Campaign World Problems/ Questions/ Considerations

[Cedric]

Greetings,

My D&D campaign is moving along nicely, but recent developments are causing me to pause and ask some questions. Do me a favor and try to answer the following questions as a player -

1. Do unique calendars add to the game? Would you prefer a conventional calendar that reflects our own or something more fantastic?

2. Do naming conventions matter to you? Should different areas of the campaign world have consistent language naming conventions?

3. Is realistic geography important to you? Mountain, desert, river, etc. placement?

In general, my answers to all of these is that it depends on the skill of the GM and the skill of the players. Also, it depends on how close your world is to "Earth".

If you have four seasons, the sun rises in the east, the day is 24ish hours long, etc. etc...then you might as well stick with something very close to the Gregorian calendar.

If you have those seasons, then that means the world tilts on its axis, ala Earth. If that's the case, then you may as well have a reasonable mix of terrain in keeping with the relative geography of Earth.

As to naming conventions...each culture may have its own naming conventions for every relevant part of the world. So that would depend on how diverse and language dependent your cultures are in your world.

For me...I like to go with something not quite so clearly Earthlike. I include a VERY simple calendar and racial bonuses for what part of the world you are from as it relates to the climate of that part of the world. My names do follow the language conventions of my world.

Also, the geography always "makes sense" unless I have a valid reason for it not to make sense...which happens sometimes.

 

[Voadam]

Greetings,

My D&D campaign is moving along nicely, but recent developments are causing me to pause and ask some questions. Do me a favor and try to answer the following questions as a player -

1. Do unique calendars add to the game? Would you prefer a conventional calendar that reflects our own or something more fantastic?

2. Do naming conventions matter to you? Should different areas of the campaign world have consistent language naming conventions?

3. Is realistic geography important to you? Mountain, desert, river, etc. placement?

1 No. Unless it simplifies things. I was in one game where each of the year's ten months had four weeks of ten days each with a 1 week lunar calendar and a campaign journal where time was tracked. Knowing the day of the week was easy to tell the exact moon phase, something I never tracked in other games even when playing or running Dragonlance (wizard moon phase powers) or Ravenloft (lots of lycanthropes).

2 A little. A little flavor goes a long way so hard rules are not necessary but generalized themes are nice.

3 A very little. Mostly not. I couldn't tell you whether Greyhawk has realistic features or not. Colder at a pole is enough to work for me, generally.

 

[pogre]

This is very helpful to me. Please continue.

In my crotchety old age I hate to spend time on things that do not matter to players or at least have an impact in their view of the world.

I'm a build things up type guy - I start small and build the world as I need it - this method also allows for more player input in my experience. Were at the point of the campaign where the small area I had defined - the town and a few villages no longer suffices and time is becoming more of an issue.

So, as I said, I really appreciate the input.

 

[Mallus]

I think naming conventions are different from the other two. Players encounter named people/places frequently, so it's a good place to impart setting flavor. Calenders and realistic geography are nice, but more limited in their appeal (though used sparingly, those kinds of meticulous and unnecessary are cool).

With my current setting, CITY, I cheated. I wanted each part of CITY to have unique naming conventions, but I didn't want to burden the players with ten or more different made-up fantasy nomenclatures. So I borrowed names from real world cultures, often more than one at once. This worked out pretty well, the resulting names being both exotic-sounding and accessible. Plus, the names suggest a metropolitan culture with a wide range of influences.

For instance, names in Narayan are long and French/Indian, which lead to lovely constructions like Pavur-Pierre Arjuna St. Sous, Delphine Laxshmi St. Sous, and Captain Noemi St. Sihk Du Mer.

And to big stone ovens for bread making called "pandoor", which is one of those unnecessary details I was talking about before.

 

[Stormborn]

1. Fantasy calanders can make the game intersting if they really matter otherwise its like Crothian said. However I have found that for the most part they simply get confusing. A good fantasy calander is going to be simple and straightforward enough that any one can keep up with it. Even if the months and days have fancy names as long as there is a common calander that is easy to keep up with. Something like 13 months with 28 days/4 weeks each with names like First Month of Winter, Second Month of Winter, etc. days of the week should also be straight forward: Godsday, Earthday, Fireday, Marketday, Airday, Waterday, Kingdsay or the like. Years likewise should be named with a simple number of X years after big event Y. As I said, fancy names like The Year of the Sleeping Dragon are fine, as long as the average person doesnt keep up with them. And the best thing you can possibly do for me if you want me to keep up with dates is to give me a calander.

2. Naming conventions help, particualrly in a setting where there is no Common. However, given that most fantasy settings have a Common language that everyone seems to speak on a daily basis I see no reason why names and naming conventions might not all be the same anyway.

3. Realistic in the sense of plausible or consitant with the setting, yes. However, as long as it makes sense in game I am fine with it.

 

[Davelozzi]

In my first campaign I used the conventional calendar (with each month having 30 days) and found myself far too often getting mixed up in my recordkeeping between game date and real date.

Interesting dilemma, I never thought about that.

Anyhow, regarding the questions of regional naming conventions, a few folks have mentioned their distaste for fantasy names. Speaking only for myself of course, when I previously indicated support for regional naming conventions, I did not mean to imply that I prefer wholly made up sounds. In fact, general trends loosely based on real world cultures seem to do the trick best. Taken too far though, real world analogues can be annoying. I don't need an in-game version of every country, just a general sense of distinct cultures. For published settings, I would say Birthright most hits the nail on the head with the right mix of sounds.

 

[sniffles]

Greetings,

My D&D campaign is moving along nicely, but recent developments are causing me to pause and ask some questions. Do me a favor and try to answer the following questions as a player -

1. Do unique calendars add to the game? Would you prefer a conventional calendar that reflects our own or something more fantastic?

2. Do naming conventions matter to you? Should different areas of the campaign world have consistent language naming conventions?

3. Is realistic geography important to you? Mountain, desert, river, etc. placement?

I like a unique calendar, but I agree with Crothian that it should be used regularly.

I also like consistent naming conventions. It gives more of a cohesive feel to the setting.

I'm not so insistent on realistic geography if it's a full-blown magical fantasy setting. I think you can dismiss some restrictions of real-world geography if you assume that magic can do anything.

 

[Greg K]

Greetings,

My D&D campaign is moving along nicely, but recent developments are causing me to pause and ask some questions. Do me a favor and try to answer the following questions as a player -

1. Do unique calendars add to the game? Would you prefer a conventional calendar that reflects our own or something more fantastic?

Nice, but not a necessity

2. Do naming conventions matter to you? Should different areas of the campaign world have consistent language naming conventions?

Yes this matters-espcially with regards to character names. Then again, I was an anthropology major so I love assigining elements to my cultures (e.g, mores, patterns of dress, body adornment, etc.)

3. Is realistic geography important to you? Mountain, desert, river, etc. placement?

As someone else said, realistic for the setting yes, but not necessarily realistic for our Earth.

 

[RFisher]

Greetings,

My D&D campaign is moving along nicely, but recent developments are causing me to pause and ask some questions. Do me a favor and try to answer the following questions as a player -

1. Do unique calendars add to the game? Would you prefer a conventional calendar that reflects our own or something more fantastic?

2. Do naming conventions matter to you? Should different areas of the campaign world have consistent language naming conventions?

3. Is realistic geography important to you? Mountain, desert, river, etc. placement?

1. If I do create a setting specific calendar, I come up with a way to map it to the Gregorian calendar so that I can use conventional dates for players who don't want to learn the setting's calendar. (Not learning the setting's calendar does not imply not appreciating it, BTW.)

2. The first priorities to me are that names are easy-to-remember, easy-to-pronounce, & not confusingly similar to other names. Anything beyond that is gravy. When a GM's names are all oddly pronounced, oddly spelled (& spelling is important enough to him that you even know how they are spelled), & too many are too similar, that needlessly detracts from the game for me.

3. The real world is often surprising. You can often find things you would've thought unrealistic until nature proved you wrong. How much moreso in a fantasy world. In general, though, it's best to avoid obviously unusual geography unless you have a special reason for it. No need to be too thorough about it, though. I try to enjoy a GM's world as he created it rather than criticize it. (I try.)

 

[Nightfall]

1 and 2 matter more to me than 3. Realistic geography? I mean seriously, is there such a thing? Other than for a certain Kalamar guy (no, not you Mister King of the Kalamar worlds.), I never met anyone that was interested in such a thing.