I think that's a pretty good idea for detail. Enough that things can match up, but still room for creativity.

As for plots, if we just do isolated plots, you'll get some very large differences in tone, style, flavor. Crossing a border will almost literally be like walking into another world because there will be little globalization. Real civilizations start in isolation, but eventually connect through trade, wars, etc. Nothing new here to you guys, I'm sure.

So what about letting users add content to areas by seeding? A person picks a location on the map to be the start of their civilization or whatnot and they slowly expand out from there. As new users come in, they can pick new locations to seed depending on what they're thinking (seed locations should probably pend approval so someone doesn't troll). This way, people that want closely linked areas can seed nearby while people that want isolation can seed in a very distant region.

Since fantasy often roughly maps to medieval, I use countries like France and Germany as rough size indicators. You could easily fit 50 or more plots that size on a map like this.

If people wanted to make wild regions, ruins, etc etc, this could be done much the same way. They expand out their area, but then make it die.

Now, I often lack common sense, so I'm sure there's an excellent reason why this won't work. If so, by all means lay it on me

Also, this may be totally out of line / unfair / whatever, but I'd like to express my interest in the region highlighted pink here on the eastern continent. Can I claim dibs?
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