Build a srd minimalist setting for fun!

[Particle_Man]

Now that the 5.1 srd is protected via cc, I was wondering what a minimalist setting would be like.

Imagine a world with only the pantheons listed in the srd, one that is so dominated by religion that *all* PCs begin as acolytes. One where grappling is highly emphasized and made a point of pride (not everyone has this feat but there are no other feats). One where all clerics are clerics of life, all sorcerous are draconic, all dwarves are hill dwarves and all humans are standard humans (I guess the bonus feat for variant humans is not as big a deal anyhow), all warlocks make a pact with the fiend (I guess it gives something for the evil gods to do since all clerics are clerics of life), etc.

Basically stick as close to the srd as possible and build the world based on that.

What would such a setting be like? What would you do with it?

I could see a world of acolytes that talk up their faith even as they trash-talk their opponents, wrestling style. Wrestling and holy causes would go together on this world like peanut butter and chocolate!

[Chronos]

I'm not precisely sure what your goal, here, is, because what you're describing is a lot more restricted than the SRD.

[Rukelnikov]

I'm not precisely sure what your goal, here, is, because what you're describing is a lot more restricted than the SRD.

I think his premise is that, since Acolyte is the only "listed" background every PC is an acolyte, same with "all clerics are life clerics", since that's the only sub, etc.

I know this is not the case in the SRD since those are only examples, you are expected to create your own stuff, those are examples.

[KorvinStarmast]

It says this in the SRD:

Customizing a Background
To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds. {oops, there is only one} You can either use the equipment package from your background or spend coin on gear as described in the equipment section. (If you spend coin, you can’t also take the equipment package suggested for your class.) Finally, choose two personality traits, one ideal, one bond, and one flaw. If you can’t find a feature that matches your desired background, work with your GM to create one.

That's right out of the PHB but since there are no other backgrounds, the 'work with your GM' becomes an imperative. It's not that hard to do.


Now that the 5.1 srd is protected via cc, I was wondering what a minimalist setting would be like. The setting isn't tied to the SRD, though.

Imagine a world with only the pantheons listed in the srd, one that is so dominated by religion that *all* PCs begin as acolytes. That is not necessary. See above.


Basically stick as close to the srd as possible and build the world based on that.
What would such a setting be like? What would you do with it? It could be any fantasy world at all. And if you are really clever, and use the free Basic Rules, you can find more backgrounds to adapt from. :smallwink: In a given fantasy world, if all of your PC
Bards are Lore bards
Barbarians are Beserkers
Clerics are Life Domain
Druids are Circle of the land
Fighters are Champions
Monks are Open Hand
Paladins are Devotion
Rangers are Hunters
Rogues are Thieves
Sorcerers are Draconic
Wizards are Evokers
Warlocks have fiend Patrons

and the only mosters you use are in the SRD (and in the basic rules?)

It works. A friend asked me back in 2017 if he could play D&D for free, and if he liked it he could buy some of the books. I pointed him to free Basic Rules (Player) Free basic rules (DM), and the SRD. That was enough material to run a game (he had played AD&D years ago but had not played the game for a long time) through 9th level with his group. (Teens, I think). He made it a standard dungeon crawl, since that was the simplest way to do it, and it allowed him to build his dungeon, and his world, a little bit at a time while they played. He would occasionally call me with question. All of his old minis, maps, figs, and modules were usable, but he had to adapt the encounter thing a bit which is where the Basic Rules DM was very helpful for him.

I could see a world of acolytes that talk up their faith even as they trash-talk their opponents, wrestling style. Wrestling and holy causes would go together on this world like peanut butter and chocolate!
The game would be featless, for the most part, unless the DM came up with feats other than grappler. That's fine, the featless game works.
Acolyte need not be everyone's background. As I noted above, you can make any background from two skills and two languages/tool proficiencies, and a feature that your DM and you come up with. 10 gold and few items, and Bob's your uncle.

[Rukelnikov]

Bards are Lore bards
Barbarians are Beserkers
Clerics are Life Domain
Druids are Circle of the land
Fighters are Champions
Monks are Open Hand
Paladins are Devotion
Rangers are Hunters
Rogues are Thieves
Sorcerers are Draconic
Wizards are Evokers
Warlocks have fiend Patrons

For some reason I can't help but think of the Mystara Arcade videogames, it feels like a very tropy parody/homage adventure could really blossom in such a setting (maybe early Slayers type comedy).

[kazaryu]

I'm not precisely sure what your goal, here, is, because what you're describing is a lot more restricted than the SRD. he literally explained his goal...creating a setting based on the things exclusively available in the SRD...


It says this in the SRD:


That's right out of the PHB but since there are no other backgrounds, the 'work with your GM' becomes an imperative. It's not that hard to do.

The setting isn't tied to the SRD, though.


OP isn't suggesting that its impossible to create more backgrounds, or feats, or anyting of the sort...they're suggesting a setting where the only background available is acolyte. period. they're talking about building a setting that is implied by the relative lack of options in the SRD.



For the OP, obviously this is something that i can't build out over night, but as you suggest, this setting would definitely be one where religion has a major influence. although i would note that just because all clerics are life domain, doesn't mean that all clerics are good. Theres no reason an evil God couldn't off healing powers. However, unless you're exclusively running evil campaigns, obviously PC would still need access ot the life domain (or clerics would need to be banned...which is anti-fun. hmmm. I think for the cosmology i kinda like the idea of life being a spectrum. life domain is expanded to include aspects of death. Death becomes just...the end of life rather than a domain all its own.

and While there's whole pantheon of god's, the only domain that directly interacts with mortals *is* the life domain. The other god's exert their influence through other means and other creatures. But thats all high level stuff that'd take more time to think about and create.

so first of all, politics. To me this setting feels much more grimdark, more gritty. No major cities, instead the the land is generally dominated by vast wilderness filled with danger, and evil. with the occasional small-medium sized town with strong religous centers. each town independent of the others, not all theocracies, but all of them dependent on their religious orders to keep...something at bay.

For the wilderness i like the idea that its an active antagonist. from a historical perspective we pick up semi-post apocalypse. the reason for the strong religious requirements is that without them protecting a town, that town will be consumed by some evil. Trade occurs, but is typically done in larger caravans, so as to make the requisite rather large protection force worthwhile. From some perspectives It can be safer for smaller groups of individuals to travel, less likely to be noticed, However should they be noticed they're in far greater danger. noticed by what? idk, im coming up with this on the fly. But the idea is for a built in reason for random encounters. Meanwhile, as i said this is semi-post apocalypse. at one time there were large cities, tombs, deep dark places...ya know, dungeons. But with the rise of..whatever evil...

perhaps there's even an environmental component. i.e. being outside of town is toxic in some way, and if whatever the towns religious order is doing to keep it at bay collapses. Its only a matter of time before the town does too...one obvious result of this could be people being turned into monsters...so collapsed towns could, themselves, become dungeons to explore.

anyway, with the rise of whatever evil, the big cities just weren't sustainable. and if there is an environmental component, and its something that only divine magic is capable of driving back, it makes sense that anyone planning to spend and extended period of time outside of town (i.e. PC's) would need to have a religious connection...hence, acolytes.

[Psyren]

You can start purely with the SRD and then come up with your own setting - see Solasta for example

[Particle_Man]

he literally explained his goal...creating a setting based on the things exclusively available in the SRD...



OP isn't suggesting that its impossible to create more backgrounds, or feats, or anyting of the sort...they're suggesting a setting where the only background available is acolyte. period. they're talking about building a setting that is implied by the relative lack of options in the SRD.



For the OP, obviously this is something that i can't build out over night, but as you suggest, this setting would definitely be one where religion has a major influence. although i would note that just because all clerics are life domain, doesn't mean that all clerics are good. Theres no reason an evil God couldn't off healing powers. However, unless you're exclusively running evil campaigns, obviously PC would still need access ot the life domain (or clerics would need to be banned...which is anti-fun. hmmm. I think for the cosmology i kinda like the idea of life being a spectrum. life domain is expanded to include aspects of death. Death becomes just...the end of life rather than a domain all its own.

and While there's whole pantheon of god's, the only domain that directly interacts with mortals *is* the life domain. The other god's exert their influence through other means and other creatures. But thats all high level stuff that'd take more time to think about and create.

so first of all, politics. To me this setting feels much more grimdark, more gritty. No major cities, instead the the land is generally dominated by vast wilderness filled with danger, and evil. with the occasional small-medium sized town with strong religous centers. each town independent of the others, not all theocracies, but all of them dependent on their religious orders to keep...something at bay.

For the wilderness i like the idea that its an active antagonist. from a historical perspective we pick up semi-post apocalypse. the reason for the strong religious requirements is that without them protecting a town, that town will be consumed by some evil. Trade occurs, but is typically done in larger caravans, so as to make the requisite rather large protection force worthwhile. From some perspectives It can be safer for smaller groups of individuals to travel, less likely to be noticed, However should they be noticed they're in far greater danger. noticed by what? idk, im coming up with this on the fly. But the idea is for a built in reason for random encounters. Meanwhile, as i said this is semi-post apocalypse. at one time there were large cities, tombs, deep dark places...ya know, dungeons. But with the rise of..whatever evil...

perhaps there's even an environmental component. i.e. being outside of town is toxic in some way, and if whatever the towns religious order is doing to keep it at bay collapses. Its only a matter of time before the town does too...one obvious result of this could be people being turned into monsters...so collapsed towns could, themselves, become dungeons to explore.

anyway, with the rise of whatever evil, the big cities just weren't sustainable. and if there is an environmental component, and its something that only divine magic is capable of driving back, it makes sense that anyone planning to spend and extended period of time outside of town (i.e. PC's) would need to have a religious connection...hence, acolytes.

This is the sort of thing I was looking for. Very cool idea!

[Chronos]

OK, clearly the SRD isn't what I thought it was, because the things I see on sites labeled as the SRD contain a lot more than that... Does anyone have a convenient link?

[kazaryu]

OK, clearly the SRD isn't what I thought it was, because the things I see on sites labeled as the SRD contain a lot more than that... Does anyone have a convenient link?

https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/SRD-OGL_V5.1.pdf

[Luccan]

I think we see a setting the gods are very active in or at least religion is a big part of. I imagine that instead of Clerics being the representative of all gods, each class is treated as the champion for a specific god(s). So sure, Life Clerics probably represent a deity of life and healing, but Wizards represent the god of magic, while the all draconic sorcerers represent some equivalent of Bahamut or Tiamat. You could probably cover gods of various natural phenonmena under different Land Druids. And players don't have to stick to this, your fighter could follow the church of Bahamut and your sorcerer might be a member of the Church of Healing, but any given sorcerer is probably for Bahamut or Tiamat as one of their chosen and your average Champion Fighter is probably a member of the Church of Gains or whatever.

I like the idea of referring to characters more by subclass than main class in this setting as well.

I'm also inclined to encourage reflavoring in such a setting, so that characters with the same class don't get too stale.

Wrestling (Ancient Greek, killing-your-opponent-is-technically-legal wrestling) is an extremely popular sport and may be used as the test of honor over armed duels.

[Joe the Rat]

Another take on this, Acolyte isn't the only occupation, it's the only background for Adventurers. Every adventuring team is a Temple(s)-sanctioned or supported team of trouble-shooters and explorers. Maybe it's because they have the resources to train and support such specialists, or that there's some divinely directed mission requiring this. Or you make it more campaign specific than settng specific - this is what the players, in this story, are about.

Using the "Points of Light" angle, you are reaching out to other communities after whatever depopulating disaster occurred, and dealing with the things in between. Not every faith is present in every settlement, so not everyone may necessarily benefit from the acolyte feature at every stop.

[Tawmis]

I may... or may not... have gone overboard...

So I took the SRD - and created a homebrew world inspired by this thread.
I called the world "Savage Realms of Dystopia" (get it... Savage Realms of Dystopia... SRoD... SRD...)

Created lore for the world... some history... broke down some regions...

And then left the rest of the SRD intact.

If you check it out, I'd love comments about it. Either in this thread or send me messages!

This was a fun challenge to do! (I love writing, as you can see by my signature...) So coming up with a quick "SRD Basic" world, was fun to develop without spending weeks, but rather in two days! Forcing me to be as creative as I can, with the limits before me (restricted SRD) and see what silliness I could come up with. Would have probably knocked it out in a day, if I didn't have a 9 to 5 to go to these last two days! :D

Map of Savage Realms of Dystopia (http://www.tawmis.com/srd/Map%20of%20the%20Savage%20Realms%20of%20Dystopia.p ng)
SRD PDF - With Homebrew World Content (http://www.tawmis.com/srd/Savage%20Realms%20of%20Dystopia.pdf)
The PDF and Map Zipped! (http://www.tawmis.com/srd/Savage%20Realms%20of%20Dystopia.zip)