Your fantasy realm should not be a utopia where nothing is wrong except the most minor of day-to-day issues, like getting eaten by orcs. It should prompt people to take up adventuring because of some grave problem in the realm.

Its Ruler is Awful

The realm teeters between tyranny and chaos.

1: Tyrant

The ruler of the realm is a tyrant, who takes too much from common folk, resulting in poverty. The maniac executes people for little or no reason, builds bizarre monuments, oppresses certain types of people, and/or holds insane beliefs. A powerful army or order of knights or mages put down rebellions and keeps everyone in line. Those who oppose the regime are cruelly tortured and put to death.

2: Weakling

The ruler of the realm is debauched or otherwise a weakling, bullied by advisors and ignored by nobles. As a result, the realm is racked by constant, low-level wars between nobles. Their armies ravage the land for food, supplies, and new recruits. Wizards fight duels in the open for control of petty fiefdoms. Monsters lurk in every crevice.

3: Zealot

The ruler of the realm is a zealot of an uncaring god or believes himself or herself to be a god. The common folk are held in the iron grip of a priestly class of cruel inquisitors. Abbeys and monasteries may be destroyed or forcibly converted. Magic and incompatible faiths are outlawed, and “witches” are executed.

It’s Overrun by Monsters

The monsters hunt us.

4: Various Monsters

The realm is overrun by various monsters, such as orcs, giants, dark elves, werewolves, manticores, or dragons. People cower in walled towns and castles, barely able to plant and harvest crops and always with a lookout to raise the alarm. There’s little reason to delve into dungeons when their denizens roam the roads and skies.

5: A Particular Type of Monster

The realm is overrun by a certain type of monster. The place is lousy with displacer beasts, bulettes, owlbears, trolls, etc. Good folk can hardly travel without being accosted by the creatures. Dealing with them has changed the way people live, work, farm. They build buildings and perform rituals specifically to keep them at bay. Adventurers are hailed for their ability and courage in defeating them.

6: One Specific Monster

The realm is caught in the grip of a particular man-eating dragon, blood-sucking vampire, soul-stealing fiend, cruel giant, eldritch horror, maniacal lich, or a sentient cloud of gas. Its minions are evil humans or orcs and hobgoblins or undead, roaming the land with both hunger and authority. They destroy any who oppose the awful overlord.

It’s Suffering a Disaster

Something has gone badly wrong.

7: Plague

The realm is devastated by a plague that kills quickly and indiscriminately. The heroes may be at constant risk or among the lucky few immune. In the country, the death of a lord’s family leaves a village unprotected; or the loss of a village leaves a manor without workers. Towns and even whole cities are abandoned as the dead pile up faster than they can be buried.

8: Famine

The realm is devastated by famine. The rains have stopped, and few crops grow, and only by rivers and and lakes, where the waters run low by the year. The common people have taken to seeking out dangerous monsters merely to eat them. The treasure in a dungeon isn’t gold–it’s meat. The famine may be reversible by finding its cause: elementals, evil wizards, evil clerics, or a curse.

9: Flood

An earthquake-collapsed mountain ridge or ill-advised tunnel has caused a whole sea to flood into the lowlands, drowning thousands and destroying crops. Thousands more became refugees, and the folk who lived around the sea are up in arms about their livelihoods being ruined.

It’s Been Wrecked by a Cosmic Catastrophe

Things have gone very wrong indeed.

10: Volcanic Eruptions

Volcanic eruptions are destroying the land. They’ve already buried a couple of cities under several feet of ash, disrupting trade and causing thousands of refugees. Ironically, the small amount of ash that fell over fields further away actually improved the soil, leading the refugees demanding work or food.

11: Perpetual Twilight

The sun has ceased to fully rise each day, causing crop failure and widespread existential chaos. Creatures of darkness roam freely. The sun merely rises just above the horizon, rolls around the horizon for a few hours, and sinks again. The possible causes are the subject of great speculation and outlandish claims.

12: Wintertide

The winters are harsher and longer each year. Where once the winter was chilly and wet in January and February, it is now cold and snowy from December thru March, with terrible blizzards in January and February. Creatures from the frozen wastes of the north come down each year–polar bears, yetis, frost giants, snow serpents, white dragons, and giant snow leopards, and more.

13: Moontide

The moon has loomed closer over the years, now hanging as an enormous ball in the sky for part of the day as well as night. The tides are double and triple what they once were, flooding the coastal cities and re-exposing their ruins twice a day. With a full moon nearly three-quarters of nights, lycanthropes roam freely. Folk of this and neighboring realms are terrified at the implications.