Elsewhere is a jam for the Ironsworn community, where participants will submit playable settings, written using only assets, location/region write-ups, NPC write-ups, and Ironsworn: Delve theme and domain cards.

• Assets: Depending on the setting, these could be character classes or playable species/races; new weapons, tools, or items; magical abilities or powers; faction-specific perks; backgrounds, or anything else that makes one’s character special. See page 240 of the Ironsworn rulebook for details and guidance.
• Locations/Regions: In short, these are named places to be explored. They could be overland regions, like in the Ironlands, but they could also be as large as planets or star systems, or as small as individual (but important and evocative) rooms. These are formatted as a bullet point list of features, along with a few short paragraphs of important info, and, last but not least, a “Quest Starter”: a situation the player could find themself in, that gives them questions to answer and scenarios to play through. See pages 113 through 121 of the Ironsworn rulebook for examples. And be sure to remember the power of environmental storytelling.
• NPCs: The people, fauna, and foes of your setting. These are comprised of a rank between 1 and 5 that determines how difficult they are to fight, a list of 2 to 4 behavioral and/or physical features, a list of 2 to 4 drives/motivations, a list of 2 to 4 tactics they use in combat, and, as with locations, a Quest Starter. See chapter 5 of the Ironsworn rulebook for much more detailed info.
• Themes & Domains: These were introduced as part of the IS: Delve expansion. Speaking in terms of video games (to illustrate): if Locations/Regions are the overhead map of a level, then Themes/Domains would be the level itself. These are comprised of a list of features and dangers, making them a bit simpler. See Ironsworn: Delve (linked above) for details.

Each of these 4 components are optional in and of themselves, but you should include at least one of these 4 in your submission. Other than that, however, there is neither a minimum nor maximum amount applied to any of the above.

As for what constitutes a “setting”: virtually anything.

• It could be an entire galaxy, with a vast collection of uncharted planets to be explored (perhaps via themes and domains).
• It could be a dungeon (one of the really big ones, or maybe even just a handful of rooms), pre-written or procedural, with plenty of enemies to fight through (common or unique), and maybe some interesting items worth searching for (which could be represented by assets).
• It could be a single tavern, settled virtually anywhere, with a number of interconnected NPCs that maybe have some conflictive drives.
• It could be a city, of any era, acting as a set piece for the interplay of a decent number of factions. Factions the players could be a part of. Maybe as agents; maybe as leaders.
• It could be that one setting that you’ve always wanted to put to paper, but have never been able to, since the process of world building is just really intimidating. I’ve been there myself. So, let this be an opportunity to get those ideas onto paper. Because, as said by the YouTuber GFC’s D&D, “That imperfect idea that actually exists on the page is infinitely more useful than the perfect idea that stays in your head.” Have fun with it, because if you do, others will be able to as well. You got this.