Designing worlds for fun and... well, fun

[The Shaman]

I'm with your friend on this one, sniffles - I like to start with a world map and work my way down to the common room of the tavern where the players begin.

Rather than draw a map that fits my conceptions, I begin with a randomly generated map and make my races, populations, settlements, and political entities conform to the realities of the physical world. For example, the last homebrew I worked on featured several important mountain passes which dictated trade routes - that one feature told me a lot of what I needed to know about who lived where and traded what with whom.

World-building is fun!

 

[Turjan]

I love world-building, and I conceptualized quite a few of them lots of years ago. Nowadays, I've been more or less building at the same world for years, at least as far as straight fantasy goes. I cannot really tell anymore whether the map or the general concept came first. I suspect that both of them flew around in my mind for some time until they met in a lucky union . I remember that questions 1 to 3 played a major role in the concept from the very beginning on .

Question number 5 stayed mostly unanswered, or better, there was not only one answer. I don't like one trick ponies or worlds with one big overarching plot.

 

[rounser]

What do I need in this world that will support the adventures I want to run?

Adventures are D&D's lifeblood, but everyone gets it back-to-front and tries to make the setting first. It's a bit like your stage manager buying all the props he or she thinks would look good on stage before the script has been decided upon.

 

[Turjan]

What do I need in this world that will support the adventures I want to run?

Adventures are D&D's lifeblood, but everyone gets it back-to-front and tries to make the setting first. It's a bit like your stage manager buying all the props he or she thinks would look good on stage before the script has been decided upon.

I never understood this objection, although you are not the first to bring it up. A script is necessary for an adventure or a campaign. I like to use the same setting for different adventures/campaigns. Of course, there should be plot hooks built into the setting, but this need to get them delivered like a fist into the face is beyond my understanding *shrug*.

 

[Dog Moon]

Originally posted by rounser
What do I need in this world that will support the adventures I want to run?

Adventures are D&D's lifeblood, but everyone gets it back-to-front and tries to make the setting first. It's a bit like your stage manager buying all the props he or she thinks would look good on stage before the script has been decided upon.

I've always found creating a world gives me plenty of adventure ideas which I wouldn't have thought of if I was using a prebuilt campaign or one of which I was trying to create a campaign world around my adventures.

Also, when I create my worlds, I leave enough flexibility in so that if something doesn't make sense according to an adventure or something, the world can be changed [although that might not be the best answer if it requires changing a lot and the campaign has already started].

 

[rounser]

Of course, there should be plot hooks built into the setting, but this need to get them delivered like a fist into the face is beyond my understanding *shrug*.

I think it's difficult to overstate the case because it's often such an afterthought. DMs seem to build their worlds for supporting theoretical fantasy novels, rather than a D&D game.

 

[rounser]

I've always found creating a world gives me plenty of adventure ideas which I wouldn't have thought of if I was using a prebuilt campaign or one of which I was trying to create a campaign world around my adventures.

I think the converse is even more true (adventures generating setting ideas), because they tend to influence the setting in ways in which the players can actually interact with.

It's been my experience that not enough worldbuilding is game-oriented, and is instead concerned with history, politics, nations, gods, races, big maps and NPCs more or less irrelevant to the actual adventuring. There's only so much verisimilitude you need before it begins to become a big waste of effort for purposes of running a D&D game.

 

[LostSoul]

It's been my experience that not enough worldbuilding is game-oriented, and is instead concerned with history, politics, nations, gods, races, big maps and NPCs more or less irrelevant to the actual adventuring. There's only so much verisimilitude you need before it begins to become a big waste of effort for purposes of running a D&D game.

I agree with you. I also think that campaign creation is part of playing D&D. That is, when you draw your map, come up with NPCs, etc. you're actually playing.

 

[LostSoul]

Question number 5 stayed mostly unanswered, or better, there was not only one answer. I don't like one trick ponies or worlds with one big overarching plot.

Without answering that question, it's much harder to plan adventures. D&D's answer is "kill things and take their stuff to get more powerful". If the campaign doesn't support that, you have to come up with something else. Like "the PCs pick sides in the war between good and evil" or "is it worth it to gain the world and lose your soul" or "what's it like to live in a world ruled by an evil overlord?"

The players should have input in this as well, I think.

 

[LostSoul]

A script is necessary for an adventure or a campaign.

What do you mean by script?