Hollow Earth

[Tom Kalbfus]

Imagine a world that is inside out, there is a Sun in the center, and inside the shell it is always day. The world is a giant cave about the size of the Earth, the Sun and sky is below you feet and the ground is above your head. Most humans and other races live in caves in the shell, light come in through a hole in the ground. One must cling to the shell or else one would fall into the sky and then the Sun in the center. There are rumors of an outer world where there is natural day and night and where the sun rises and sets, but players start off here near the bottom of the shell. What do you think of this idea?

[Tom Kalbfus]

PCs live in a subterranean dungeon in cave illumiated by the light below. Magic is holding up the rock and the atmosphere would get thinner as you fell towards the Sun. Living things are not held up, so they either have to fly or cling to the landscape in this upsidedown world. Humans and other player races live in caves just above the undersurface. The world is one giant dungeon, they can explore and move upward in search of the mythical outer world.

[Gallowglass]

There was a D&D setting called "Hollow World" that is pretty much exactly what you are describing.

It was in the Mystara basic D&D setting. A bunch of demigods called "the Immortals" saved batches of dying off cultures and kept them in the hollow world as a sort of museum or zoo. So there was a little egyptian world, a little mayan world, a little aztec world, a little blackmoor elf world, a little elfquest elf world, a little russian steppe world, etc.

[Mechalich]

The 'Hollow Earth' as a fantasy idea dates back at least to Jules Verne. There are multiple Hollow Earth whole games, in addition to settings within games such as the Mystara one or the alternate dimensional zone Hollow Earth in the oWoD.

Honestly the Hollow Earth is least interesting in D&D, because character abilities quickly outpace the ability of mundane conditions to impact them in a significant way and the typical threats attendant to a Hollow World setting - usually various prehistoric Earth lifeforms like dinosaurs and mammoths - aren't significant threats to D&D characters above even a very low level.

[Tom Kalbfus]

The 'Hollow Earth' as a fantasy idea dates back at least to Jules Verne. There are multiple Hollow Earth whole games, in addition to settings within games such as the Mystara one or the alternate dimensional zone Hollow Earth in the oWoD.

Honestly the Hollow Earth is least interesting in D&D, because character abilities quickly outpace the ability of mundane conditions to impact them in a significant way and the typical threats attendant to a Hollow World setting - usually various prehistoric Earth lifeforms like dinosaurs and mammoths - aren't significant threats to D&D characters above even a very low level.

This gives me an idea, a setting called Planet of Dread, physically it looks like Mystara, mostly because I don't have time to draw detailed maps, it is Traveller T20 setting. The same island, the Island of Dread is involved, the PCs starship crash lands there, the pirates on the island are space pirates. I'll substutute some Traveller species for dwarves, gnomes, elves, and halflings. This might be fun.