D&D 5E Ideas For a World of Islands? (+thread)

[Mercurius]

I'm a huge of fan of Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea, which offers a lot to draw from.

Also, Iomandra - wish WotC would publish this as a setting book. there's a PDF or website out there compiling info. Here's the world map:

 

[Aldarc]

Christopher Perkins’s Iomandra, James Wyatt’s Aquela, and Pirates of Dark Water

 

[Dioltach]

No metal armour. Giant birds that spend 99% of their lives in the air. Migratory fish and sea mammals, and sea nomads who follow them. Floating islands. Islands on the backs of turtles. Icebergs, with frost giants. Underwater volcanos with fire giants. Merfolk giants. Babel fish. Intelligent ships. Anything you can steal from Earthsea. Sea elves that farm schools of fish. Sea dwarves that mine underwater volcanos. Sea halflings who don't go beyond the shallows. Halflings who ride albatrosses. Living storms. The great gods Rey-Dar and So-Nar. Gremlins that mess with ships' rigging in foul weather. Ghost ships. Ghost airships. Giant sea otters that float on their backs and dispense wisdom. Sea druids. Pearls as the dominant currency. A world that's never seen soap lather...

 

[DND_Reborn]

Man, these types of worlds would suck for characters who can't swim.

 

[Baba]

Are you familiar with the game Archipelago? It was born out of love for Earthsea.

It is a short read, GM-less (or rather, everyone has some gm-duties), with card-based resolution and gameplay based on spesific phrases.

There aren`t a lot of specific setting elements - the premise is that you make those yourself, as part of the game. But it sounds like that is what you want to do anyway?

It is quite different from d&d, though, so if you are strictly after ideas for d&d, this may not be what you’re after.

It is available for free here: Archipelago v3 : Matthijs Holter : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[jmartkdr2]

Another thought: just to keep on-theme, I'd probably have underwater 'islands' as well - basically instead of undersea mountain ranges just have small jutting undersea mountains around which undersea life gathers - including whatever undersea civilizations exist.

Submarines are probably higher CR than airships, I think.

 

[Todd Roybark]

I've actually ran something very similar to what Rangerwickett described for his PF2 game, and also separately similar to the picture he posted.

There was a High Fantasy city next to the Sea of Abstraction, essentially a sort of an astral plane analogue filled with Half Worlds....(an idea borrowed from Invisible Sun)....any island could be a demiplane that could contain anything. Yes, Githyanki pirates were there.

I love nautical campaigns...sailing off Into the Great Unknown is a foundational part of my imagination. I also love Earthsea.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So many great posts! I’m gonn have a lot of fun replying later today and tomorrow.

 

[bedir than]

Another thought: just to keep on-theme, I'd probably have underwater 'islands' as well - basically instead of undersea mountain ranges just have small jutting undersea mountains around which undersea life gathers - including whatever undersea civilizations exist.

Submarines are probably higher CR than airships, I think.

Related, invert the undersea.

An "island" would exist above and below the sea line, with the plane of gravity being at the sea line rather than towards the center of the planet. This flat-earth concept would have tides due to sky-moons and sea-moons that pull against each other in a constant war between the moon-gods.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

If you're going to have something goofy that doesn't really belong in the setting, then sticking it on an isolated island is a marginally less goofy way of handling it.