We are here, and this is now.

Checked reddit, and yeah the fantasy issue is what's getting me. I can throw something together given the assets but I haven't been able to procure them sadly

A little more than I was looking to spend and doesn't quite gel with what I want to present visually, but thanks for the recommendation.

Will do! Thanks for the advice.

-When the players may never see that world again. You know your players better than I do though. Being generous with loot and the like probably not a bad idea either, if shopping isn't going to be easily or reliably available. I'd advise against Bag of Spilling them, in the style of Metroid games.

-Though in places like Athas, that might be tricky. Most other classes are just People What Do Things Good, with little bits of magic here and there depending on variety. The other thing to watch out for is that the usual 'you can't steal, the guards will be after you' excuses are hard to work with-

-That'll be more important to have easy answers to. As written, most other classes bring what they need with them. Paladins and Warlocks are their own batteries once empowered, Sorcerers and Wizards can use magic wherever there's magic. Even across different planes, Druids can access nature-

The big issues you run into with D&D specficially are to do with Clerics (how are they getting their magic if you don't follow the idea that clerics can worship a concept and receive spells) and currency. The latter half not so much, valuable metals are usually consistent. Cosmological stuff though-

It's a fun one, and it's why Spelljammer (the old version, the new is kind of undercooked) or Ravenloft are a wonderful setting to play in, you get a lot of different flavors. And if your players don't enjoy the flavor of the week? Strange energies activate their inherent instability and off we go!

Lancer works best with maps that I can set to 30-40 hexes/squares wide at their largest, and many maps are cramped and too small to allow the kind of action I have in mind.
Any suggestions? I was going to have picked up some 2-Minute Tabletop stuff but I literally can't buy from them for some reason

Now, these brave and capable individuals must either lead their people to a new home, beyond the borders that once prevented them from leaving, or search for a means to restore order. Aspects of Fallout, Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian. Our heroes will be the epic heroes of later stories.

The players are the first to be talented, trained or blessed enough to develop the skills and attributes of adventurers. Their starting gear is stone and hide and wood. A bronze weapon is +1. An iron sword is +2. Actual magical weapons are +3. Something has caused their environment to fail.

Second: The Dawn of Adventuring.
The party are primitives, the elder races of the setting (could be long lived humanoids like elves or dwarves, or dragons, mind flayers and other epic creatures) have kept them in sort of nature preserves, limited in technology and knowledge, for whatever reason.

Functionally this is a megadungeon with the different settings acting as different floors.

Especially given how thin some of the stuff in 5e was for different settings, and the little Planeshift supplements, this lets you get the most out of unique aspects of settings. Mileage may vary.

The players spend a few levels in a given area, in a given setting and then either pass through to the next on in their endless search for a way home. The powers that be are unable to help because their powers are bound to whichever plane that they're on.

Okay, so without involving greater powers, basically?

There's a couple ways to do this, setting agnostic.
Sliders: D&D edition Players have become untethered in the aether, causing them to slip between worlds uncontrolably. From Eberron to Exandria, from Amonkhet to Athas, from the Mists to Mystara

Yep. That's the vibe. You looking stone cold badass, me being a goofy little dude.

Help @jaydradawn.bsky.social is putting me in a trap!

Okay. Airsoft gun to my head, it's her smile. Like the sun it is a long time between seeing it at this time of year, but it's top-tier to me. Especially when she's off on a tear about something that gets her really animated and expressive.