D&D 5E Us Building a "Fundamentally 5E" Setting From Scratch Together

[Micah Sweet]

Spinning off from that other thread just to focus this discussion.

Let's imagine that we, collectively, are put in charge of building a completely new "Fundamentally 5E" Setting, in the same way that Eberron was built to be a Fundamentally 3.5 Setting.

Here are the rules:

1) No existing settings or pieces of settings. I know you Nentir Vale and Dark Sun fans are chomping at the bit, but this isn't the thread.
2) One element at a time -- that is, don't write your entire world treatise. instead put an element in the setting.
3) "Fundamentally 5E" means that while you can add mechanics (e.g. Dragonmarks for Eberron) you cannot remove or change any core 5E mechanics.

So, what do you got? What element would you add to this Fundamentally 5E setting?

Do you have to use all the options in the current core 5.5 books? Ie, all the species, classes, archetypes, monsters, etc?

 

[Reynard]

Do you have to use all the options in the current core 5.5 books? Ie, all the species, classes, archetypes, monsters, etc?

Yes. If it is in D&D, it has to fit in the setting aka the Eberron Ethos.

 

[Reynard]

Planar airships are the primary way different city-states send and receive goods, with the Gith(yanki) having a stranglehold control on the legal movement (and taxation thereof) of goods and enforces it with their Red Dragon patrols. This has led to pirating, the greatest of who is Greenbeard, a undead fey lord who lashes out from the Great Sargasso - a chaotic swirl of the Feywild, Shadowdark and Elemental Chaos and the graveyard of many a ship from which Greenbeard (unwillingly) recruits his ragtag crew.

This might be a little too much for me, personally, but not by much. i would rather see heavy influence of the planes on the broader setting, rather than actual planar travel.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Riffing off of @TwoSix 's thread, I would posit a setting where the magic of 5.5 fully blossoms across society, with the consequences of many high level characters and the godlike powers they possess are used to their fullest logical extent. The world would perhaps be divided into nations ruled by parties of epic adventurers struggling with each other while simultaneously crushing the last pockets of "monster" resistance. Formal schools teaching different kinds of magic and PC class skills would exist, and the world would in many ways resemble the modern one I think.

Really break that medieval stasis, as @DEFCON 1 would say.

 

[Reynard]

Riffing off of @TwoSix 's thread, I would posit a setting where the magic of 5.5 fully blossoms across society, with the consequences of many high level characters and the godlike powers they possess are used to their fullest logical extent. The world would perhaps be divided into nations ruled by parties of epic adventurers struggling with each other while simultaneously crushing the last pockets of "monster" resistance. Formal schools teaching different kinds of magic and PC class skills would exist, and the world would in many ways resemble the modern one I think.

Really break that medieval stasis, as @DEFCON 1 would say.

What that would look like would really depend on what one decided the population of level 20 characters would be:, 1 in a million looks different than 1 in ten thousand.

 

[TwoSix]

What that would look like would really depend on what one decided the population of level 20 characters would be:, 1 in a million looks different than 1 in ten thousand.

Sounds like an interesting thread topic!

 

[Oofta]

If it has to contain everything I would say that it almost needs to be some kind of nexus point, a crossroads of sorts. So not only have relatively easy access to other planes (feywild and shadowfell in particular) but also other worlds. If a new book comes along and introduces a new species, it's not a big deal. It happens all the time.

Perhaps a world with different "shards" that occasionally appear. Usually the gateways these shards open up are from somewhere else to the world, but occasionally they go the other way if you want to have people fall into something like Ravenloft or some other module that just looks interesting but doesn't target this new world.

As far as magitech I'd forget about trying to mimic medieval Europe but not go as far as Eberron. I'm not convince mageocracies are guaranteed, but that's a whole separate argument. I'm also not sure it would make for enjoyable or relatable world building. Some rulers could easily be high level casters, but just like most of the most powerful politicians in today's world are not warriors that have led armies having access to powerful spells doesn't automatically give you political influence.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What that would look like would really depend on what one decided the population of level 20 characters would be:, 1 in a million looks different than 1 in ten thousand.

Quite true. I'd have to really put some thought into it, but it would definitely look quite different from the 5.5 assumptions while still using its mechanics.

Well, if I were to actually write this up for real I'd likely use Level Up as the base instead of 5.5, but you know what I mean.

 

[sevenbastard]

I'd want to lean heavy into the idea that Backgrounds and Species both offer spells regularly. So have a setting where nearly everyone has some amount of magic (maybe not violent cantrips, but everyone of age has a cantrip). I don't think it would take the turn of Eberron, but maybe leaning into an idyllic vibe with lots of mysticism

The issues I have with 5.5e is that everyone is too magical, but I agree that you solve it by building a setting that leans into this.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If it has to contain everything I would say that it almost needs to be some kind of nexus point, a crossroads of sorts. So not only have relatively easy access to other planes (feywild and shadowfell in particular) but also other worlds. If a new book comes along and introduces a new species, it's not a big deal. It happens all the time.

Perhaps a world with different "shards" that occasionally appear. Usually the gateways these shards open up are from somewhere else to the world, but occasionally they go the other way if you want to have people fall into something like Ravenloft or some other module that just looks interesting but doesn't target this new world.

As far as magitech I'd forget about trying to mimic medieval Europe but not go as far as Eberron. I'm not convince mageocracies are guaranteed, but that's a whole separate argument. I'm also not sure it would make for enjoyable or relatable world building. Some rulers could easily be high level casters, but just like most of the most powerful politicians in today's world are not warriors that have led armies having access to powerful spells doesn't automatically give you political influence.

For planar stuff, I'm thinking permanent gates and colonies on other planes, particularly the Feywild and the Shadowfell. Encroachment on the native populations there would cause friction and conflict, and different nations would handle those relations differently.