D&D General Recommend me a somewhat contained setting

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I was just scrolling through DTRPG with some filters on and saw the old Gazateer series. I wonder of something like the Grand Duchy of Karameikos would work...

A classic choice and one of the best Mystara settings for most purposes.

 

[Reynard]

A classic choice and one of the best Mystara settings for most purposes.

Oh no! What if the usurper wizard is Bargle!

 

[Charlaquin]

I have but I also kind of want to get playing sooner rather than later.

Makes sense!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh no! What if the usurper wizard is Bargle!

Zero people would see it coming!

 

[pukunui]

@Reynard: I would like to suggest Chris Perkins' DOA Valoreign setting, but I'm struggling to find the documents online. I could send them to you via PM.

One reason I'm suggesting it is because it literally uses the map of Britain flipped around 180 degrees! Plus it's a pretty rad idea. I'm bummed he never developed it further.

Instead, I will second the vote for Nentir Vale.

 

[thullgrim]

I think you could do something with Symbaroum. Ruins of Symbaroum is native 5e. There’s a corruption mechanic you could tie to your BBEG. Plenty of factions you could attach too. Meets the size criteria.

Depending on how you envision the BBEG you might could make it work. Especially if you treat at something like a previous group of adventurers awakened something they shouldn’t have and accelerate the setting from there.

Hot Spring Island (as mentioned earlier could work).

Going smaller you might be able to do something with Dungeons of Drakkenheim. It’s heavy on factional play.

 

[thullgrim]

Earthdawn too maybe. Use or modify the Theran presence as the BBEG. Insert horrors as desired.

It’s constrained, has plenty of factions, tons of lore you could pull at, and a built in BBEG you could use or modify.

 

[CreamCloud0]

you could maybe adapt one of the various hyrules for your purposes? those usually have several settlements and a good array of geography, even if you just use it as an outline and rework the details.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Is there an actual Nentir Vale supplement/sourcebook?

Unfortunately, no. So if you don't already have the 4E products in hand, I don't know it's necessarily worth buying them just for the Nentir Vale material. But if you wanted to drop some cash to put things together, the 4E DMG has the info on the primary town in the Vale called Fallcrest... the adventure Keep On The Shadowfell has info on the village of Winterhaven, the adventure Thunderspire Labyrinth has info on the underdark areas around Thunderspire Mountain, there's source material on the dwarven village of Hammerfast, there's a few really good adventures supposedly in a couple areas of the areas in the Vale called The Madness of Gardmore Abbey, and Reavers of Harkenwold., and the monster book Threats of the Nentir Vale has additional info about the monsters, NPCs and other encounter groups in the setting. So it's all kind of spread out amongst the 4E products.

Here's a blog site that goes into a full listing and more detail about all the products you could pick up for running a Nentir Vale campaign if you were interested:

Run A Nentir Vale Campaign for 5th Edition

 

[aco175]

You could just use Sword Coast, or Neverwinter, or Phandalin depending on how big you need. Plus, there is tons of info online for all of it.