What makes good fiction?
Ominous, isn't it.
A comically slow ticking clock.
It could do anything.
But most importantly...
It adds tension.
Even if nothing happens
The most important thing a setting should have to drive foreward the plot is an arbitrary deadline that you the reader know must happen eventually. The Stormlight Archives tells us of a collosal highstorm that may destroy the world, and The Chronicles of Everfall warn of the fourth night. You dont't need to have a world ending event though, as long as it feels like time and opportunities pass. You have to make sure your readers (or players) feel like time isn't going to sit there forever until the main character decides to progress the plot, and one of the best ways to do that is with a part of the setting that's built to feel like a powder keg about to explode. One of the best ways to do this (outside a setting related plot device) is making sure characters progress offscreen. The illusion of time is much better if your villan's plans advance out of sight, and side characters do things other than stand around waiting to come back onscreen (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)
