A mix of both is always fun! Umm let me see.. I like gritty universes too. Maybe we can do some post-apocalyptic setting, where magic is untamed and evil monsters roam the lands? Perhaps there are different races that live in hiding from them? One where the hero is involved somehow in fixing whats broken about the world? 

How do these usually start off? Do you just make the setting and I simply make the character?