I thought it would make sense to provide a link to the wiki for my campaign world here, since I’ve spend a fair amount of time working on it:
http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/a-pleasant-sort-of-world/
It’s pretty boss, and is built around the following general philosophies:
1. Points of Light: I really liked the new D&D points of light idea, and my world definitely runs with that; there are a few cool settlements dotted around the world, but for the most part it’s all wilderness and crazy dangerous places!
2. Heroes Matter: The basic assumption in my world (and this is another 4th edition concept, I believe) is that the world is in rough shape, and there aren’t a lot of badass heroes to keep things together. Enter the player characters who really are the people who keep things from falling apart. When they succeed, civilization continues another day, and they are rewarded heartily for their efforts! When they fail, the consequences are muttled at best and can indeed be quite dire!
3. Magic is powerful, present, and mysterious!: My world is filled with tons of crazy magical and fantastical sites, such as a tower that extends a mile into the air, gates that literally lead into the underworld, a sea that literally boils, and a wasteland that can only be navigated by a madman. However, most of it is incomprehensible or only half understood by ordinary and even educated people. So while magic is ever present, there aren’t a lot of people who can harness it for useful goals, and those who can are often guarded with that knowledge and highly valued.
The wiki is definitely still a work in progress and I add to it whenever new stuff happens in my campaign. I also plan to add a map for the world when I get access to a scanner!
From a conversation:
Paul: i think your heightened-magic world is a really cool idea. It seems like it is the fairy-tale or feywild version of a regular D&D campaign world. And then you are like, “why not just get rid of the regular world and just keep the fairy-tale version?” Also, uf your natural world has stuff like the Boiling Sea, your feywild must be boss.
Rory: haha, that must be true! It might be that all the stuff that is in ruins in the normal world is, like, crazy and vibrant in the feywild.
Paul: Like the feywild is built on a memory or fantasy of the way things used to be, mixed with dreams.
Rory: Right, so the Fallen City probably still stands in the feywild, and it’s all made of white alabaster and has trees growing out of it and stuff.
Paul: Niiice. kind of disney kingdom. Fireworks every night… Mr. Slaad’s Wild Ride…
Google search: ‘No results found for “Mr. Slaad’s Wild Ride”.’
Much of this reminds me of Iron Heroes. The “points of light” stuff could be straight out of the IH manual, and part of the premise there is that class levels are very rare: at level 1, you’re already the biggest badass your hometown has ever produced. You better believe heroes matter.
The one thing that’s really different is that Iron Heroes is supposed to be a “low-magic” game. But within that constraint, it shares a lot of your attitude towards magic: that it’s mysterious and uncontrollable, and imperfectly understood.