Hey, all.
Today's topic is inspired by El Jefe's post in General Discussion, found
here. You'll see why I bring that up in a few moments.
A long time ago, LEW was going to have a map. We had an artist lined up, and we even got a rough draft of that map. We had a variety of nations and cities on this map, as well as the elemental towers and some other regions of interest.
However, this rough draft is just that - very rough.
At this point, there is little cohesion in LEW geography. DMs place new locations where they see fit - and for awhile, that worked. When LEW began, there were relatively few games going on, and the geography could be made as the DMs saw fit with little argument over where was this and where was that.
That time, though, has passed us by.
El Jefe's post has some interesting ideas. I find it particularly interesting, because it brings to mind two thoughts on designing LEW's geography.
The Big Picture
To begin with, we need a big picture of LEW. The one map we have is very rough and - while it may be roughly accurate - just can't fit our needs at this point.
We need to make determinations of where nations and important geographical features are. We need to be able to say, "hey, this person is from X, which is right there."
This doesn't mean that we need to flesh out the entirety of the world. But we do need to have something more than just vague geographical ideas. For instance, exact national borders, the locations of important cities (any capitals, and probably any with Taverns), and anything else that could be deemed important.
The Little Picture
However, in addition to this, we need to pay attention to the little details. El Jefe's post is an example of what I mean by a little detail: the location proposed in the post is a very small area.
It's basically insignificant, geographically speaking. However, such little things are part of what can bring the world to life. Also, this will help us define smaller parts of the larger regions and give them life.
LEW's Philosophy and Geography
One of the interesting things about LEW is that any player can, at this point, pretty much make anything up. Nations, clans, locations... all sorts of things like this have been spontaneously created with the creation of a character. This is good.
However, we have to combine this with having a roughly stable geography. My recommendation would be to say that there are so many nations, and then the "nations" players create in their backgrounds are actually subsections of these nations; regions, if you will. This gives players continued flexibility, while putting their writings immediately into context and giving everyone else a vague understanding of how the new information fits into the existing geography and political structure.
Summary
We need to take a good, long look at LEW geography. Without a decent background, we will end up having adventures take place in the same physical location but with completely different trappings. We have to define the nations of the world, but leave everything open enough that new things can always be added.
I'm pretty certain this can be done. It would just take some time and effort. I don't imagine that it would take too long to collect and sort all of the information on various locales throughout the adventures and character backgrounds, and create LEW geography with that information as a starting point.
Linear Mode
