Funneling the Fantasy Sausage...

There's an ascending (or rather, descending) structure to our fantasy campaigns*, which hopefully enforces the specialness of its magical elements while preserving a basic humanity, even when roleplaying elves. The rule of the day is mundane above, fantastic below, with ascending danger through descending levels. And all of this punctuated by the odd outsized evil that exists not to be fought, but to be avoided - because, realism...

So first, the SURFACE. This is faux medieval; think stock peasantry who've never seen anything more exotic than some dwarven merchants at the fair, and never more than a dozen coins of any denomination in one place. Barring some adjacent Mordor-styled land barred against intruders and home to nameless evil, it's primordial forests stocked with wolves and the scourge of humanity. Maybe orcs. We've talked about this. 

Next, we enter the DUNGEONS. All that normalcy on top? Gone. Here monsters dwell, an endless assortment of fantastical creatures. Basilisks? Check. Hellhounds? One among many terrifying foes. And these come neatly ordered by dungeon level. You know where the easiest monsters dwell - and where the best treasures await. The deeper the deadlier, all packaged in a bounded sandbox of infinite choice and a real sense of purpose.

Finally, we paunctuate this with UNBALANCED foes to spice things up. Think a minotaur on level one or a red dragon living on level three. Why would there be this strangely perfect sorting of monsters except to ensure game balance? Games require this abstraction; but life isn't fair, and these serve mainly to be avoided while the party seeks better odds and lives, hopefully to confront them eventually. It's abstraction meets realism...   

And lo, the funnel. Start with a (relatively) normal surface with (rare) demihumans and a faraway land of darkness. Add an extensive underworld stocked with incredible foes, sorted by level - but punctuated by overpowered enemies to remind everyone how arbitrary this arrangement can seem, and that not everything is meant to be fought. Magical characters are special and combat encounters balanced - except when they're not, so stay sharp!

*Your mileage may vary; but this is our take, and we welcome your thoughts...