Personally I was first introduced to pen and paper D&D in 1994.  I was young and only played a game or two.  I took a long break and then a few friends and I decided to play.  Over the last year we have been playing fourth edition, because it was the newest version.  I am greatly enjoying 4th edition, but I decided to make a shadowbane mod.  It was a game I greatly enjoyed that I felt could be adapted.  We are starting our second campaign based on shadowbane and enjoyed the first, though it was cut way short.  I guess my question is does anyone else find this to be a potentially interesting campaign setting?

I'm not familiar with Shadowbane, but I think any effort to make the game your own is always a good idea. I come from playing 1st Ed AD&D and have played a lot of different systems in my time. With old-school D&D there was the implied idea that you created your own world. There were some game settings such as Greyhawk and Blackmoor, but there was no pressure to play in the "Official" world. Soon there were sets based on different properities. For instance, I have the Lankhmar set for 1st Ed AD&D that TSR published and I also have the Chaosium-released Thieve's World box set. While some people like playing in these pre-packaged worlds, there is nothing wrong with working on your own stuff and mining the material for new ideas. treasure, and monsters.

Some systems out there are specifically designed to make your own world. One such example would be "All Flesh Mush Be Eaten." It is a good system and while the books give some examples, the emphasis is for the GM to create the world. Other systems do give you an established world and some of those are really open for you to make it your own. Talislanta is a good example of this. The world is a huge sandbox giving you many options on gameplay based on where you choose to play, your party composition, and player's style.

I think that in the end, if it is going to be sucessful, you'll have to put some serious work into it. However, done well, you could make just about any setting enjoyable. It's all up to the skill and imagination of those involved. When working with a known world, it will be a matter of trying to capture the proper feel and balancing the different elements as needed. That is, if you are all that worried about balance. :)