D&D 5E Us Building a "Fundamentally 5E" Setting From Scratch Together

[Stormonu]

One last minor thing to add -

The "City" of Shangore - a floating, sprawling shantytown just off the main coast. Its raucous piers are littered with taverns that smell of rum and resound with sea shanties. A popular profession is that of the Pearl Divers, who dare the monster-infested depths to find pearls or other treasures that line the shipwreck-laden sea floor. The lords of the city is a college of Bards whom are rarely seen but quite effective in keeping the city from devolving into pure chaos.

(Other cities/areas could be centered on a particular class or classes....)

 

[CreamCloud0]

In peoples dreams exists the “round man”. A short human looking fellow with a large round face. Always dressed for high fashion.

He never speaks, but has appeared in the dreams of every person in the world at one point or another. Even planar travelers report dreaming of him when they visit the world, but never when they leave.

There are various cults and religious beliefs that think the round man is a portent or a divine messenger…and of course there is always the random person that has decried “the round man actually spoke to me in my dream”.

These claims are mostly dismissed, and most people in the world find the round man a simple harmless curiosity, a conversation for dinner parties

sir topham hatt/the fat controller??? (though he does speak i suppose)

 

[Oofta]

Yeah, I'd prefer something like this too. I love the idea of this project, but one post in, the setting became post-apocalyptic, which is my least favorite genre of fantasy.

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade, just offering the minority opinion.

To me there's a difference between post-apocalypse but rebuilding with hope for the future and post-apocalypse dark sun where everything is slowly dying and you know that inevitably everything is dead and desolate.

 

[jayoungr]

To me there's a difference between post-apocalypse but rebuilding with hope for the future and post-apocalypse dark sun where everything is slowly dying and you know that inevitably everything is dead and desolate.

There is, but even "post-apocalypse but rebuilding with hope for the future" is low on my list of things I want to play. Just personal preference.

 

[Oofta]

There is, but even "post-apocalypse but rebuilding with hope for the future" is low on my list of things I want to play. Just personal preference.

I think they can make for fun campaign settings, but as others pointed out it depends on how long ago the apocalypse was. All those ancient, long forgotten dungeons have to come from somewhere.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I think they can make for fun campaign settings, but as others pointed out it depends on how long ago the apocalypse was. All those ancient, long forgotten dungeons have to come from somewhere.

The gods put them there as a joke to trick mortals into thinking there were precursors.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, what do you got? What element would you add to this Fundamentally 5E setting?

A place for every PHB class and race to call home, even if said home is, let's say, in desperate need of adventurers. Ideally, each home would encompass various D&D archetypes for each over the years.

So the halfling lands would include landed gentry living literally in the hills, but would also include river-traveling halflings of a different socio-economic class.

And to cut against the "these people don't want to adventure; therefore none of them should ever be adventurers," there would be a cultural tradition analogous to rumspringa or walkabout, where young halflings are expected to travel and see the world before settling down and becoming fat and happy fantasy suburbanites. The PC adventuring class are either young halflings on their journey or adults who never decided to go home.

 

[Tonguez]

The Monastery of the Vigil sits at the top of the Shankari Plateau, a wind-polished bastion of marble and obsidian where the hero Azami Shah first sought to complete the Kshatriya’s Vigil - "A sword must be as steady as the hand that wields it, a hand must be as steady as the mind that guides it, and a mind must be as steady as the soul that sustains it ."
The sound of training rings through the courtyards—steel upon steel, the deep intonations of warriors reciting oaths, pilgrims reading mantras embroidered upon golden banners, and the quiet murmur of scholars meditating beneath the Celestial Dome.

Once a warrior and heir to the Empire of Shanakra, Azami Shah saw it all torn away by chaos and the death of his family and most importantly his daughter Shazadi. Returning from the War of the Nine Shards Azami Shah built the Monastery as a place of stillness in the maelstrom, a place where others could join the Kshatriya’s Vigil as protectors of the innocent and keepers of the lost.

To such a place came pilgrims seeking refuge, warriors seeking a cause, mystics and sages seeking enlightenment and merchants seeking wealth. Jahanara came too, the Dragonborn bard saw opportunity to shape not only a sanctuary, but a dominion. Descending down from the plateau he built the terraced courtyards of the Gilded Spires, where merchants and diplomat gather turning quiet courtyards into halls of diplomacy and intrigue, and bazaars where wealth is traded, pacts are forged, and betrayals are plotted.

 

[Azzy]

I would continue the trend of most (except Mystara) of halfling not having their own nation, but have them be nomadic pastoralists (like the Sami, Maasai, and other cultures).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would continue the trend of most (except Mystara) of halfling not having their own nation, but have them be nomadic pastoralists (like the Sami, Maasai, and other cultures).

Don't the halflings have their own nations in the Forgotten Realms and Oerth as well?