How Much D&D Stuff Is There Anyway? Part 2: Settings

This is the second in a series of articles attempting to answer the question: How much D&D stuff is there anyway? In the previous article, we looked at the number of RPG products and pages published for each edition, as well as calculating how much money a hypothetical collector spent over the years. The answer was a six-story pile of boxes and books that cost $23k and would take three sleepless months to read.

For this article, we’re going to take a look at how much RPG material has been produced for each major setting, and compare the relative cost of a complete set of products for each D&D world. Last time, we limited our view of D&D “stuff” to D&D RPG products made by TSR and WotC. For this second installment we are still looking only at RPG products for each setting (so no novels, magazine articles or comics yet), but we are extending the scope to include licensed RPG products for D&D settings (so including the 3e Ravenloft and Dragonlance lines) as well as non-D&D RPG products (so including the SAGA Dragonlance products).

Part 2: Campaign Settings
The number of official D&D settings depends who you ask. Wikipedia lists twenty-seven D&D settings, while The Piazza lists (at least) forty-eight. There is no hard and fast rule on when a new part of a world counts as its own setting (Al-Qadim) or when it is a product line within an existing setting (Maztica, Hollow World). For this article, without meaning any disrespect to Jakandor, we’re limiting our analysis to the twelve settings with the most support; all of the settings featured here had at least a dozen products published for them by TSR/WotC.

Greyhawk
The first supplement TSR ever produced for D&D was Supplement I: Greyhawk, but despite the name, it reveals very little about the world of Greyhawk. We’re going to count it as a Greyhawk product, but by today’s standards, Supplement I would be considered a rules expansion. Oerth, the world of the Greyhawk setting, was only revealed in 1980’s The World of Greyhawk Gazetteer. Several series of Greyhawk accessories and adventures followed in 1e and 2e. Greyhawk was the default setting for 3e, but only three products focussed directly on Oerth. As of 2025, 5e has no dedicated Greyhawk products, but both Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide provide a view of the world of Greyhawk.

Many early AD&D adventures are nominally placed in Greyhawk. S1: Tomb of Horrors, for example, suggests that it could be run as a one-shot, as part of the DM’s setting, or in the World of Greyhawk. When used at conventions, the Tomb was located in Vast Swamp, but that’s the extent of the connection to Oerth in the original adventure. On the other hand, Acererak is now considered a classic Greyhawk villain. So should we count Tomb of Horrors as a Greyhawk product or not?

Let’s start with a list of books and product lines explicitly for Greyhawk:

Here’s what that looks like on a chart:

Totals for Greyhawk: 40 products | 3292 pages | $470.05 spent.

Exactly what should be included on an expanded list can be debated, but we’re going to add the following products for which Greyhawk is the implied setting:

Adding all of this expanded material doubles the total number of products, and more than doubles the cost of a Greyhawk collection, as shown in red on the following graphs:

Subtotals for the expanded list: 40 products | 2013 pages | $435.51 spent.
Total for expanded Greyhawk: 80 products | 5305 pages | $905.56 spent.

Dragonlance
The Dragonlance product line had its own distinct identity from the beginning, making it easier to add up than Greyhawk. For this setting we are going to include several Dragonlance world guides that were not branded as D&D products, and the whole of the SAGA line of products. Here’s what we’re counting:

Here are the charts for these products:

Totals for Dragonlance: 69 products | 7188 pages | $919.50 spent.

For the expanded Dragonlance list, we are going to add the twenty-one 3e products produced under licence by Sovereign Press/Margaret Weis Productions from from 2003 to 2008. This increases the number of Dragonlance products by 30%, but the page count by 50%, thanks to the hefty 3e books. Here’s what the graphs look once we add them:

Subtotals for the expanded list: 21 products | 3,626 pages | $614.80 spent.
Total for expanded Dragonlance: 90 products | 10,814 pages | $1,534.30 spent.

Lankhmar
Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar setting is an anomaly on this list, because it wasn’t created as a D&D setting, but was an existing setting that TSR licensed. TSR had previously collaborated with Leiber on the Lankhmar board game in 1976, as well as including the Nehwon mythos in the original Deities & Demigods. Starting in 1985, TSR published fourteen Lankmar D&D products, finishing with an elaborately named boxed set in 1996: Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar: The New Adventures of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser.

After purchasing TSR, WotC evidently chose not to renew the licence with Leiber’s estate and no additional Lankhmar D&D products were published. Other publishers have subsequently produced lines of Lankhmar RPG products: Mongoose for its RuneQuest line in 2006, Pinnacle for Savage Worlds in 2015, and Goodman for its DCC line in 2019. Since those aren’t really D&D products, we’re not going to worry about an expanded list for Lankhmar. Here are the graphs for TSR’s product line:

Totals for Lankhmar: 14 products | 1188 pages | $158.55 spent.

Forgotten Realms
A keen-eyed reader may have noticed that we’re working our way through settings in the order of publication. That means we’ve reached the Forgotten Realms, and that involves counting a lot of products and pages. On the other hand, WotC has always kept Faerûn RPG products in-house, and has historically been clear with Forgotten Realms branding, so there is a proportionally smaller number of left overs to put in the expanded list.

Let’s start by counting the D&D products explicitly set in the Forgotten Realms:

Here are the charts for those Forgotten Realms products:

Totals for Forgotten Realms: 193 products | 24,448 pages | $3,999.44 spent.

It won’t have a significant impact on the overall totals, but to be thorough, we’re adding the following products to an expanded Forgotten Realms list. These are all set in the Forgotten Realms, or—for the Bloodstone, Desert of Desolation and Oriental Adventures titles—were retroactively located in Faerûn:

As expected, adding these doesn’t really shift the needle on the Forgotten Realms totals:

Subtotals for the expanded list: 15 products | 792 pages | $136.10 spent.
Total for expanded Forgotten Realms: 208 products | 25,240 pages | $4,135.54 spent.

Spelljammer
This is another relatively easy setting to add up, since almost all of the Spelljammer products were released over five years, with the only complication being the twenty-nine year gap between The Astromundi Cluster and 5e’s Spelljammer: Adventures in Space. The graphs below include the twenty-one 2e products plus the 5e outlier:

Totals for Spelljammer: 22 products | 2,240 pages | $324.15 spent.

Ravenloft
D&D’s horror setting was launched in 1990, near the beginning of 2e, and was supported with new products right up to the end of 2e in 2000. From 2001 to 2005, a 3e line of Ravenloft products was published by White Wolf under licence, and in 2006, WotC released Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. This means that setting enjoyed a seventeen year run in which there was at least one new Ravenloft product each year. That matches Dragonlance’s 1984-2000 unbroken streak, and is exceeded only by the Forgotten Realms with twenty-two years.

For our Ravenloft charts, we’re going to count:

Here’s what that looks like:

Totals for Ravenloft: 66 products | 6,438 pages | $1,143.53 spent.

For the expanded Ravenloft line, we’re adding in:

That gives us the following adjusted graphs:

Subtotals for the expanded list: 22 products | 3,368 pages | $538.20 spent.
Total for expanded Ravenloft: 88 products | 9,806 pages | $1,681.73 spent.

Dark Sun
The desert setting of Athas launched in 1991 and had strong support from TSR for the next five years, with thirty-two products released for 2e. The Dark Sun line was a few products into a revision and relaunch when TSR collapsed, and it was one of the settings that WotC let rest after 1996. A fourteen-year gap followed before Dark Sun saw a resurgence as a 4e setting, getting two hardcovers, an adventure and a set of Dungeon Tiles. It hasn’t yet had any support in 5e but a Dark Sun release seems likely for 2026.

We only need one set of charts for Dark Sun, since the 2e and 4e releases combine to form a complete set of RPG products. Here’s what that looks like:

Totals for Dark Sun: 36 products | 4,642 pages | $577.90 spent.

Al-Qadim
Despite its location in the Forgotten Realms, Al-Qadim was treated as its own setting from a branding and product line perspective, so we’re also treating it as separate here. It is a fairly simple setting to count, with three years of product support from 1992 to 1994, and one additional adventure released in 1998.

Here’s what we get adding up the fourteen products in the 2e Al-Qadim line:

Totals for Al-Qadim: 14 products | 1,568 pages | $249.95 spent.

Planescape
The Planescape setting launched in 1994, and enjoyed five years of continuous support before being folded back into the main 2e product line. Planescape boasts the second longest gap in official support (after Spelljammer), with nearly twenty-five years between 2e’s The Inner Planes and 5e’s Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse.

Here are the graphs for the thirty 2e Planescape products, plus the 5e set:

Totals for Planescape: 31 products | 4,040 pages | $666.20 spent.

For the expanded Planescape, it’s tempting to go overboard and include any book with a planar theme, but we’re going to be conservative and add in only a pair of titles that were originally planned to be be part of the Planescape line, before being folded into the generic 2e line: Warriors of Heaven and Guide to Hell.

Predictably, this doesn’t change the graphs much:

Subtotals for the expanded list: 2 products | 160 pages | $32.90 spent.
Total for expanded Planescape: 33 products | 4,200 pages | $699.19 spent.

Mystara
Deciding what to count as a Mystara product is even more complicated than it was for Greyhawk. The Known World had been the implied setting for Basic D&D since X1: Isle of Dread in 1981, but it wasn’t given the name “Mystara” until September 1991, when Bruce Heard wrote in Dragon #173: “The Known World is the geographical area located at the southeastern corner of the continent of Brun. Mystara contains both the Known World and the Hollow World.” From 1994, TSR decided to retire Basic D&D as a separate product line, and transitioned support to the Mystara campaign setting for 2e.

For our first Mystara chart, we’re going to count only the ten products in the 2e Mystara line. There were also two Red Steel campaign expansion 2e products set in the world of Mystara, but we’re going to put those two in the expanded list, below. Here’s what the graphs for the ten Mystara-branded products look like:

Totals for Mystara: 10 products | 1,088 pages | $174.80 spent.

For the expanded Mystara numbers, we’re adding in:

Adding all of those changes the graphs substantially:

Subtotals for the expanded list: 119 products | 7,400 pages | $1,082.40 spent.
Total for expanded Mystara: 129 products | 8,488 pages | $1,257.20 spent.

Birthright
It may have been TSR’s last D&D setting, but it was launched with vigour. The Birthright Campaign Setting was published in July 1995 and there were a dozen Birthright products released by the end of the year. A further dozen followed in 1996, more products than for any other setting that year. TSR’s 1997 collapse was fatal to Birthright, with only three additional products making it out in 1997 and 1998, and a number more cancelled by WotC and later released as free online offerings.

Here’s what the graphs of those four years look like:

Totals for Birthright: 27 products | 1,840 pages | $339.10 spent.

Eberron
As the only (major) D&D setting created by WotC, Eberron is an interesting addition to this list. It is also the only setting that has never had a boxed set released for it (at least, if we ignore licensed products), but it was released in the era of chunky hardcover books, so Eberron compares favourably to Dark Sun and Planescape when it comes to contributing pages of D&D lore.

For our Eberron charts, we’re going to count:

Here’s what that looks like.

Totals for Eberron: 27 products | 3,760 pages | $718.69 spent.

A dozen worlds
If you decided to collect all twelve of the settings covered above, you’d end up with 91 boxed sets, 99 hardcovers, 517 softcover/stapled books, and 61 other accessories. That’s 79,091 pages of setting material to use, at a total cost of $12,581.86.

Let’s do some comparisons of the settings. In terms of scale, they seem to naturally divide up into three groups:​

The Forgotten Realms is the unambiguous leader in overall quantity. Mystara comes in second, but only if the Basic D&D products are added; without those it trails in last place. Dragonlance inches out Ravenloft for third place. Greyhawk comes in fifth, followed by Dark Sun in sixth, and Planescape in seventh. Birthright and Eberron, both with twenty-seven products, are tied for eighth place.

If we look at the total number of pages, the Forgotten Realms is even more of a runaway leader, with nearly a third of all pages. Although Mystara has a lot of products, it loses to both Dragonlance and Ravenloft on pages, thanks to all those thin Basic D&D products. Including the expanded product lists, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Planescape and Eberron occupy fifth through eighth places respectively. Without the expanded material, Greyhawk slips down three spots, below Eberron.

Looking at the overall cost to collect each setting, the Forgotten Realms is several times more expensive than any other setting. Coming in second is Ravenloft and then Dragonlance. Mystara and Greyhawk take fourth and fifth place if the expanded product lists are included but without those, the order is: Eberron fourth, Planescape fifth, Dark Sun sixth, Greyhawk seventh and Birthright eighth.

To finish up this article, let’s compare the level of support each product line received from TSR/WotC while it was in continuous production. For the Forgotten Realms, that’s a 22-year run from 1987 to 2008, for Dragonlance it is 17 years (1984-2000), and for Ravenloft it’s 11 years (1990-2000). Surprisingly, Lankhmar comes in fourth with 7 years. All of the other settings had six or fewer years of continuous support. It’s worth noting that if the third party material is included, Ravenloft goes up to 17 years of continuous support (1990-2006) matching Dragonlance. And if we included the expanded Mystara products, its lifespan would climb to 15 years (1981-1995), putting it in fourth place.

During its more than two decades of continuous support, the Forgotten Realms averaged above seven products per year. A close second is Birthright, followed by both Dark Sun and Planescape which tie for third. The Dragonlance setting comes in second last for the average number of products per year (beating only Lankhmar), an indication that TSR thought Krynn shone more as a setting for novels than for game products. This is one of the few charts where the tertiary settings do better than the secondary settings.

Pages per year is another opportunity for the tertiary settings to shine, with both Dark Sun and Planescape challenging the Forgotten Realms during the time their product lines were supported. Eberron’s respectable fourth place is a result of the page-heavy hardcovers characteristic of the 3e line. Similarly, the poor showing of the three chronologically-first settings is a result of the low page-count products of the time.

Our last chart for this article is the cost per year to collect each setting while it had an active product line. Planescape manages second place here, behind the Forgotten Realms as the most expensive. What’s more interesting though is how similar the numbers are for later worlds. Every setting from Ravenloft onwards cost between $80 and $100 per year to collect, with the exception of Planescape ($116) and Eberron ($106). It suggests that market research was done at some point that revealed “consumers will spend about $90 per year on setting products, so aim for about that”.

What can we conclude from all of this? At least two things. First, the story of D&D’s various product lines is muddy enough that deciding exactly which products to count (or collect!) can be challenging for a completionist. Second, if you want to choose just one setting to collect, Lankhmar is by far the most cost-effective to pick. It’s also a line that you have to collect in print if you want access to it, since licensing issues prevent WotC from selling electronic versions of Lankmar titles.

If you are still reading, thanks for making it all the way through this chart-heavy article. Next time, we’re going to take a look at the many D&D magazines and periodicals, and how much it might cost to add those to a collection.​