 30, 2011. Letters of acceptance or regret will be sent out no later than one month after the deadline.

Editors’ notes:

1. Please don’t forget to indicate your real name in the submission email! If you want to write under a pseudonym, that’s fine, but this can be discussed upon story acceptance. Initially, we just need to know who we’re talking to.

2. If you’d like to write a cover letter with your brief bio and publishing history (if applicable), do feel free to introduce yourself—but not your story, please. If it needs to be explained, it’s probably not ready to be published.

3. We advise authors to avoid fancy formatting—this will just be a waste of your time and ours, since we will, eventually, standardize fonts and everything else to fit our established house style.

There will be compensation for selected stories, but we’ve yet to determine exactly what. In previous years, we’ve provided contributor copies of the book, as well as small royalty shares, but we are considering shifting Philippine Speculative Fiction to digital format, so we may be shifting to outright financial payment as well.

Please help spread the word!


Thanks,

Alex and Kate Osias, co-editors

Dean Alfar, publisher

Thinking About Games

Neil Gaiman -- through Puck here -- is
talking about the writing of Shakespeare
and plays and fiction in general. But he
may as well have been talking about all
our RPG sessions as well.

This post on The Alexandrian and another post on Narrative games on RPG.net have spurred some thought in my restless mind on the RPG hobby.

I understand and appreciate the need to establish terminology to define what the hell we're talking about, so I'm happy that there has been some effort in sort of drawing the lines between different types of game mechanics and different types of game design goals.

There's a question that's sometimes tossed around: "Does System Matter?"

My answer: of course it does. But it's the system that is actually used during gameplay that matters, not necessarily the ones set down in the rulebooks. The system can help establish the consistency, plausibility, and "fairness" of gameplay events. The system can also frame the type of gaming experience: one that may emphasize a realistic yet boring grind, or one that may favor wild and exciting unpredictability, or some other combination of traits. And there are good systems and bad systems. And there are systems that are good, but bad at realizing their stated goals and visa versa.

They also matter because every game system is someone's first -- so here's to improving them all regardless of your personal taste.

Another question that's sometimes tossed around is: "What does it matter, as long as you're all having fun?"

And my answer is: it matters if the GM and the players after something else in addition to having fun. Let me clarify that -- simple amusement is not the only fun that people can have playing games, just as watching a TV show or reading book isn't just about the thrills and chills. We can also enjoy touching moments of drama, brilliant tactical maneuvering, and that sense of wonder that reawakens memories and emotions of the sheer breadth of imagination untainted by someone else's vision -- the ones that we once had when we were young, and fearless and knew it all.

And another question that's often tossed around: "Why do you think so much about games?"

And my answer is perhaps different from all the other defenders of our hobby: because it matters to me. I could give a dozen reasons. A hundred reasons. But ultimately, they're all my reasons and they all boil down to this: RPGs matter to me. A well-crafted game system matters to me. A stunningly realized setting matters to me. A virtuoso performance of a GM and a cunning example of player meta-gaming matter to me. Heated arguments over game versions and movements and gamer poetics matter to me.

Not as important as family or principle. Not as important as righting injustice or helping the poor.

But important nonetheless.

And I thank God that I still have space and time for it in my life, no matter how small. And I'm thankful that many other people online have space and time for it in their lives as well.

Crap -- Blogger Isn't Working. The Editor Just Keeps Loading! BRB!

Emergency over -- seems like Blogger has fixed things.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog.

(update -- 13 and 14 May 2011)

Well, I guess not. All day 13 May 2011 (philippine time), Blogger was moved back to an earlier backup (I suppose) and inaccessible. When it finally became available this morning -- 14 May 2011 (philippine time) -- one of my blog posts had no text or images, but retained its Stats and the images were still available on Picasa!

Had to reconstruct it, but lost the comments. Oh well. Hope that's over with.

Not Enough Time

It's not my shelf, but I've got a similar collection of stuff. Across several shelves and boxes.

There are so many good things out there in the gaming world. And there are so many things I missed out on the first time around. And there are so many games I would like to read, to try, to house rule, to convert, to run, and to play.

But I just don't have enough time. I don't.

Even if I gave up on Real Life, which -- of course -- I won't and can't.

So it's time to review all the things that I spend my time on in this hobby of mine and see what things I should be spending my time on.

The Short List
News and Feeds
Well, first and foremost I do enjoy hearing about the latest and greatest news and controversies about the hobby. I'm fascinated by the emergence of the Indie RPG, and the developments in the 3.5E / OGL industry space (especially Pathfinder, Castles & Crusades, Stars Without Number, True20, etc.). I'm fascinated by FATE, and all this stuff spurred on by stuff from OSR enthusiasts.

So feeds and blogging and news sites will be important.

Systems
I'll have to narrow down the systems I try to learn, and have some favorite go-to systems if I ever get to run games again. On the list right now are:

• For the fantasy genre, I tend toward the D20-inspired branch of systems, I'm looking at Castles & Crusades and True20;
• For the supers genre, I'm looking at Hero System, M&M, and either Icons or BASH;
• For the SF genre, I also look at the Hero System, EABA, and True20.

Of course, I do like reading up on new systems. But I will have to limit it to a certain number a year. And currently, one of those slots is taken up by Cortex-Smallville.

Settings
I always want to learn more about settings I like. But I really have to temper it somehow. After all, even if enjoy the exploration of various aspects of a setting -- at some point it becomes tedious, or boring, or more simply, enough.

For example, D&D 3E's Forgotten Realms main sourcebook, plus the Lords of Darkness book were enough for me. Other books were nice to have (Faiths and Pantheons and Magic of Faerun, for example), but the fleshing out of other areas started to become too much.

Also, I'm not a total slave to canon either -- I like to retain key elements of settings but would prefer to have space to insert my own ideas into the world.

Right now, my favored settings include: the iconic DC Universe & the iconic Marvel Universe, Forgotten Realms 3E, Mystara, Blue Planet, Fading Suns, Babylon 5, and the meta-setting of Call of Cthulhu (which includes 1890s,1920s, and Delta Green).

Runners up include Eclipse Phase, SF settings like Lightspeed that allow combining Star Wars and Star Trek elements into it, and city-based mini-settings like Lankhmar, Thieves' World, and Freeport.