One of the implicit assumptions of vanilla d&d is that the people are analogues to European Whites. I will retain that here but it bears mentioning that I even considered some alternative, which I would not have done a few years ago.
White European types will be a supermajority. This is the principality of Aluvia, a White country in a White region. There will be a very few demi-men and a very few nonwhites. The other races of Men in the world are East Asian analogues and North African analogues. There will be one G’harundim (North African type) in town.
I don’t anticipate any racial politics between human groups unless the players force the issue, and I don’t expect they will. I’m certainly not going to broach it. It’s just flavor. Later, the players may decide to travel to the other lands and find different cultural norms and different kinds of dungeons and wilderness.
On the Shape of the Realm
Cragstone is going to be the middle town in a three-town run along the as-yet-unnamed river. There will be significant trade along the river and the road. Therefore it makes sense to put castles nearby.
About half the six-mile hex will be farmland and half will be forest, including some dense forest. It will be hilly too, giving some verticality to the land. This helps to take the land out of the realm of a board game and into the realm of the real.
On the Landmarks of the Realm
I’m going to put a proper castle at the confluence of two rivers a little northwest of the northern town, Rithwic. I’m going to put B2 in the next hex over. Rename everything and reskin the monsters to provide a little mystery.
That gives the townspeople a defensible position within a day’s walk in either direction and provides sites for interesting adventuring opportunities.
I’m also going to put a bandit “castle” (fortified house) somewhere nearby, with a charismatic Sho (East Asian) warlord and 300 men, either north or south along the trade road. Probably two hexes away, so the patrols from one of the castles will have skirmish with the bandits. Idk how much it will come into play, but imo it’s important to prepare factions for the players to encounter as well.
Past that, there will be a ruined Septarch tower and two other dungeons in the same hex. (Septarchs are the archmages of the realm.)
On the Monsters of the Realm
As far as local monsters, I’m going to have new humanoid monsters that aren’t really new. They will be reskinned and renamed but retain the same ecology and society as the ones we all know from a million years of playing, but they will look different and act a little different, giving the same-but-different that people seem to enjoy.
Drudges are cat men who breed like crazy. The least of them are 1-HP monsters. The most powerful of them cast war spells such as lightning bolts. They are like goblins.
Tumeroks are tall grey warriors. They present kind of like romans and kind of like cavemen, and are obsessed with honor and order like Dwarves might be.
Monoguas are various colors. They have three eyes vertically in the middle of their face. Monogua eyes are prized for magic material components and potions.
I’m going to keep ogres and trolls and minotaurs as is. Kobolds, I don’t know. I may make kobolds like Doozers. Neither benign nor malign. Into mining and building underground.
Orcish is an affliction men get, similar to lycanthropy.
I might introduce Ouphes, which are a dark mirror to elves and gnomes. They are merchants, jewelers and bankers. Nepotistic and ruthless and sour and obnoxious. Rarely, Ouphes gain character levels like men do but they should not be PCs.
I’ve been and will be super busy. Regional maps to come.
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