D&D 5E (2024) Preferences in a New Official 5.5e Specific Setting

[pemerton]

I think stepping away from the D&D family might be a good idea here. Something like Ironsworn-Delve would fit your bill perfectly. I've never played it, but @pemerton has recommended Five Torches Deep many times. Although, as you say, that's OSR. But, there are games out there that are light and not mired in the 70's.

Torchbearer. (I've heard of it Five Torches Deep, but that's it for that one.)

Burning Wheel is also great for low magic, if that's what someone wants.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Oh man, I would love to play Torchbearer. Just once at least.

 

[Hussar]

Torchbearer. (I've heard of it Five Torches Deep, but that's it for that one.)

Burning Wheel is also great for low magic, if that's what someone wants.

I knew it had something to do with torches.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Meh, I started playing D&D with The Known World. That's about exactly the size I was talking about and it had everything you needed for D&D. To me, all that other stuff is just a waste of time. I was asked what my preferences are. Well, that's my preference. Keep it small, focused and self contained. Which, to me, translates to manageable, and detailed enough that all the crap work is done for me.

Here's the Known World as it existed when I started D&D gaming:View attachment 423464

As it happens, just now I am playing around with the Worldographer again to prepare a bit for a Diamond Throne campaign, converting the map from the 3.x book into a hex map...

 

[Hussar]

It's funny. These sorts of threads always cause me to be a lot more self-reflective on my experiences. And thinking about this, I've always leaned heavily on smaller settings. My first setting that I really bought into was Scarred Lands. Before 3e, I pretty much only ran homebrew settings. Then I really loved Scarred Lands. Ghaelspad, the primary continent of SL just spoke to me. Adored the setting.

Then, they added Termana - a new continent. And the Blood Sea, largely divorced from Ghaelspad. And other continents after that and basically abandoned Ghaelspad and I totally fell out with the setting. I didn't want new continents, I wanted them to keep adding to the one that I liked.

Later, I got deep into Primeval Thule. Again, here's a small setting. It's fantasy Greenland and, geographically, almost the same size. Yes, there is a larger world, but, it's far away and has no real impact on the setting. I really want to return to this setting to be honest, and I really think that my next campaign might just be set here.

To me, something like Ravenloft is fantastic. Small setting with tons of detail where you can run an entire campaign. I don't really want to run a horror game in Forgotten Realms (as an example). I want a horror setting. I completely ignored Forgotten Realms in 3e for exactly this reason. Tons of high altitude material that outlines a huge number of locations, 99% of which I will never use.

I am tired of buying RPG material that sits on my shelf and gathers dust. I don't want three continents with overviews. I want one continent that has three 15-20 level adventure paths set on it. Or more. I'm okay with that. My Phandelver campaign never moved more than a 150 miles from its starting point. My Candlekeep campaign was 90% within a week's travel of Candlekeep. My current Out of the Abyss campaign takes place in an area maybe 300 miles across. Not much bigger if it is.

Give me detail. Don't give me empty geography

 

[pemerton]

I don't want three continents with overviews. I want one continent that has three 15-20 level adventure paths set on it. Or more. I'm okay with that. My Phandelver campaign never moved more than a 150 miles from its starting point. My Candlekeep campaign was 90% within a week's travel of Candlekeep. My current Out of the Abyss campaign takes place in an area maybe 300 miles across. Not much bigger if it is.

The surface world aspects of my 30-level 4e campaign never left the map on the inside cover of Night's Dark Terror. Though it did involve a fair bit of time in the Underdark and on other planes, especially the Abyss.

My Torchbearer campaign is in Greyhawk, but to date at least has all taken place within an area of around 250 miles by 400 miles.

On the other hand, my long-running Rolemaster Greyhawk campaign (a LONG time ago now) spanned the whole continent, from the Sea of Dust through Keoland and the central Nyr Dyv area to the north of Iuz, into the Great Kingdom, and the Iron League. The PCs in that game, once they got into the teen lelves, did a lot of teleporting (they would place teleport beacons to eliminate the chance of error.