Suggestions for small campaign world setting?

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I've toyed with doing something similar ala Path of Exile. A large island/small continent that's been turned into a prison, the PCs get shipwrecked there and must survive and decide how best to proceed (ostensibly they'd make there way across the land to the Warden's Keep on the opposite side and try to present their case for being freed, however if the PCs decided to become warlords in the prison I'd go that route as well).

Another vote for the Path of Exile approach. It could allow for "towns" of differing prisoner factions. Plenty of room for conflict there.

Originally Posted by Daigoro

There are also some Dungeon Fantasy supplements that give a limited region to explore, like Hall of Judgment and Citadel at Nordvorn.

They're apparently easily adapted to regular GURPS.

Another vote for this as well. Even with the small area, there are still a lot of towns, and it's important to know that each town should have a handful of satellite villages too, which means there are a lot of settlements in spite of the small area. Though, that may be exactly what you're looking for!

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

A large mountain valley would not be absurd. The society only has to be isolated most of the time to develop on its own. If its only connection to the outside world is a high pass that clears of snow for only a month a year during high summer, it is effectively its own world. Plus, you get to have the people use the mountain slopes for forestry, hunting, and gathering which adds to effective size.

In the case, I would have the total area of the valley being 6,250 square miles. The farmed land (40% arable, 40% pasture, and 20% woodlands) is the valley and covers 1,250 square miles (20%). The forested land is the low slopes, and it is where people do gathering, hunting, and forestry, and it covers 2,500 square miles (40%). The wilderness land is the high slopes, where the adventuring takes place, and it covers 2,500 square miles (40%).

Beyond the valley are the mountains, which have an average height of three miles, and which cover 12,500 square miles. The mountains contain glaciers and lakes, which provide the valley and outer slopes with water. The outer slopes of the mountains cover 6,250 square miles and are rugged forested land, which are inhabited by monsters. The total area of the mountain range is 25,000 square miles.

Beyond the mountain range are 500 miles of arid steppe in either direction. The nomads gather at the mountain range during the height of summer, to hunt monsters, and a few of them will attempt to trade with the inhabitants of the inner valley. The nomad traders bring exotic items from dozens of kingdoms beyond the steppe, but they kind of fear the inhabitants of the valley because they live surrounded by monsters year round (not understanding that the monsters only have access to the inner valley during the height of summer, when the one pass is clear).

This is something that I'll keep in mind too. It's a good reminder that a small setting can be much larger than just the populated area.

Originally Posted by Culture20

They mostly just randomly teleported in, like new inmates. The new inmates rarely lasted long since they arrive with just clothing. There used to be golems made of adamantine in the prison which would keep the peace and dole out resources. Some people worshipped them, other people attacked them. The golems only attack inmates now, so they're best avoided.

I just realized another similar computer game reference: the Mountains of Freedom in Ultima 7 part 2

I also love this bit about the golems. It makes sense for constructs to keep peace on a prison island—because why waste precious lives watching over such a hellhole?

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Thoughts please?

My go-to for a small campaign setting is for it to be post-apocalyptic. Especially with magic, it can make plenty of sense in a low TL game. Some event, plague, whatever wiped out 99% of the population and reduced most of the area to wasteland, deadly forests, whatever filled with mutants, monsters, undead, whatever. You can have a very diverse population based on the idea that the population was very diverse before the End, and I like to make very clear-cut factions that want to restore order, prosperity, whatever to the affected region. Funny enough, this was inspired by a game very similar to Path of Exile—it was inspired by Grim Dawn. Of course, I was also very much inspired by Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and The Mercy Dolls from Pyramid #3/90: After the End. A few major factions that are a town or two with some satellite villages, a bunch of hostile wasteland, and a magical/mutated forest that lets off spores that mutate living creatures that inhale them (and most monsters are considered mutants).

For your setting, it could be a magical apocalypse, and that would explain why there aren't any magical institutions. (Dark Sun, anyone?) Keep the hostile wasteland and the magical/mutated forest to separate some of the factions and limit the area of the "known world", or, of course, you could put this on an island. It sounds like you want elves and dwarves, but it shouldn't be too hard to squeeze in orcs or halflings if you want to. I'm assuming you're stopping there, though.

Some radical elves went to live in the mutated forest, becoming mutants in the process, and now call themselves the Fae. (Or, if you want, these could be the orcs—in Tolkien's work, they are corrupted elves, so why not?) Maybe they ingest spores to communicate with the forest, maybe that makes them a hivemind. They mostly keep to themselves, but their agenda is probably to spread the forest.

Some radical dwarves live underground beneath the wastelands, believing that the surface has been tainted, including the civilizations that most believe aren't. That would put them at odds with most surface-folk, but especially the aforementioned elves. Now we have an elf-dwarf rivalry! Classic!

Humans dominate the safer parts of the surface, of course. They have a "kingdom" made of two towns and a dozen or so villages. Some elves and dwarves remained as well. In this kingdom, there is a group of people who are fighting to put magic back in a positive light. Sure, it caused the apocalypse, but that's because it wasn't understood enough. It's going to take magic to fix a problem caused by magic! If the PCs have magical gifts, they'll want to work with these underdogs, which could be really fun.

If you want to squeeze in orcs and halflings, there are plenty of ways to do it.

I'd be tempted to say that the forest mutated those elves into orcs and that something underground mutated those dwarves into trolls (while the height difference seems strange, some dwarves live underground and trolls don't like the sun, so I could see that working—if not, make them troll-like goblins). There is one big surface kingdom split into three factions. The first is mostly humans and dwarves, and they think that magic should be left behind. The second is a town of mostly humans and elves, and they think that magic should be better understood and used to fix the calamity. The third is some villages of halflings that don't really care either way, but each faction is trying to get the halflings to support their faction for the tipping point. For fun, there are also some halfling raiders—the sneaky and tricksy ones—living out in the wastelands.

[beetle496]

Originally Posted by Raekai

My go-to for a small campaign setting is for it to be post-apocalyptic. Especially with magic, it can make plenty of sense in a low TL game.

Yes, at TL3 mutations present as magic, as do high TL artifacts. I am a little surprised that there are not more GURPS native resources that take advantage of this.