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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stormborn" data-source="post: 1567287" data-attributes="member: 14041">"Who out there prefers to make his/her own worlds? What have been your most original creations? And my real question is: How do you go about the process of creating a world setting? A student of mine asked me this question, and I had only my own experience to draw upon for an answer."I cannot help but messing with worlds.  In fact that is one of the greatest joys of the game for me, i love reading about and making new worlds.  Currently the players are immersed in a world that all of them have said is the best game they have played (limited experiance, but I take it as a compliment.)In fact, one of them is in process of creating this: <a href="http://www.passarola.com/leviathan/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.passarola.com/leviathan/index.html</a>based on the player handouts and pointed questions.  It is by no means complete, either from her end or mine.I started out wanting to create a Baroque game of swashbuckling and intrigue, and I wanted it to be different than anything we had seen or played.I began buying up swashbuckling/pirate source material and didn't find anything I wanted.  Lots I liked, just not the perfect thing.  So I cannablized and created the world book.  Some 40 plus pages.  Its in flux, there were things I mentioned there that I later dropped, retconned out since we hadn't used them.  Things have been added. Its an evolvign world, and the players are OK with that.  While no doubt Monte Cook or someone else can answer the question better I say:1. Start with the core idea, usually with some inspiration.  What makes this world unique?  How does that fact effect all others?  What secondary charateristics impact the world? Do I want it to be like Movie/Book/Comic X?  What am I going for?  What will PCs do?  What might they do?2. Cannablize and research.  No point in reinvinting the wheel everytime (although that can be fun) there are a lot of d20 and other products out there.  If its just for fun: steal everything.  If its for eventual publication: steal all open game content and keep up with where you stole it from.3. Intigrate mechanics and setting. Smooth out the wrinkles and warn the players that the unexpected might happen.4. Fill in the gaps with your own flavor and setting material.  This, more than anything else, will make it different.At first start small.  Subtle changes to race, relgion, tech will have big impact on games. Work your way up to the big world stuff.</blockquote>

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