Campaign Setting template

DragonLancer said:
After reading those, I bow to your superiorness. If you don't mind, I'm going to borrow those rules and use them in my games.

I certainly am not superior to anyone in anyway. I do not, however, have any problem with anyone using anything I come up with in their games. Heck, if you want I can send you the whole setting. Send me a private message with how to contact you if you are interested.
 

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Greetings...

I would love to see your whole setting Katerek... unfortunately, I cannot send a private message to you, so it will have to be public. You can contact me in any way you see fit, email...messengers...whatever.

I will be looking into getting a membership here on EnWorld once I have a steady job. Speaking of which...Katerek, how does one become a professional GM?
 

In my personal setting, I worked up the following layout, though I haven't actually shown it to the players, since I ended up switching campaigns about the time I finished it. I think if I go back to the same setting I'll load up the whole thing as a webpage with numerous links, and allow them to read in the order they're interested.

Tides of Homeland - Setting and Rules
Setting
Overview of the world.
Regions of the world (a la Eberron, including suggestions for character choices)
History of the world in a quick synopsis
Religions
Other planes

Character Creation and House Rules
Action Points, Wound Points, Defense Bonus
Classes
Prestige Classes
Races
Innate magical auras
Teleportation special rules
Languages
Feats (cultural primarily)
Domains

I think right now I have a few too many house rules. I need to just pare things down to the minimum changes. *grin*
 

Katerek, your sig is a little creepy. I think you might want to add a comma in there.

Right now it's "Blackleaf's dead baby, Blackleaf's dead." It sounds like you're talking about the deceased child of Blackleaf, which is mildly disturbing.
 

What I do...

I tend to use a three-document structure:

Overview: A very quick treatment of the setting, answering the same six questions asked in the Wizards' setting search. Generally, it runs to 2 pages.

Rules Digest: This contains all the new rules for the setting. New races, classes, feats, or whatever. Quite often, this includes feats taken from various books I have, to cut down on what I have to take to the game. Perhaps importantly, this is written as though I were running the game without house rules, so the new races will list favoured classes, despite the fact that I never actually use them. (So, this document details the rules connected to the world, not those related to games I run.) I try to keep this document down to 10 pages, but I haven't managed yet.

Setting Bible: This contains all the fluff associated with the setting. The chapters are mostly the same as in the FRCS: Intelligent Races, Magic of XX, Life in XX, Geography, Religion and Cosmology, History and Legend, Organisations, and Major Characters. It tends to run to 100 pages.

I don't bother to split things into player and DM sections, for three reasons: Most players don't read the setting bible, so any spoilers are a reward for those who do; I don't write down truly secret stuff, and since I'm the DM it's not really important that I do; and I just can't be bothered.

When I run a campaign (in any setting), I quickly produce a document outlining any house rules I'm using for the campaign. This contains things like "no favoured classes", "fixed hit points per level", and so on. It tends to be quite short. The reason for splitting the rules like this is that I change the house rules quite often (from campaign to campaign, never in the middle of a campaign), but the rules associated with a setting are rarely if ever changed.
 

Imagicka said:
Greetings...

I would love to see your whole setting Katerek... unfortunately, I cannot send a private message to you, so it will have to be public. You can contact me in any way you see fit, email...messengers...whatever.

I will be looking into getting a membership here on EnWorld once I have a steady job. Speaking of which...Katerek, how does one become a professional GM?
What Imagicka said! I would love to see this .doc-ument :)
 

Well JD, you have already seen mine, but I'll post it here for all to see:

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Nebadon ……………………………………………….
The Cataclysm ..…………………………………………………..
Continental Shift ………………………………………….
Underworld Destruction .………………………………….
Planar Rifts ……………………………………………….
The People of Nebadon …………………………………………..
The Nature of Magic ……………………………………………..
Campaigning in the World of Nebadon ………………………….

2. Character Race …………………………………………………………
The Accordants ……………………………………………………
Blues ………………………………………………………
Blacks ……………………………………………………..
Reds ……………………………………………………….
Whites ……………………………………………………..
Yellows ……………………………………………………
Common Mixed Heritage Races ………………………….
Greens …………………………………………….
Greys ………………………………………………
Light Blues ………………………………………..
Pinks ………………………………………………
Purples……………………………………………..
Others ……………………………………………..
The Reclusives …………………………………………………….
Stouts ……………………………………………………...
Winged Folk ……………………………………………….
Scalies ……………………………………………………..

3. Classes ………………………………………………………………….
Standard PHB Classes …………………………………………….
New Player and NPC Prestige Classes ..…………………………..
Achromatist ………………………………………………..
Aplanatist ..………………………………………………..
Civic Mage ..………………………………………………..
Creationist ...………………………………………………..
Elemantalist ..………………………………………………
Manitu .…………………………………………………….
Spectral……………………………………………………..
Subterrene ..………………………………………………..
Woodwinder ………………………………………………

4. Skills and Feats …………………………………………………………
New Skills …………………………………………………………
New Feats …………………………………………………………


5. Magic …………………………………………………………………….
Magic in Society ……………………………………………………
Fear and Resentment: The Catch 22 ….…………………….
Transportation and Trade …………………………………..
Other Every Day Magic ….…………………………………
Arcane Magic ………………………………………………………
Positive Energy Schools ……………………………………
Negative Energy Schools …………………………………..
Divine Magic ……………………………………………………….
New Domains ………………………………………………
Spell Descriptions …………………………………………………..
Magic Items …………………………………………………………
Personal Magic ……………………………………………...
Community Magic ………………………………………….
Widely Known Artifacts ……………………………………

6. Nebadon Comes Alive
Nebadon’s Place Among the Known Cosmology
Time and Calendar
History
Before the Cataclysm
The Cataclysm
Since the Cataclysm
The Four Continents
Deknar
Golok
Mogollon
Quarlani
Beyond the Map

7. Religion
The Sun God of Deknar
The Orc Pantheon of Golok
Old One Eye
The Beast Spirits
The Quarlani Ancients
The Ascendant Demigods
The Elemental Triumvirate of Mogollon

8. Creatures of Nebadon

9. Campaign Resources
 

Here's the Diamond Throne TOC. I like this format, actually.

Introduction: Beyond the Horizon
  • What's Inside
  • What Other Books do I Need?
  • Theme and Feel
  • Running Games in the Diamond Throne

Chapter One: People and Places
  • The World
    • Keeping Time
  • The People
    • Ceremonies
    • The Races
    • Map: The Lands of the Diamond Throne
    • Regional Differences
    • Pastimes
    • Colloquilaisms
  • The Gods and Religions
    • The Gods of the Denothalan
    • Rallonoch the Giving
    • Cult of the Fleshrunes
    • Cult of the Brief Respite
    • The Dead Gods (The Hanavere Trinity)
    • Xyphon
  • The History
    • Timeline
    • Prehistory/Ancient History
    • Map: Terrakal 1700 years ago
    • The Rise of the Human Kingdoms
    • Invasion of the Dramojh
    • The Coming of the Giants
    • Recent History
    • Verrik History
  • The Geography
    • Topographical Features
    • Other Features
    • Where People Live
    • Magical Effects of the Land
    • Map: For-Erthenos
  • The Kingdoms
    • The Diamond Throne
    • Map: Central De-Shamod
    • Populating a City
    • Beyond the Diamond Throne
  • The Organizations
    • The Council of Magisters
    • The Jaren
    • The Nightwalkers
    • The Order of the Axe
    • The Runepriests
  • The Cosmology
    • Heavens and Hells
    • Planar Movements and Conjunctions
    • Outsiders on Serran
  • The Threats
    • The Legacy of the Dramojh
    • Havinar Balacos
    • Kallethan/The Kallethan
    • Virdella Tesham
    • The Chorrim
  • The Mysteries
    • The Crystal Weavers
    • The Dark Depths
    • The Unknown West
  • Adventure Ideas
    • Into the Ruins (Levels 1-3)
    • Love's Light Lost (Levels 4-6)
    • The Lost Duke (Levels 7-9)
    • Magic Entombed (Levels 7-9)
    • The Champion of Darkness (Levels 10-12)
    • The Eclipse (Levels 16-18)
    • The Soul of Night (Levels 19-20)

Chapter Two: Prestige Classes
  • Beast Reaver
  • Crystal Warrior
  • Darkbond
  • Giant Paragon
  • Mage Priest
  • Ollamh Lorekeeper
  • Rune Lord
  • Somnamancer
  • Prestige Classes from Other Sources
    • The DMG
    • The Book of Eldritch Might
    • The Book of Eldritch Might II
    • Relics and Rituals
    • Relics and Rituals II
    • Other Classes and Sources

Chapter Three: Magic Items
  • Magic Items from the DMG
    • DMG Item Prerequisites
    • Determining Treasure
    • Purchasing Magic Items
  • Magic Armor
    • Armor Qualities
    • Specific Armors
  • Magic Weapons
    • Weapon Qualities
    • Specific Weapons
  • Single-Use Items
    • Detonations
    • Oils
    • Potions
    • Tokens
  • Charged Items
  • Constant Items
  • Spell-Completion Items
  • Artifacts

Chapter Four: Creatures
  • Alabast
  • Chorrim
  • Cyclops
  • Dark Warden
  • Dream Hunter
  • Harrid
  • Inshon
  • Radont
  • Rhodin
  • Shadow Troll
  • Slassan
  • Xaaer (Death Ooze)
  • Creatures from Other Sources
    • Core Rules
    • Creature Collection
    • Creature Collection II
    • Tome of Horrors
    • Other Monsters

Legal Appendix
  • Open Game License
 
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Whew! That was a bit of a typing and formatting exercise, I tell you what!

Anyway, I do really like the format. As someone mentioned earlier, it also is a format that encourages a setting bible that's mostly about the setting instead of about the mechanics. Although I was initially somewhat down on Hand of Evil's idea of keeping all the houserules separate, I'm now thinking that I could use a format somewhat like the Diamond Throne TOC, and have the classes, races, magic rules, and other custom aspects of my campaign make up an appendix. Although it's a significant redesign of the rules, I actually imagine that it wouldn't be that big of an appendix.

If I do make a setting bible, though, the tricky part will be getting the art. I can probably do it myself, but I'm a bit out of practice, I'm not really that good, and it'll be more time consuming than simply writing the setting up itself!

Still, for some reason, I'm fixated on doing this; maybe just to see if I can.
 

I'm loving that 100 bugbear rule, the other things were never an issue considering we never are more than 5 players (but when needs arise...) Well Rule 0 obviously is ... omnipresent.
 

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