World Building Help?

[Mathew Lankard]

I'm about to embark on creating a world for my upcoming PBP and future campaigns and thought I should get some knowledge from the experts. I don't have any specific questions (yet lol), but I was just wondering if some DM's could share your knowledge of world building. Any essential tips? Things to keep in mind? Any good published (print, pdf, or articles) on the matter? Thanks for any help!

 

[Odhanan]

- don't try to create too big a setting. It's usually better and time saving to create a kingdom, or even a single city, if it allows them to be fleshed out, and work from there outward, after a few months of campaigning. You'll get a feel of what needs to be developped then.

- The basics need to be covered. The geography/layout of the kingdom/city, what people can see in the sky, what normal people know about the kingdom's history, what is common knowledge, the recent news, the languages, and so on. Think from a character's perspective. What do they know after leaving 20 years in this area?

- Your background needs to involve some hooks for character development. If you and your PCs are into drama-RP, think about conflicts, contrasts that will give volume to your characters, NPCs and PCs alike.

There are loads of other things to be said on the subject, obviously. I suppose other posters will cover different areas.

 

[Whisper72]

Get your hands on the 'dungeoncraft' articles. They float around here somewhere.

 

[Michikawa]

Try to get the base facts regarding economy/culture/relationships between different kingdoms together, so that you have good view on how the world has come to be as it is and what are the main basic elements in it now. The level of detail is dependent on your players. If they tend to be more story and action oriented guys, who are not that interested in the way things work outside their characters' point of view, you don't have to be so thorough, but if they tend to ask random questions regarding the way world works and what the kingdom they are traveling in is like, you should do a bit of work.

I'd say good base idea is that if you have a feeling that the world feels "real" and you have a feeling the npcs, plot and different situations "belong" someplace are not just floating in some sort of limbo, you're on a right track.

I'd say it could be useful to browse different campaign settings and read general info on any interesting worlds. Try to find, what interests you and what you think is important to know and define and go from there.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

this question comes up every so often.

Some prefer to build worlds "top-down". They set up all the continents and cosmology so it is a consistant world, and from there develop smaller areas.

Others prefer "bottom-up". They make up a small isolated area (town or village) and invent the outside world as they need it.

A few work on both ends toward the middle (first make up the town, then all the gods, then the next village over, then the next continent over.)

Many experienced DM's find it is better to not do all the work themselves. Have the party cleric help design the pantheon. Let the party rogue help plan the theives guild.

The 'dungeoncraft' articles are a good resource also

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Two ways of doing it.

1. Start Big and work your way down to the details.

2. Start Small & work your way up.

I prefer to use 1. as the world seems to fit together a lot better when you have a over-arching plan behind it. I've been designing my game world for years now. The players really like how everything come together.

Of course 1. takes a LONG time to design and massive amounts of what you design the players may never see. And all that energy spent on stuff the PC's will never see could have been used on the stuff they'll interact with on a regular basis.

Method 2 allows you to channel your work into those areas the PC's will interact with most (the region they are in). This lets you cram a lot of detail that the party can notice.

The best comprimise I've found is to draw a rough map/plot out the main features of your campaign world, then spend most of your time on the areas the PC's are in. Fill in the deatil as your party makes new discoveries or moves to new areas.

I've designed the eniter Solar System for my game world (which has had more in-game effects than you'd think) to the Menu of their favorite tavern.

In the end detail what's around the PC's, then work on those points of the world you WANT them to know (such as Kingdom B is the arch enemy of this kingdom, God W's followers to this, etc). You don't really NEED to plot out the major trade routes of every kingdom, but in may come in handy.

Also, do you plan on re-using this world. The more you use a world, the more band you get for your creative buck.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Start small, work out. It is easier to add things in later on.

Don't be afriad to limit player choices. That being said you should also talk to your players to get an idea of what they are looking for. Personally, I have a hard time working gnomes in to my world. But if I had a player who really wanted to play a gnome, I'd be OK with it.

So figure out the bare bones of what you want to include in your world, then figure out the bare bones of what your players want. Then build a small town or hamlet for the players to save at 1st level. Then go from there.

 

[The Lost Muse]

IF you have a lot of time on your hands 95% of the detail in a top-down world makes no difference to the PC's. I prefer working both sides towards the middle, but use Green Ronin's Freeport as a home base.

 

[Shades of Green]

Get your hands on the 'dungeoncraft' articles. They float around here somewhere.

Here you go.

 

[your father is]

There's a great and thorough set of questions one should ask when world-building by author Patricia C. Wrede on the sfwa.org site.