Medieval Europe, but without the smell and disease.  Properly built towns with septic sewers, some modest colors, plenty to eat, all possible because just enough magic exists to deal with problems like clean water. 

An idealized medieval aesthetic. 

Then, as you travel each nation has a real world style, like Japan, Arabia, Spain, Egypt, Greek, Norse, and Mongol.  But stylized and better.  More interesting. 

And pretty princesses, or rich old retired adventurers exist everywhere that need your help.

Quotesome modest colors

modesty in colours is utterly un-medieval

Quote from: weirdguy564 on November 17, 2023, 01:09:58 PM
Medieval Europe, but without the smell and disease.  Properly built towns with septic sewers, some modest colors, plenty to eat, all possible because just enough magic exists to deal with problems like clean water. 

An idealized medieval aesthetic. 

Then, as you travel each nation has a real world style, like Japan, Arabia, Spain, Egypt, Greek, Norse, and Mongol.  But stylized and better.  More interesting. 

And pretty processes, and rich old retired adventurers exist everywhere that need your help.

Kinda like a medieval EPCOT.

I started playing role-playing games in 2010 when my Dad ran a short campaign of AD&D 2e for me. This started me on the path of liking history, fantasy, and a ton of other things. It also led me to find interest in war gaming and other RPGs. I still play a lot of AD&D 2e as well as BECMI.

What really stuck with me were a lot of the older styles of art. It was all so evocative, and there was a real mixture of different influences outside of art. I was just starting to figure out what I liked, so I found my love for Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath while I was reading the red box basic set. The mixture of music and art just screamed, "this right here is D&D!" to me. This was around the time I also started reading Lord of the Rings. Needless to say it was like I reached some sort of nerd nirvana.

Later on I practically ate up anything medieval in my High School's library, which were even older books about knights and medieval life from the 1950s/60s. It's created a very fond appreciation for a lot of things that are way older than I am. I also really appreciated detailed medieval pieces such as  pre-raphaelites, or Victorian-era fantasy pieces. That stuff takes me away to another place I could just sit and think about all day.

So I guess when I play D&D, if you wanted a description of what I see, it would be:

Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" playing over scenes in the styles of Caldwell and Edmund Blair Leighton.

Quote from: Wrath of God on November 17, 2023, 03:21:10 PM

Quotesome modest colors

modesty in colours is utterly un-medieval

Somewhat.

I'll also mention that I have some colors in the buildings and clothing of the people in a fantasy setting. 

However, vibrant colors are for the rich.  A normal person will have muted colored clothes and possessions because dyes and such were hard to get.  A regular peasant will have earth tone colored clothes and such, because that is what they can afford.  I'll boost it up a bit and let them have clean clothes, nicely maintained houses with fresh white-washed exteriors, interiors that have slate floors (they're tightly fitted flat stones on top of sand, itself on top of the dirt floor), and polished wood bits that look well oiled and nice color.  But, they won't have a door that is painted bright green and a blue house.

Purple in particular.  It was considered the color of royalty because it was so damned hard to make purple dye (I think the only real purple dye of the time came from snails, and it wasn't much, and that made it cost a LOT).