D&D General Lets Make a 5e 2024 Setting - World Structure

[FitzTheRuke]

One idea that might have legs, and combines a lot of the above:

A setting where the "civilization" is along a rocky shoreline, with a mountainous interior (full of monsters, naturally) that has developed submersibles (like Spelljammer under the sea) and underwater exploration is one of (but not the only) big draws for adventure.

Of course, down there are fallen kingdoms, indigenous sentients (both friendly and unfriendly), natural hazards, and both great beauty and great horror.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I like urban campaigns. This gives me plenty of fun wallowing in the seedy underbelly of my fantasies.

I like a small, limited scope campaign where wilderness abounds between points of light. I like limited power.

I like worldbuilding, so I like giant scopes with fully fleshed out cultures and histories.

 

[Steampunkette]

Big continent, points of light, urban sprawl.

World-hopping is kind of "Whatever" to me. Yeah it makes the fantasy "Bigger" but you can do world-hopping levels of variety of environments/enemies without bothering with portal magic. An Archipelago makes for a solid stand in for world-hopping adventures by making each island uniquely threatening or interesting, for example.

Nah, gimme a big continent where part of the continent is fairly densely populated and you have urban sprawl options and then there's lots of points of light once you head out into the hexcrawl to explore the world.

 

[TwoSix]

I definitely like all of them, so any vote I make is simply a nod towards settings I've enjoyed, not a vote against any settings I didn't vote for.

I voted for Big Continent, mostly because of Eberron, one of my all time favorite settings. I also voted for Archipelago and Shattered World, because making up a new island/plane/location is where most of my campaigns end up if they linger past a few sessions.

 

[CreamCloud0]

i think a points of light - archipelago - parallel worlds setting would be neat, where instead of sailing between the islands you're instead traversing through the different layers of realities to find ones with landmasses that go in the direction you want, passing from a high magic lush jungle world to a fiery mordor-esc setting and further onto a crystal world.

i think a parallel worlds setting would also help incorporate the array of different species in 5/5.5, being able to say humans, dwarves and dragonborn originate from this layer, elves, gnomes, tieflings and goliaths originate from that layer, then halflings, aasimar and orcs.