I've been working for awhile (it's slow going, I have three kids, one of whom is an infant) on a homebrew setting intended not just for personal usage, but potentially publication. But when doing anything creative, it's easy to get tunnel vision and focus on what's immediately in front of you and miss big chunks of what should be "obvious" material. I have plans for races and subclasses and feats (even at least one feat tree), as well as loads of lore and maps and other art.
But what I'm wanting is a list of major points to hit to make it appealing for other people to use. Do you want unique mechanics like Ravnica's Guilds or Van Richten's dark gifts? Do you look primarily for a unique thematic "spin?" Are you looking for production value? Are you looking for a comprehensive overview? Where do you want things to be detailed, and where do you want them to be vague? Do you want a substantial pre-written adventure tied to that world for a better idea of how it should work?
I'm basically trying to farm opinions and see what I need to add to my roadmap. I want to cover as much as I can. Though it may take years, I want to go big and produce something worthwhile and appealing.
I like distinct and interesting cultures. I also like maybe 1 new and interesting mechanic that is emblematic of the particular setting, but that can also be generalized to any other setting. I really really liked how Van Richten's overview was also an overview for how to run horror, so I think a guide to how to run a particular genre safely, sanely, and consensually would be very neat. Van Richten's is a very high bar, I will admit.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
This is maybe the thing I feel like I have the most locked in right now, so that's a good sign.
I also like maybe 1 new and interesting mechanic that is emblematic of the particular setting, but that can also be generalized to any other setting.
Would something like a feat tree qualify, or would you be looking for more like Van Richten's Dark Gifts?
I really really liked how Van Richten's overview was also an overview for how to run horror, so I think a guide to how to run a particular genre safely, sanely, and consensually would be very neat.
That's a good take. I've got a few directions I could go in with that, but it might be best to pick one that doesn't already have an official book filling that niche. Aside from horror, what other genres would you say official settings cover pretty well? I'm looking more to rule out existing ones before I narrow my focus.
As someone who exclusively DMs in homebrew worlds, the following items in a book interest me:
1. Some kind of unique mechanic that I can transfer into my homebrew world. Faerzress, from Out of the Abyss, for example, is fun little environmental effect I can easily slide into any homebrew campaign.
2. Interesting and unique monsters, ideally with great art I can show my players to help them with visualising the encounter. Ideally these are creatures that fill some kind of gap for some kind of existing monster type, CR level, environment, cultural inspiration, or some combination thereof.
3. New character options unique to that world that I can put in my homebrew world - mainly races and subclasses, though reskinning some world-specific backgrounds can be fun as well.
I also like maybe 1 new and interesting mechanic that is emblematic of the particular setting, but that can also be generalized to any other setting.
Would something like a feat tree qualify, or would you be looking for more like Van Richten's Dark Gifts?
I say only 1 mechanic because I dislike having too many new subsystems, it feels like system bloat. One Feat tree by itself wouldn't register as too much, though. I was thinking some sort of mechanic that would do something like flesh out one of the other two Pillars to help bring them up to the level of interesting complexity of Combat.
I really really liked how Van Richten's overview was also an overview for how to run horror, so I think a guide to how to run a particular genre safely, sanely, and consensually would be very neat.
That's a good take. I've got a few directions I could go in with that, but it might be best to pick one that doesn't already have an official book filling that niche. Aside from horror, what other genres would you say official settings cover pretty well? I'm looking more to rule out existing ones before I narrow my focus.
The default game covers Adventure, Mid to High Fantasy, Steampunk via Eberron, YA Magical School via Strixhaven and that would be about it I think. There's so many other genres that could be given guidelines: Mystery, Romance, Modern Fantasy, etc.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
As someone who exclusively DMs in homebrew worlds, the following items in a book interest me:
1. Some kind of unique mechanic that I can transfer into my homebrew world. Faerzress, from Out of the Abyss, for example, is fun little environmental effect I can easily slide into any homebrew campaign.
I do have some ideas for environmental stuff, but a lot of that might be covered by "supernatural regions" in Tasha, so I'll need to look hard at making them stand out, maybe have something else along different lines.
2. Interesting and unique monsters, ideally with great art I can show my players to help them with visualising the encounter. Ideally these are creatures that fill some kind of gap for some kind of existing monster type, CR level, environment, cultural inspiration, or some combination thereof.
This is a real weak point for me. I have a hard time with creature stat blocks. I have a handful planned but will need to devote some time and brainspace to more.
3. New character options unique to that world that I can put in my homebrew world - mainly races and subclasses, though reskinning some world-specific backgrounds can be fun as well.
Those I've got covered. Six races and one sub for each class. That's where most of my homebrew experience/skill/talent lies so that's where I focused first. Backgrounds are definitely happen too.
I also like maybe 1 new and interesting mechanic that is emblematic of the particular setting, but that can also be generalized to any other setting.
Would something like a feat tree qualify, or would you be looking for more like Van Richten's Dark Gifts?
I say only 1 mechanic because I dislike having too many new subsystems, it feels like system bloat. One Feat tree by itself wouldn't register as too much, though. I was thinking some sort of mechanic that would do something like flesh out one of the other two Pillars to help bring them up to the level of interesting complexity of Combat.
Ooooh, see that's a good point. Some heavily non-combat stuff, whether social or exploration.
I really really liked how Van Richten's overview was also an overview for how to run horror, so I think a guide to how to run a particular genre safely, sanely, and consensually would be very neat.
That's a good take. I've got a few directions I could go in with that, but it might be best to pick one that doesn't already have an official book filling that niche. Aside from horror, what other genres would you say official settings cover pretty well? I'm looking more to rule out existing ones before I narrow my focus.
The default game covers Adventure, Mid to High Fantasy, Steampunk via Eberron, YA Magical School via Strixhaven and that would be about it I think. There's so many other genres that could be given guidelines: Mystery, Romance, Modern Fantasy, etc.
How would you feel about maybe some...espionage stuff? I don't feel comfortable with romance, and haven't run many mysteries (plus, Eberron is meant to cover a bit of a "noir" niche, as well) so it'd be awkward for me to build around them. What I've got so far has a decent amount of focus on international politics and some espionage. The world is sort of the reverse of Eberron, in that instead of being just after a war, its set up to be on the brink of war. All the principal nations and factions are basically on the verge and any one could easily declare war on another.
How would you feel about maybe some...espionage stuff? I don't feel comfortable with romance, and haven't run many mysteries (plus, Eberron is meant to cover a bit of a "noir" niche, as well) so it'd be awkward for me to build around them. What I've got so far has a decent amount of focus on international politics and some espionage. The world is sort of the reverse of Eberron, in that instead of being just after a war, its set up to be on the brink of war. All the principal nations and factions are basically on the verge and any one could easily declare war on another.
I think that sounds great! International politics and espionage isn't something the default game covers and if you can do it well I think it would be a great supplement. Perhaps something to more easily visualize and organize the delicate web of relationships, motivations, and triggered reactions would be a good mechanical subsystem to add for something like this.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I don't necessarily need new races (whatever you do, please, no more elves), but new takes on existing races (Dark Sun's halfling cannibals are the first thing that comes to mind) that reflect the niche they've made for themselves in this world are great.
I do like to see a background or two that might reflect something unique about the setting.
It would be kind of neat to see a setting that didn't feature two large nations on the brink of war, because that always seems to happen. I get that builds in a level of tension and provides lots of potential adventure hooks, it's just been done to death.
And I don't know if this is a like-to-see as much as my own 2 cents. Food. Few things distinguish different cultures, and regions within a given culture, as much as food. Consider what kinds of things an area has a lot of, and therefore what they might eat a lot of. It's just a nice bit of (no pun intended) flavor that so often gets left out of world building.
It needs to have enough lore and history to get people interested but with unresolved conflicts and blank spaces for people to run their games in.
This is key for me as a DM and a player. Something I really liked as a player are those settings where a heavy lore moment occurred in the immediate recent past that changed the status quo of the world (like Eberron). The aftermaths of wars/assassinations etc, offer plenty of great material for DMs to create campaigns/players to create backstory.
What I look for first is usually a clear idea of what kind of style, theme, and tone for campaigns this setting supports and suggests. I don’t want it to be too restrictive, of course, but I don’t want to be reading paragraphs of trade records or government offices while thinking “yes but what are the stories in this world about?”
Also, a matter of lesser importance but still worth saying, I think too many of the official setting books focus almost exclusively on the capitals and major cities that I feel like I have no idea what life is like for anyone else. If the setting is premodern, most people are living in small settlements unless agriculture is done my magic or something (not that that couldn’t make a neat premise, mind). Now obviously they shouldn’t detail every village, but they at least should have a general overview of rural life in that setting. Besides, abandoned, ruined, or haunted villages can make for good adventuring sites.
Finally, something that some settings do better than others, is showing how the fantastical things interact with the people’s lives. Are there local spellcasters? If so, what do they do? What problems to people come to them with? I prefer seeing answers to those kinds of questions.
(Note that I tried to limit myself to “objective-ish” considerations. A setting can clearly demonstrate what it’s about, which I’d appreciate but still might decide it’s not for me.)
It would be kind of neat to see a setting that didn't feature two large nations on the brink of war, because that always seems to happen. I get that builds in a level of tension and provides lots of potential adventure hooks, it's just been done to death.
How would you feel about half a dozen nations on the brink of a World War and with shifting alliances that could mean a number of different sides and configurations to the war depending how the politics shake out?
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
It would be kind of neat to see a setting that didn't feature two large nations on the brink of war, because that always seems to happen. I get that builds in a level of tension and provides lots of potential adventure hooks, it's just been done to death.
How would you feel about half a dozen nations on the brink of a World War and with shifting alliances that could mean a number of different sides and configurations to the war depending how the politics shake out?
I mean, I'd have to see the details.
It just feels like every setting has: big country X and big country Y have hated each other for centuries, and now it seems like these tensions are finally about to boil over. I realize that wars have been part of D&D since the beginning, it is a game with its roots in fighting, after all. But it seems like that ground has already been tread a lot. And I also realize that saying, everyone likes everyone else doesn't exactly create the kind of tension that can lead to a good story. It's more like, sure, let X and Y hate each other, but not be about to fight. That's one of the things I like about Eberron. the war just ended, and now how does the world deal with the fallout is more interesting to me.
Of course, I'm not going to pretend that I have my finger on the pulse of D&D players in general. Probably lots and lots of people like the brink of war thing.
It would be kind of neat to see a setting that didn't feature two large nations on the brink of war, because that always seems to happen. I get that builds in a level of tension and provides lots of potential adventure hooks, it's just been done to death.
How would you feel about half a dozen nations on the brink of a World War and with shifting alliances that could mean a number of different sides and configurations to the war depending how the politics shake out?
Interestingly, this is much closer to what I've got cooking.
I don't necessarily need new races (whatever you do, please, no more elves), but new takes on existing races (Dark Sun's halfling cannibals are the first thing that comes to mind) that reflect the niche they've made for themselves in this world are great.
I can tell you right now, I've written six races, and not a one of them is an elf. Currently, they're the only six races in or native to the setting, but I'm considering either adding an in-lore reason for non-native races to be there, or pitching exclusivity entirely. I'm not yet decided on any of those courses, though.
I do like to see a background or two that might reflect something unique about the setting.
Backgrounds are definitely on my to-do list, more than likely 1-2 per original race for around a dozen. I'm also basically deciding on what Strixhaven and all recent UAs have done, and including a feat or short list of feats to attach to those backgrounds.
It would be kind of neat to see a setting that didn't feature two large nations on the brink of war, because that always seems to happen. I get that builds in a level of tension and provides lots of potential adventure hooks, it's just been done to death.
What I've got currently is basically a world on the brink of being truly "global" for the first time. There are six races that have had mild intermingling beforehand, but due to advancements in shipwright technology and a big expansion of magic, are now interacting on a near-daily basis in a way they never have before. They all have tentative alliances and rivalries and relationships, and everything is mostly functional and there's no big grudges, but diplomatic issues or a social imbalance of some kind could tip any one nation into making moves against another, or backing one nation/race* against another depending on those moves.
So it's not a sort of "Hatfields and McCoys but whole countries" situations. More just a generally uncertain global situation for a world that's never had to contemplate truly global politics before, only relations with immediate neighbors. A lot of my thinking came from a general irritation with the widely overused trope of "HEY THERE WAS A SUPER BADASS AND ADVANCED SUPER AWESOME SUPER-NATION A JILLION YEARS AGO THAT WAS SO AWESOME STUFF THEY DID STILL AFFECTS US EVERY DAY AND NOTHING IS MORE VALUABLE THAN THEIR GARBAGE" that you get in a majority of fantasy fiction, including both Middle-Earth and the Forgotten Realms, and a few other things, like Dragon Age.
I want to see those super-nations form, I want to be there during the high times when they're on the rise and on the cusp of doing great things. I want to play a part in deciding which of these nations or cultures ends up being the Numenor or the Netheril or the Elvhenan that future generations build themselves atop. So the general idea is that the setting is largely just sort of barely post-neolithic, while also being kind of age of sail, and because it's largely isolated nations and peoples coming together for the first time, it's going to be somewhat volatile. And while there won't be many ancient tombs to plunder, there will be dungeons and tombs that are brand new, and you can do a heist where you're breaking into a brand-new mausoleum with fully-functional traps that's also got active guards and things. I just get really tired of being told how great these ancient empires were and never getting to play with them. I'm also doubly tired of the idea that "older automatically means better."
There's a lot going into this philosophically, and a lot of it is borne of being tired of seeing the same stuff over and over and over.
*nations and races won't be intrinsically tied, but given they developed in relative geographic isolation, each nation or faction will be mostly one race or another, though you could easily be a character of one race raised in another's "traditional" home nation, it would just be uncommon
And I don't know if this is a like-to-see as much as my own 2 cents. Food. Few things distinguish different cultures, and regions within a given culture, as much as food. Consider what kinds of things an area has a lot of, and therefore what they might eat a lot of. It's just a nice bit of (no pun intended) flavor that so often gets left out of world building.
This is an awesome point, one I hadn't thought of, and holy crap I'm now very committed to centering it in cultural lore stuff. One of the races is heavy into fishing, so I did have that note on one of them, but I intend to spread it out and put more into the other races now. Really grateful for this one.
It needs to have enough lore and history to get people interested but with unresolved conflicts and blank spaces for people to run their games in.
This is key for me as a DM and a player. Something I really liked as a player are those settings where a heavy lore moment occurred in the immediate recent past that changed the status quo of the world (like Eberron). The aftermaths of wars/assassinations etc, offer plenty of great material for DMs to create campaigns/players to create backstory.
I do have one or two heavy world-changing lore moments in the recent past (1-5), but none of them are wars. As I mention in above comment, a war is a thing that could happen depending on several factors, but I do think I'm covering some of what you're talking about, though not in the specifics.
I've tried to collate a list or outline of what I've culled from this thread, if anyone wants to correct how I've noted it, let me know if I missed the intent, left anything out, or spun it incorrectly, that'd be appreciated:
Distinct and interesting cultures
Clear genre/theme to the world (high fantasy/steampunk/noir/horror/etc)
Lore/history for players/DMs to get invested in
Clear gaps where home table adventures can occur
FOOD
Heavy lore stuff in recent past (dealing with aftermath/fallout)
Clear idea of style/theme/tone for campains in world
Some focus smaller cities/towns/rural areas, and lives of everyday people
New DM-facing mechanics relatedto setting
Don't over do it, more than 1-2 can feel bloated
Unique monsters
Accentuate a noncombat pillar (social/exploration)
Transplantable to DM's home game/homebrew setting
Player options
Races
Classes/subclasses
Feats
Backgrounds
Informed by setting, but transplanatable
Any additions are also welcome. Just trying to ensure I cover as many bases as possible. It's likely a years-long project regardless, but I want to do it right. Can't guarantee it'll be to everyone's tastes, but I'd like to be certain that at least I'm not ignoring major chunks of what makes both a world and a viable campaign setting.
For me something lacking in all DnD campaign settings are defined adventure hook ideas. Way back in the late 90's I played a system called legend of the 5 rings, still one of what I think is the best written campaign setting even if the game itself was brutal to players (TPK's where a common occurrence, and if the game didn't kill you there was a very good chance that a player would do something to break the family honour and have to kill themselves to restore it). But one of the great things the system did was put one or two sentence adventure hook ideas everywhere. I was flicking through one of the sourceboks the other day and reminding myself of the little margin notes all over with suggestions of how the GM could use this information, or this NPC, or lore in an encounter, adventure or even as a campaign. There was one source book which just covered the capital city, had a map of the city with 100 locations marked, one or more NPC's who lived there and a one line idea about who they where. As a GM you could use some, all or none of it.
DnD either gives you an entire pre written campaign, or, nothing, they don;t tend to try and handhold new DM's with ideas of how they can take this great source material and forge it into an adventure idea.
So for me, if you are presenting a setting book, then litter it with ways a new DM could use that world themselves. It doesn't have to be paragraphs, just some one or 2 sentence lines littered around the book.
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I've been working for awhile (it's slow going, I have three kids, one of whom is an infant) on a homebrew setting intended not just for personal usage, but potentially publication. But when doing anything creative, it's easy to get tunnel vision and focus on what's immediately in front of you and miss big chunks of what should be "obvious" material. I have plans for races and subclasses and feats (even at least one feat tree), as well as loads of lore and maps and other art.
But what I'm wanting is a list of major points to hit to make it appealing for other people to use. Do you want unique mechanics like Ravnica's Guilds or Van Richten's dark gifts? Do you look primarily for a unique thematic "spin?" Are you looking for production value? Are you looking for a comprehensive overview? Where do you want things to be detailed, and where do you want them to be vague? Do you want a substantial pre-written adventure tied to that world for a better idea of how it should work?
I'm basically trying to farm opinions and see what I need to add to my roadmap. I want to cover as much as I can. Though it may take years, I want to go big and produce something worthwhile and appealing.
I like distinct and interesting cultures. I also like maybe 1 new and interesting mechanic that is emblematic of the particular setting, but that can also be generalized to any other setting. I really really liked how Van Richten's overview was also an overview for how to run horror, so I think a guide to how to run a particular genre safely, sanely, and consensually would be very neat. Van Richten's is a very high bar, I will admit.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
This is maybe the thing I feel like I have the most locked in right now, so that's a good sign.
Would something like a feat tree qualify, or would you be looking for more like Van Richten's Dark Gifts?
That's a good take. I've got a few directions I could go in with that, but it might be best to pick one that doesn't already have an official book filling that niche. Aside from horror, what other genres would you say official settings cover pretty well? I'm looking more to rule out existing ones before I narrow my focus.
It's a really fun book, I'm a big fan.
As someone who exclusively DMs in homebrew worlds, the following items in a book interest me:
1. Some kind of unique mechanic that I can transfer into my homebrew world. Faerzress, from Out of the Abyss, for example, is fun little environmental effect I can easily slide into any homebrew campaign.
2. Interesting and unique monsters, ideally with great art I can show my players to help them with visualising the encounter. Ideally these are creatures that fill some kind of gap for some kind of existing monster type, CR level, environment, cultural inspiration, or some combination thereof.
3. New character options unique to that world that I can put in my homebrew world - mainly races and subclasses, though reskinning some world-specific backgrounds can be fun as well.
I say only 1 mechanic because I dislike having too many new subsystems, it feels like system bloat. One Feat tree by itself wouldn't register as too much, though. I was thinking some sort of mechanic that would do something like flesh out one of the other two Pillars to help bring them up to the level of interesting complexity of Combat.
The default game covers Adventure, Mid to High Fantasy, Steampunk via Eberron, YA Magical School via Strixhaven and that would be about it I think. There's so many other genres that could be given guidelines: Mystery, Romance, Modern Fantasy, etc.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
It needs to have enough lore and history to get people interested but with unresolved conflicts and blank spaces for people to run their games in.
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I do have some ideas for environmental stuff, but a lot of that might be covered by "supernatural regions" in Tasha, so I'll need to look hard at making them stand out, maybe have something else along different lines.
This is a real weak point for me. I have a hard time with creature stat blocks. I have a handful planned but will need to devote some time and brainspace to more.
Those I've got covered. Six races and one sub for each class. That's where most of my homebrew experience/skill/talent lies so that's where I focused first. Backgrounds are definitely happen too.
Ooooh, see that's a good point. Some heavily non-combat stuff, whether social or exploration.
How would you feel about maybe some...espionage stuff? I don't feel comfortable with romance, and haven't run many mysteries (plus, Eberron is meant to cover a bit of a "noir" niche, as well) so it'd be awkward for me to build around them. What I've got so far has a decent amount of focus on international politics and some espionage. The world is sort of the reverse of Eberron, in that instead of being just after a war, its set up to be on the brink of war. All the principal nations and factions are basically on the verge and any one could easily declare war on another.
I think that sounds great! International politics and espionage isn't something the default game covers and if you can do it well I think it would be a great supplement. Perhaps something to more easily visualize and organize the delicate web of relationships, motivations, and triggered reactions would be a good mechanical subsystem to add for something like this.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I don't necessarily need new races (whatever you do, please, no more elves), but new takes on existing races (Dark Sun's halfling cannibals are the first thing that comes to mind) that reflect the niche they've made for themselves in this world are great.
I do like to see a background or two that might reflect something unique about the setting.
It would be kind of neat to see a setting that didn't feature two large nations on the brink of war, because that always seems to happen. I get that builds in a level of tension and provides lots of potential adventure hooks, it's just been done to death.
And I don't know if this is a like-to-see as much as my own 2 cents. Food. Few things distinguish different cultures, and regions within a given culture, as much as food. Consider what kinds of things an area has a lot of, and therefore what they might eat a lot of. It's just a nice bit of (no pun intended) flavor that so often gets left out of world building.
This is key for me as a DM and a player. Something I really liked as a player are those settings where a heavy lore moment occurred in the immediate recent past that changed the status quo of the world (like Eberron). The aftermaths of wars/assassinations etc, offer plenty of great material for DMs to create campaigns/players to create backstory.
What I look for first is usually a clear idea of what kind of style, theme, and tone for campaigns this setting supports and suggests. I don’t want it to be too restrictive, of course, but I don’t want to be reading paragraphs of trade records or government offices while thinking “yes but what are the stories in this world about?”
Also, a matter of lesser importance but still worth saying, I think too many of the official setting books focus almost exclusively on the capitals and major cities that I feel like I have no idea what life is like for anyone else. If the setting is premodern, most people are living in small settlements unless agriculture is done my magic or something (not that that couldn’t make a neat premise, mind). Now obviously they shouldn’t detail every village, but they at least should have a general overview of rural life in that setting. Besides, abandoned, ruined, or haunted villages can make for good adventuring sites.
Finally, something that some settings do better than others, is showing how the fantastical things interact with the people’s lives. Are there local spellcasters? If so, what do they do? What problems to people come to them with? I prefer seeing answers to those kinds of questions.
(Note that I tried to limit myself to “objective-ish” considerations. A setting can clearly demonstrate what it’s about, which I’d appreciate but still might decide it’s not for me.)
How would you feel about half a dozen nations on the brink of a World War and with shifting alliances that could mean a number of different sides and configurations to the war depending how the politics shake out?
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I mean, I'd have to see the details.
It just feels like every setting has: big country X and big country Y have hated each other for centuries, and now it seems like these tensions are finally about to boil over. I realize that wars have been part of D&D since the beginning, it is a game with its roots in fighting, after all. But it seems like that ground has already been tread a lot. And I also realize that saying, everyone likes everyone else doesn't exactly create the kind of tension that can lead to a good story. It's more like, sure, let X and Y hate each other, but not be about to fight. That's one of the things I like about Eberron. the war just ended, and now how does the world deal with the fallout is more interesting to me.
Of course, I'm not going to pretend that I have my finger on the pulse of D&D players in general. Probably lots and lots of people like the brink of war thing.
Interestingly, this is much closer to what I've got cooking.
Personally I look for for things that I can easily take out of an adventure or a setting to put into my own homebrew setting.
I can tell you right now, I've written six races, and not a one of them is an elf. Currently, they're the only six races in or native to the setting, but I'm considering either adding an in-lore reason for non-native races to be there, or pitching exclusivity entirely. I'm not yet decided on any of those courses, though.
Backgrounds are definitely on my to-do list, more than likely 1-2 per original race for around a dozen. I'm also basically deciding on what Strixhaven and all recent UAs have done, and including a feat or short list of feats to attach to those backgrounds.
What I've got currently is basically a world on the brink of being truly "global" for the first time. There are six races that have had mild intermingling beforehand, but due to advancements in shipwright technology and a big expansion of magic, are now interacting on a near-daily basis in a way they never have before. They all have tentative alliances and rivalries and relationships, and everything is mostly functional and there's no big grudges, but diplomatic issues or a social imbalance of some kind could tip any one nation into making moves against another, or backing one nation/race* against another depending on those moves.
So it's not a sort of "Hatfields and McCoys but whole countries" situations. More just a generally uncertain global situation for a world that's never had to contemplate truly global politics before, only relations with immediate neighbors. A lot of my thinking came from a general irritation with the widely overused trope of "HEY THERE WAS A SUPER BADASS AND ADVANCED SUPER AWESOME SUPER-NATION A JILLION YEARS AGO THAT WAS SO AWESOME STUFF THEY DID STILL AFFECTS US EVERY DAY AND NOTHING IS MORE VALUABLE THAN THEIR GARBAGE" that you get in a majority of fantasy fiction, including both Middle-Earth and the Forgotten Realms, and a few other things, like Dragon Age.
I want to see those super-nations form, I want to be there during the high times when they're on the rise and on the cusp of doing great things. I want to play a part in deciding which of these nations or cultures ends up being the Numenor or the Netheril or the Elvhenan that future generations build themselves atop. So the general idea is that the setting is largely just sort of barely post-neolithic, while also being kind of age of sail, and because it's largely isolated nations and peoples coming together for the first time, it's going to be somewhat volatile. And while there won't be many ancient tombs to plunder, there will be dungeons and tombs that are brand new, and you can do a heist where you're breaking into a brand-new mausoleum with fully-functional traps that's also got active guards and things. I just get really tired of being told how great these ancient empires were and never getting to play with them. I'm also doubly tired of the idea that "older automatically means better."
There's a lot going into this philosophically, and a lot of it is borne of being tired of seeing the same stuff over and over and over.
*nations and races won't be intrinsically tied, but given they developed in relative geographic isolation, each nation or faction will be mostly one race or another, though you could easily be a character of one race raised in another's "traditional" home nation, it would just be uncommon
This is an awesome point, one I hadn't thought of, and holy crap I'm now very committed to centering it in cultural lore stuff. One of the races is heavy into fishing, so I did have that note on one of them, but I intend to spread it out and put more into the other races now. Really grateful for this one.
I do have one or two heavy world-changing lore moments in the recent past (1-5), but none of them are wars. As I mention in above comment, a war is a thing that could happen depending on several factors, but I do think I'm covering some of what you're talking about, though not in the specifics.
I've tried to collate a list or outline of what I've culled from this thread, if anyone wants to correct how I've noted it, let me know if I missed the intent, left anything out, or spun it incorrectly, that'd be appreciated:
Any additions are also welcome. Just trying to ensure I cover as many bases as possible. It's likely a years-long project regardless, but I want to do it right. Can't guarantee it'll be to everyone's tastes, but I'd like to be certain that at least I'm not ignoring major chunks of what makes both a world and a viable campaign setting.
Loving all the input so far. Thanks!
For me something lacking in all DnD campaign settings are defined adventure hook ideas. Way back in the late 90's I played a system called legend of the 5 rings, still one of what I think is the best written campaign setting even if the game itself was brutal to players (TPK's where a common occurrence, and if the game didn't kill you there was a very good chance that a player would do something to break the family honour and have to kill themselves to restore it). But one of the great things the system did was put one or two sentence adventure hook ideas everywhere. I was flicking through one of the sourceboks the other day and reminding myself of the little margin notes all over with suggestions of how the GM could use this information, or this NPC, or lore in an encounter, adventure or even as a campaign. There was one source book which just covered the capital city, had a map of the city with 100 locations marked, one or more NPC's who lived there and a one line idea about who they where. As a GM you could use some, all or none of it.
DnD either gives you an entire pre written campaign, or, nothing, they don;t tend to try and handhold new DM's with ideas of how they can take this great source material and forge it into an adventure idea.
So for me, if you are presenting a setting book, then litter it with ways a new DM could use that world themselves. It doesn't have to be paragraphs, just some one or 2 sentence lines littered around the book.