Need help for new campaign setting

[redwing]

As I have posted before: I will be DMing a group that will be placed in a homebrew world. It's not that big, just a single continent that amounts to 30000 sq miles. The campaign will be based around Norse Mythology. I have adjusted the races, but seem to have no problem with all the classes. Even though it's placed in Ancient Scandinavia, it will capture the feeling of Lord of The Rings. There are about 195,000 people in the world (divided amongst six main races). I will have the players travelling quite a bit, and want them to interact with the world rather than just move from one place to another slaying things and taking stuff. There are about 9 cities, 1 large town, 12 towns, 13 small towns, and 30 villages. (with the populations from the Medieval demographics page: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm) I was wondering:

1) are there any maps out there that would make it easier than mapping out all those towns

2) What are some things that would make each town special

3) this is my first time DMing and I was wanting to have more of a city type campaign rather than dungeon diving (and my players agree), so how do i use the town more? (how far should I develop it?---map every house?) I don't want the only places the players visit to be the blacksmith for weapons and the local tavern for ale and whores (and of course rest).

 

[Ycore Rixle]

For 2), you could make each town have a different form of government (oligarchy, matriarchy, republic, theocracy), a different dominant race, a different geography (river, hill, mountain, underground), a different economy (mining, farming, longship raiding of the southern lands, slavery), a different language, a different tolerance for arcane or divine magics, a different defense strategy (walls, massive prismatic sphere, moats, cliffs, alliance with dragons, sleeping golem army), and different NPC attitudes toward the players ("oh, this is the town where the innkeeper hates us because his wife was buried in that tomb we robbed").

For 3, IMO, definitely do not map every house. Just have a few establishments ready, with one or two plot hooks for each. Whatever building the players choose to visit, adapt your scenario accordingly: if you have prepared a baker, but they go to the candlestick make, just run the scenario the same way, but change the profession of the proprietor in your notes. Of course, this requires that you design non-business-specific scenarios, but that's really not so tricky. A bullywug can haunt a tanner's basement as easily as a blacksmith's. The players may be so intrigued with the first one or two plot hooks that they won't go investigating every house. Quality over quantity.

 

[Halivar]

Well, if you want a city-type campaign, you're going to have to find a way to incorporate the other types of adventures your players will miss out on... for instance, instead of "dungeon delving" have some sort of sewer network with dungeon baddies in them.

Sounds like this is going to be more story-oriented, though. In that case, I would say DETAIL, DETAIL, and MORE DETAIL. Get that city down to every brick (be flexible though, like Ycore says). Have a plethora of NPC stat sheets for use when players decide to walk into random taverns. Build back story you think your players will never need to know. Make sure the city has everything your players need to stay interested in what's going on, such that they don't need to leave for adventure.

BTW, might I suggest calling the main city "Midgaard"? Sorry, old MUDding roots came back to me.

As for story, if your players are as new as you are, I'd say dig up all those old 1e adventure modules (find some on the WotC site) and STEAL, STEAL, STEAL! In the end, every adventure is like any other, anyhow.

Cheers, and good luck!

 

[BiggusGeekus]

This should get you a start up on mapping

www.dungeoncrafter.com./

Do not map out every house or you will go insane.

Biggus Geekus' cheesy way to generate locale flavor in bluk

1) Figure out how much bulk stuff you need. 9 cities, 1 large town, 12 towns, 13 small towns, and 30 villages makes 65.

2) Create a matrix based on class and something else

There are 12 base classes. Throw in Aristocrat, Adept, and Expert (tradesmen) to get 15.

Now visit Hong's Ultima d20 page and check out the Ultima avatar virtues: Honesty Compassion Valor Justice Sacrifice Honor Spirituality Humility

That's 15 classes and 8 virtues. See where we're going?

3) write down the name of each class three times and pick 5 to do an extra, fouth time. Now roll 1d8 for each class to assign a virtute to it. That will be the "seed flavor" for the town.

Example: You have a listing for "Wizard". You roll d8 and get 3 for "Valor". Your town has several wizards who are known for their valor or has a crystal that tests wizards for valor and they have to make a pilgrimage there or there's a huge tower that was once the home of a valorious wizard but no one goes there or whatever.

The idea is to give you a unique springboard for each town.

Hope this helps.

 

[redwing]

Well I've got a good 10-12 homebrew adventures that follow the storyline set (well not all outlined, but the basic premise). I just need some adventures to fill in the gaps.

Does anyone have any suggestions on premaid modules or just some ideas that could be used?

And still lookin for some maps.....

 

[kenjib]

It seems like with such a small population per land area, and a Lord of the Rings feel, you have a lot of freedom to allow NPCs to be rugged, powerful, individuals along the lines of Beorn, Tom Bombadil, etc. Who are the rulers of these towns, and how do the settlements reflect their personae? The smaller places, especially, would be heavily centered around the vision of the leadership. Is it required of such leaders that they fearlessly carve their settlements from the untamed wilds, braving untold dangers? What kind of people can do this? What different approaches have the various leaders taken to achieve this?

Also, why do these towns exist where they do? Did a small village (nothing more than a small cluster of buildings) grow up around an inn along the road between two larger cities? Is a small town built far from other settled lands around an iron mine that supplies much of the continent's ore? Such large stretches of untamed wilds would have a big impact on the way people live.

What are the conflicts in the world and how are the NPCs responsible?

I suspect that a nice caste of strong and unique NPCs (moreso than geographical issues) would do wonders for the style you are going for. Just a thought...

Also, according to the web site, your numbers are very inordinately weighted toward urban living (the site suggests a range 1% to 8% but you've got almost all of the population in settlements). Why do people all live in cities? Where does the food come from?

One way to handle mapping and detail issues is to do it as you go. Since you've already got adventures planned out, you know where the PCs are most likely to travel to. If you start by mapping a small area first - just the village they start in and the surrounding wilds that contain the first few adventures they will run into and some other nearby settlements - you can add more detail as you need to. A brief sketch of the whole world with only a few vague details (just a couple of the very largest cities and geographical features) tentatively penciled in might help too. You'll probably find that ideas will come to you for the rest of the world as you play. Detailing and mapping everything down to the last village from the start seems like too much work. If you do that, it will be harder to add or change something if you need to later. Plus, the players may never even see half of it. I think you should only go hog wild on detail if you enjoy worldbuilding for it's own sake (I do, myself).

 

[DanMcS]

30,000 square miles is 150 by 200, or about 2/3 the size of Ohio. Tiny. Minute. Positively pixiesque, for a continent that is. Your PCs could cross the whole thing in a month, even at slower-than-medieval speeds. If you want it to feel lord-of-the-ringsish, you need some expanses for them to wander about in, I'd think.

 

[Methinkus]

One thing that has been mentioned but is often overlooked is Geography. Not every town was built on a plane or next to the ocean.

Think of why these cities sprang up. Cities often apear along important crossroads or trade routs, and these could be some of the richest and most diverse out there. Cities also apear when people move into a location that is defendable and decide to settle down there for security, maybe if it is surrounded by mountains or cliffs or even on an island. Maybe its a city on the move, a collection of mideival mobile homes that moves with the seasons or a source of food like a herd (think Native Americans, and then call them Elves, or even halflings).

After that, go with what Halivar said, and IRON OUT ALL THE DETAILS! If most of the campaign is taking place in the city, be aware of the fact that no bar is so uninteresting or unimportant that a PC wont want to get to know all the patrons and then buy out the current owner. DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS and so on.