Fantasy campaign settings - what's wrong/missing?

There are lots of published campaign settings out there. Seems pointless to make new ones that aren't new or different - or at least better in some key way. I'm curious to hear what folks think would make a new setting worth checking out. This could be a novel concept, a theme, mechanics. Could be fixing some major flaws you think most settings have. I've got an itch to build a new world, but what's the point if it's not bringing anything new or improved to the table.

The point is to have fun. There's so much material out there, you probably couldn't find your perfect setting if you wanted to. Any story we play here has been told before in some shape, but we still do it because it's entertaining. Just go for it and don't worry too much about being original

It's hard to say, but something that makes me think "Wow I'd like to play a character in this setting!" Usually it'll be a new genre or a new role. Just for examples: First, I'd love to play in a solarpunk game because I've never played something in that genre before. Second, recently I've joined a Spire: The City Must Fall game because playing a revolutionary trying to expel occupiers is not a role I've ever played before. Spire's setting is interesting, but what is really cool is allowing me to play with a completely different goal that's not your standard explore, kill, loot, grow more powerful that is the motivation for most games.

For most of my 40 years of DMing, I've almost never used an established setting. A few times I just chucked a low level game into the Forgotten Realms, because it seemed easy and I didn't care about larger issues, but almost always it's homebrewed.

Why? Primarily because it's easier. I don't want to have to learn the detailed backstories of dozens of nations, and global factions. If I do happen to use a setting, I usually find out that, no, a floating sky kingdom ruled by a benevolent lich does not make sense in Dragonlance, then have to bend over backwards trying to shoehorn my capstone idea into a crowed multiverse.

Why would I make a setting (and I've thought I should several times after putting hundreds of hours into my own homebrew notes)? I think there are those who love reading about cool settings, and don't want to spend their creative nuggets trying to name mountains.

As Qralloq said - It's easier to fit a story to a world I made then try to scroll through forgotten realms/Golarion for the right place to have this civil war/evil ruler/floating city. I am prepping a game for long in the future in Golarion (pathfinders setting) and evn then I've nicked was in lots of empty space (Stolen lands) and made up its history so I can play with some things, rather than trying to force the lore to fit my plans.

Also one of my homebrew settings, that I also want to write in, I am trying to flip the script and have completely different ancestries/races from elves dwarves etc. So it's a creative output for me.

Some people get very attached to the lore of a particular world. If you have a player that dives deeply into the content ocean of, say, Forgotten Realms, they may balk at your attempts to use iconic characters and locations. Perhaps you aren't portraying them correctly, or whatever building you've added is actually in the exact location of some other lore-relevant building and so on.

Basically, existing settings have a lot of intrinsic baggage, and some people just don't want to deal with it.

I play only in the Forgotten Realms (or FR adjacent - like Ravenloft).

What could tempt me away from that? It wouldn't be a different setting/concept/mechanic, it would be if all the people I enjoy playing with were somewhere else.

So I agree with NABO - it's just about having fun with your mates. Go for it.

I thought the ultimate GM hack was to set everything in the same city over and over again? That has to be why Greyhawk was so important in early D&D.

Kidding aside, fantasy-oriented ttrpgs are probably the most popular (I don't have any evidence to back that claim up), but I've long considered how well-known fantasy games could be oriented towards other ideas, without relying on too many cliches.

My favorite pillar of Role Playing Games is exploration. I love visiting new places with cool visuals (drawn or detailed). I will pick up a setting book or module/campaign if it's got a new and interesting vibe to it. Symbaroum and Forbidden Lands just new versions of fantasy. There's enough of a change to make them fresh.

I would like to pick up an RPG that's influenced by North/ South America. There's some really interesting myths & legends that would make for interesting games. I was looking at Coyote & Crow, but I don't know about the futuristic setting. I have to read up on it a bit more. I'm still fairly new to RPGs, so everything is new to me.

I backed Reach of the Roach God (A Thousand Thousand Islands) because that looks like nothing I've seen before. I just recently picked up the Children of Fear and I'm currently playing through Horror on the Orient Express (both Call of Cthulhu) because i want to explore Asia.

I don't know if any of this helps answer your question. You just got me thinking.

With regards to lore/canon - the best way to get around worrying about established lore is to tell the players up front - "This is my world. It looks very similar to 'X' world, but there will be inconsistencies. Nothing is canon until we confirm it at the table."

I missed the kickstarter and only glanced at a friend's pre-release version, but Nahual looks really interesting.

That looks interesting

That does look interesting. Thanks for pointing it out.

If I had it I would probably run it.

Things that would make me interested in checking out a fantasy setting:
- Lack of the ISO Standard Elves and Dwarves (and to a lesser extent other ISO Fantasy species), and/or presence of less orthodox sapient species as main playables. Partial solution: there are settings where the elves are non-ISO-compliant: Night and Blood Elves of WoW to a degree, the elves of Styx, and maaybe of Divinity Original Sin.
- If a major chunk of playable species are not even humanoid (e.g. octopodes or analogues, crows, giant intelligent arthropods, centaurs, the Myrmidons from Helas &c.).
- A setting that is fantasy but has a different technology level or era than the ISO Standard Fantasy. Probably most famous TTRPG example is the Wainscot Fantasy genre like World of Darkness and Dresden Files, and space fantasy like Star Wars; there is also Shadowrun for futuristic fantasy, but I don't like it. I would probably be interested in pulpy anachronistic 'sideways' fantasy like Carter of Mars (I did like the film, but I haven't read the RPG).
- Using a different basic civilisation as the core around which the setting is built. E.g. GURPS Fantasy 2 the Mad Lands may be undercooked, but it sure was a breath of fresh air when it comes what the core civilisation looks like. Legend of Five Rings uses a Japanese core civilisation (but I haven't read as much about it). Exalted takes a kitchen sink of core civilisations, but sure does not look like the ISO Standard West-Eurasian civilisation core. Helas, worlds of sun and stone, takes an ancient Greek core and recasts it into a space fantasy, which is absolutely wild.

Runequest is an old game but it's very much different from standard fantasy. Elves are actually plants and dwarves are actually golems. They're not generally playable, because the world is a highly mythologically soaked Bronze Age setting and PCs are assumed to be from the same clan of Hallstatt Celt-analogues. Also everyone has magical abilities, everyone, because everything is mythical. Joining cults, in the pagan sense of dedicating oneself as a priest of a god, is a normal thing for pretty much everyone. The game is very high-lethality while still allowing quite a bit of awesome.

Some high level necromancy here.




To add to the lore:

Maybe a world that isn't afraid to use things that make people uncomfortable to tell a good story? All the best stories are gut wrenching - this is called pathos.

Like Final Fantasy 6.

You know the one with slavery, genocide, and the heroes(and antiheroes) failing to the point of shattering their spirits. Where the most righteous person is an antivillain general of the evil Empire. And yet still after the whole world is literally torn asunder they find something better than hope and unite to save what remains.

It is still the best storyline of any Fantasy RPG I ever experienced.

Or probably the best design, The Outer Worlds, where killing everyone is a valid solution string. That would be fresh and not perfecrly new but only done once.

Also Mechwarrior, but stick to the Battletech lore where the Clans are the only free people in the entire universe but freedom comes with a terrible price.

Maybe finding a way to incorporate all of those things.

Hey, it was on the first page, not even buried yet.[/quote]