Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Which book is that?
Fleshing out your Homebrew
- Thread starter Edgewood
- Start date
SHARK
First Post
Greetings!
Well, with my own campaign world I have binders full of stuff over the years that I have developed different ideas and areas for the campaign, from NPC's, cities, religions, nations, kingdoms, monsters and politics. (Now I have hundreds of pages stored in files on two different computers). I have enormous hand-drawn maps, stored in sheet protectors that edge together like puzzle pieces to form a larger whole, showing a vast map of the campaign area, of several continents. I have ancient histories developed for cultures going back for thousands of years, along with numerous secrets and mysteries developed, or on a number of occasions, deliberately left vague.
For adventures, I record notes and such from play to develop further adventures, as well as for inspiration to further detail various missing areas, or ideas that may have only a few paragraphs of detail in my notes, now get more attention, and so on.
World-building is always fun, but also very time-consuming!
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
Well, with my own campaign world I have binders full of stuff over the years that I have developed different ideas and areas for the campaign, from NPC's, cities, religions, nations, kingdoms, monsters and politics. (Now I have hundreds of pages stored in files on two different computers). I have enormous hand-drawn maps, stored in sheet protectors that edge together like puzzle pieces to form a larger whole, showing a vast map of the campaign area, of several continents. I have ancient histories developed for cultures going back for thousands of years, along with numerous secrets and mysteries developed, or on a number of occasions, deliberately left vague.
For adventures, I record notes and such from play to develop further adventures, as well as for inspiration to further detail various missing areas, or ideas that may have only a few paragraphs of detail in my notes, now get more attention, and so on.
World-building is always fun, but also very time-consuming!
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Eclipse. Available through Lulu or Amazon. I asked about it over in the "d20 Other' forum earlier today and didn't get a response, so I tracked down the Lulu and Amazon previews. It looks like an extensive overhaul of d20 character creation, presenting rules for bulding your own classes, races, feats, etc in a balanced manner. The second section of the book seems to do the same thing for magic and spells, while the last portion of it is dedicated to worldbuilding and makes reference to the aforementioned templates.
So, basically, it looks like a 'tool-kit' application of d20 character creation that also expands magic in this regard, and ties both directly into worldbuilding. Which, really, seems like a very neat idea (it seems that it would inject some much-needed internal consistency into my d320 games). I'm kind of surprised this hasn't been done by anybody else (so far as I know, it hasn't been).
Apparently, the book also covers multiple levels of unreality and different time periods, claiming compatability with all of the 'core' d20 rule sets released by WotC (I suspect that it works better with some than others, though, as that's merely the nature of such beasts). I figured that if it lives up to half of the ad copy, it would be worth the $29 cover price, so I ended up springing for a copy. If it lives up to all of the ad copy, it might be the best overlooked product in the hobby.
That said, I kind of wish it wasn't a paperback-only product.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Good lord, please review that once you've had a chance to drive it around the block.
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Sure thing! I found it by accident, really -- lately I've gone a little overboard with the game purchases and stop by Lulu two or three times a month to browse the RPG section and pick up some obscure and/or small-press games. This is the first d20 product I've bought there, though the ad copy really had me hooked right off the bat. I had kind of been hoping that it was a standalone product, though if I can replace the character creation and magic system of the PHB wholesale (with the info in Eclipse), I think I'll be just as happy.
I've been using Aria Worlds as my guide into fleshing out my gameworld. I find that the book helps in developing a culture that seems to have evolved in a natural way. My biggest stumbling block is coming up with cultural influences by neighbouring countries and how it affects technology and religion. In our world I look at Spain, France and Italy and use their model of influencing cultural norms upon each other.
I also have to organize my information better. Although I have binders full of information, I'm still looking for a good way to have everything in an easy to find format. I've been filing everything by country but there are so many areas that are wild, and unsettled in Morvia that I'm thinking that perhaps there is a better way to organize this information as a lot of it does not fall under a section for Countries.
I also have to organize my information better. Although I have binders full of information, I'm still looking for a good way to have everything in an easy to find format. I've been filing everything by country but there are so many areas that are wild, and unsettled in Morvia that I'm thinking that perhaps there is a better way to organize this information as a lot of it does not fall under a section for Countries.
DragonLancer
Hero
I tend to focus and expand on where the players are and where they are likely to go. Only when I have spare time to devote to it, do I start on other areas.
Arkhandus
First Post
I focus more on the areas the PCs are in or heading towards, but I do a lot of random stuff for my homebrews. I don't usually go into deep detail with any particular thing though, leaving stuff open for others to fill in. I don't wanna straightjacket PCs into behaving within rigid codes or restrict their character choices too much.
But I do try to define a decent number of organizations, customs, nations, and whatnot for players to use during character creation. I don't detail everything about a kingdom or organization, but I can fill in the blanks later if a player asks for more info about it. I leave a lot of little details off of maps and only bother putting in great detail for small areas that need it. I only map out or detail cities that the PCs head towards, and I usually only put in enough detail to make them seem well-thought-out; I ad lib the rest if it comes up, and I'm pretty decent at that.
I figure out details on the most important NPCs in any town the PCs are headed to (as in, those NPCs the PCs may meet). As often or not I make up the names, appearance, and other details for an NPC on the fly, since the PCs usually run into NPCs I haven't prepared or that just weren't important enough to need detail earlier.
But I do try to define a decent number of organizations, customs, nations, and whatnot for players to use during character creation. I don't detail everything about a kingdom or organization, but I can fill in the blanks later if a player asks for more info about it. I leave a lot of little details off of maps and only bother putting in great detail for small areas that need it. I only map out or detail cities that the PCs head towards, and I usually only put in enough detail to make them seem well-thought-out; I ad lib the rest if it comes up, and I'm pretty decent at that.
I figure out details on the most important NPCs in any town the PCs are headed to (as in, those NPCs the PCs may meet). As often or not I make up the names, appearance, and other details for an NPC on the fly, since the PCs usually run into NPCs I haven't prepared or that just weren't important enough to need detail earlier.
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