D&D 5E What would you want for a *new* 5E campaign world?

[AbdulAlhazred]

Because information technology is poor to non-existing in most fantasy settings and people would only know the direct surroundings of their village, the road to the city and stories bards tell them which are more often fabrications than the truth.
That such people have no clue about the world apart from what they deal directly with makes sense.

Right. Consider that the average 11th Century peasant never traveled more than 5 miles from home, couldn't read or write, had no contact with anyone more knowledgeable than the local priest, who could maybe read and write Latin and had access to one book, the Bible.

My conception of the way it goes is most lower-class people have no knowledge of anything outside their own area. At best they have heard rumors and old tales of various monsters and whatever. This lore is probably pretty unreliable unless said monsters are encountered now and then. Even then it might be only semi-accurate. If you are lucky enough to be gentry/knightly class then you probably STILL can't read, but will probably have traveled at least in your region, and possibly further in military service. Even so such people are generally ignorant and their education rarely encompassed any sort of education beyond what was needed to perform their social functions. Upper class nobility and such might potentially be educated, but even most Medieval kings were illiterate and had no academic education at all. There were no schools, very few books or records, and just little accurate knowledge.

Even the educated, basically priestly, class of people were appallingly ignorant in most fields of knowledge. At best they had ancient texts, often fragmentary and retranslated/recopied many times to go on, and a few, often distorted, reports from travelers to the Middle East etc.

Now project that into a D&D type world where civilized regions tend to be enclaves, all travel in the adjoining wilderness is deadly dangerous, and there are dozens of different types of monsters. A few will probably be well-known, a few less well known, and most barely rumored. As Derren says, it would be hardly surprising that people would have no clue. I thought 4e's lore was a pretty decent concept, you could make checks of different types to possibly know some key facts about a monster, but it was quite possible your character wouldn't even recognize many of them, and higher level monsters were almost always completely strange and unknown.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Right. Consider that the average 11th Century peasant never traveled more than 5 miles from home, couldn't read or write, had no contact with anyone more knowledgeable than the local priest, who could maybe read and write Latin and had access to one book, the Bible.

My conception of the way it goes is most lower-class people have no knowledge of anything outside their own area. At best they have heard rumors and old tales of various monsters and whatever. This lore is probably pretty unreliable unless said monsters are encountered now and then. Even then it might be only semi-accurate. If you are lucky enough to be gentry/knightly class then you probably STILL can't read, but will probably have traveled at least in your region, and possibly further in military service. Even so such people are generally ignorant and their education rarely encompassed any sort of education beyond what was needed to perform their social functions. Upper class nobility and such might potentially be educated, but even most Medieval kings were illiterate and had no academic education at all. There were no schools, very few books or records, and just little accurate knowledge.

Even the educated, basically priestly, class of people were appallingly ignorant in most fields of knowledge. At best they had ancient texts, often fragmentary and retranslated/recopied many times to go on, and a few, often distorted, reports from travelers to the Middle East etc.

Now project that into a D&D type world where civilized regions tend to be enclaves, all travel in the adjoining wilderness is deadly dangerous, and there are dozens of different types of monsters. A few will probably be well-known, a few less well known, and most barely rumored. As Derren says, it would be hardly surprising that people would have no clue. I thought 4e's lore was a pretty decent concept, you could make checks of different types to possibly know some key facts about a monster, but it was quite possible your character wouldn't even recognize many of them, and higher level monsters were almost always completely strange and unknown.

While that is all worth considering, most of the midieval monsters were either far away or pretty much extinct. Those that weren't were well known indeed. (Wolves and such.) As the typical D&D world has a fair variety of monsters living near to the sorts of places that Adventurers come from, or start their careers at, I say that their knowledge of monsters should be much greater than D&D has usually allowed it to be. All IMO and YMMV, of course.

 

[Derren]

While that is all worth considering, most of the midieval monsters were either far away or pretty much extinct. Those that weren't were well known indeed. (Wolves and such.) As the typical D&D world has a fair variety of monsters living near to the sorts of places that Adventurers come from, or start their careers at, I say that their knowledge of monsters should be much greater than D&D has usually allowed it to be. All IMO and YMMV, of course.

For monsters which live directly near the town, yes. Wandering adventurers would probably even know most common monsters in the region. But monsters on the other side of the country or even continent or plane? Rumors and fairy tales at best.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

For monsters which live directly near the town, yes. Wandering adventurers would probably even know most common monsters in the region. But monsters on the other side of the country or even continent or plane? Rumors and fairy tales at best.

Yeah, and as much as I think a lot of the D&D classic menagerie is clever and fun they're also a bit well-known. I really wouldn't mind a setting which takes a bit of a different spin on monsters. Maybe they're less naturalistic and more a product of fear and imagination made real. Much the way worship is the power source of the gods so dreams and stories are the meat and drink of monsters. Some arise out of our fears, and others out of hopes. Ancient magic brought them forth and no matter how many you kill, eventually more will take their places (queue rumors and legends about how to escape this dilemma).

 

[Pour]

Yeah, and as much as I think a lot of the D&D classic menagerie is clever and fun they're also a bit well-known. I really wouldn't mind a setting which takes a bit of a different spin on monsters. Maybe they're less naturalistic and more a product of fear and imagination made real. Much the way worship is the power source of the gods so dreams and stories are the meat and drink of monsters. Some arise out of our fears, and others out of hopes. Ancient magic brought them forth and no matter how many you kill, eventually more will take their places (queue rumors and legends about how to escape this dilemma).

I think turning the D&Disms on their head in this manner is a ripe avenue for alternate settings. Not unlike Perkin's new Valoreign with its monotheistic religion, which has some pretty huge implications for a party and a world, I believe there is plenty of design space left changing the assumptions of monsters, magic, the planes, death, wealth, etc.

I'd even go so far as saying it's time for some new iconic monsters. Every edition has a few, but I know personally I am craving something weird, original, and previously unseen. I mean wasn't that a huge part of the charm of the original game? I hate admitting that mindflayers and beholders feel a little old hat.

 

[Lwaxy]

Yeah, something totally new (or at least not completely chewed through) would be cool.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think turning the D&Disms on their head in this manner is a ripe avenue for alternate settings. Not unlike Perkin's new Valoreign with its monotheistic religion, which has some pretty huge implications for a party and a world, I believe there is plenty of design space left changing the assumptions of monsters, magic, the planes, death, wealth, etc.

I'd even go so far as saying it's time for some new iconic monsters. Every edition has a few, but I know personally I am craving something weird, original, and previously unseen. I mean wasn't that a huge part of the charm of the original game? I hate admitting that mindflayers and beholders feel a little old hat.

Yeah, though its hard to imagine really iconic monsters that are really different from stuff that is already around.

 

[Gilladian]

going back to the old folklore and starting over can work. For example, I'm not using goblins or kobolds in my newest campaign world. instead I'm using "Knockers" which live in the dark corners of cellars, in mines and caves and other secret places. If present in small numbers, they can be propitiated with milk and bread or honey, but when larger numbers come, or they feel threatened, these shadowy forms, which can slip anywhere the moment your back is turned, will turn nasty. Traps, throttling, "accidents" and such are their modus operandi. The most you ever see of them is a gleam of an eye, a claw, or a footprint, a tapping sound in the dark, etc...

You could walk through a whole dungeon and never see one, never lay hand on one, but they could cause the deaths of a dozen PCs...

Then again, I play E6 DnD, and am about to try running a campaign of DungeonWorld. Full out mega-dnd might not work with these critters. We'll see what happens...

 

[Derren]

Yeah, something totally new (or at least not completely chewed through) would be cool.

Considering the experience WotC had with "something totally new" (Eberron and 4E) I don't think that will happen.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I'm coming into this thread 108 posts into it and I have not read about 99 of the posts so far.

I really hope that if they make a new gaming world it is a generic and basic world that is easy to add in any type of campaign you want - low magic, high magic, several exotic races, standard 1E races, etc. That way, if you've had a long-running campaign, you can you easily keep it going in this world.

What I don't want is a default to one type of world, or a world that is heavily themed one way or another, or a world without standard D&D races (this world has no elves and dwarves, but has four exotic races you've never heard of before...)