LetsBuild5e:Questions

Currently voting

How many languages are spoken in the local area?

1: Just the common tongue, which is spoken everywhere for a long way around.
2: A widespread common tongue plus a handful of major racial languages.
3: A fairly widespread common tongue, and some other cultural languages
4: A widespread common tongue, some cultural languages, and some racial languages
5: A language for every one or two nations
6: A language for every one or two nations, and several racial languages

What is the prevailing climate at the starting location?

Following the Köppen-Geiger system, with five main bands, each with several sub-options:

A: Tropical (rainforest, monsoon, or savanna)
B: Dry (desert or semi-arid, each of which can be either hot or cold)
C: Temperate (humid subtropical, highland subtropical, temperate oceanic, or subpolar oceanic)
D: Continental (Mediterranean, humid, or subarctic)
E: Polar/Alpine (Tundra or ice cap)

Open for discussion

What's the basic government system in the starting nation?

(Question from the DM and Mr the Geoff)

1. Monarchy - government by a single autocrat for life, selected by a constitutional rule (at least in theory)
2. Oligarchy - government by the heads of powerful families
3. Plutocracy - government by guilds and business interests
4. Theocracy - run by the priesthood of one or many churches
5. Rebel state - run on an ad hoc basis by the citizens who overthrew the previous government
6. Direct democracy - Government by direct vote, with franchise restricted by financial, social, or practical criteria
7. Republic - Government by elected representatives (with no guarantee that the franchise is equal or fair, of course)
8. Martial law - Government by military leader(s) in place of a suspended civilian government
9. Gerontocracy - The eldest members of each family govern by committee
10. Magocracy - run by one of the powerful mage guilds

Coming soon

Which languages are which?

Format to be decided once we've voted on the number and variety of languages.

What climate subtype and special features affect the starting area?

Format to be determined by the choice of major climate zone.

What's the exact political setup in the starting nation?

Format to be determined by the choice of government system.

Do all the player races actually get on ok with each other?

(Question from Mr The Geoff)

1: mainly yes but some (half orcs, tieflings) are mistrusted a bit
2: One or two races are really xenophobic, the rest get on fine (Elves? Dragonborn? halflings?)
3: something in the setting's history makes one of the player races outcast that you wouldn't expect (gnomes used to be enslaved, they rebelled and are now the enemies of the other races)
4: Something in the past leads to a big rivalry between a couple of races (eg Elven heroes destroyed the last true dragons, now Dragonborn and elves hate each other)

Coming later

How much ideological difference is there on this world?

(Question from Yadal)

1: Almost none: Everybody has the same basic ideas of how things should be done, or everything is very clearly Good v.s Evil. This would be like a typical feudal state or fantasy setting, but limits opportunities.
2: Live and Let Live: There are a lot of well known differences in the world, and plenty of anatagonism and debate but a fundamental unity of enough assumptions (except for maybe the cliched Evil) to keep things working. A good comparison would be the Left v.s Right political differences in a typical modern Nation State.
3: Major differences: This would involve two or more ideologies with differences comparable to Capitalism and Communism, or the French Revolution v.s traditionalist conservatives. Basic assumptions are shared (like the equality of women in one case, or the existence of fundamentally different nationalities in the other) but ideologies are nonetheless opposed.
4: Radical: Ideological difference level of two or more ideologies is more like United States v.s ISIS, with comprehension difficulties accordingly. Not necessarily factions which are ISIS evil, but ones which share almost no basic assumptions.

How long-settled is the region?

(Question from Kelly Pedersen)

1: It's a wild frontier, being inhabited for the very first time. Adventures in the area are heavily weighted towards exploration and dealing with wilderness threats.
1b: As above, except that it's a frontier being re-settled after a very long period of being uninhabited. Adventures like the above, but with a salting of "exploring ancient ruins" and "figuring out why the region wasn't settled before."
2: The region has been settled for a few generations, but the frontier is still close by. Adventures can involve exploration and wilderness threats, but they also feature the growth and development of society and the interactions between communities.
3: The region was settled many generations ago, and is far from any frontier. Adventures usually involve the interactions between well-established communities, with feuds, old grudges, long-standing alliances, and known quantities featuring heavily.
4: The region is a cradle of civilization of the overall area, with settlement stretching back to the beginning. Adventures can involve interactions between established communities, but these relationships are so stable at this point that the outcomes of conflicts is often pre-ordained. Many adventures will instead involve exploring various relics of civilization - the tombs, fallen temples, or burned palaces of those who have gone before.

What is the campaign's starting level?

(Question from Metal Fatigue)

A: 1: I like the full zero-to-hero experience, and don't mind how squishy 5e chars can be at first level
B: 3: I like zero-to-hero but let's start with our archetypes picked out and slightly less squishy
C: 6: It's the next triangular number after 1 and 3, and also a good midrange level
D: Something higher

What's the nearest large city like?

(Question by Unka Josh)

1: A military base left behind from a great war, its civil officers all bearing honorary military ranks, its mayor called a "General" despite having no military command, its fashions based around imitating mail and plate with cloth.
2: A floating city formed out of a vast armada all chained together, with different neighborhoods formed by ships of a style of a given nation.
3: A city built out over the Tallest Tree in the World. Living in its shadow is a slum of exiles from the city; refuse from the city above rains down on them, and they live in perpetual shadow.
4: The Bonehunter City, built next to a chasm that's full of the stony bones of long-dead animals no one has seen before. Scholars and necromancers are constantly digging more of these bones, or paying workers to do the digging for them... or paying adventurers to steal prize specimens from each other.