Creating a New 5E Setting

[Daos]

Something I've been trying to work on in the background was converting my Lost Souls setting into 5E.  But I keep hitting speedbumps.  Lost Souls was made for 2E, so there are a lot of assumptions baked into the world as a result that kind of clash with 5E.  Like how tieflings and dragonborn are core races in 5E, but incredibly rare in Lost Souls.  Or how magic is everywhere in 5E, but quite sparse in Lost Souls.

This has led me to wonder if maybe it would be better to just create a whole new world from scratch for 5E, and leave Lost Souls for my 2E games.  But, I have no idea what this new world would even look like.  I find myself completely bereft of ideas.  I don't want to make another generic setting, because I could just use FR for that.

Maybe a compromise is needed; have Amtar have a Time of Troubles/Spellplague/Second Cataclysm/War of Souls incident that radically changes the setting, and then have all 2E games take place before that point and all 5E games take place after it?  But even that seems a little hackneyed to me.

Or maybe I'm overthinking things?  I don't know.  I feel like 5E players tend to be far more demanding, and will likely bristle or even revolt at being told a specific race or class isn't available to them for lore reasons.  Maybe I'm just psyching myself out, though.

[GravityEmblem]

Gee, I certainly don't know. I, personally, put the lore of the world before all else, but I've been playing with you for 5 years, so maybe that part of your playstyle rubbed off on me.

My only advice would be, what appeals to you when making a setting? The religion, the history, the creatures, etc.? Like, I made Othus with lots of different countries, each with lots of conflict in its past, because exploring different cultures and histories in a setting really excites me.

Or maybe take some interesting, even wild assumption about the world, and build from there? Maybe the world was completely run by Mind Flayers, but they all vanished a hundred years ago or less, and the world is coping? Or something else? You have more D&D experience than me, at any rate.

[Igordragonian]

it's your world, you can do with it whatever you want.

I dunno, 5e players in my exprience were more chill then 3.5 players.

I guess reboot with IC explantion can be intresting, if you want to keep the general lore of the word.

[Daos]

I actually had an idea for a setting since my last post, although it's just that--a very basic idea and nothing concrete yet.

Instead of the standard route of making a setting based off Europe, what about one based off the US?  The different regions serving as nations, like the Pacific Northwest, New England, the Deep South, etc.

That's all I have so far.  Has that been done before?

[Igordragonian]

well,, the Wierd West genre is a thing.

[GravityEmblem]

Mar 1, 2022 15:29:51 GMT -8 Daos said:

I actually had an idea for a setting since my last post, although it's just that--a very basic idea and nothing concrete yet.

Instead of the standard route of making a setting based off Europe, what about one based off the US?  The different regions serving as nations, like the Pacific Northwest, New England, the Deep South, etc.

That's all I have so far.  Has that been done before?

I once saw a meme about it, applying setting "roles" to each area. Eg. the midwest was where you ran modules (because there's nothing there.)

[Daos]

I know that's what Gygax did for Greyhawk; it was basically Illinois.  Greyhawk City was meant to be Chicago.  I could do something similar with the Pacific Northwest.  Maybe something like...a theocratic kingdom, dedicated to druidism.  Once strong and united, recent events have left it divided and weakened.  Barbarians at the gates, looking to expand their own lands.  Could be something.

[GravityEmblem]

As long as you put in a Gravity Falls reference, I'm down for it!

[Daos]

But I don't know any Gravity Falls references.

Guess I could name a waterfall 'Gravity' or something.

Actually, I think I'm going to move this topic to another thread.

[Daos]

Okay, topic split off.

I'm mostly going to just post thoughts and notes here, for my own purposes, to help keep track of whatever I come up with.  But anyone who wants to can join in and offer their own ideas, thoughts and opinions if they want.

My initial thoughts:

This may or may not wind up part of my Lost Souls setting.  I could place this new continent on the opposite side of the planet, making it the Taladas to my Ansalon, so to speak.  If I go this route, the gods will be the same, but they'll have different names.

The mechanics of an edition are reflected in the setting.  (Look up 'Tippyverse' to see what I mean.)  This is why translating a setting from one edition to another is so difficult, and why it's often done with some massive, cataclysmic event to help explain all the differences.  My original setting was built on 2E assumptions, and I'll need to make sure I keep aware of the differences between 2E and 5E when making this new setting.  For instance, in 2E magic is difficult, rare and usually comes with a very high cost (Haste will age you a year, Polymorph can kill you with a system shock, etc.).  In 5E, magic is commonplace (most classes have access to it) and there are no serious penalties for using it.

Another thing I've noticed is that early AD&D tended to assume races were largely segregated by nations.  The elves live in the elven nation, the dwarves live in the dwarven nation, etc.  You might find a handful of other races in human nations (although oddly, only human nations; finding a dwarf in the elven lands almost never happens), but overall this remains true.  (Lost Souls was fairly progressive, by this standard, as a little under half of any population will be minority races.)  In 5E, I've noticed (with Forgotten Realms and Critical Role, at least), that everywhere is pretty multi-ethnic.  A tiefling might run the local inn, a half-orc might be a town guard, etc.  In 2E, this would be very rare.  The common folk would freak out or even form a mob at the sight of races like these (unless it's Planescape or something), but in 5E nobody bats an eye at such things, even in small podunks out in the sticks.

There are probably other instances I can't think of right now, but I'll try and be on the look out for them.

For now, I'm going to focus on the Cascadia area.  I might change the name later, but honestly I rather like Cascadia; it sure sounds fantasy-ish.  Anyway, I might write a few notes about other regions, too, just for reference.  It's good to know something about distant lands, even if it's minimal.  But for now, I want to focus on a single area and flesh it out enough that a game could be hosted there, and then move on from there.

My initial thoughts were:

* There was once an empire spanning the whole area, but it has started to fall apart recently.  It was dedicated to worshiping nature (so druids), and the population will have a high concentration of races associated with nature (so elves, forest gnomes, fey creatures, etc).  I'm thinking it might be a matriarchy, to go along with the whole 'worship of mother earth' thing.
* There's a group of Viking-like nomads to the north that originally owned this land.  They were driven out by the empire, but now are consolidating their power as the empire's power wanes.
* I'm thinking at some point in history there was a much more advanced civilization that was destroyed.  I realize this is tremendously old hat--just about every setting does this--but for good reason.  It's a great way to explain why the area is littered with ruins filled with ancient treasure and powerful magic.  Perfect for adventurers to go visit.

I'll add more to this later.

[GravityEmblem]

It's interesting what you say about the edition influencing the setting, because my setting is heavily influenced by the 5E core rules. (Lots of magic, varied races...) Though I put some of that down to the "cool stuff adage." Even if something is rare in the setting, it'll still show up in the campaign because it's cool and interesting. There may only be 300 dragons in the setting, but the party might meet a whole 5% of them.

[Daos]

Yep.  A similar thing cropped up in Dragonlance when they tried to update it to 3E.  People who were new to the game (that is, did not grow up on 1E/2E) found the entire setting strange.  Why was there an organization called the Orders of High Sorcery, but it was meant for Wizards and not Sorcerers?  (Because there was no Sorcerer class prior to 3E, and Wizard/Mage/Sorcerer/Magic-User were completely interchangeable before then.)  Why was one of the rules of those Orders is wizards weren't allowed to carry steel weapons other than a dagger?  Why can't my elven White Robe wield a long sword, since he's proficient in it?  (Because back in 1E, that was all magic-users could use as weapons, so there wasn't a problem with codifying that rule into the in-game rules.)

There was also a lot of concern back in AD&D that non-human races might be more popular than human ones, so they were shackled down as much as possible (class restrictions, level limits, etc.).  Even adventuring parties were expected to be mostly (if not entirely) human, to the point that many modules were written under that assumption which could cause problems if it wasn't true.  (I remember one module that hinged on the party being ambushed with a Sleep spell and then captured; it did not seem to take into account that any of the party might be elven, and thus highly resistant to sleep magic.)

Anyway, I'm not really sure where to start on this new setting.  Religions?  Cultures?  Governments?  History?  I should probably draw up a map at some point, but I hate drawing maps (it's so tedious) so I'll probably put that off as long as I can.

[Zero Prime]

I actually don't find 5e to be as magic heavy as previous editions. While it's true there is more *casting* classes, magic isn't as prevalent as 3.5, or 4, where magic items were so common place they were an expected part of your character progression, mathematically, providing you the needed bonuses to compete with rising AC's, and Saves of your opponents.

One of the things that can really help a setting distinguish itself from a generic fantasy setting, is by incorporating a different ethos, elves and orcs hate each other? Why? Maybe he Orcs in your world are defending the continent from the ruins of an ancient God, whose very presence corrupts nature around it, creating demons and such.

Moving away from colonial feudalism, and having a large swath of your setting be more democratic, working with indigenous cultures, maybe elves don't jealously guard their forests from humans, because humans respect them as an ancient race who have long held these lands, so they incorporate elven culture and traditions into their own, while showing respect and reverence for those that came before.

Sometimes a simple geographical change can distinguish a setting, such as Dark Suns, a post apocalypse, barren world, or do Water World, or a Green Apocalypse, where nature is taking back everything between pockets of civilization.

I'm really just spitballing, but a Neo African, campaign, focused on tribal spiritualism would be interesting.

[Daos]

I'd agree 5E is not as magic heavy as 3E, but it is a lot more ubiquitous when compared to 2E.  It's fairly low-powered, but it's all over the place and very easy to learn.  It's possible nowadays to be born with magical powers, which wasn't a thing in 2E.  Back in 2E, most clerics couldn't use magic (the few who could, like PCs, were special) and wizards were very rare (maybe 1% of the population?).  In later editions, one can even 'level dip' and spontaneously learn to wield magic even if they never could before.  In 2E, the closest thing you get to that is the dual-classing rules, which were so byzantine and difficult they weren't really worth the effort, but it still required a great deal of commitment (you might be able to start learning levels in mage, but you couldn't take level dip; you were locked in once you started).

I don't necessarily mean any of this as any sort of criticism, by the way; just observing differences in mechanics that would impact the setting.  A 5E setting with little or rare magic would be jarring when nearly every person in an adventuring party can wield it.

As for Neo African, I'd probably add something akin to that somewhere in the new setting.  Maybe Voodoo practitioners down in the equivalent of Louisiana?  But it's something I'd need to do a lot more research on first, to make sure I don't come up with something offensive.  Which is why I'm starting in the Washington equivalent for now (plus, that's where I live now, so...)

[GravityEmblem]

Oh, whoops, I never realized you lived in the state Washington, and not the city. Oops.

Anyway, maybe start with fleshing out that ancient, ruined civilization. What were they like? How did they die out? etc.