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

[Tonguez]

So How do you like your World structured? ie how do you like Settings to be laid out in terms of scope and adventure expectations?

1. Vanilla Region -All the standard tropes of Western fantasy in a limited Geographic Region
2. Big Continent - Classic setting of Many Nations, Cultures and Empires.
3. Points-of-Light Frontier - Edge of Civilisation. Wilderness full of monsters. Exploration-heavy.
4. Urban Sprawl - Single Massive City with thematic districts, including urban wilderness
5. Archipelago - islands with unique cultures, ruins, monsters. Ship focussed
6. Parallel World - Two or three parallel worlds in constant contact. (Feywild/Shadowfell)
7. Shattered World A collection of linked but disparate worlds. (Radiant Citadel, Domains of Delight)
8. Multi World - PCs travel between worlds via ships or portals, include Isekai.

 

[Yaarel]

Three detailed local settings.

Example. A Githzeri Temple complex in the Elemental Chaos. A Githyanki fortress in the Astral Sea. And an unusual outpost where the two work together to seal a rupture of the Farrealm leaking into an Underdark cavern in the Material Plane.

 

[Minigiant]

Something between Parallel and Shattered World

A few connected worlds which have major differences from each other. Multiple connected material planes.

 

[Bae'zel]

Always a fan of the concept of an archipelago world, whether an ocean world of islands and/or mixed with floating continents…

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Anything that isn’t a big continent. Nothing says “made in America” more than that cliche.

 

[TiQuinn]

Always a fan of the concept of an archipelago world, whether an ocean world of islands and/or mixed with floating continents…

 

[Corinnguard]

Archipelago, Urban Sprawl, and Points of Light Frontier

Always a fan of the concept of an archipelago world, whether an ocean world of islands and/or mixed with floating continents…

Or something like the Terras from the Storm Hawks cartoon series where everyone lived on plateau-topped mountains above the clouds. Some of which were big enough to support a small ocean (Terra Pacifica) or different biomes.

As for Urban Sprawl, a miles wide, miles tall arcology could suffice here. Hehe. A fantasy version of Coruscant or Cybertron.

Lastly, a Points of Light Frontier, the Arcane West. I don't think WoTC has ever created a Western Fantasy setting before.

 

[Reynard]

I have been toying with a setting for a while where the "planes" are all parallel "Earths" with essentially the same geography and places where different versions link. So Hell is a a fantasy post apocalypse, Fae is a world forest filled with magic, and so on.