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Kane0
2016-12-04, 08:20 PM
Hello all!

My group is collaborating on a 5e gameworld we intend to use instead of making a new mini-setting for each campaign we run and we're looking for ideas! We have the basics of deities, major factions and the like sorted so now we're looking at adding in interesting places and smaller factions to visit and encounter.

Examples I have so far:
- A large basin in the lowlands filled with toxic gas similar to that described in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?503122-Let-s-build-another-setting!-(Toxic-Seas))
- A dead magic zone where the only way to practice magic is by using mana stones from the mines below, which are the reason the dead magic zone exists (the stone absorbs ambient magic over extended periods of time, draining it from the area eventually)
- A heavily forested wilderness that features larger-than-normal life and terrain like dire creatures and giants
- An isolated island almost overrun with a substance similar to Tiberium (for those familiar with C&C), except that water dissolves and destroys it. It has mutated most life on the island but the humanoids that live there have also harnessed it to develop advanced alchemy.

Can anyone else throw in some other ideas that we can include in our world?

CovertCobalt
2016-12-06, 03:34 PM
How about an expanse of salt flats, like the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in the USA? They're immense, deadly areas that could be inhabited by wandering undead, Thri-Kreen, or other beings that flourish in desolate conditions. The reason for their formation could be a interesting point of exploration for the characters too; perhaps there has been some sort of incursion from another plane that has rendered the land salted and dead, and maybe solving that problem could make the area verdant again.

hymer
2016-12-06, 04:04 PM
Some thoughts:

A valley in an area where two mountain ranges intersect. This valley contains passes to all sides of the mountain ranges, making it strategically extremely important. It’s also a hellish place to have an army; snowy, cold, extremely windy, and even then the sun will bite you like in a desert due to the thin air.

A volcano where a huge battle between armies from the elemental planes of earth and fire fought long ago, leading to the volcano. It is now home to a red dragon, but it is still comparatively easy to get access to the two elemental planes from the area, and the two factions still send scouting forces who duke it out whenever they meet.

An area of geological activity in on otherwise cold area. The place is swampy, and crocodiles, hydras and other swampy creatures thrive there despite the cold, because of the heat in the ground. The switch between the two climates is rather sudden and can be brutal.

A buffer zone between two enemy nations, which was made uninhabitable perhaps via magic as part of a peace accord to alleviate tension. A local undead lord or necromancer has surreptitiously moved in (or has sent in a group of underlings) and is in the process of raising the many fallen in the area.

An inner sea that is quite a bit higher than sea levels around the world, so no channel can be dug between them; one area is a trade hot zone, because it is the shortest overland distance between the inner and outer seas. A huge city has sprung up, with two enormous and enormously long walls on either side of it, going from the harbor in one sea to the one in the other.

The Seven Holy Mountains, and the Sacred River that gathers from them all and flows out to sea. The area in between is home to many a monk monastery. Going into the mountains is to test your spirit and endurance, and you will encounter many strange and trying circumstances and creatures. Going down the Sacred River leads to a jungle, where life is abundant and wild, and every tree could hide a danger.

Darth Tom
2016-12-06, 05:43 PM
- An area where excessive amounts of background magic cause strange events at any moment. Introducing more magic, whether through spells or even enchanted items, is potentially disastrous.
- A demilitarised zone used to prevent an old war from restarting. Has the BBEG vanished into it or did the heroes wander in unknowing (start of a "stop the war" adventure)?
- A "justice field" a la Red Dwarf where retribution for any evil or aggressive acts is carried out automatically upon the perpetrator. In the original it's literal eye for an eye stuff, but what if the "justice" is a bit different from what the heroes expect?
- An isolated community run by a magical intelligence which is going wrong. None of the locals think its deadly commands to be the least bit out of the ordinary (yes, ok, I played Underdark Paranoia with my group a few years back. And it was excellent)
- Depending on the setting, some sort of extraplanar or merely alien "generation ship" which brings a new species to the world, unbalancing the local powers. Can the heroes help repair their ship before the continent descends into war?

Kane0
2016-12-06, 08:23 PM
Excellent! Just the kind of stuff we're looking for!

comk59
2016-12-06, 11:05 PM
One I'm avtually using very soon...

The Mountainous Ocean. Pretty much what it says on the tin, an ocean that inexplicably rises upwards. Towards the "peak" it actually becomes quite steep, and is home to flying fish and winged whales. You can have the reason be whatever you want, in my world the ocean is actually the tiniest fragment of the Elemental Plane of Water.

inuyasha
2016-12-06, 11:26 PM
Do locations that have been already detailed and thought up by other people count? Because if so, the original RPG.net thread for the City of Salt in Wounds is an amazing read, located here (https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?261519-Necro-Staff-Pick-D-amp-Dish-The-city-built-around-the-tarrasque) if you haven't seen it.

Kane0
2016-12-07, 01:15 AM
Most certainly. I would be legitimately surprised if more than 10% of what we have collectively come up with is original. I know that all my contributions have been adapted from other material.

Kol Korran
2016-12-07, 04:47 AM
Hey Kane0, some various ideas from all kind of adventures/ campaigns I ran/ plan to run, or just some ideas...

1) The Everstorm:
A perpetual storm, which is fixed to a certain location. At times it draws winds and currents towards it, and times it pushes them away. Most creatures avoid the violent storm and give it a wide berth, yet there may be some creatures who learned to live and take shelter in the Everstorm's area, some may even revere it as a divine entity. It's origin? No one really knows...

2) The Mists of the dead:
A certain area in woods/ marshes/ mountains, where at certain times of the year, grey mists arrive, for 3 days. This is a border between the land of the living, and the dead. If you know the right rituals, you may try and seek audience with a departed soul, but the process has it's risks, as some souls who may have unfinished business with you, may also seek you out there...

3) The Silent Halls:
A cursed place, where no sound comes in, and none come out. An old fort, who may have belonged to a maddened noble, who for some reason didn't want ot hear the sound of his spouse (or such), and have gone to great (And horrific) lengths to ensure this, thus cursing the entire place. It is said that though treasures and secrets still lie there, few who enter leave, and fewer still with their voices...

4) The Hunger woods:
An old place, which goblinoid tales say is attached to an old foreign force, known only as Hunger... The woods are eerily silent most times, though some animals, who seem leaner and more vicious than most animals, make it their home... But the real danger comes at night, where some of the trees transform into trolls, hungry trolls, with skin like old bark, who will seek, hunt and devour any who does not find the few ancient and hidden circles of protection, some old fey have provided... The Hunger drives the woods, and those whom they consume, become trapped there, adding more to it's trees... And it's slowly spreading... Someone has been feeding it...

5) Cliff's Edge:
Most common fantasy worlds have some sort of "savage lands/ orc lands/ bad lands", where more savage montrous humanoids roam, who make various raids, but they never really got exterminated... Pests, a threat for sure, yet some people also see profit. An ambitious half orc (Or tiefling, or a similar "seemingly monstrous" person), actually managed to barter and commerce with some of the wilder tribes, and even managed to clear a small hill top settlement, claiming it as his/ her merchant outpost. The place lies at the edge of a cliff, where the savages used to throw people into a big chasm below, as a sacrifice for their "evil spirits/ gods". (Foolish heretics, the poor souls).
This small outpost, the foremost in the badlands, quickly got other attention, not all of it wanted by it's establisher- Two churches sent small forces, one bent on the conversion of the heathen savages, one bent on using the place to explore and gather info, till they might send a bigger force to wipe out this threat once and for all. A mage with peculiar interests in the region, especially certain magical beasts, and certain very old ruins also moved in. And the ruler of the bordering land also sent his/ her representatives, to try and claim the place, officially...

In short, this is quite a small place, (I imagine up to 300 people), yet most inhabitants are fairly tough, not your average farmers. They each have their agendas, trying to control/ manipulate and exploit the situation, while there are plenty of danger and hostilies around. And hey, those evil spirits for whom the former inhabitants gave periodic sacrifices? Well, they grow hungry, and may come calling!

6) The ship's graveyard:
At some remote place, in the midst of a jungle, there is an area who seem to be full of hulls of wrecked ships... yet there is no nearby ocean, sea, or even a lake! Some of these seem fairly recent, some seem old, some seem... ancient. For some unknown reason, some ships wrecked by storms, misfortune or betrayel, end up here, in this verdant jungle, yet their halls are eeire and silent... Well, mostly silent. Some ghosts, mostly of the crew, but sometimes of the ships themselves linger here, and their voices are heard- in the skeletons, in the masts, in the sails, in the winds...
The place is quite big, and confusing (As some sort of a temporal effect lies over the place), yet there are riches and secrets to be found. Yet do not linger, for when the sun sets, some crews return, to fight the storm or the vent that created their demise, and the place links to various poor sailors fortunes, all over the world! You just might be there, for the demise of another vessel. Just hope it's not your demise as well...

All I can think of at this moment, I may have other ideas later...

red_kangaroo
2016-12-07, 05:47 AM
The Mountainous Ocean. Pretty much what it says on the tin, an ocean that inexplicably rises upwards. Towards the "peak" it actually becomes quite steep, and is home to flying fish and winged whales. You can have the reason be whatever you want, in my world the ocean is actually the tiniest fragment of the Elemental Plane of Water.

And if you sail up the Mountainous Ocean at the right time, you may enter the Sky Sea, an expanse of clouds that are solid enough to sail upon. These clouds still move over the sky and sometimes split or merge with other sky sea clouds, so you never know whether you will be able to sail down once you are up there. The clouds can support anything that would float on water, but heavier stuff sinks and eventually falls through the cloud and towards the earth. Thus cities are formed from tied-together boats, built on giant sky turtles, or constructed as huge flying fortresses.

And if you ever end up on a piece of sky sea cloud that gets caught by the Everstorm, all gods help you.

Sunken Valley
A pleasant valley full of grass, animals, groves and with a small village, that just happens to be located inside of an undersea gorge. However, a shard of the Elemental Plane of Air holds the water above the valley, giving it a canopy of ocean and a strange twilight illumination filtered through the sea water.

Stealth Marmot
2016-12-07, 10:27 AM
The problem with coming up with such interesting locations is that I would want to use them in my campaign.

Oh well, I came up with a couple for my campaign you can use:

Wide canyon with both natural and artificial land bridges that actually have downdrafts sucking air down, making the narrower bridges increasingly dangerous. On the other hand because of these down drafts, the weather on the two sides of the canyon can be radically different.

City surrounded by mountains on 3 sides, and a lake on the other. The only viable ways in are the lake or by air, and they have an air force of griffon riders who drop alchemist fire bombs on ships that try to invade.

Desert caravans who ware the only methods of necessary trade between two nations that are separated by a desert. Only they know how to successfully navigate the desert and keep trade open.

braveheart
2016-12-07, 12:42 PM
The Dragon Peek: a mountain that has a faction of peaceful dragons who conduct business and trade with the short lived mortal races. however once a century they put their young dragons through a trial to earn their citizenship. That event is about to occur


the untouchable desert: a desert that can be seen, and clearly takes up miles of space, however whenever someone tries to enter it they are instantly teleported to the other side of the desert. there are legends of great treasure from ancient cities existing within, but no one knows how to enter the land

The Great Gozama: a magitech statue that is worshiped as a god by the locals, they regularly give it animal sacrifices and it in turn improves their weather for farming, and magically heals their sick.

Bohandas
2017-01-15, 07:16 PM
a mountain shaped exactly like a tetrahedron

EDIT:
A whole range of mountains all shaped like the top halves of perfect platonic and archimedian solids. Mechanus may be impinging on the material plane.

harkle1876
2017-01-15, 08:05 PM
Personally, I feel that the Cueva de Villa Luz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueva_de_Villa_Luz) would be a fun place to use. A naturally formed acid cave that could be the nest of a black dragon, or other acid/poison resistant, or immune, creatures.

Stealth Marmot
2017-01-16, 07:51 AM
Personally, I feel that the Cueva de Villa Luz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cueva_de_Villa_Luz) would be a fun place to use. A naturally formed acid cave that could be the nest of a black dragon, or other acid/poison resistant, or immune, creatures.

Know what, watch Planet Earth and you'll end up with plenty of interesting locales.

Professor Chimp
2017-01-16, 11:02 AM
The Crystal Wastes, a desert where the sand was turned into crystal by some kind of cataclysmic magical accident caused by a massive scale mage war. Just miles of jagged glassy surfaces that crack under your footsteps, turning into razorsharp shards. Have there be a kind of 'fallout' that has all kind of unpleasant effects on anyone staying in the area for extended periods of time. Of course, these effects become more dangerous the closer you get to the epicenter. For added flavour, have the armies that fought that war still be there as eternal statues of crystal.

The Painted World, inspired by Dark Soul's version, but this one is pretty much literally painted. The world within is also timeless and unmoving, as if a moment in time was captured on paper and turned into a place, and it has weird semi-twodimensional spacial properties that are very disorienting to anyone not used to it.

Bohandas
2017-01-21, 06:12 PM
The inverted mountain: A huge pit, ditch, or valley shaped not as is usual for such things but as if somebody removed a chunk of the ground in the shape and size of a mountain

The Great Gray Spot: This is a large hurricane which hasn't let up for hundreds of years

Stephen
2017-01-22, 11:08 AM
The silent temple: a temple that sits on the top of a mountain inhabitanted by a group of monks. Nothing out of the ordinary until you get closer to the temple to find there is a zone of silence around the temple. No sound can be heard at all once inside the walls. These monks are trying to unlock the world of psionics, using telepathy to communicate.

Bohandas
2017-01-22, 08:34 PM
This article is relevant:

http://www.ragingswan.com/10-legendary-caves/

Knaight
2017-01-22, 09:26 PM
I'm assuming we're going for grandiose here, so here's some options:

The Quartz Cavern: A massive underground cavern just below a fairly thin layer of rock. It ranges from about six feet from floor to ceiling to three hundred, and is entirely filled with large quartz crystals. The larger the height the larger the crystals, with the deepest area having a single massive crystal three hundred feet high and at least fifty in diameter.
The Algal Grove: In the middle of a salt marsh is a freshwater lake, enchanted to foster growth. The top is nearly covered in algae, forming foot thick sheets that crash into each other like bergs. Below are great fish that eat the algae, and a single titanic heron. There are also three great trees in the center of the marsh, reaching towards the sky with their branches interwoven as if they were designed.
The Tidechasm: There is a great scar across a continent, a chasm that ends just before reaching the ocean. At high tide the ocean floods over the chasm, but then it all goes into a strange whirlpool, sucked away well under sea level. Where it goes nobody knows.
The Silkplains: There's a pastoral land forbidden for all to access but a handful of shepherds; any intruders are summarily killed by an enigmatic archer who styles themselves the Arrow Demon. Little is known about these grazing fields, but for whatever reason the sheep that graze upon them do not grow wool. They grow silk, short and coarse and not up to the standard of real silk, but in such bulk that whoever owns them could come into serious money. The shepherds also grow silken hair.