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

[CAFRedblade]

Had a little trouble yesterday when I wanted to post this, hopefully it goes through now.

Rules, Tools, advice and guidelines on how to build your own World to your preference. (preferably in the DM Guide, Similar/improved over the 2ed World Builders book)

Although, as noted above, there are several worlds that speak to certain themes/styles of gameplay.

FR is 'normal heroic' fantasy, I think so is Greyhawk, but I've never played in it directly.
Ravenloft is horror, Eberron is Pulp Heroic (with Magi-tech stylings)
Dragonlance is closer to 'High' fantasy than 'normal' I believe.
Planescape is World-hopping, beyond the norm Fantasy.

I'm not familiar with Mystara or Blackmoor other than in name, but I think they edge closer to Normal Heroic Fantasy.

The question is then, what styles of Gameworlds do we need?
Conan, Hawk the Slayer, DragonSlayer style?

I wouldn't mind creating something in the vein of the early books of Raymond E Feist's Midkemia.

Iomandra, merged with the known lands from 4th ed might make for an interesting world. Different parts of the same world.
Or... Different worlds(moons) orbiting the same Super Giant planet, 3 to 5 moons, each with differing cultures, races, continents.
Same Gods (perhaps with differing names) .. hmm I need to copy this for my notes..

 

[Celebrim]

I wouldn't mind creating something in the vein of the early books of Raymond E Feist's Midkemia.

Which interestingly enough started out as a D&D campaign influenced by Tekumel - The Empire of the Petal Throne, TSR's first published setting.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Hmmmmmmmmmm, I dunno. I think a lot of the tropes that are attached to D&D are getting in the way of more creative world building at this point. Still, for a long-running fantasy game where you can play a wide variety of archetypes you kind of need an at least vaguely D&D-esque concept of magic, etc.

I could imagine some cool concepts though that would take those aspects and twist them around. Here's one for instance. A Medieval type of world where magic has been unknown for 1000's of years. Half-forgotten crumbling texts of ancient lore hint at a different age. One where magic ruled and non-human races were more than legends of distant times and places. Once the gods meddled in mortal affairs and their servants wielded mighty powers, heroes and demigods walked the Earth too. Perhaps such a time is coming round again, or perhaps the return of magic to the world is simply a harbinger of the end of times, might the gods return be imminent also? Who knows...

Or how about: You are the First Children of the immortal gods. It is the Time of Legends, will you be remembered by all who come after you, or will you find an early grave?

Or, the world has ALWAYS existed. In each cycle one or more different races hold sway, and their gods wax powerful, but if you look beneath the foundations of your cities, or in out of the way places, you will find the remains of earlier civilizations and empires. This could also be combined with a frontier/exploration type of setup, say with a whole continent to explore. Other areas of the world could be remnants of older worlds, etc.

Obviously combine with other genre ideas, etc. I don't really like the "different just to be different", but there's a VAST array of types of world that are beyond anything D&D has been used for. Some of them are going to rely less on existing material than others, but I think any of the ideas I've suggested would work fine with the existing D&D bestiary and class lineup.

 

[Herobizkit]

Bring back Mystara as presented in the old Gazeteers. This would please me greatly.

 

[WhatGravitas]

One that embraces the fact that it's fantasy. No weird real culture analogues, no planets whatsoever, one with mythic world building elements - where the sun and the moon aren't just celestial bodies, but in fact mythical things. Something that makes you go "I never thought of that in that way" when you encounter it first.

 

[Kalontas]

Or how about: You are the First Children of the immortal gods. It is the Time of Legends, will you be remembered by all who come after you, or will you find an early grave?

That is a very good premise that is surprisingly rarely used (correctly). The whole "you make the myths people will believe in the future" is a strong trope, and putting the setting in this ancient era lets you do some really weird and unusual stuff. Probably drop an ominous prophecy that the world is gonna turn more bland with time (resetting back to boring old humans and orcs), but just the fact you're all the way back there in time, you can have everything and anything INCLUDING anachronistic technology - because how many time do we hear Atlantis was supposed to have some kind of ancient computers?

 

[Gilladian]

The problem with a young world or "we are first" trope is that there are many fewer adventures. No dungeons, no ruins, no ancient rivalries or enmities. And in politics, how can you have a war over resources when one group can simply go elsewhere and find a new place?

 

[Ryujin]

I really wouldn't mind seeing a relaunch of Greyhawk. Something familiar in which magic exists, but in which it's special and not overly pervasive. You don't walk into a local magic shop and walk out with a bag full of 12th level items. My favourite campaign was a pseudo-political intrigue setup that I based in Greyhawk, back in the 1e days.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I really wouldn't mind seeing a relaunch of Greyhawk. Something familiar in which magic exists, but in which it's special and not overly pervasive. You don't walk into a local magic shop and walk out with a bag full of 12th level items. My favourite campaign was a pseudo-political intrigue setup that I based in Greyhawk, back in the 1e days.

I don't think Greyhawk was meant to be totally Monty Haul magic shops all over etc. I think Gary would have laughed at the idea of a 'magic shop' that sold items, though he might well have had something like that as a joke. I don't get the impression his game was terribly serious, even though the setting he published has a fair amount of depth and reasonable coherency.

Anyway WoG is a decent setting. Kinda overlaps a LOT with FR, but they both have their fans.

The problem with a young world or "we are first" trope is that there are many fewer adventures. No dungeons, no ruins, no ancient rivalries or enmities. And in politics, how can you have a war over resources when one group can simply go elsewhere and find a new place?

Ehhhhhh, well, who says the world is ACTUALLY young? Anyway, there could still be some remnants left over from the 'god war', etc. It is a bit different setting though. Still, you can't have both 'different' and 'all the standard tropes' in the same bite. You can CREATE the rivalries and enmities, ruins, etc as you adventure. It may be there's open space to go settle, but people still find reasons to fight. Bad guys can come after you, there can be monsters etc galore, etc etc etc. Besides, it has dinosaurs, lots and lots of dinosaurs, clearly this is the best setting idea ever!

 

[Ryujin]

I don't think Greyhawk was meant to be totally Monty Haul magic shops all over etc. I think Gary would have laughed at the idea of a 'magic shop' that sold items, though he might well have had something like that as a joke. I don't get the impression his game was terribly serious, even though the setting he published has a fair amount of depth and reasonable coherency.

Anyway WoG is a decent setting. Kinda overlaps a LOT with FR, but they both have their fans.

Actually I wasn't saying that WoG was a "Monty Hall" style world at all. Quite the opposite. My own character, a topped-out 1/2 Elf Fighter/MU, was more than happy to find a +1 two-handed sword, because it was rare enough that no one else had one. Not PC. Not NPC, that he ever met.