I've played and DM'd for decades now and while there are tons of things out there for inspiration, many of them don't hold up well in 5e for one reason or another. Either high-level magic makes a difficult task trivial or whatever. I've collected a few ideas that I've used in world-building to try and keep things interesting.
1) Don't let magic make everything easy. My world is usually fairly middle of the road with regard to magic. Most villages will have none, towns might have one caster, cities several, and a capital or trade center a whole bunch. Being in the hinterlands makes buying magic items more difficult to impossible depending on what the party is looking for. This means that I can tailor my encounters a bit tighter because the party can't just run to the nearest shop and load up on potions if they're way out in the middle of nowhere. Also, post-battle healing, from Resurrection to Restoration to Cure Disease or Poison can't be taken for granted. This prompts my players to think about such things more. The antidote for a rare poison can be the basis for a whole adventure.
2) Try to be consistent. Players will find it easier to believe the rules of your world if they are consistent. If you tell the players early on that there are Druids or Clerics who help a city grow food, then an enemy army trying to starve them out is in for a LONG siege. You can't suddenly say that there is hunger in the city without a good reason. This should go for the PCs as well. Your world might have many races scattered about but there might be areas where some races are frowned upon or unknown. This can make for some good RP opportunities if the local priest sees a Tiefling and mistakes it for a demon or the village children crowd around the group's Goliath because they've never seen anyone that big before. It might be fun if the party has to go into a city where the ruling lord hates Elves for some reason but you really need to get your friend to a Cleric and the two Elves have to try to hide their identities.
One of the advantages of this is the ability to drop clues to the players. Let's say that your party has gone from the first few levels into the level 8-9 range. In all this time they've never heard of anyone casting a spell above a certain power level. When they speak to people, most claim that such magic doesn't exist. Then one day, a bright bolt of light streaks into the sky, illuminating the middle of town for a few seconds before it vanishes. If your players aren't immediately interested in what just happened. check their pulses to make sure they aren't dead.
3) Almost anything can be made into a plot hook if you try. Let's say that in your world long-range teleport, even through magic, doesn't work for whatever reason. If nobody knows why, that could be a whole plot arc right there. Even if they do, clever and powerful people will try to come up with alternative forms of travel. What if your party has been hired to blaze a trail for a new coach line? Many such plot hooks can be structured to be something your party might be more interested in. If they like puzzles and investigation, then try and make those ideas available to them over the course of the game. If they like traveling about and seeing new lands, have them discover an old skyship or some sort of transport that will enable them to travel around but not break the established rules of the world.
4) Have clear expectations. This is a Communication and Session Zero kind of thing but it's still important. You and your players should have a pretty clear idea of the overall tone of the campaign before it starts. Don't hinge your whole campaign on having a 'magic school' sort of vibe and then find out your players hate that idea. The level of maturity should also be discussed as well as any boundaries the players might have.
Talk to the players about what kinds of combat they'd like to see. If they really like fighting hordes of minions, that's fine. If they'd rather get the rush of taking down big critters or bosses, that's fine too. You can, and should, mix and match to keep things fresh. Not every battle has to have an enemy caster on the other side. Something else to occasionally toss into the mix is a really good ambush. Something like this can give an enemy who might not be a challenge for the party more of an edge.
5) Don't be afraid to use tropes...but don't overuse them either. Nobody likes escort missions in video games for a reason. RPGs aren't as bad but I'm willing to bet that they still aren't popular with many parties. If this is the case with your party, throw in one to show that it doesn't have to be terrible and see what the players think. Likewise having the party captured instead of killed works but not often. Everyone wakes up tied to a post or locked in a cell and now they have to try and escape. Now take a scene like this from a film or t.v. show and do it 3-4 times. Boooooooooooring! It's fun to break out the old stand-bys once in a while but recognize that too much of anything, even a good thing, can be bad.
And remember that we're all here to have fun.
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I've played and DM'd for decades now and while there are tons of things out there for inspiration, many of them don't hold up well in 5e for one reason or another. Either high-level magic makes a difficult task trivial or whatever. I've collected a few ideas that I've used in world-building to try and keep things interesting.
1) Don't let magic make everything easy. My world is usually fairly middle of the road with regard to magic. Most villages will have none, towns might have one caster, cities several, and a capital or trade center a whole bunch. Being in the hinterlands makes buying magic items more difficult to impossible depending on what the party is looking for. This means that I can tailor my encounters a bit tighter because the party can't just run to the nearest shop and load up on potions if they're way out in the middle of nowhere. Also, post-battle healing, from Resurrection to Restoration to Cure Disease or Poison can't be taken for granted. This prompts my players to think about such things more. The antidote for a rare poison can be the basis for a whole adventure.
2) Try to be consistent. Players will find it easier to believe the rules of your world if they are consistent. If you tell the players early on that there are Druids or Clerics who help a city grow food, then an enemy army trying to starve them out is in for a LONG siege. You can't suddenly say that there is hunger in the city without a good reason. This should go for the PCs as well. Your world might have many races scattered about but there might be areas where some races are frowned upon or unknown. This can make for some good RP opportunities if the local priest sees a Tiefling and mistakes it for a demon or the village children crowd around the group's Goliath because they've never seen anyone that big before. It might be fun if the party has to go into a city where the ruling lord hates Elves for some reason but you really need to get your friend to a Cleric and the two Elves have to try to hide their identities.
One of the advantages of this is the ability to drop clues to the players. Let's say that your party has gone from the first few levels into the level 8-9 range. In all this time they've never heard of anyone casting a spell above a certain power level. When they speak to people, most claim that such magic doesn't exist. Then one day, a bright bolt of light streaks into the sky, illuminating the middle of town for a few seconds before it vanishes. If your players aren't immediately interested in what just happened. check their pulses to make sure they aren't dead.
3) Almost anything can be made into a plot hook if you try. Let's say that in your world long-range teleport, even through magic, doesn't work for whatever reason. If nobody knows why, that could be a whole plot arc right there. Even if they do, clever and powerful people will try to come up with alternative forms of travel. What if your party has been hired to blaze a trail for a new coach line? Many such plot hooks can be structured to be something your party might be more interested in. If they like puzzles and investigation, then try and make those ideas available to them over the course of the game. If they like traveling about and seeing new lands, have them discover an old skyship or some sort of transport that will enable them to travel around but not break the established rules of the world.
4) Have clear expectations. This is a Communication and Session Zero kind of thing but it's still important. You and your players should have a pretty clear idea of the overall tone of the campaign before it starts. Don't hinge your whole campaign on having a 'magic school' sort of vibe and then find out your players hate that idea. The level of maturity should also be discussed as well as any boundaries the players might have.
Talk to the players about what kinds of combat they'd like to see. If they really like fighting hordes of minions, that's fine. If they'd rather get the rush of taking down big critters or bosses, that's fine too. You can, and should, mix and match to keep things fresh. Not every battle has to have an enemy caster on the other side. Something else to occasionally toss into the mix is a really good ambush. Something like this can give an enemy who might not be a challenge for the party more of an edge.
5) Don't be afraid to use tropes...but don't overuse them either. Nobody likes escort missions in video games for a reason. RPGs aren't as bad but I'm willing to bet that they still aren't popular with many parties. If this is the case with your party, throw in one to show that it doesn't have to be terrible and see what the players think. Likewise having the party captured instead of killed works but not often. Everyone wakes up tied to a post or locked in a cell and now they have to try and escape. Now take a scene like this from a film or t.v. show and do it 3-4 times. Boooooooooooring! It's fun to break out the old stand-bys once in a while but recognize that too much of anything, even a good thing, can be bad.
And remember that we're all here to have fun.