What are the tools for Home Brewing a World?

[Ry]

I hope the above 3 examples answer Psion as well.

 

[buzz]

To atone for my derailing Maggan's attempt to create a useful list of tools, I'll offer the following bit of self-promotion, i.e., an article on world-building I wrote for Roleplaying Tips Weekly a few years ago.

I find the advice presented in Roleplaying Tips sort of hit-or-miss, but Johnn Four has collected a massive amount of advice and crazy-cool resources over the years, much of it compiled in various special issues. Lots to plunder there.

EDIT: Here's an example I just found in the RPtips archive... which I originally submitted (and totally forgot about).

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions from the SFWA.

 

[Woas]

My list has one item on it:

1) Players


It's all I need. I let the players build whatever world they want to play in so long as everyone has the same input and agrees. I used to make game worlds like how TerraDave and others describe which I'm sure work for plenty out there. But not me. The best advice for a game for me is the advice that comes directly from the people involved with it.

 

[Ry]

Hey Woas, you can't receive PMs so here's this: Send me an e-mail, I'm doing something with skype and player-designed worldbuilding that you might find cool.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I started thinking about the best tools for making your own setting or world.

1) Your brain.

2) Everything you can percieve.

Everything else is details.

 

[Rechan]

That's because there aren't many campaign settings for that info. Worldbuilding guides are a niche market, hence they focus on general information and medieval Europe and space.

That doesn't answer the question of "What do you do about that?".

 

[Woas]

Done.

Hey Woas, you can't receive PMs so here's this: Send me an e-mail, I'm doing something with skype and player-designed worldbuilding that you might find cool.

 

[Treebore]

Gary Gygax's World Builder, Nation Builder, via Troll Lord Games are very worth having.

Get Silk Road from XRP too.

Plus it depends on how "realistic" you want to make your world.


Its as simple as drawing out a "area", put in geographical features, add villages, towns, cities, mines, farmlands, etc... until your happy.



Now if you want real serious details, then the books and websites mentioned become great for you detailing everything, from religious practices, holidays, realistic economies, etc...

I must say when I went to work out a "real" economy the scale of it really blew my socks off.

 

[Reynard]

Bad 1 (GM is making a world without considering play):
"Well, a society at this technological level would have gaslight. Oh, and that means some piping underground. Well, just in case it ever comes up, I'd better map out the piping system, and figure out how each side of the river's gas lines work."

::snips example 2 because it is a bad example::

Good (GM is thinking about Threat/Reward/Asset/Problem as he does everything else, and uses that to manage his time):
"Well, a society at this technological level would have gaslight. How can I make that something more than window dressing? Oh, what if there's danger of a gas explosion? Maybe the players can take advantage of that by tearing up the cobblestones on purpose.

I don't really see these two things are at odds, without going to unrealistic extremes. The act of detailing a complex system like the underground gas pipelines doesn't preclude their use in play. Quite the opposite. Should the players decide, "Hey, gaslight! Let's use it to blow up the BBEG's house!" having those plans -- or more realistically, a set of notes about how the system is laid out -- will enable that play.

While I agree that filling in "details" at the expense of working on the "adventure" can do harm to the DM's campaign, I think you are presuming that every DM has the same limited preparation time as you do. Some people have lots of time, relatively speaking, and can afford to write out the history of some far off nation and still be prepared for next weeks adventure. And as an added bonus, when a player character bites it and a new one is rolled up, the player can say, "I want something more exotic" and the DM can respond with, "There's this place over here."

I also agree that player input is important and beneficial to a setting, particularly a long lived one wherein multiple campaigns will be played. But the opportunity for player input doesn't preclude DM worldbuilding, and nor is the opposite true. If the intent is to be truly collaborative, then that means the DM gets equal say. And it isn't like things can't be changed if they haven't actually seen time at the table yet, or retconned even if they have.

One of the reasons that D&D campaigns can be so rote and bland is that there's just enough implied setting to make everyone feel that worldbuilding, aside from a few funny named locations, is done. it isn't, not by a far shot. For a real glimpse into how inspiring worldbuilding can be, read the appendices to the Lord of the Rings, particularly the one on dwarves. It is full of epic history, and yet hardly restrictive if one were to use it as the background of dwarves, or something like it, in one's campaign.

In the end, I think it is better, particularly for a DM that tends to run off the rails and improvise, to have a well crafted world painted in large brushstrokes. It leaves enough room for everyone's creativity, but it also keeps thing consistent and maintains a level of versimilitude that makes games better.

 

[khyron1144]

Quite honestly what I've found useful is the 1e Deties & Demigods cyclopedia. Not so much for the stats because they're really only useful for one version of the game and one style of play (deities are super duper monsters that will probably roast PCs alive, but they are just barely beatable), but for the tables at the back listing out deities in historical pantheons and portfolio elements.

After that, my dictionary of classical mythology came in ahndy fo filling in the gaps.

After that, some of the compiled lists of stuff that I make as I go through a splatbook, like lists of kits and classes and races.

Then it's just notebook paper, graph paper, and hex paper and writing implements.


I think a good background in history, mythology, comparative religion, and literature can help make a DM better at world-building.