Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 individuality Nov 18, 2009 19:48:59	An idea hit me the other day, and I just got around to really sitting down and thinking about it. In every D&D game I've ever played or ran, the world is a well established thing. There is language, money, law, buisiness, and civilization all over. There are maps of the world, and the surrounding cosmos. There are dozens of gods, demons, devils, and primordials. There are cities where one can find anything one could ever possibly want. Cities of thousands and tens of thousands of people. And while there is no problem with this, I began thinking "what if it were different?" What if all humanoids in the entire world could be counted in the thousands? What if there were only enough gods/devils/demons/primordials to be counted on one hand? What if civilization wasn't regrowing from a past cataclysm, but simply never existed before? In short, what if the world was brand new? In order to really fit with the minimalistic framework of this world, I need to determine what the absolute minimum of a playable D&D game is. Any lists of what you all feel is most absolutely part of core D&D would be helpful.
#2 alexanderwales218 Nov 18, 2009 20:37:01	In theory, you can do away with things for a long long time until you're past the point where it's not even recognizable as a fantasy setting.  At the very extreme, you would set your campaign in a world devoid of intelligent life, with the exception of the PCs, who have been created by a god (possibly the only god).  I actually ran a campaign like this once, which unfolded as the gods were still in the process of creating the world.  Every land the PCs visited was being seen for the first time by their eyes.  The only real problem with this is that you have to change up the treasure and dungeon-crawling aspects of the game; if there were no civilizations which came before, then there will be no tombs to plunder, no lost civilizations to encounter, no ancient evils.  D&D depends a lot on those tropes, and doing without them means reflavoring a lot of things. My current game actually comes close to this, because the concept of a kingdom is only 300 years old; before that time, city states were the highest form of government.  As the players level up, the world changes, smiths learn to make better arms and armor, mages come to understand deeper secrets of magic, etc. At the minimum, you need one race (probably humans), and zero gods.