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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ki11erDM" data-source="post: 6391752" data-attributes="member: 58179">I am doing battle with this beast right now building my 5e campaign and it sounds a lot like yours, it is based on my point of light 4e world.  Maybe my struggles will help you… Back in 4e I started in a small town and grew the world out from it, but I ran into some real issues when trying to deal with why this damn town was so far away from everything else and how was it not destroyed.  But it was really gratifying when I finally discovered its real story and it added a lot of depth to my world.  It was sheltered by a reclusive Elven kingdom on one side and, well, basically Ravenloft on the other (i.e. a wall of fog).  It was only there because to be a trade center with the elves and dwarves for the remains of the northern portion of Nerath.  That was a lot of work to just rationalize why this point of light was where it was and why it was still there. I did not want to do that again… so with some of the dynamics of the world already in hand I am starting large this time and using the generators at donjon.bin.sh to fill in all the names and places for me so it really speeding things up. In the end what I have done is created a kingdom that was the southern portion of Nerath (total area about 2x the size of Ohio but only about ¼ of that under real control).  It has one major sea side trading city with three roads leading out from that, the north road is disused as it leads to the ruins of Central Nerath (which was utterly destroyed by the gnoll armies).  No one would build a village that direction as gnolls and lizard people roam freely, from time to time raiding parties attack the towns on the northern edge of the kingdom but little that the army can’t handle. The road to the west is heavily traveled and passes through good farmland.  Dozens of castles and forts dot this road, only a large scale invasion or high CR monsters would threaten these folk (but rampaging gnolls are not uncommon).  This area is the bread basket of the City and the Kingdom.  You would have to travel for a few days north or south from this road to find anything other than outlaws and gnolls to fight. The southern road leads into a more wildernessy area, but it is well maintained and patrolled as it leads to the major mining operations for the kingdom.  It has villages that are mostly designed to support the patrols and the trade traffic and are built around small keeps.  You could find nearly anything to fight a day’s travel from this road. The other thing to keep in mind is that Nerath and all the empires before it were building all kinds of things in this area for 1000s of years, so there are lots of little places 2-4 days travel from the major roads that are interesting to explore. Some resources I have found very useful:Blog about distances: <a href="http://harbingergames.blogspot.com/2014/06/modern-minds-and-medieval-distances.html?m=1" target="_blank">http://harbingergames.blogspot.com/2014/06/modern-minds-and-medieval-distances.html?m=1</a>Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Magical-Medieval-Society-Western-Europe/dp/0972937609" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Magical-Medieval-Society-Western-Europe/dp/0972937609</a>)Cityscape (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cityscape-Dungeons-Dragons-Roleplaying-Supplement/dp/0786939397/" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Cityscape-Dungeons-Dragons-Roleplaying-Supplement/dp/0786939397/</a>)</blockquote>

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