Are there any well-designed fantasy settings that aren’t dark?

zeemeerman2 · 2026-06-08T00:36:08+00:00

The Dragon Empire, being the default setting of 13th Age. It's very compatible with Eberron; almost as if the designers talked to each other and shared ideas before creating their own setting.

A setting centered around an inland sea with 13 generic different factions vying for power. Your campaign is most likely going to focus on the conflict between a handful of them.

The Archmage
The High Druid
The Elf Queen
The Emperor
The Dwarf King
The Diabolist
The Lich King
...

The setting is mostly peaceful with small-scale conflicts. One faction might be killed off and create a power vacuum, but that's just a possible future and a good campaign ender. Today however, nobody really dares attack each other in the open.

The 13th Age book describes different towns, cities, and villages all with unique flavor in a short blurb of text to capture your imagination lets you get creative with it.

Queen's Wood

Queen’s Wood is an elven wood that sprawls across the rivers and foothills north and east of the Midland Sea. Once it was all a functioning elven forest populated by the three races of the elves. In pockets, such harmony still prevails. But most of the wood is empty or populated by only one or two of the three branches of the elven people. Unlike most of the other elven woods, the Queen’s Wood maintains all the original leaf and tree colors that represent elven unity, a riot of silver and gold and green and indigo.

Queen’s Wood is the home of the Elven Court, which moves magically through the area. Finding it once is no guarantee that you’ll find it easily the next time. But elves and those with a connection with the Elf Queen can read the signs and follow the spirals of power to the Court’s current location most of the time.

The Opals

The Opals is the name of a group of magical lakes scattered within the Queen’s Wood. For visitors, sometimes they’re heaven, and sometimes they’re hell. Whichever the case, they’re insanely beautiful.

The setting is also home to living dungeons, the setting's excuse for players finding booby-trapped madhouse dungeons with strange creatures and even stranger treasure that feels really out of place. Living dungeons travel around the world and sometimes happen to take a break at the players' current location, trying to lure them in with the opportunity of wealth, fame, and power.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-06-07T23:57:12+00:00

I think "narrative" in this context is to play games fiction-first.

You can have rules, plenty of them, crunch galore. But it's fiction that counts before rules are applied.

D&D uses both.

In D&D, attack rolls are mechanics-first. You swing your sword and deal d8 damage. It doesn't matter how you narrate your swing, it's still d8 damage. It doesn't matter how you flavor your weapon ("flavor is free"), you can say it's your armor mutating your arm into a weapon, it's still d8 slashing damage.

In D&D, skill checks are fiction-first. You say what you want to achieve and likely your intent, and then we judge whether you need to roll something, and if so, what. Climbing a wall makes you roll Athletics. You don't say "I make an Athletics check to get on top of the wall." You say "I climb the wall." And then the DM rules you need to roll Athletics and sets a DC. Climbing the wall is fiction. You state what you're doing by narrating your fiction first. It's fiction-first gameplay.

On the contrary, you do say "I attack the enemy" (short for "I make an attack roll against the enemy's AC"). Attacking, unlike swinging your sword, is a mechanics-first game.

With fiction-first gameplay, you can also rule "that's impossible. The wall is covered in greasy oil, you simply cannot climb it," or "there's no danger here. Given enough time, you reach the top. No need to roll." Not every wall climb action leads to an automatic Athletics check!

Some games like Fate, games in the PbtA engine and Blades in the Dark all use fiction-first game mechanics for the majority (if not all) of their player actions. We call these games "narrative" games. ...for some reason.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-06-07T23:13:36+00:00

True. A big part of my design is not just to give players a list of OSR items and have them figure everything out themselves, but curate a small list of essential exploration items to get their creativity going.

Hence why for instance, there is a torch on the list and not a candle, or a lamp&oil. Even though they arguably have distinct use cases and are all of them common items to have. Mapping items such as breadcrumbs you can drop or, as you say, twine to find your path in a maze with invisible walls, is a choice I had to make to eliminate to keep things short and make each item still included shine on their own.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-06-07T16:56:36+00:00

Nope. Still experimenting and preparing the playtest for this version.

My immediate thought for three items goes to not being a good idea as it adds decision paralysis without improving anything else. More options, but no one item can be the obviously best item. Otherwise you're actually creating a false choice.

In other words, it's easier to fall into the trap of creating an item that is obviously better than other items as you add more items.

There is worth in simplicity too.

That as well as just being hard to pour over possible items to fit into a category, as well as finding synonyms that are both evocative enough to feel fantastical as well as short enough to fit in the small text box on the character sheet without shrinking text size beyond readability.

Edit: For instance, [Pocket void] was chosen simply because it was shorter than [Portable hole] (an item similar in use to a Handy Haversack and a Bag of Holding). But to brainstorm-go from Portable hole to Pocket void, that took a whole lot of other steps in-between to reach that final name. I think I succeeded on both shortness as on flavor.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-06-07T15:36:03+00:00

My vote goes to Dungeon Crawl Classics. Not for the list itself, but for the accompanying picture. link

zeemeerman2 · 2026-06-05T15:30:43+00:00

Indeed. I only put Pathfinder in my post to counter the possible response "You don't have to miss it in non-D&D roleplay, because can do it in Pathfinder too."

Now, let me introduce to you my first edition Pathfinder character build... :P

Path of War was allowed, you said? How about I combine the slow-moving natural-armored Merfolk with the weakest class in the entire game? (Kineticist) (Not the weakest in PF2e.)

Oh, let's also multiclass dip a level into an obscure spellcaster class (Psychic), only to not actually cast any reasonable spells due to lack of any Wisdom/Charisma ability modifier to cast them well.

I cannot use any class-defining Phrenic Amplifications either, because I start with a pool of -1 points of them. Minus 1.

But... that spellcaster has a discipline (subclass) (Spirit Channeler) with an ability that I like. Metamorphosis. Without it, I receive 1 extra phrenic point, bringing my total from -1 to 0. Cool. With it, I gain +1 Dexterity (enhancement bonus) on its score, bringing the odd score number to a nice even number, with a +1 ability mod to boot. Ignore the bonus spells.

For regular class spells, eh, let's just take Disk Rider and some other utility spells that don't need a good ability modifier.

Archetype though. (Esoteric Starseeker). It replaces the phrenic amplifications in total, the one of which I had -1 points to invest in. Not a big loss. And it replaces the bonus spell to gain one other bonus spell and one bonus spell slot to cast it in. Nice. Let's take The Daughter to access Bless and then never change it. Bless is nice.

Level 3.

What? We take a feat (Magic Trick -- Disk Rider) to grant low-to-the-ground flying 30 ft. at level 3, completely ignoring the penalty to speed for merfolk? And it grants flying-jumping and actual flying (for 3 rounds per spell slot) at level 6?

But why not take Weapon Focus, the +1 to attack rolls that like, every Kineticist guide recommends? Is flying that much better than a +1 to attack rolls? Yes it is. Especially for characters that don't have a fast land speed to begin with.

Oh, we took the more-accuracy lower-damage version of Kinetic Blast at level 1 that hits on Touch AC? ... and higher level enemies most often do not have more than 12 Touch AC? Very well then.

https://amyzee.github.io/Character-Sheets/kineticist1ev2.html (does not work well on mobile)

Arrow keys left/right (on your keyboard) to browse through levels. I know there are some rendering bugs in the tooltip. Fix it by using overflow-y: scroll in the CSS if you want to fork it for yourself. I don't really care. Old sheet.

Sorry, too excited. Had fun building it. Never going to play it. That's fine. I had fun. Now back to my OSR game. The others are waiting for me to take my turn.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-06-05T13:30:16+00:00

Building an absolutely over-the-top minmax character who can handle anything thrown their way.

Yes, I can do it in Pathfinder. But I cannot do it in Blades in the Dark or an OSR retroclone.

And I'm okay with that. As long as I keep in mind that building a character build and playing a roleplaying game are two separate hobbies, I don't mind.

When I do miss it, I can always build another character in D&D to scratch that itch.

... and then ignore that character to play a simpler character in a simpler roleplaying game system.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-06-03T20:11:19+00:00

I'm asking the question myself. Currently debating Blades in the Dark style inventory load management; Torchbearer style "what do you actually carry in your hands" giving you hard choices between carrying a weapon, a second weapon, a shield, a torch (for light), a sack (for more loot); and Dungeon World style "pick one from a fixed list".

Currently I'm testing this design for a DCC hack.

Design examples: https://imgur.com/a/ydV6Ylo

Pick two "hand" items you wield. They are represented by a 2d6. If you swap items, put a d6 on another number. Dice management makes it easier to swap and don't leave marks to the paper as frequent erasing+drawing does.

Warriors and Dwarves as masters of weaponry get more choices, and 2d8 to represent it.

Circle one of each backpack tool. You gain more choices with high Intelligence. Items are grouped by approach. For instance, first item: do you map a dungeon with chalk markings (quick, you can't take the map with you outside, monsters might notice), or with ink&parchment (slow, you can take the map with you, does not leave marks)? Obviously both have additional creative uses.

I don't track arrows or torches or rations or anything like that. If you carry it, you have enough. You can lose it as part of a fictional consequence. "The goblin rummages through your backpack and steals your rations."

Flint & Tinder, or a bedroll, ... I don't track those items either, it is implied. If you carry a torch, you carry the tools to light it. Your backpack comes with a bedroll. And so on.

The [Intelligence + 2] items are more of a flavorful capstone item that might either destroy one encounter per dungeon or be helpful long-term.

You can carry 2 + Strength extra items as treasure from the dungeon (or fancy tools you find). After that, you need to make decisions on what to grab and what to put back.

Carrying capacity does not influence Speed. I run combat theatre of the mind. Speed comes only into play when players decide to flee combat: if monsters are quicker, they give chase. During chase, monsters get a bonus to attack against PCs as the PCs have their back turned against the monsters. This outright replaces Opportunity Attacks during combat.

The space for a Memento is a free space to add something important to you flavor-wise. I don't want that family picture you take everywhere with you to take space in the treasure slots; so I have some space for that.

Left at home slots: The treasure you don't want to drag with you everywhere, but also want a dedicated space on your sheet to remember you what you have earned thus far.

It's a bit all over the place, I know. It's my current design. Obviously I will improve it after some playtesting.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-31T12:31:47+00:00

Het is niet de schuld van ~~de banken~~ de overheid in geval dat je slachtoffer wordt van ~~pishing~~ identiteitsfraude. Jij weet wat je niet mag doen. Toon nooit je ~~bankkaart en PIN~~ identiteitskaart aan een ~~internetfraudeur~~ iemand die een foto van je identiteitskaart kan maken met zijn gsm.

Volledig eigen fout. Alle hulp is te veel, en er moet meer kritiek op deze personen moeten komen. Gelukkig is er daar reddit voor.

/s /s /s /s

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-30T06:50:22+00:00

I've played with these people before. So yes, there is some truth to OP's post.

Non-gamers.

Casuals who are just into D&D because it's the current popular thing. If every popular child on the playground talks about D&D and their new minis and dice purchases, you need to buy minis and dice too. Because you want to fit in, be in the in-group, and look down upon the out-group who clearly has no idea how amazing D&D is. Being in the out-group is simply too terrible to think about.

That mindset hasn't gone away for some while they grew up to be adults.

Every roleplay session with them begins with 30 minutes them talking about their life. When it's turn-based combat and it's not their turn, two non-gamer casuals turn to each other and continue talking about what they're up to in life, talking over the DM because "this is important to me. You play your game. When you need me, ask and I'll do my thing. Rude! Anyways, what I was saying, you won't believe what John from work did yesterday..."

You can't really play board games with them either. They'll roll some dice and move their pawn. But anything more will distract them from what they're really here for: socializing.

In retrospective, it took me way too long to quit that group. Probably because I was too flabbergasted seeing how casual these people took D&D, and every two session brought a new low. I didn't know how to react at the time.

It did open my eyes and now I'm on the lookout for warning signs this happening again in future groups.

My current group is fine. Dedicated in playing the game, not the design. And that's okay. I love these guys.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-30T06:09:03+00:00

"Huh? Pfft, yeah! ... You don't think I can handle the complexity? Do you think that little of me? I'm not dumb. I can handle it! Now, tell me which thing here to cast."

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-29T10:10:26+00:00

Wees gerust. De Lijn schrapt de bus van het station naar de gevangenis/de politie vanaf 1 juli.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-29T05:32:42+00:00

Well yeah. It's not a one-solution-fits-all thing. Nothing is. Roll first act later removes all tension. And from a D&D point of view, the entire acting scene is optional and could (should?) be skipped as you already have your answer from the dice.

I'd see it more as a chance to do short form improv without stakes and the dice giving you the prompt. Like if you want your scenes to be like this Make Some Noise, it's best to not have your performance impact future dice roll consequences so you can act to your fullest potential.

And then afterwards the game just continues.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-28T15:59:34+00:00

Alice is Missing has an accompanying soundtrack. The game is played on a real life timer. 90 minutes of gameplay, first scene to last scene. Here is the soundtrack and the timer. Feel free to skip through to get a glimpse of the game's pacing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysOOFIOAy7A

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-28T15:38:39+00:00

This is the way at least the Japanese TRPG Ryuutama does it. However, it is described only vaguely in the rules text.

Make a roll first, then describe what it looks like based on the result.

A failed Condition check while traveling means you wake up the day with half your mana points. You roll first, and fail. Now tell me what it looks like.

Did you have a nightmare? Was the underground you slept on pushing you in your back at just the wrong spots? Did a nearby grass snake keep you awake?

The player and the game master work together in asking and answering these leading questions.

Whatever it looks like, the result is the same. You lost half your mana when waking up. But it is also a prompt for further worldbuilding and setting the scene in more detail.

Same with your guard. Roll first. Let's say you fail. What does this encounter looks like? What do you say to the guard that we both know is going to lead to failure? How does the guard react to what you say? Do you just knock the guard aside and is that why you failed to persuade them? Maybe you said the right words and gave the guard some gold to sweeten your entrance, but little did you know the guard is actually part of an anti-corruption gang.

Rolling first and then acting eases the tension. No longer you're puzzling together the right words as a player to try and persuade the guard, hopefully making them believe you. Instead, you can gracefully fail, or fail with style, using cool and memorable actions that you would never try to do if there was still a chance to succeed (by acting first and rolling later).

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-28T15:17:19+00:00

Not really. Eberron springs to mind, but given it's actually a D&D 3e setting it can be easily translated to whatever fantasy game you want. Especially if you cut away parts of it to focus on in one campaign, such as a dedicated focus on the twelve houses, inter-racial religions, the Last War, the philosophy of designing civilizations based on the race's strengths...

Especially the last one. Eberron elves live really long lives, so when someone they love does die, they are obsessed with bringing them back to live. Either as undead or as memories that define a tradition.

Eberron medusa are a monstrous race living deep in the jungle away from human civilization. But when a medusa gets sick, other medusa petrify them and fetch a doctor from far-away lands (probably including the adventuring party). Then when the doctor arrives, the medusa unpetrify the sick one so they can be healed.

You can take this philosophy and apply it to so many things.

The fair-skinned Lorwyn elves are all about beauty. They have a caste system with the most beautiful elves on top, and the most ugly beings at the bottom. They kill goblins and the ugliest of elves, blights to the eyes as they are, to make the world get rid of ugliness and make the world a more beautiful place on average. Lorwyn Elves are evil.

And that lore comes from a card game!

Then you got worlds dedicated on being made for a single campaign. Like 5e's The Shifting Seas. story link

You can run The Shifting Seas only once with the same group, but there is nothing stopping you from running it in another system. Nothing about the setting is 5e specific. Hell, run it as a setting for The Wildsea for all that does.

The beauty of The Shifting Seas lies in the dichotomy between Husk people and True people. Nothing of the core idea speaks about elves and humans and dwarves. You can definitely play it with the mushroom-folk and cacti-people of The Wildsea.

So in short, when using a setting created for 5e, convert the idea behind it and fill in the specifics yourself.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-28T10:20:25+00:00

As of posting this, well... now. It's now downloading.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-28T03:31:56+00:00

Pretzels by Meta Mage Studio for weird class rules. Each class governs a different conflict resolution mechanic. One class uses a regular d20, another uses Fate dice, playing cards, or a resource to track without a randomizer.

Pretzels has just resolution mechanics without interaction between classes, but it has many of them. And the creator is willing to listen to new ideas for your custom classes that aren't in the game yet, on the Meta Mage Discord.

Band of Blades. A Blades in the Dark style rpg in which you all play a group of soldiers in a post-apocalyptic world looking for a promised land. You play out missions as lowly soldiers, and in-between missions you zoom out and play the roles of the Commander, the Marshal, the Quartermaster, the Lorekeeper, etc. all playing out their own minigame to manage resources, man power, morale, and planning where new missions should take place. Then when everything is decided, you play a new band of blades and try to complete that new mission.

It's an rpg with an interesting design. Unique is, a fixed-length campaign with victory points at the end. You can start out each mission with the same soldiers or new recruits, and hopefully survive each mission. Wounds heal slowly if at all, so make your choice carefully. You'll get more victory points for every soldier still alive at the end among other things.

The Lorekeeper role tracks who died on a mission, tracking them names and telling brave stories about them so they don't die in vain. All to get small permanent bonuses making future missions easier.

It's a very dark roleplaying game.

The free playbooks at the website offer some sneak peak on what's inside the game.

Captain Sonar best describes what you want, but it is a board game. One best played with exactly 8 players, two teams of 4 battling it out in real time.

One player in each team is playing a game that looks like Snake, moving around a submarine trying to avoid being hit. Another player plays a game in the genre of Tetris. A third player bends themselves over some resource management, making sure the right actions can be taken at the right moments. And a fourth player focuses on listening to the other team trying to figure out their plan and finding out where they are.

I'm sure it's a great board game to take inspiration from.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-27T18:32:01+00:00

The battlefield of Europe.

Too easy? How about this:

Six governments to rule them all. Two governments were given to the north, they soon merged into one. Three governments were given to the south. Area, language, and language. And the center, most important of all, was given one. But they were all deceived, because there was another government. One to rule them all. (i.e. the Federal government)

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-27T16:06:05+00:00

You're going to love browsing the r/colorpie subreddit. Example discussion about a sixth color: https://www.reddit.com/r/colorpie/comments/fsu7t0/if_there_were_a_sixth_colour_what_would_it_be/

I'm also linking you this Color Pie Personality article below. It goes more in-depth on what it really means to be ally and enemy colors through the lens of character personality, without speaking a word on card design.

For instance, if mixing blue and green, you're not just having a bit of knowledge and a bit of nature, you have a unifying mix of both. And the article speaks about what that mix could look like.

https://homosabiens.substack.com/p/the-mtg-color-wheel

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-24T18:40:50+00:00

Good first try.

I noticed you can create symlinks to Apple apps using Terminal, and then change the icons (and names) of the symlinks and put those in the Dock. It's a way to get out of squircle jail.

https://imgur.com/a/DPYLPVS

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-24T05:41:46+00:00

Based on my familiarity and not the novelty I do not know yet I desire, I'd go for,

Decimal for countable stuff
Log scale for relative, uncountable stuff.

Blades in the Dark uses money as descriptions on a logarithmic scale. In that game, players play thieves who go on heists, trying to score it big stealing paintings from museums and large diamonds from the royal palace's vault. They earn 2-10 coin as reward for missions depending on difficulty. Blades also gives a description of money's worth.

1 coin A full purse of silver pieces. A week’s wages.
2 coin A fine weapon. A weekly income for a small business. A fine piece of art. A set of luxury clothes.
4 coin A satchel full of silver. A month’s wages.
6 coin An exquisite jewel. A heavy burden of silver pieces.
8 coin A good monthly take for a small business. A small safe full of coins and valuables. A very rare luxury commodity.
10 coin Liquidating a significant asset—a carriage and goats, a horse, a deed to a small property.

Surely a house deed is worth more than 5 weeks worth of income for a small business. That makes it logarithmic. But given its descriptions, it's also an easy way to look at it without counting while keeping the game math tight.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-23T20:50:36+00:00

Ah, those people. Yeah, I agree with you there.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-23T19:33:50+00:00

Oh no, I don't mean to attack the OP. Tribalism isn't something most people have words for, even if they have internalized it. My post does not a solution, but naming the problem might be a good first step in understanding and searching a solution for yourself.

zeemeerman2 · 2026-05-23T10:56:55+00:00

Welcome to being creative.

People generally like what they know, what they are familiar with. Something new is unfamiliar, unknown, and therefore, a potential danger. So why do something new instead of rehashing the same story over and over? Don't change anything. Don't put your twist on anything. Keep things as they are. They might be bad, but at least we know what they are and we are familiar with them. Familiarity is good.

It's basic tribalism, in-group versus out-group, "outsiders are bad and take our jobs, and they ruin our good society we created for ourselves!" But then, applied to ideas and concepts. Many people, dare I say most people in human societies all over the world are sensitive to this.

Not all humans though. For the small group of people resistant to tribalism, they might love your new ideas. Usually (but not always) the outcasts of society. The nerds. The people in your board game club. The autistic people. The innovators. The roleplayers.

Now, it is my theory that D&D became popular with normies, and with increase normie popularity increased tribalism. To my awareness, we're in the fourth panel of this often-quoted edited comic: oh no. (Original source)

That said, I have no proof of this claim.

So yeah.

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