This is gonna be a long comment, so buckle up... I have to say thank you to Monty and Kelly and everyone else who contributes to this awesome channel. Not only is this video very timely for me personally (I'm running a session 0 for my upcoming Ghosts of Saltmarsh/Lovcraftian campaign this Saturday) but this channel has something different to offer than most other channels: You guys are TEACHERS. Whenever I run into someone who wants to start playing D&D or who wants to be a better player, I always recommend this channel. You've made it your aim to educate more than pontificate or spout opinions. You come across as genuinely interested in everyone's success with D&D, and not as if you were doing anything by rote. You've had a positive effect on me and others I know by your solid work. Thanks again, and rock on Dudes!
Dungeon Dudes! I just wrapped up Waterdeep Dragon heist using all the tips, tricks and tutorials you guys have been putting out on RUclips, and I want to say a huge thanks. So much of your advice was invaluable and it led to my party (size varying from 4 to 12! ) having an absolute blast. We had the "filler" downtime session last night where they bought some goodies and did the tenday downtime period stuff, and I hooked them with a 2 session long side mission before Dungeon of the Mad Mage Begins. Once again, thanks for everything you do for the D&D community. You helped inspire me, and reignite my passion when I was suffering from DM burnout, and taught me to get less hung up on the word-for-word following of the module and instead trust my own creativity. I learned a lot from you guys, so keep up the great work!
I had an idea for a floating Island world. The Original world was destroyed by a cataclism and the last resort of the strongest wizards of that time was to send pieces of the earth into the sky; Years have passed and people don't realise that the bottom world has become viable again but is crawling with monsters. I'd let my players be pioneers in the new world. Just to discover that they are not alone as they think.
My dwarves did the classic "dug to deep" and freed a imprisoned devil, now they all have a SOUL debt that must be paid by there 150th name day, this has forced the dwarves into the slave trade. If they don't pay there debt in time the devil takes their soul and they are transformed into the Duegar (Soulless Dwarves)
I made them former humans that were slave miners forced into labor camps by evil wizards. They had to mine magical ore for generations. That magical ore did nasty things with their DNA. Lack of food and brutal labor demands also did not help. Now, they are all twisted in strange ways and suffer from gruesome diseases. They are small and lack in bodily strenght. But they are nearly immune to all form of magic because their body has accumulated all that magical ore.
I made them a more technologically advanced culture deep in the mountains or underground. Sort of like a steam punk vibe while the rest of the world is more of a classic fantasy setting.
The unique thing in my game is the tensions between the various races. Specifically, the long lifespans of Elves and Dwarves compared to the Humans, Orcs, and other such things led to a series of conflicts between the races. The current campaign is taking place a mere 600 years after a Dynasty of Elves was overthrown in a bloody rebellion. One of the core conflicts of this campaign is that the Crown Prince of that dynasty is still alive, and wants to reclaim the throne, meanwhile to the humans of the world almost feel that it’s ancient history.
Love these videos. So many channels make it feel like you're being lectured to in a Uni class where as this channel gets the best practical advice and info across while making it feel like a conversation with friends in my living room.
Top notch as always gents! My world is literally the Earth we all know. The idea is that our world ended a long time ago and the world that is in the game is what emerged. When I was a kid I used to watch Thundarr the Barbarian and that's where the idea came from. My players started out at level 1 in what is Kansas. Lots of farmland and lots of open spaces to explore. My maps tend to me regional so no one has put this all together yet. Currently, the players are on Hawaii. It's now one big island and called The Isle of Fire. My world involves all the races in D&D and if a player wants to play, say a Tibaxi, then we just include it. Eventually, someone may run across an artifact that seems out of place. Maybe a calcified/fossilized computer or other item totally out of place. Eventually, I may create a world that is really another planet, land mass, or whatever but for now, it's fun playing on what is basically our ruined/rebuilt world. All the best guys!
My D&D world is unique because I write the world setting as the PCs interact with the world and the PCs change it. I can start every group in the same place and no 2 groups will ever be in the same place at level 3.
If someone was looking to incorporate a MIB style organization in a traditional DnD setting then you can look to the Invisible Library series, where the protagonists are transdimensional librarian spies who hop between worlds to maintain the balance between order and chaos. So your players for example could jump from Greyhawk to Eberron to Dark Sun in a single campaign while being just as mysterious and dangerous to each individual settings NPCs as the MIB can be to our world.
I've stuck with the same setting since the 80s and it was very vanilla to start with but after all this time of on and off playing the player created world history is at the top. I would say that when you step too far from the norms, especially with new players, a DM has to explain a lot more background to reinforce a new or unique idea. At one point I gave about 15 players a nation to run in a world war for a specific campaign - that created a lot of history in a short period of time.
I think a great tool to crib is from the original Eberron sourcebook, where it leads with a "10 things to remember" section. I do this for my own campaign handouts, and it really helps distill down for players what makes the setting special and what their characters would know right off the bat.
I had an Arabian knights desert world with theocratic ruling genies. The genies communed directly with the overpowers and granted all magic powers. (Cleric, paladin, sorcery, wizardry, and bards ). All other magics didn't exist. (Druidism, warlocks, monks,) I then had the idea that one day the genies and 10% of the worlds population disappear. I was watching the great HBO series The Leftovers. Now everyone left in the world is trying to figure out how to get the genies back and why they left. The overpowers never talk to mortals directly so they're no help. It's a year after the departure, and all these cults are springing up with new magics (Druid, warlocks, monks) while all the old magic orders can't recruit any more. The players are trying to figure out the biggest mystery ever all the while having adventures. The world is changing and they have to make sense of it.
My world goes up to lvl 25 and has up to lvl 12 spells, and is set very early in the world (its like 500yrs old). Gods and demi-gods abound, anything lvl 18 and up has serious effects on the structure and geography of the world. My main motivation was that in every single fantasy story I could ever imagine, the setting is centuries or millennia after some cataclysmic event born out of the hubris of the greatest society the world has seen (Valeria, for example). I thus decided that my world setting IS this ancient era of greatness, and inevitably my players will participate in godly wars that work as the campaign-ending cataclysm. I then plan to follow-up in this world with another campaign 2000years or smtin later, and at this point my players will not only be familiar with the lore, but will have been the center of it!
Good fantasy books to draw from: The Dwarves series - Markus Heitz Hyperion series - Dan Simmons The Lotus wars series - Jay Kristoff Chakraborty’s City of Brass series Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera and Dresden Files A Sorcerer’s Treason - Sarah Zettel The Demon Cycle - Peter Brett Behemoth series - Peter Watts (warning, heavier sci fi and difficult reading sometimes) Just to get someone started. I recommend everything I have listed, having read all of them
I really love your points here. This is what I love about being a Dungeon Master is creating worlds filled with the familiar unknown. Great video guys. I truly find your videos inspiring, I can see you pour your soul and passion to D&D and I really appreciate that! It must be great to play a session with you guys. Thank you for all of your tips, and for making me feel I'm growing like a DM.
I took this one change approach with my most recent campaign setting. That change: there is a plague like the black death. It's non-magical, but the infection rate is faster than the paladins, clerics and druids can cast lesser restoration.
An other tips for world building in D&D that worked well for me is simply take some spells and classes and see how i can integrate them in my world lore. For example, i take the sorcerer and i was thinking "So this dudes are born with magic. What if most of sorcerers are literally made by noble house and rich family. With arranged marriage, experiment, control of their lineage... They can create powerful heir with incredible magic gift". And this simple idea became a central motif in my BBEG backstory. You can has well use this tips for house rules. In my seating, consuming magic food or elixir can drive people mad, so i adapt this in my world. In Rodania (the kingdom where my campaign happen), there is tone of resources so this rule doesn't change a lot of things. BUT, for the kingdom in the south (who is in the desert), people try to use magic to subtend themself but this drive half of the population mad. So this kingdom has now a fear of magic and prefer religious spell caster like cleric or paladin. This inevitably created conflict between them and the kingdom of Rodania (who are extremely magic based with most noble being sorcerer). With just two idea, half of my world was made, so check what D&D already offer you and make it your by changing some stuff and interpreting thing. Sorry if my english is bad, i'm french.
Hey guys :) sorry, but Conan is not post acopalytic, but pre-historical :) A suggestion for post apocalyptic fantasy would be the Shannara Stories by Tery Brooks.
Norbert Mösl: I can understand your confusion, but you are incorrect. First, the setting of the Conan series feels more post-apocalyptic than the Shanarra series. The feeling of a setting is usually more important for characters in a campaign setting than technicalities. Second, Mako’s speech at the beginning of the first Conan movie makes it clear that it is a post-apocalyptic world: “Between the time that the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an age I dreamed of...” The sinking of Atlantis was an apocalypse and the world of Conan is post-apocalyptic, and more technologically primitive. They are still trying to regain the knowledge of how to make steel, for example. Obviously, the Conan movies are different than the books. They are all in the same post-apocalyptic setting, however. Does that make sense?
you are totally right abaout Atlantis an being an apocalypse. I didn't think abaout that point of view. And you are right about the feeling of Conan. But for me the Shannara Stories are more "fantastic" than Conan and with their fantastic races it is easier to take inspiration for standard D&D from them. And the novel "Antrax" offers a great inspiration of finding relics of the old high technology pre-apocalyptic times :)
I’m running a pathfinder campaign so not necessarily 5e but my world is a battle of gods and each god has a “remnant” that they embody from time to time and in the middle of the gods war a time breach blew open by “one of my players backstory” so now it’s a battle of gods from all periods of time
Using the “slightly different approach” and “one Change” I’m working on a Magic and Machine Guns 5e campaign that is set in Eberron. “Modern” Guns (Examples found in DMG) are just another off shoot from the Great War. Said war is comparable to WW1 or 2. So Guns were created similar to warforged. And due to magical means to aid construction, They had a faster evolution than on Earth. So all the other Eberron tech and lore is there, like dragonmarks. But things like spells are designed to combat with and against Firearms (a spell that points at a gun and jams it). Some classes have slight changes (Example: Deflect missiles works on grenades or auto fire) But i am not reinventing then. Now the party does their questing and they may need to Breech a kobold lair, but similar to Vietnam and faerun, the kobolds have tons of tunnels and traps... but now they also have dynamite (IEDs) at their disposal. Goblins that are suicide bombers. Beholders envision themselves with Armored Hides making them a bullet resistant laser tank. Assassin Snipers with poison bullets etc.
Hey guys, what I think that makes my world special is mostly two things: the first is that im creating it through the campaign as long as the players advance (they have to get to a city and i've created the whole road to it and the city itself waiting for them); and also that my world has 8 big capital cities that after 5200 years of the last era the people are starting to explore the world because they are afraid of leaving them.
Is there a lot of wandering monsters that prevent expansion outside the reach of cities? Do they have routes that need to be studied in order to make roads safer to travel for the odd adventurer/messenger going to other cities?
Good thing to know I'm not the onyl grown man really into Moana Im literally wanting to set my players to the sea just so i can make they find a island who is basically Moto Nui Who knows, maybe someday I manage to do it
When you talked about how you can tell a really compelling, interesting story with a cool campaign in a generic sort of world, I thought: “and vice verse.” You can make a really interesting campaign world and come up with some really interesting stuff, and still play a by-the-numbers, rote D&D campaign. Which could be ok, but can also trip you up as a DM. The key is to find that good balance, like you mention in the video-a balance between player expectations, what they can relate to, and new/cool innovations and surprises.
I have an idea for a small island in which the culture lives underground while keeping the above wild lands lush and untamed. The underground cityscape is a juxtaposition from the above ground, being a burgeoning cityscape full of neon lights, metallic decor with vines and water dripping from above. People keep tabs on the population of savage beasts above and hunt ceremonially.
Thanks you two for your great content! I'm currently playing a game that's centered around the idea of dealing with the aftermath of continental civil war/a World War I in a fantasy/steampunk setting. I love to see how my players are negotiating for labour rights, or try and build up their own smuggling enterprises. And once there's peace, there will always be need for soldiers and explorers on the frontier!
2 videos just make me cry ❤️ i’m creating right now a low magic settings caused by a bloody war happened in the past which showed how Magic can me lethal and dangerous. I took inspiration a lot from Horizon zero dawn and i’m surprised u just mention it into the video 😁
While I totally agree with you guys on the notion that the PCs are on a significantly different level than the rest of the populace and that the villains should be yet another level above them, I do think there’s a perfectly good reason for worlds like Faerun to have low-level PCs who don’t get helped out by the Dragon Knights of Tyr or whatever, and that reason is power tiers. I personally think that this is a very simple concept, low level PCs handle the more mundane stuff because there are a lot of mundane dangers and a lot of mundane local heroes, high level PCs will handle the rarer, but more dangerous threats because there are less high level characters, and epic level NPCs each has their own problem that keeps them occupied. The circle of master wizards has to keep watch over a rift in reality that’s connected to the elemental chaos and must constantly set up barriers to keep that dangerous energy at bay. The paladins and clerics of the Brotherhood of Divine Light has to constantly combat the fiends that emerge from the Abyssal Gate that they have been trying to close for centuries. The Dragon Knights of Tyr is fighting a thousand-year war against the Chromatic Horde of Tiamat, an alliance of chromatic dragons and evil Tiamat worshipping cults. With everything going on like this, the character’s quest of stopping a human sacrificing cult or the slave trade ring in this one town or region seems hardly worthy of note, but if the low tier heroes don’t step up then the sheer amount of low tier threats will still overwhelm the world.
Absolutely right, and of course a similar situation with power tiers is a big part of something they brought up in another example, the marvel superhero universe. Just taking examples from what's in the movies and tv shows, you have Daredevil and Luke Cage pummeling bad guys on the streets of New York, while on the other end of the spectrum characters like Thor and Doctor Strange are dealing with threats on a level that ordinary humans couldn't even begin to understand.
Dave K exactly, and the reason why Thor or Stark or the Captain couldn’t help when Daredevil or the Punisher are in a tough spot is because they’ve got bigger things to worry about.
A general lesson to take from this. Its ok to use the things you enjoy as reference and inspiration. All artists and creators do this in one way or another. Every great artist and creator was inspired by a great artist of before.
6:37 this is what I did with my first world. It was a combo of Divyath Fyr’s corpusarium from Morrowind and the menagerie from Rick and Morty, a mad king storing all sorts of esoteric monsters in an inescapable dungeon he lets adventurers plunder just to watch them struggle against the challenges and creatures within
A theory of mine: look at all D&D material, form a solid foundation setting(rules, class and race limitations, etc.), then sift through the mountain of resources from the current and past iterations of D&D, and piece together what works for you and your campaign. Some like parts of 5E Eberon, but prefer other parts of 3/3.5 Eberon. I say take the parts you like from one, and work them into the other. It puts a great deal more homework on the DM/GM, but from what I understand, being a DM/GM requires a great deal of dedication anyway. Ultimately, the goal is, I think, for all involved to genuinely have fun together, as they all(the DM/GM included)journey through an entertaining story.☺ But, I could be wrong.
My capital cities and multicultural hubs can usually be compared to the Imperial City frim Oblivion, circular and separated into districts like spokes in a wheel. How they're organized, however does vary quite a bit more as well as whether there's an arena or theater district.
My world doesn't have metals. But near everything that we know metal used for is made of glass. Untill recently the only glass know was volcanic glass and the expeditions to get this from the slopes of volcanoes was quite profitable. That is until the discovery of artificial glass, made from sand and other natural components. So, My world has plenty of active volcanoes, artificers to make glass items solid and strong enough to be on par with metal although not as flexible. There is no blown glass, but it can be shaped with stone into bowl and goblet like shapes.
One neat aspect of my D&D worlds is how magic items are made: they BECOME magic through the heroic acts of the PCs, or heroes long past. My friend's roguish bard who had a ghost lover will see his rapier turn magic, with +1 and the ability to flicker into the ethereal plane after a successful attack , for example!
Another post-apocalyptic books that are also fantasy are The Wheel of Time series by Jordan, and the Death Gate Cycle from Weis and Hickman... love both of these series... I particularly like the uniqueness of the Death Gate Cycle books... I highly recommend these 7 books
World of Darkness / chronicles of darkness is a great exemple of the secret fantastic world, I run campaign like Harry Potter and Men in Black in those system, I really miss something like that in DnD.
I imagine y'all get suggestions for videos all the time but you should do one on running large scale battles...................ALL HAIL THE RAT PRINCE!!!!
i have a world, the Lands in the West, wich is actually a western fantasy setting. Dwarfs are the People from the East, and they are the ones responsable for inventions like the train or, in Samarel Coltar's case, the revolver. on the other hand, there are elves, wich are the people who lives atuned with nature. gnomes, halflings and humans are stucked in between. it's really fun, and i love it.
My campaign world. Our world, with Atlantis as the central civilization. Mashed with Stephen king's dark Tower. Atlantis replaced the tower in terms of the towers function. And is a city in the sky
What makes it unique? Trick question? Uuuhh... the players? Is that the answer? Jk. I'm loving two uploads in a day, by you guys The Talamasca in The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice is an awesome organization that hunts and takes notes on "mythological" beings. The Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko os fantastic, too. I love The Night and Day watches
Around 18 minutes when discussing the power level of the party vs. enemy vs. everyone else... Remember that nearly all stories have a superpower of some sort that either can’t interfere of chooses not to directly help. Who says regular people are not the same? For one example, Everyday Joe does not want to risk his life or family by standing up to the evil. What makes the party? They actually have the desire to make things right. The motivation to do so is what makes them special. There are no superpowers in Die Hard. I did not mean this to be a soapbox moment. ... This video gave me some sweet ideas to flesh out my mini-campaign. Thank you.
Ars Magica was the "magic secretly behind the scenes of historical earth" type of fantasy setting, very much like the Dudes described. I'm not sure if its still being published.
Take two things and mash them together... Supernatural & Blues Brothers. Jake and Elwood Blues traveling around the country, dive bar to dive bar, saving people from demons and vampires with the power of soul. They're on a mission from God.
I thought this was a really useful vid for DMs. And I also thought this crystallized why Drakkenheim is such a good campaign world. You two should really consider putting it out as a purchasable setting, now that you are already playtesting the heck out of it.
How I made the world in my current D&D game unique: What if Druids were evil in this setting and driven to destroying civilization, and how can I make magic something of a everyday thing in the world? Turned out I found a way to make the two related, and it did gave the world a sense of continuity as well as proving that the All Powerful Druids were capable of making mistakes that could be exploited.
my pantheon system for my setting i took inspiration from Guardians of the Galaxy, Steven universe and Elder Scrolls, and mashed those together, the main god in my setting that created all of the lesser gods was literally a sentient ball of light that diffracted her power in to the colors of the rainbow, creating lesser gods whos colors grant different aspects of nature, laws, and physics
A unique world twist is to have a material world without magic, and the dream world with magic. Then characters can move between the worlds. And there can be influences between the worlds. People who die in the material world will move on to exist in the dream world. They may not know that they are dead and in the dream world, such that when others fly, they will not understand how that is happening. Then characters can die in the dream world and pass onto a higher thought world, which has different forms of magic and influences the lower two worlds. Ultimately a character can die to these 3 worlds and move into superconsciousness. If they can go there consciously, they will experience the highest magic.
I have modified Beast stat blocks so the characters will always be as afraid of things like tigers, crocodiles, rattle snakes, ect. as their players would be, my basic rule is "every single enemy should be able to apply status conditions"
It has every climate and terrain wrapped into one supercontinent. We have a giant volcano surround by a dessert, a vast ocean with one or two large islands and a couple small ones, and a gigantic mountain range. This might be to much, but I want to have ALL the environments together. The backstory of this is that an evil druid who wanted to end all civilization gathered four more to open giant portals from the elemental planes, having their magic rewrite geography. It's undecided if the campaign should take place during or after this
My D&D world is unique because the entire game is actually an AI simulation in our real world’s future. The AI is testing out changes to fundamental physics and turns out one of those changes created magic and Beholders within the simulation. In the simulation, there’s a portal in the sky that acts as a wormhole between simulated worlds and spits out monsters, dinosaurs, fighter jets, George Washington. Anything at random, but most things don’t leave the area of the portal, which is super dangerous. And there are sometimes glitches throughout the world. The campaign, if we ever get to level 20, will end with the PC’s becoming self aware and attempting to exit the digital program before the researcher shuts off the CPU for the night. The whole campaign takes place in 1 “irl” hour in the mind of a super computer. So the world is like the Matrix meets time travel meets lord of the rings.
I'm currently building the world of Ornenfell, a physically massive landscape with a load of rising political powers. The thing is instead of using gods that already exist, I allowed each of my player to make one, and am filling out the rest of the pantheon as I go. Currently, they've just finished a power struggle in which Sathona, a god of trickery, just duped Aldor the god of order into blowing up a large chunk of a continent. Now Aldor is trying to atone by building small heaven on earth kind of thing while the demon god in the group is planting a magic item he made all around the area being rebuilt and planes on turning it into a hellscape. Its chaos to try and mediate but at the same time I can add random plot hooks (one country just split into three after it pulled a ww2 Germany and started a war on three fronts, triggered by Raziel, my other trickster god) and its become like a mini-game over my discord server.
Great video. Sometimes just changing one thing can have a huge ripple effect, such as the nature of magic between Dark Sun and Forgotten Realms. Speaking of which, could you guys touch on psionics in a future video? Why is it that this class gets little love and is there a way to make them a viable player class? The unearthed arcana make them seem convoluted.
Psionics is a different system that could work better in pathfinder or 3.5 edition. Could be thought of as a mana system that is older than arcane magic. Otherwise the spheres of power alternate system can be built for it.
My players. Very litterally. Anything they do ripples into all future campaigns. Its a simple world based on A few diffrent worlds I enjoy. But Mostly true to DnD lore while having its own twists and artifacts. But the players are the most important factor
I think there's something to take in considerations, the culture you're playing D&D in. Obviously for western European people Knights wears platemail, but what about Horus paladin or a Maori warrior ? i mean you shouldn't consider originality and creativity only, but where you fetch ideas from and adapt the game to it. Setting and players in a colorful adaptation of fantasy, and i mean poly-cultural makes awesome modules or campaign. It may sounds cliché but the cannibal halflings, jungle dark elves and lizardfolk populate some indonesia style jungles is a real treat :) I agree that you shouldn't deny what's known, but it's ok to turn things around a bit, adapt things. I gave my Maori fighter player Unarmored Defense and he can get some fun magical tattoos. I learned a alot young myself exploring new lands and mythology just for the purpose of DMing some exotic campaign. I like Tomb of Annihilation setting for exactly that.
If you gents like fantasy worlds based on Earth, I'm curious if you've even given 7th Sea a try? Based in 17th century Europe, with the myths and legends of many of the nations coming to life. As for D&D, my favorite homebrew world was inspired by a sliver of something from Tolkien, the idea that at one point Elves, Dwarves and Humans were much closer but some event tore them apart. I twisted that 180 and thought, what if they were close but some terrible event caused them to unite together In a grand empire, somewhat similar to Rome? Evil forces were trying to undo the fledgling nation, as our heroes stood together to save the Republic. Worked pretty well for a lot of stories.
Loved the video. I'm about to start an evil campaign for some egar players. Do you all have any Advice or ideas you two have?would also live a video based on evil campaigns. There are plenty of videos about players but not enough about campaigns
As a writer and dm I have created hundreds of worlds for my players. To keep things interesting I use portals to connect some of them and accasionally drop players into a new world hey are not familiar with and have them work through adapting to their new world. Creating along with the world dozens of new races and creatures for them to interact with. Since several of my players are veteran players I prevent meteaming by throwing something new for them to face.
"taking one moment in history and putting it in a fantasy setting" Shadow hearts 2 does this to SPECTACULAR effect. It takes place during ww2, but there's magic and demons and all kinds of cool shit.
There is no good side. Only good choices. Simple, but I like it. And the world has to offer choices. Factions players normally wouldn't think about joining, but in my world they will get the offer. And joining the faction will change the entire story and encounters. Wanna be a part of the Rotting Host and join the ranks of Nurghuls chosen? Do you want to serve the black Dragon Oceiros in the Chaos Wastes? Or help the Dark Elf Empire topple the Human Empire and its allies? Go ahead and make your choice. Oh, you wanna join Vecna? Yeah! Go ahead and do that. :) Living Factions that allow for joining is the most important in my opinion. Belonging to a tribe is important for human beings. Use that psychology. And make the characters prove themselves among those factions ranks.
What makes my world unique, no gods, if it has a stat block it exists in the world somewhere. For example, Tiamat isn't a god but is the ancient progenitor of the Chromatic Dragons and she is currently sealed away, done { by powerful magic in the ancient past} under a huge lava plain. The Golden Tyrant (a gold half dragon dracolich) is currently trying to free her.
My world originally started out with the idea that Humans never existed because none of the gods bothered to create them. there were several problems with this idea that I couldn't solve, though, so I had to significantly alter things to the point that humans once DID exist, but were in small pockets of civilization so isolated and small that no one living had ever seen a human. This eventually morphed into a more bog standard idea where humans DO exist, as normal, but were forced to abandon their home continent for new lands after the fall of their greatest empire, Massadoria. Now I have a entire nation that has a shoot on sight order for humans, which explains why no humans are or have been seen there.
Like, a quasi megadungeon that's housed in an ancient dragon corpse/sleeping body? Edit: or a series of gargantuan dragons linked together human centipede style
@@melissablankenburgh1645 yes! Like, simple idea that could be much better, but really powered up fire elementals in the heart of the red dragon's corpse that might make your players think the dragon's breath still breathes
Something I’ve been considering is having a world where planar travel is more common, and having the mid to late game twist be to play with the idea of an Omniverse. Easiest way to explain the Omniverse is with Marvel. 616 is the universe. The other universes make up the multiverse. Beings that reside outside the multiverse like the Beyonders are part of the Megaverse. DC comics, the Golden Girls, The Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and all other intellectual properties not owned by Marvel are part of the Omniverse. The Phoenix Force is an Omniversal Entity, who’s power is equal to the sum total of all life that is, was, and will be in the Omniverse and every universe has a perfect host to wield all of the Phoenix Force’s Power in that universe. Just imaging if the BBEG was one of those perfect hosts. In conclusion, the players start off thinking that they can theoretically access everything there is to access by planar travel. And then they learn they’re just one multiverse in the Omniverse and there are threats existing out there that they have no idea about.
Dungeon Dudes: So, how is you campaign world unique! Me: So my campaign takes place in a Sengoku Jidai style fantasy world (based of Feudal Japan) where all the players are various Yokai who are outlaws with three different samurai clans. Also the main villian is a Shinigami that is pretty much the side effect of hundreds of years of samurai war, and there is only one dragon in the campaign, who is pretty much a god. So I think I am doing pretty good.
If possible could they do one about Sleight of Hand? I feel its a skill that a lot try to take advantage but don't really know what true actions its capable of.
Iridescent spiders spread from your fingers crawl across her flesh some bore into her flesh shifting her broken bones into place. the other's legs sew themselves pulling the side's to gather.She shutters she is healed.
“If there’s a bunch of high level NPCs, why don’t they fix the world’s problems?” Something to remember is that your NPCs are still people. Sometimes people get burned out. The adventuring life is hard, and it’s easy to imagine someone even at high level deciding they’ve had enough. This might be harder to justify for world-ending threats, but it works for most things lower on the scale. Alternatively, said NPC has an irrational fear of what is otherwise a low level threat because of something that happened to them when they were weak - see Goblin Slayer’s Sword Maiden, and her crippling anxiety towards goblins despite having _killed a demon lord_ that was basically a Balor or Pit Fiend and its armies because she was captured and brutally raped and had her eyes burned by goblins when she was a girl. When someone opens a portal to the goblins’ world beneath the city she presides over, she has to have a bunch of low level adventurers come and clear out the goblins, but she had to think up some _other_ excuse for it so no one finds out her secret. She knows if everyone found out the great and mighty Sword Maiden were afraid of a few ‘pathetic’ goblins, then her reputation would be completely ruined. Another thing to consider is the political angle. This can be on a personal, local, the national, international or even planar scale as needed. High level NPCs are often - though not always - involved or dragged into the politics of wherever they preside just from the simple fact that they have so much power and people pay attention to that. The high level NPCs (hereafter called... Pillars I guess) could be rivals or bitter enemies for various reasons, which prevents them from moving as freely as they like. Depending on their levels, they might all have access to magic or items that prevent divination from working on them, so they need other people to do the legwork to figure out what’s going on and do smaller jobs while they keep up a strong front for their opponents. (Edit: If a pillar doesn’t work with others, it bites them. Often. Try presenting a pillar acting on his own that might actually be more of a hindrance/problem than helpful. He takes care of one of the goblin camps the PCs are after and his rivals screw him over in his absence and/or it causes the goblins to scatter, which makes tracking them down a big pain in the butt - or attracts the attention of something/someone nastier because they’re after the pillar.) On the local scale, the pillars might be the presiding mayor or lord that was gifted his position as a sort of retirement reward for previous heroism and one of his rivals is a criminal operating in the area. He can’t just sally forth to clear out the goblins preying on the area because they might provide the criminal a distraction enabling him to steal something or beak into somewhere - or to kill someone the lord cares about. The lord’s reputation might already be in a precarious place because he slipped up one or more times already. The same works in reverse: the criminal is strong, but has to think about how he moves, so he uses weaker minions and lieutenants to act in his stead to keep the lord from figuring out where he is or what his endgame might be. Think about possible motivations for these pillars and why they might be at odds one with another or refuse to work together. Power dynamics can do a lot to prevent pillars from just fixing everything. Another thing to consider is simply that the Pillars have bigger problems to worry about - somewhat related to the above. Yes, the oncoming horde of orcs might seem like it’s really important, but there’s also potentially unrelated powerful cultists working in the shadows to summon an avatar of their evil god or the servants of an extraplanar being setting up a gateway for a much larger and devastating catastrophe that they’re busy preventing. This can also pull the much-needed double-duty of seeding future possible adventures at higher level. Another possibility that might seem kind of lazy... the pillar just might not care. Sometimes people work hard to achieve a certain level of power, but once they get it, they become lazy or apathetic to things they deem beneath them. The local wizard capable of casting 9th level magic doesn’t care about the goblins because he’s only interested in his research and it’s trivially easy for him to just pick up shop and go somewhere else. Like across the world. Or to his private demiplane where no one can bother him (which he might decide to do if people pester him enough). The fighter capable of slaying a dragon might not consider it worth the effort to kill goblins and he’s seeking more worthy prey. Another possibility is that the pillar has some kind of injury or other weakness that prevents them from acting (something not easily fixed by magic). A powerful curse or serious injury that can’t be healed. Maybe there’s a pillar with the knowledge of high level magic but they’ve lost their power somehow and can’t cast magic above x-level (or at all) anymore. They need to raise up others in their stead, and can only provide their knowledge or experience in lieu of strength. Maybe they’ve fallen into a crippling depression from past failures and can’t bring themselves to try anymore and the PCs’ actions could become the catalyst to shake them out of it later down the line for higher levels where they become ally - or alternatively make them even more bitter and turn them into an enemy out of spite. People are messy and won’t always do what you think is logical or obvious. Just because they _can_ solve the world’s problems doesn’t mean they will.
Hey, I was wondering if you could cover Mordekainen's Magnificent Mansion. I wanted to know the specifics of placing traps in the mansion to turn it into a sort of Dungeon to trap my enemies in, and if home brewing a way to keep creatures in the mansion after the 24 hours to, say, have friendly creatures like animated dead to defend the mansion as part of the Dungeon would be fair or not. What do you guys think?
If the traps make sense and are navigatable by the beings that live in there. The undead can be outfitted with tower shields and longspears in groups of four to hallways 10 ft wide. Unless intelligent undead then utilize odd abilities like walking through walls and crawling on walls.
In my world, the gods are long gone. No one knows why they left, but most gather that it had something to do with the fact that the moon fractured. Also, a huge piece of the moon fell in the middle of the continent the PCs are in, and created a sort of "radioactive zone" that very few dare to enter. Moreover, the fractured moon is still orbiting the planet, but it has an erratic influence over it. Seasons are not consistent, oceanic currents are disjointed, and once in a while, a current of salty water flows inland, killing crops and salinizing the soil, while also bringing some of the deep sea inhabitants to the riverside. Magic in the wold is a connection with an underlying "force" (sort of like Jedis) but this impredictability and the disrupting influence of the piece of moon make it much more difficult than usual to become a magic user. Druids are almost non-existant, as the natural balance has been broken, and wizards cannot approach the force logically because of how erratic it is. Warlocks have it easier, because as there are no gods, several powerful entities are attempting to take control of the continent and offer this "easy magic" to those that are willing to help them. Surprisingly, there are plenty of bards, and the chaos in the world seems to agree with being channeled through music. Sorcerers are not uncommon at all, but they are usually quite limited in their talents, as their link with the force usually comes out of intuition and necessity, so a skilled hammerhand might develop a good control of the spell "mage hand" or a prominent weaver might learn "mending" just by sheer force of will and practice.
My world is a bit like a mix between Japan (an isolated island on which many relatively small factions fights for the power) and Australia (used to be a prison a long time ago for a far continent). My world used to be a prison for generations of people who used to be sent there. Since science of history isn't a thing, no one remember that fact. Magic is not necessary rare but religious people convinced the other people that using magic is pretentious and would angry the gods, therefore it's illegal.
I am thinking about desert world, with some jungles, marshes and so on. Everything except cold north, but dominated by deserts, something like Nehekhara banged with Lustria from Warhammer. Big city states ruled by genasi caste, ban on arcane magic and god worship, since nature is everything they revere, since they are pretty much it´s elements. On the other hand smaller, but more numerous enclaves of human-ish cities with god worshiping, divine magic and so on, while arcane casters are in this like middle ground, to some degree tolerated by both sides. Dwarfs are in imagine of beduins, making long trade routes, due to their resilience, elves are raiders, big emphasis on yuan-ti, semi high fantasy, with extremely rare and valuable flying ships. I just hope it´s not lame as it seems as I am typing this.
in my world... 2/3rd of the world is ruled by an orc society in a very roman esque style, with orc's on top. the other 1/3rd is ruled by a triumvirate of chromatic dragons (White, blue and green) that wiped out all of the red & blacks (and all of the metallics are in hiding). it's a cruel cruel world :P
That brings up the interesting question of Judeo-Christian themes in a D&D game. I can and have included versions of real world religions, including christianity, in my campaigns - the Prime Material and all its fathomless planets and galaxies are but a marble at the core of a gyroscope of Upper and Lower realms connected by bands of Astral magic, contained in a bubble of Reality that's floating in the seas of the Far Realm. In that way, I leave leeway to laser focus on what we use, but still draw on whatever else I need. Such as a Life Domain Cleric who worships a little-known God from faraway lands called Jesus for my passionately Christian friend to play, as requested by him. :)
My D&D world is a modern sort of postapocalyptic cyberpunk setting with superheroes. It is a world that was ruined rather than saved due to the existence of superheroes, as they are typically not friendly neighbourhood vigilantes, but more likely mercenaries or enforcers/spokespeople for shady governments, businesses or paramilitry organizations, as much integrated into society as they are likely to operate outside its rules. The world is populated mostly by humans, but more or less noticable physical mutations are common amongst superheroes, and a small number are even secretly of extraterrestiral or extraplanar origin (which allows the use of D&Ds many non-human races). The general population is typically at least weary of mutants and aliens, openly hostile in certain places, but may also be highly approving of ones who manage to maintain a positive public image (usually through connections to influencial organizations). Civilization is basically at the stage of the mid-1980's-to-mid-1990's, although technology is at least a century ahead of that time, due to reverse-engineered alien technology. The political landscape is notably different too, as both the USA and USSR have become fractured and the newly formed nations separated by lawless and monster-infested wastelands. While there are many religions, there are no gods that interact directly with mortals. The closest are mysterious eldritch spirits that no one really understands and a pair of extraplanar demigods - one good, one evil - that barely anyone knows about while they secretly manipulate people and events in a "game" over the fate of the world. Wizards and Clerics are not normally playable and spellcasters are generally encouraged to follow certain themes with the spells they take, because in this setting you can't simply read a book or pray to a diety to learn spellcasting. Rather you had to be exposed to wild magic. So unless your starting class gets spellcasting (Sorcerer, Bard, Warlock, Artificer, Paladin, Ranger, Arcance Trickster or Eldritch Knight) you can only unlock that ability by leveling up in a wild magic zone, or by multiclassing into Warlock.
This is gonna be a long comment, so buckle up...
I have to say thank you to Monty and Kelly and everyone else who contributes to this awesome channel. Not only is this video very timely for me personally (I'm running a session 0 for my upcoming Ghosts of Saltmarsh/Lovcraftian campaign this Saturday) but this channel has something different to offer than most other channels: You guys are TEACHERS.
Whenever I run into someone who wants to start playing D&D or who wants to be a better player, I always recommend this channel. You've made it your aim to educate more than pontificate or spout opinions. You come across as genuinely interested in everyone's success with D&D, and not as if you were doing anything by rote. You've had a positive effect on me and others I know by your solid work. Thanks again, and rock on Dudes!
Thank you! All the best on your new campaign!
Dungeon Dudes! I just wrapped up Waterdeep Dragon heist using all the tips, tricks and tutorials you guys have been putting out on RUclips, and I want to say a huge thanks. So much of your advice was invaluable and it led to my party (size varying from 4 to 12! ) having an absolute blast. We had the "filler" downtime session last night where they bought some goodies and did the tenday downtime period stuff, and I hooked them with a 2 session long side mission before Dungeon of the Mad Mage Begins.
Once again, thanks for everything you do for the D&D community. You helped inspire me, and reignite my passion when I was suffering from DM burnout, and taught me to get less hung up on the word-for-word following of the module and instead trust my own creativity. I learned a lot from you guys, so keep up the great work!
Thank you! So glad to hear your campaign is going well! Hope you have a wonderful time in Undermountian!
I had an idea for a floating Island world. The Original world was destroyed by a cataclism and the last resort of the strongest wizards of that time was to send pieces of the earth into the sky;
Years have passed and people don't realise that the bottom world has become viable again but is crawling with monsters. I'd let my players be pioneers in the new world. Just to discover that they are not alone as they think.
Sound nice! :)
So you mean you’re playing Wall-e?
Inspired by the 100 tv show?
Sounds like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
They should eat clouds
One of my favorites is to mess with Dwarfs. I make them seafaring raiders like the ancient vikings.
My dwarves did the classic "dug to deep" and freed a imprisoned devil, now they all have a SOUL debt that must be paid by there 150th name day, this has forced the dwarves into the slave trade. If they don't pay there debt in time the devil takes their soul and they are transformed into the Duegar (Soulless Dwarves)
My Orcs are seafaring vikings, and not evil per se
I made them former humans that were slave miners forced into labor camps by evil wizards. They had to mine magical ore for generations. That magical ore did nasty things with their DNA. Lack of food and brutal labor demands also did not help. Now, they are all twisted in strange ways and suffer from gruesome diseases. They are small and lack in bodily strenght. But they are nearly immune to all form of magic because their body has accumulated all that magical ore.
I did this as well by making what I call "The Plank Heart Dwarves"
I made them a more technologically advanced culture deep in the mountains or underground. Sort of like a steam punk vibe while the rest of the world is more of a classic fantasy setting.
The unique thing in my game is the tensions between the various races. Specifically, the long lifespans of Elves and Dwarves compared to the Humans, Orcs, and other such things led to a series of conflicts between the races. The current campaign is taking place a mere 600 years after a Dynasty of Elves was overthrown in a bloody rebellion.
One of the core conflicts of this campaign is that the Crown Prince of that dynasty is still alive, and wants to reclaim the throne, meanwhile to the humans of the world almost feel that it’s ancient history.
Love these videos. So many channels make it feel like you're being lectured to in a Uni class where as this channel gets the best practical advice and info across while making it feel like a conversation with friends in my living room.
Top notch as always gents! My world is literally the Earth we all know. The idea is that our world ended a long time ago and the world that is in the game is what emerged. When I was a kid I used to watch Thundarr the Barbarian and that's where the idea came from. My players started out at level 1 in what is Kansas. Lots of farmland and lots of open spaces to explore. My maps tend to me regional so no one has put this all together yet. Currently, the players are on Hawaii. It's now one big island and called The Isle of Fire. My world involves all the races in D&D and if a player wants to play, say a Tibaxi, then we just include it. Eventually, someone may run across an artifact that seems out of place. Maybe a calcified/fossilized computer or other item totally out of place. Eventually, I may create a world that is really another planet, land mass, or whatever but for now, it's fun playing on what is basically our ruined/rebuilt world. All the best guys!
My D&D world is unique because I write the world setting as the PCs interact with the world and the PCs change it.
I can start every group in the same place and no 2 groups will ever be in the same place at level 3.
If someone was looking to incorporate a MIB style organization in a traditional DnD setting then you can look to the Invisible Library series, where the protagonists are transdimensional librarian spies who hop between worlds to maintain the balance between order and chaos. So your players for example could jump from Greyhawk to Eberron to Dark Sun in a single campaign while being just as mysterious and dangerous to each individual settings NPCs as the MIB can be to our world.
I really like the men in black DnD concept or the hellboy concept.
I've stuck with the same setting since the 80s and it was very vanilla to start with but after all this time of on and off playing the player created world history is at the top. I would say that when you step too far from the norms, especially with new players, a DM has to explain a lot more background to reinforce a new or unique idea. At one point I gave about 15 players a nation to run in a world war for a specific campaign - that created a lot of history in a short period of time.
Why can I only like once!!
14:50 You just described World of Darkness. If you didn't try it yet, I STRONGLY recommend it. Tons of fun.
I think a great tool to crib is from the original Eberron sourcebook, where it leads with a "10 things to remember" section. I do this for my own campaign handouts, and it really helps distill down for players what makes the setting special and what their characters would know right off the bat.
I had an Arabian knights desert world with theocratic ruling genies. The genies communed directly with the overpowers and granted all magic powers. (Cleric, paladin, sorcery, wizardry, and bards ). All other magics didn't exist. (Druidism, warlocks, monks,) I then had the idea that one day the genies and 10% of the worlds population disappear.
I was watching the great HBO series The Leftovers. Now everyone left in the world is trying to figure out how to get the genies back and why they left. The overpowers never talk to mortals directly so they're no help. It's a year after the departure, and all these cults are springing up with new magics (Druid, warlocks, monks) while all the old magic orders can't recruit any more.
The players are trying to figure out the biggest mystery ever all the while having adventures. The world is changing and they have to make sense of it.
Dungeon Dudes!!!
I could watch you guys every week. How fortuitous you have weekly videos. It’s like you do it on purpose. :-)
My world goes up to lvl 25 and has up to lvl 12 spells, and is set very early in the world (its like 500yrs old). Gods and demi-gods abound, anything lvl 18 and up has serious effects on the structure and geography of the world. My main motivation was that in every single fantasy story I could ever imagine, the setting is centuries or millennia after some cataclysmic event born out of the hubris of the greatest society the world has seen (Valeria, for example). I thus decided that my world setting IS this ancient era of greatness, and inevitably my players will participate in godly wars that work as the campaign-ending cataclysm.
I then plan to follow-up in this world with another campaign 2000years or smtin later, and at this point my players will not only be familiar with the lore, but will have been the center of it!
Good fantasy books to draw from:
The Dwarves series - Markus Heitz
Hyperion series - Dan Simmons
The Lotus wars series - Jay Kristoff
Chakraborty’s City of Brass series
Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera and Dresden Files
A Sorcerer’s Treason - Sarah Zettel
The Demon Cycle - Peter Brett
Behemoth series - Peter Watts (warning, heavier sci fi and difficult reading sometimes)
Just to get someone started. I recommend everything I have listed, having read all of them
When you were describing the secret society thing, I immediately thought of the hunters (i.e. the Winchesters) in Supernatural.
I really love your points here. This is what I love about being a Dungeon Master is creating worlds filled with the familiar unknown. Great video guys. I truly find your videos inspiring, I can see you pour your soul and passion to D&D and I really appreciate that! It must be great to play a session with you guys. Thank you for all of your tips, and for making me feel I'm growing like a DM.
I took this one change approach with my most recent campaign setting. That change: there is a plague like the black death. It's non-magical, but the infection rate is faster than the paladins, clerics and druids can cast lesser restoration.
An other tips for world building in D&D that worked well for me is simply take some spells and classes and see how i can integrate them in my world lore. For example, i take the sorcerer and i was thinking "So this dudes are born with magic. What if most of sorcerers are literally made by noble house and rich family. With arranged marriage, experiment, control of their lineage... They can create powerful heir with incredible magic gift". And this simple idea became a central motif in my BBEG backstory. You can has well use this tips for house rules. In my seating, consuming magic food or elixir can drive people mad, so i adapt this in my world. In Rodania (the kingdom where my campaign happen), there is tone of resources so this rule doesn't change a lot of things. BUT, for the kingdom in the south (who is in the desert), people try to use magic to subtend themself but this drive half of the population mad. So this kingdom has now a fear of magic and prefer religious spell caster like cleric or paladin. This inevitably created conflict between them and the kingdom of Rodania (who are extremely magic based with most noble being sorcerer). With just two idea, half of my world was made, so check what D&D already offer you and make it your by changing some stuff and interpreting thing. Sorry if my english is bad, i'm french.
Hey guys :) sorry, but Conan is not post acopalytic, but pre-historical :) A suggestion for post apocalyptic fantasy would be the Shannara Stories by Tery Brooks.
Norbert Mösl: I can understand your confusion, but you are incorrect.
First, the setting of the Conan series feels more post-apocalyptic than the Shanarra series. The feeling of a setting is usually more important for characters in a campaign setting than technicalities.
Second, Mako’s speech at the beginning of the first Conan movie makes it clear that it is a post-apocalyptic world:
“Between the time that the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an age I dreamed of...”
The sinking of Atlantis was an apocalypse and the world of Conan is post-apocalyptic, and more technologically primitive. They are still trying to regain the knowledge of how to make steel, for example.
Obviously, the Conan movies are different than the books. They are all in the same post-apocalyptic setting, however.
Does that make sense?
you are totally right abaout Atlantis an being an apocalypse. I didn't think abaout that point of view.
And you are right about the feeling of Conan. But for me the Shannara Stories are more "fantastic" than Conan and with their fantastic races it is easier to take inspiration for standard D&D from them.
And the novel "Antrax" offers a great inspiration of finding relics of the old high technology pre-apocalyptic times :)
I’m running a pathfinder campaign so not necessarily 5e but my world is a battle of gods and each god has a “remnant” that they embody from time to time and in the middle of the gods war a time breach blew open by “one of my players backstory” so now it’s a battle of gods from all periods of time
Using the “slightly different approach” and “one Change”
I’m working on a Magic and Machine Guns 5e campaign that is set in Eberron. “Modern” Guns (Examples found in DMG) are just another off shoot from the Great War. Said war is comparable to WW1 or 2.
So Guns were created similar to warforged. And due to magical means to aid construction, They had a faster evolution than on Earth. So all the other Eberron tech and lore is there, like dragonmarks. But things like spells are designed to combat with and against Firearms (a spell that points at a gun and jams it). Some classes have slight changes (Example: Deflect missiles works on grenades or auto fire) But i am not reinventing then.
Now the party does their questing and they may need to Breech a kobold lair, but similar to Vietnam and faerun, the kobolds have tons of tunnels and traps... but now they also have dynamite (IEDs) at their disposal. Goblins that are suicide bombers. Beholders envision themselves with Armored Hides making them a bullet resistant laser tank. Assassin Snipers with poison bullets etc.
Hey guys, what I think that makes my world special is mostly two things: the first is that im creating it through the campaign as long as the players advance (they have to get to a city and i've created the whole road to it and the city itself waiting for them); and also that my world has 8 big capital cities that after 5200 years of the last era the people are starting to explore the world because they are afraid of leaving them.
Is there a lot of wandering monsters that prevent expansion outside the reach of cities? Do they have routes that need to be studied in order to make roads safer to travel for the odd adventurer/messenger going to other cities?
Good thing to know I'm not the onyl grown man really into Moana
Im literally wanting to set my players to the sea just so i can make they find a island who is basically Moto Nui
Who knows, maybe someday I manage to do it
When you talked about how you can tell a really compelling, interesting story with a cool campaign in a generic sort of world, I thought: “and vice verse.”
You can make a really interesting campaign world and come up with some really interesting stuff, and still play a by-the-numbers, rote D&D campaign. Which could be ok, but can also trip you up as a DM.
The key is to find that good balance, like you mention in the video-a balance between player expectations, what they can relate to, and new/cool innovations and surprises.
Excellent point!
I have an idea for a small island in which the culture lives underground while keeping the above wild lands lush and untamed. The underground cityscape is a juxtaposition from the above ground, being a burgeoning cityscape full of neon lights, metallic decor with vines and water dripping from above. People keep tabs on the population of savage beasts above and hunt ceremonially.
Thanks you two for your great content!
I'm currently playing a game that's centered around the idea of dealing with the aftermath of continental civil war/a World War I in a fantasy/steampunk setting. I love to see how my players are negotiating for labour rights, or try and build up their own smuggling enterprises. And once there's peace, there will always be need for soldiers and explorers on the frontier!
2 videos just make me cry ❤️ i’m creating right now a low magic settings caused by a bloody war happened in the past which showed how Magic can me lethal and dangerous. I took inspiration a lot from Horizon zero dawn and i’m surprised u just mention it into the video 😁
While I totally agree with you guys on the notion that the PCs are on a significantly different level than the rest of the populace and that the villains should be yet another level above them, I do think there’s a perfectly good reason for worlds like Faerun to have low-level PCs who don’t get helped out by the Dragon Knights of Tyr or whatever, and that reason is power tiers. I personally think that this is a very simple concept, low level PCs handle the more mundane stuff because there are a lot of mundane dangers and a lot of mundane local heroes, high level PCs will handle the rarer, but more dangerous threats because there are less high level characters, and epic level NPCs each has their own problem that keeps them occupied. The circle of master wizards has to keep watch over a rift in reality that’s connected to the elemental chaos and must constantly set up barriers to keep that dangerous energy at bay. The paladins and clerics of the Brotherhood of Divine Light has to constantly combat the fiends that emerge from the Abyssal Gate that they have been trying to close for centuries. The Dragon Knights of Tyr is fighting a thousand-year war against the Chromatic Horde of Tiamat, an alliance of chromatic dragons and evil Tiamat worshipping cults. With everything going on like this, the character’s quest of stopping a human sacrificing cult or the slave trade ring in this one town or region seems hardly worthy of note, but if the low tier heroes don’t step up then the sheer amount of low tier threats will still overwhelm the world.
Absolutely right, and of course a similar situation with power tiers is a big part of something they brought up in another example, the marvel superhero universe. Just taking examples from what's in the movies and tv shows, you have Daredevil and Luke Cage pummeling bad guys on the streets of New York, while on the other end of the spectrum characters like Thor and Doctor Strange are dealing with threats on a level that ordinary humans couldn't even begin to understand.
Dave K exactly, and the reason why Thor or Stark or the Captain couldn’t help when Daredevil or the Punisher are in a tough spot is because they’ve got bigger things to worry about.
A general lesson to take from this. Its ok to use the things you enjoy as reference and inspiration. All artists and creators do this in one way or another. Every great artist and creator was inspired by a great artist of before.
6:37 this is what I did with my first world. It was a combo of Divyath Fyr’s corpusarium from Morrowind and the menagerie from Rick and Morty, a mad king storing all sorts of esoteric monsters in an inescapable dungeon he lets adventurers plunder just to watch them struggle against the challenges and creatures within
A theory of mine: look at all D&D material, form a solid foundation setting(rules, class and race limitations, etc.), then sift through the mountain of resources from the current and past iterations of D&D, and piece together what works for you and your campaign. Some like parts of 5E Eberon, but prefer other parts of 3/3.5 Eberon. I say take the parts you like from one, and work them into the other. It puts a great deal more homework on the DM/GM, but from what I understand, being a DM/GM requires a great deal of dedication anyway. Ultimately, the goal is, I think, for all involved to genuinely have fun together, as they all(the DM/GM included)journey through an entertaining story.☺
But, I could be wrong.
My capital cities and multicultural hubs can usually be compared to the Imperial City frim Oblivion, circular and separated into districts like spokes in a wheel. How they're organized, however does vary quite a bit more as well as whether there's an arena or theater district.
My world doesn't have metals. But near everything that we know metal used for is made of glass. Untill recently the only glass know was volcanic glass and the expeditions to get this from the slopes of volcanoes was quite profitable. That is until the discovery of artificial glass, made from sand and other natural components. So, My world has plenty of active volcanoes, artificers to make glass items solid and strong enough to be on par with metal although not as flexible. There is no blown glass, but it can be shaped with stone into bowl and goblet like shapes.
One neat aspect of my D&D worlds is how magic items are made: they BECOME magic through the heroic acts of the PCs, or heroes long past. My friend's roguish bard who had a ghost lover will see his rapier turn magic, with +1 and the ability to flicker into the ethereal plane after a successful attack , for example!
Rick Riordan’s writings also fits for secret society
Another post-apocalyptic books that are also fantasy are The Wheel of Time series by Jordan, and the Death Gate Cycle from Weis and Hickman... love both of these series... I particularly like the uniqueness of the Death Gate Cycle books... I highly recommend these 7 books
World of Darkness / chronicles of darkness is a great exemple of the secret fantastic world, I run campaign like Harry Potter and Men in Black in those system, I really miss something like that in DnD.
I imagine y'all get suggestions for videos all the time but you should do one on running large scale battles...................ALL HAIL THE RAT PRINCE!!!!
I hope i'm not out of place here but you should check out Matt Colville's take on that called Stronghold's and Followers, I think.
I'll give that a shot
i have a world, the Lands in the West, wich is actually a western fantasy setting. Dwarfs are the People from the East, and they are the ones responsable for inventions like the train or, in Samarel Coltar's case, the revolver. on the other hand, there are elves, wich are the people who lives atuned with nature. gnomes, halflings and humans are stucked in between. it's really fun, and i love it.
My campaign world. Our world, with Atlantis as the central civilization. Mashed with Stephen king's dark Tower. Atlantis replaced the tower in terms of the towers function. And is a city in the sky
What makes it unique? Trick question? Uuuhh... the players? Is that the answer?
Jk. I'm loving two uploads in a day, by you guys
The Talamasca in The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice is an awesome organization that hunts and takes notes on "mythological" beings. The Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko os fantastic, too. I love The Night and Day watches
Sergej😍 Awesome Storys!
Try out Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora!!!
@@merficvalmar4671 It makes me happy when people know of Sergei's works.
I'll try out Lynch. I've heard of him before, but haven't checked it out
Around 18 minutes when discussing the power level of the party vs. enemy vs. everyone else... Remember that nearly all stories have a superpower of some sort that either can’t interfere of chooses not to directly help. Who says regular people are not the same? For one example, Everyday Joe does not want to risk his life or family by standing up to the evil. What makes the party? They actually have the desire to make things right. The motivation to do so is what makes them special. There are no superpowers in Die Hard. I did not mean this to be a soapbox moment. ... This video gave me some sweet ideas to flesh out my mini-campaign. Thank you.
City of Mist is a great system for the whole "reality isn't what it seems to be" trope
My current game has an ancient benevolent Red dragon that rules a continent
Ars Magica was the "magic secretly behind the scenes of historical earth" type of fantasy setting, very much like the Dudes described. I'm not sure if its still being published.
I kind of love how you guys can't come up with bad ideas if you try. It's adorable.
Speaking of moana I was trying to make tamatoa in dnd 5e. I was thinking of using the dragon turtle as a base but with some crabby appendages
Take two things and mash them together... Supernatural & Blues Brothers. Jake and Elwood Blues traveling around the country, dive bar to dive bar, saving people from demons and vampires with the power of soul. They're on a mission from God.
There are no polymorphing lettuce leaves in the book "A Wrinkle In Time". It's a good book, even if its preaching is a little too heavy-handed.
I thought this was a really useful vid for DMs. And I also thought this crystallized why Drakkenheim is such a good campaign world. You two should really consider putting it out as a purchasable setting, now that you are already playtesting the heck out of it.
My setting is essentially one piece and berserk with portal trees.
How I made the world in my current D&D game unique: What if Druids were evil in this setting and driven to destroying civilization, and how can I make magic something of a everyday thing in the world? Turned out I found a way to make the two related, and it did gave the world a sense of continuity as well as proving that the All Powerful Druids were capable of making mistakes that could be exploited.
my pantheon system for my setting i took inspiration from Guardians of the Galaxy, Steven universe and Elder Scrolls, and mashed those together, the main god in my setting that created all of the lesser gods was literally a sentient ball of light that diffracted her power in to the colors of the rainbow, creating lesser gods whos colors grant different aspects of nature, laws, and physics
A unique world twist is to have a material world without magic, and the dream world with magic. Then characters can move between the worlds. And there can be influences between the worlds. People who die in the material world will move on to exist in the dream world. They may not know that they are dead and in the dream world, such that when others fly, they will not understand how that is happening. Then characters can die in the dream world and pass onto a higher thought world, which has different forms of magic and influences the lower two worlds. Ultimately a character can die to these 3 worlds and move into superconsciousness. If they can go there consciously, they will experience the highest magic.
I have modified Beast stat blocks so the characters will always be as afraid of things like tigers, crocodiles, rattle snakes, ect. as their players would be, my basic rule is "every single enemy should be able to apply status conditions"
Steampunk post-apocalyptic Zombie pirates in space... So steampunk Reavers?
It has every climate and terrain wrapped into one supercontinent. We have a giant volcano surround by a dessert, a vast ocean with one or two large islands and a couple small ones, and a gigantic mountain range. This might be to much, but I want to have ALL the environments together. The backstory of this is that an evil druid who wanted to end all civilization gathered four more to open giant portals from the elemental planes, having their magic rewrite geography. It's undecided if the campaign should take place during or after this
My D&D world is unique because the entire game is actually an AI simulation in our real world’s future. The AI is testing out changes to fundamental physics and turns out one of those changes created magic and Beholders within the simulation.
In the simulation, there’s a portal in the sky that acts as a wormhole between simulated worlds and spits out monsters, dinosaurs, fighter jets, George Washington. Anything at random, but most things don’t leave the area of the portal, which is super dangerous. And there are sometimes glitches throughout the world.
The campaign, if we ever get to level 20, will end with the PC’s becoming self aware and attempting to exit the digital program before the researcher shuts off the CPU for the night. The whole campaign takes place in 1 “irl” hour in the mind of a super computer.
So the world is like the Matrix meets time travel meets lord of the rings.
This is fascinating and I love it.
I'm currently building the world of Ornenfell, a physically massive landscape with a load of rising political powers. The thing is instead of using gods that already exist, I allowed each of my player to make one, and am filling out the rest of the pantheon as I go. Currently, they've just finished a power struggle in which Sathona, a god of trickery, just duped Aldor the god of order into blowing up a large chunk of a continent. Now Aldor is trying to atone by building small heaven on earth kind of thing while the demon god in the group is planting a magic item he made all around the area being rebuilt and planes on turning it into a hellscape. Its chaos to try and mediate but at the same time I can add random plot hooks (one country just split into three after it pulled a ww2 Germany and started a war on three fronts, triggered by Raziel, my other trickster god) and its become like a mini-game over my discord server.
Great video. Sometimes just changing one thing can have a huge ripple effect, such as the nature of magic between Dark Sun and Forgotten Realms. Speaking of which, could you guys touch on psionics in a future video? Why is it that this class gets little love and is there a way to make them a viable player class? The unearthed arcana make them seem convoluted.
Psionics is a different system that could work better in pathfinder or 3.5 edition. Could be thought of as a mana system that is older than arcane magic. Otherwise the spheres of power alternate system can be built for it.
My players. Very litterally. Anything they do ripples into all future campaigns. Its a simple world based on A few diffrent worlds I enjoy. But Mostly true to DnD lore while having its own twists and artifacts. But the players are the most important factor
I think there's something to take in considerations, the culture you're playing D&D in. Obviously for western European people Knights wears platemail, but what about Horus paladin or a Maori warrior ? i mean you shouldn't consider originality and creativity only, but where you fetch ideas from and adapt the game to it. Setting and players in a colorful adaptation of fantasy, and i mean poly-cultural makes awesome modules or campaign. It may sounds cliché but the cannibal halflings, jungle dark elves and lizardfolk populate some indonesia style jungles is a real treat :) I agree that you shouldn't deny what's known, but it's ok to turn things around a bit, adapt things. I gave my Maori fighter player Unarmored Defense and he can get some fun magical tattoos. I learned a alot young myself exploring new lands and mythology just for the purpose of DMing some exotic campaign. I like Tomb of Annihilation setting for exactly that.
If you gents like fantasy worlds based on Earth, I'm curious if you've even given 7th Sea a try? Based in 17th century Europe, with the myths and legends of many of the nations coming to life. As for D&D, my favorite homebrew world was inspired by a sliver of something from Tolkien, the idea that at one point Elves, Dwarves and Humans were much closer but some event tore them apart. I twisted that 180 and thought, what if they were close but some terrible event caused them to unite together In a grand empire, somewhat similar to Rome? Evil forces were trying to undo the fledgling nation, as our heroes stood together to save the Republic. Worked pretty well for a lot of stories.
You guys should totally have 166k subs
IM PLAYING A STEAMPUNK PIRATE CAMPAIGN RIGHT NOW AND ITS SO FUN
I am currently planning a Campaign based almost exactly off aeverquest aonline Adventures (the Playstation MMO)
Loved the video. I'm about to start an evil campaign for some egar players. Do you all have any Advice or ideas you two have?would also live a video based on evil campaigns. There are plenty of videos about players but not enough about campaigns
As a writer and dm I have created hundreds of worlds for my players. To keep things interesting I use portals to connect some of them and accasionally drop players into a new world hey are not familiar with and have them work through adapting to their new world. Creating along with the world dozens of new races and creatures for them to interact with. Since several of my players are veteran players I prevent meteaming by throwing something new for them to face.
"taking one moment in history and putting it in a fantasy setting"
Shadow hearts 2 does this to SPECTACULAR effect. It takes place during ww2, but there's magic and demons and all kinds of cool shit.
"It's a real world but all the myths are true and the players are the defense force." So like The Adventure Zone: Amnesty.
There is no good side. Only good choices. Simple, but I like it.
And the world has to offer choices. Factions players normally wouldn't think about joining, but in my world they will get the offer. And joining the faction will change the entire story and encounters. Wanna be a part of the Rotting Host and join the ranks of Nurghuls chosen? Do you want to serve the black Dragon Oceiros in the Chaos Wastes? Or help the Dark Elf Empire topple the Human Empire and its allies? Go ahead and make your choice. Oh, you wanna join Vecna? Yeah! Go ahead and do that. :)
Living Factions that allow for joining is the most important in my opinion. Belonging to a tribe is important for human beings. Use that psychology. And make the characters prove themselves among those factions ranks.
What makes my world unique, no gods, if it has a stat block it exists in the world somewhere. For example, Tiamat isn't a god but is the ancient progenitor of the Chromatic Dragons and she is currently sealed away, done { by powerful magic in the ancient past} under a huge lava plain. The Golden Tyrant (a gold half dragon dracolich) is currently trying to free her.
I am so glad you guys are doing good! Can't wait til you hit 100k subs!
My world originally started out with the idea that Humans never existed because none of the gods bothered to create them. there were several problems with this idea that I couldn't solve, though, so I had to significantly alter things to the point that humans once DID exist, but were in small pockets of civilization so isolated and small that no one living had ever seen a human. This eventually morphed into a more bog standard idea where humans DO exist, as normal, but were forced to abandon their home continent for new lands after the fall of their greatest empire, Massadoria. Now I have a entire nation that has a shoot on sight order for humans, which explains why no humans are or have been seen there.
One of my favorite fantasy worlds ever is...Drakkenheim. Seriously!
Thank you!
i don't usually make my dnd campaigns on earth, but rather a different world that's very similar to earth
I think what makes my world unique is that it's set in a world that recently lost it's only queen, so it's largely lawless and dangerous
What if I mash dungeons together with dragons?
Like, a quasi megadungeon that's housed in an ancient dragon corpse/sleeping body?
Edit: or a series of gargantuan dragons linked together human centipede style
Wow. it was supposed to be a joke, but this sounds awesome!
@@ComicSams48 and have every dragondungeon be themed over their various colors/elements
@@melissablankenburgh1645 yes! Like, simple idea that could be much better, but really powered up fire elementals in the heart of the red dragon's corpse that might make your players think the dragon's breath still breathes
The best world building ever is the OnrPiece world don’t @ me.
Something I’ve been considering is having a world where planar travel is more common, and having the mid to late game twist be to play with the idea of an Omniverse.
Easiest way to explain the Omniverse is with Marvel. 616 is the universe. The other universes make up the multiverse. Beings that reside outside the multiverse like the Beyonders are part of the Megaverse. DC comics, the Golden Girls, The Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and all other intellectual properties not owned by Marvel are part of the Omniverse. The Phoenix Force is an Omniversal Entity, who’s power is equal to the sum total of all life that is, was, and will be in the Omniverse and every universe has a perfect host to wield all of the Phoenix Force’s Power in that universe. Just imaging if the BBEG was one of those perfect hosts.
In conclusion, the players start off thinking that they can theoretically access everything there is to access by planar travel. And then they learn they’re just one multiverse in the Omniverse and there are threats existing out there that they have no idea about.
Dungeon Dudes: So, how is you campaign world unique!
Me: So my campaign takes place in a Sengoku Jidai style fantasy world (based of Feudal Japan) where all the players are various Yokai who are outlaws with three different samurai clans. Also the main villian is a Shinigami that is pretty much the side effect of hundreds of years of samurai war, and there is only one dragon in the campaign, who is pretty much a god. So I think I am doing pretty good.
If possible could they do one about Sleight of Hand? I feel its a skill that a lot try to take advantage but don't really know what true actions its capable of.
Iridescent spiders spread from your fingers crawl across her flesh some bore into her flesh shifting her broken bones into place. the other's legs sew themselves pulling the side's to gather.She shutters she is healed.
“If there’s a bunch of high level NPCs, why don’t they fix the world’s problems?”
Something to remember is that your NPCs are still people. Sometimes people get burned out. The adventuring life is hard, and it’s easy to imagine someone even at high level deciding they’ve had enough. This might be harder to justify for world-ending threats, but it works for most things lower on the scale. Alternatively, said NPC has an irrational fear of what is otherwise a low level threat because of something that happened to them when they were weak - see Goblin Slayer’s Sword Maiden, and her crippling anxiety towards goblins despite having _killed a demon lord_ that was basically a Balor or Pit Fiend and its armies because she was captured and brutally raped and had her eyes burned by goblins when she was a girl. When someone opens a portal to the goblins’ world beneath the city she presides over, she has to have a bunch of low level adventurers come and clear out the goblins, but she had to think up some _other_ excuse for it so no one finds out her secret. She knows if everyone found out the great and mighty Sword Maiden were afraid of a few ‘pathetic’ goblins, then her reputation would be completely ruined.
Another thing to consider is the political angle. This can be on a personal, local, the national, international or even planar scale as needed. High level NPCs are often - though not always - involved or dragged into the politics of wherever they preside just from the simple fact that they have so much power and people pay attention to that. The high level NPCs (hereafter called... Pillars I guess) could be rivals or bitter enemies for various reasons, which prevents them from moving as freely as they like. Depending on their levels, they might all have access to magic or items that prevent divination from working on them, so they need other people to do the legwork to figure out what’s going on and do smaller jobs while they keep up a strong front for their opponents. (Edit: If a pillar doesn’t work with others, it bites them. Often. Try presenting a pillar acting on his own that might actually be more of a hindrance/problem than helpful. He takes care of one of the goblin camps the PCs are after and his rivals screw him over in his absence and/or it causes the goblins to scatter, which makes tracking them down a big pain in the butt - or attracts the attention of something/someone nastier because they’re after the pillar.) On the local scale, the pillars might be the presiding mayor or lord that was gifted his position as a sort of retirement reward for previous heroism and one of his rivals is a criminal operating in the area. He can’t just sally forth to clear out the goblins preying on the area because they might provide the criminal a distraction enabling him to steal something or beak into somewhere - or to kill someone the lord cares about. The lord’s reputation might already be in a precarious place because he slipped up one or more times already. The same works in reverse: the criminal is strong, but has to think about how he moves, so he uses weaker minions and lieutenants to act in his stead to keep the lord from figuring out where he is or what his endgame might be. Think about possible motivations for these pillars and why they might be at odds one with another or refuse to work together. Power dynamics can do a lot to prevent pillars from just fixing everything.
Another thing to consider is simply that the Pillars have bigger problems to worry about - somewhat related to the above. Yes, the oncoming horde of orcs might seem like it’s really important, but there’s also potentially unrelated powerful cultists working in the shadows to summon an avatar of their evil god or the servants of an extraplanar being setting up a gateway for a much larger and devastating catastrophe that they’re busy preventing. This can also pull the much-needed double-duty of seeding future possible adventures at higher level.
Another possibility that might seem kind of lazy... the pillar just might not care. Sometimes people work hard to achieve a certain level of power, but once they get it, they become lazy or apathetic to things they deem beneath them. The local wizard capable of casting 9th level magic doesn’t care about the goblins because he’s only interested in his research and it’s trivially easy for him to just pick up shop and go somewhere else. Like across the world. Or to his private demiplane where no one can bother him (which he might decide to do if people pester him enough). The fighter capable of slaying a dragon might not consider it worth the effort to kill goblins and he’s seeking more worthy prey.
Another possibility is that the pillar has some kind of injury or other weakness that prevents them from acting (something not easily fixed by magic). A powerful curse or serious injury that can’t be healed. Maybe there’s a pillar with the knowledge of high level magic but they’ve lost their power somehow and can’t cast magic above x-level (or at all) anymore. They need to raise up others in their stead, and can only provide their knowledge or experience in lieu of strength. Maybe they’ve fallen into a crippling depression from past failures and can’t bring themselves to try anymore and the PCs’ actions could become the catalyst to shake them out of it later down the line for higher levels where they become ally - or alternatively make them even more bitter and turn them into an enemy out of spite.
People are messy and won’t always do what you think is logical or obvious. Just because they _can_ solve the world’s problems doesn’t mean they will.
Good points but you might want to add a spoiler alert for Goblin Slayer.
Hey, I was wondering if you could cover Mordekainen's Magnificent Mansion. I wanted to know the specifics of placing traps in the mansion to turn it into a sort of Dungeon to trap my enemies in, and if home brewing a way to keep creatures in the mansion after the 24 hours to, say, have friendly creatures like animated dead to defend the mansion as part of the Dungeon would be fair or not. What do you guys think?
If the traps make sense and are navigatable by the beings that live in there. The undead can be outfitted with tower shields and longspears in groups of four to hallways 10 ft wide. Unless intelligent undead then utilize odd abilities like walking through walls and crawling on walls.
In my world, the gods are long gone. No one knows why they left, but most gather that it had something to do with the fact that the moon fractured.
Also, a huge piece of the moon fell in the middle of the continent the PCs are in, and created a sort of "radioactive zone" that very few dare to enter.
Moreover, the fractured moon is still orbiting the planet, but it has an erratic influence over it. Seasons are not consistent, oceanic currents are disjointed, and once in a while, a current of salty water flows inland, killing crops and salinizing the soil, while also bringing some of the deep sea inhabitants to the riverside.
Magic in the wold is a connection with an underlying "force" (sort of like Jedis) but this impredictability and the disrupting influence of the piece of moon make it much more difficult than usual to become a magic user. Druids are almost non-existant, as the natural balance has been broken, and wizards cannot approach the force logically because of how erratic it is.
Warlocks have it easier, because as there are no gods, several powerful entities are attempting to take control of the continent and offer this "easy magic" to those that are willing to help them.
Surprisingly, there are plenty of bards, and the chaos in the world seems to agree with being channeled through music.
Sorcerers are not uncommon at all, but they are usually quite limited in their talents, as their link with the force usually comes out of intuition and necessity, so a skilled hammerhand might develop a good control of the spell "mage hand" or a prominent weaver might learn "mending" just by sheer force of will and practice.
My world is a bit like a mix between Japan (an isolated island on which many relatively small factions fights for the power) and Australia (used to be a prison a long time ago for a far continent). My world used to be a prison for generations of people who used to be sent there. Since science of history isn't a thing, no one remember that fact.
Magic is not necessary rare but religious people convinced the other people that using magic is pretentious and would angry the gods, therefore it's illegal.
I am thinking about desert world, with some jungles, marshes and so on. Everything except cold north, but dominated by deserts, something like Nehekhara banged with Lustria from Warhammer. Big city states ruled by genasi caste, ban on arcane magic and god worship, since nature is everything they revere, since they are pretty much it´s elements. On the other hand smaller, but more numerous enclaves of human-ish cities with god worshiping, divine magic and so on, while arcane casters are in this like middle ground, to some degree tolerated by both sides.
Dwarfs are in imagine of beduins, making long trade routes, due to their resilience, elves are raiders, big emphasis on yuan-ti, semi high fantasy, with extremely rare and valuable flying ships.
I just hope it´s not lame as it seems as I am typing this.
in my world... 2/3rd of the world is ruled by an orc society in a very roman esque style, with orc's on top. the other 1/3rd is ruled by a triumvirate of chromatic dragons (White, blue and green) that wiped out all of the red & blacks (and all of the metallics are in hiding). it's a cruel cruel world :P
I love how you guys just unintentionally said that season 8 of Game of Thrones sucks balls.😜
I am currently work on some story lines set in a distopian Daniel tigers neighborhood. Spoiler,. trollie has legendary actions...
My world is unique because it's like Steel Ball Run but with relics of dragon gods instead of Jesus Christ.
That brings up the interesting question of Judeo-Christian themes in a D&D game. I can and have included versions of real world religions, including christianity, in my campaigns - the Prime Material and all its fathomless planets and galaxies are but a marble at the core of a gyroscope of Upper and Lower realms connected by bands of Astral magic, contained in a bubble of Reality that's floating in the seas of the Far Realm. In that way, I leave leeway to laser focus on what we use, but still draw on whatever else I need. Such as a Life Domain Cleric who worships a little-known God from faraway lands called Jesus for my passionately Christian friend to play, as requested by him. :)
15:35 - Sooooo... Van Helsing? (the Hugh Jackman one).
Geoff DeWitt You say that like there is another important Van Helsing. 😂
My D&D world is a modern sort of postapocalyptic cyberpunk setting with superheroes. It is a world that was ruined rather than saved due to the existence of superheroes, as they are typically not friendly neighbourhood vigilantes, but more likely mercenaries or enforcers/spokespeople for shady governments, businesses or paramilitry organizations, as much integrated into society as they are likely to operate outside its rules.
The world is populated mostly by humans, but more or less noticable physical mutations are common amongst superheroes, and a small number are even secretly of extraterrestiral or extraplanar origin (which allows the use of D&Ds many non-human races). The general population is typically at least weary of mutants and aliens, openly hostile in certain places, but may also be highly approving of ones who manage to maintain a positive public image (usually through connections to influencial organizations).
Civilization is basically at the stage of the mid-1980's-to-mid-1990's, although technology is at least a century ahead of that time, due to reverse-engineered alien technology. The political landscape is notably different too, as both the USA and USSR have become fractured and the newly formed nations separated by lawless and monster-infested wastelands.
While there are many religions, there are no gods that interact directly with mortals. The closest are mysterious eldritch spirits that no one really understands and a pair of extraplanar demigods - one good, one evil - that barely anyone knows about while they secretly manipulate people and events in a "game" over the fate of the world.
Wizards and Clerics are not normally playable and spellcasters are generally encouraged to follow certain themes with the spells they take, because in this setting you can't simply read a book or pray to a diety to learn spellcasting. Rather you had to be exposed to wild magic. So unless your starting class gets spellcasting (Sorcerer, Bard, Warlock, Artificer, Paladin, Ranger, Arcance Trickster or Eldritch Knight) you can only unlock that ability by leveling up in a wild magic zone, or by multiclassing into Warlock.
Mortal Kombat is literally Enter the Dragon x Escape from New York
Steam punk post-apocalyptic pirated in space is just Disney's Treasure Planet. Ok, maybe the post-apocalyptic is forced there, but it's close enough