A whole new world....

[Immortal Sun]

When introducing your players to a new campaign world, assuming it is homebrew and they cannot simply google general information about the world, how detailed do you get with informing them about the culture they come from? How the different societies tend to behave? Major political figures? The general geography of the area they live in?

Obviously these answers must be adapted based on how easy information is available. Lets assume the "baseline" is a sort of LOTR-esque fantasy world. Opinions and experiences from outside of that are welcome, just preface with "I usually run high sci-fi." or "I run grimdark Conan."

 

[Morrus]

Same rules as starting a new TV show. Learn as they go. A big infodump at the beginning isn't likely to stick. And if they ever ask a question of that nature, generally give them the answer. In other words, you can assume the characters know, and can access that info as needed, but the players can learn it as they play.

 

[bedir than]

I had a couple pages of setting info. Some read it, some didn't. The most invested ones took my ideas and were empowered to expand them, and build the world together.

 

[MNblockhead]

My home brew world is medieval, low-magic. The characters do not know much about the world outside their little slice of it. I spend a lot of time before the first session discuss with the player their character concept and each player has information about the world that other players do not, based upon their characters.

Not only to they learn about the world as they explore and engage in downtime activities, but they help build and shape it.

My games tend to be two games in one. The monthly at table sessions running through an adventure and the time in-between spent communicating and resolving down-time activities by e-mail (or meeting at coffee shops, etc.)

Some players get really into this and other just want to show up once a month and play. I don't force anyone to engage in the world beyond the at-table sessions. But for those who want more, I enjoy the between-session collaborative world building, which often informs the at-table adventures.

 

[Lanefan]

I make sure they have access to the following:

- a reasonably good map of the immediate area e.g. the kingdom they're in plus a few neighbours, and a less-good map of a broader area i.e. stuff an educated character might have heard of
- a good sense of the geography and climate in the immediate area along with their vague latitude (so they know what to expect the seasonal changes to be like)
- a history/legend somewhat specific to the area they're in, getting fuzzier and vaguer as the dates get older (in the kingdom example I'd give a list of the last dozen or so monarchs)
- a vague sense of the culture they're in, usually by comparing it to something known e.g. you're in a version of ancient Greece; to the east and south are reclusive Elves, across the sea are a version of ancient Romans, to the north are wild lands
- pantheons and deities (essential if anyone wants to play a Cleric)

Anything more specific e.g. details of their starting town I'll tell them during sesson 1.

If they read all the pre-work, so much the better. If they don't, my conscience is clear.

 

[Blue]

When introducing your players to a new campaign world, assuming it is homebrew and they cannot simply google general information about the world, how detailed do you get with informing them about the culture they come from? How the different societies tend to behave? Major political figures? The general geography of the area they live in?

The old way I used to do it:

Have a general and short handout of "what everyone knows". Have a personalized handout about what an individual character knows about their homeland, including how their race & culture (and sometimes class) generally are viewed by other races and cultures.

The way I do it now:

I sketch in broad lines only, to give a framework to build on. During Session 0 we flesh out more of it in relation to the characters, with more focus on the parts that overlap. After that, players are encouraged to flesh out their culture and race more. I've had some give me myths, legends, government, race relations, you name it. Restriction for both me and the players in fleshing out is it can't contradict something that has already hit the table in play.

 

[hawkeyefan]

In my experience, players will remember answers to questions they've asked more than they will answers to questions they haven't asked.

I think this is also a part of the Exploration part of the game. Many tend to think of that as the characters exploring their world, but to me it's just as much about the players exploring the fiction. Learning as they go. An encyclopedic style brief ahead of time takes a lot of that away. If there are interesting things about the world you've created, it's better to learn then through play than to read about it ahead of time in some campaign primer. A dramatic presentation of an idea is always better.

Who wants to read a wiki and learn the details before watching the movie or reading the book?

I think that kind of stuff can also serve as a source of frustration between the DM and players, so I prefer to avoid that possibility.

 

[Desdichado]

I think that it's counter-productive to give the characters more than a one-page (modestly spaced) campaign brief to read before starting. Even that is probably pushing it.

And honestly, more than half of that campaign brief should be local details and some prominent NPCs that they'll be expected to know locally in the first few sessions. Most of the rest of it should cover house-rules and chargen guidelines to give them some direction.

 

[cmad1977]

Same rules as starting a new TV show. Learn as they go. A big infodump at the beginning isn't likely to stick. And if they ever ask a question of that nature, generally give them the answer. In other words, you can assume the characters know, and can access that info as needed, but the players can learn it as they play.

Yeah. I might give a brief intro but ultimately I presume both competence and superior knowledge on the part of the characters in relation to the players.

 

[Retreater]

My world has a very political landscape with the different races having their own nations, power structures, and alliances. It's based off Europe and the Near East in the 1600-1700s (but without gunpowder).

If I'm running a political game, I show a world map and briefly discuss the politics. But when doing a hexcrawl in the Elven nation (for example), I just show a regional map and focus on smaller scale issues.