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

[Hussar]

I like this, but it is hard to do in the current rules as a settimg that is defined by those rules.

Take Rome. If everyday Romans ar3 supposed to be playable, you cannot be restricted to that map. Many Romans come from further afield. If the people in the port should be understandable much less playable, the world needs more than southern Europe and SWANA region.

Truth is, unless ypu go way out of your way to close the known world in or go way back to the dawn of civilization, the known world has never been that small.

Well, kinda/sorta. Most Romans didn't come from further afield. But, that's not really the point.

In a setting that large - say a very large island about 1000 miles in diameter (that's damn near a continent really), you have MORE than enough space to plonk down all 11 races, have enough biomes to handle pretty much any critter save the really extreme ones and more than enough space to have all sorts of communities.

I mean, just think of it in real world terms. How many different cultures would you find in that circle I defined? If we replace cultures with species, (not as analogues, just saying that where the Celts lived, now dwarves live in that region, where the Gauls lived, that's elves, where the Goths hung out, that's where you find the human nations, etc) you have more than enough geography.

I mean, good grief, Middle Earth is about that size. And we have, what, a half dozen different intelligent species? Elf, man, dwarf, hobbit, orc, goblin, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. If it's good enough for Tolkien, it's probably good enough for D&D. Doing a bit of Googling, and the Shire to Minas Tirith is the same distance as Oxford to Venice. So, yeah, that's LOTS of geography.