D&D 5E (2014) The Un-Setting: the Default Core World in 5e

[Yora]

Make up your own setting is easy for experienced players and GMs, but very difficult for beginners. And it's a lot easier for experts to ignore optional content than for beginners not having that optional content.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Make up your own setting is easy for experienced players and GMs, but very difficult for beginners. And it's a lot easier for experts to ignore optional content than for beginners not having that optional content.

Nah, my view is different. It may be hard for a beginner to write a whole campaign setting book from the start. But it won't be hard if this is the final "20th-level DM" accomplishment laid out in the DMG, which began with the first step of naming your own Core world yourself.

I'm shocked and saddened that people have such a dim view of beginning Dungeon Masters.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I want to like this idea, I really do. But I don't see who it could be aimed at.

Beginning DMs probably should be focusing on learning how to DM. These folks are best served by premade settings.

Experienced DMs don't need the type of help listed. Anyone playing for more than a month can make up names off the top of his head.

What I would like would be more of an "advanced" campaign creation book. Things like

• A guide to creating realistic terrain written by for-real geologists.
• Articles on what to include in an area's ecosystem written by RW biologists.
• A list of 1000 detailed political plots written by someone with a PhD in political science.
• A guide to making up realistic sounding languages from a linguist.
• A guide to making up societies by sociologists.

None of these are really necessary of course, but I could see them adding verisimilitude to the campaign setting and sparking fun ideas I wouldn't come up with on my own.

 

[airwalkrr]

I'm shocked and saddened that people have such a dim view of beginning Dungeon Masters.

Maybe it is because most of us veteran DMs remember that even in our first campaign, we, too, struggled with a lot of things, and having a ready-made setting is one less thing to worry about. Dungeon-Mastering is a skill. It is something that takes work to be good at. It is something that you are constantly learning and getting better at. And it is far better to master that skill by first learning how to manage the table and ensure everyone is having a good time than to spend many hours developing a world that you do not have the skill to properly convey to your players.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

What about if it were an explicit practice in 5e core books and adventures, for all the proper names to be customized by each DM?

There'd be a little chart in the appendix giving alternate names or syllables for each proper name--place name, major NPC name, and deity name.

These could be flagged by enclosing the proper names in a box.

For example, for a 5e Temple of Elemental Evil the name "Hommlet" would always have a box around it. There'd be note in the beginning of the adventure, saying that the DM is supposed to pick their own name for the town and other proper names.

A small chart in the back of the book would give suggested alternate names for Hommlet. There'd even be the option of randomly rolling the name by using the table of village name syllables which are phonaesthetically similar to "Hommlet": "Gommville", "Kommstead", "Ommbury", etc.

That way, the 5e generation of players will still share a common experience of having played through the iconic adventures, while at the same time, more vigorously supporting a culture of kit-bashing and homebrewing.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Likewise, the DMG would give examples of many D&D deities, especially from Greyhawk and Nerath. But for each deity, the name would be surrounded by a box, and there'd be a chart in that section giving alternate names. (including a random d% option)

For example, in different homebrew campaigns, 5e Raven Queen would have a different name:

Select or randomly roll the name of this Deity for your campaign world.
d10
1 Gorcrow Woman
2 The Nameless Queen
3 Madame Corbeau
4 Lady Winterdeath
5 Mistress Mortus
6 The Sorrowqueen
7 The Cloaked Lady
8 Coraxia
9 Shadoweeper
10 Rabenfrau

Or other name which evokes her portfolio of Death, Fate, and Winter

 

[GreyICE]

Having worked with a Nentir Vale campaign, this can be frustrating to no end.

First, this is 4E. The world of "yes." You give me your damn backstory. All the towns you mention, all the people, all the events, they ACTUALLY OCCURRED IN THE HISTORY OF MY WORLD. Got it?

Yet still people come to me asking questions. "What is a good local town that is near the water?" I don't know. Make one up. "Can I know the local king?" I don't care. Be his daughter. "What's a big battle I could have been in?" Be creative. If you say the elves fought the humans 10 years ago, maybe they did, and there's now an unstable peace that you will have a part in maintaining/breaking.

I swear that some people can't write a backstory without all the props that go into a standard campaign setting.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

First, this is 4E. The world of "yes." You give me your damn backstory. All the towns you mention, all the people, all the events, they ACTUALLY OCCURRED IN THE HISTORY OF MY WORLD. Got it?

This is genius...I'm advocating that this method of "co-design the world as you go" be the default Core 5e method for world design. Even Nerath had a world map, where all the Core iconic dungeons were placed. This is still a lot of backstory.

In 5e, each DM would be expected and guided to make their own world map, and name their own world: Nearth, Merath, Naerth, Myarth, Ourth, etc. That would be the Core Setting...the Un-Setting.

 

[Greg K]

A co-create or make it up as you go is not a game that I would play in. If the DM can't be bothered to create a map, create deities, create cultures for the setting, etc., I can't be bothered to take part in the game that they are running.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

A co-create or make it up as you go is not a game that I would play in. If the DM can't be bothered to create a map, create deities, create cultures for the setting, etc., I can't be bothered to take part in the game that they are running.

While co-creation is a more radical concept, "making it up as you go" is the method that Gygax and Arneson used to make Greyhawk and Blackmoor.