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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Graf" data-source="post: 2438615" data-attributes="member: 3087">You're basically running a homebrew campaign.By which I mean that you've chosen a story which requires you to make up both macro parts of the world (histories of ancient and existing civilizations, societies, magical styles, cultures, etc) and micro (NPCs, small locations, dungeons, etc) on the fly.My advice?Focus on Micro!!!Macro content is a crippling time sink for most games because it takes a lot longer to create than for PCs to get through. Also you can't run a game entirely on macro content (no matter how cool this king who lived 500 years ago was the PCs aren't really going to be able to interact with him, etc).If you're running this kind of game you obviously have a macro itch you need to scratch up info before sessions just so the PCs aren’t inhabiting a barren wasteland but whenever possible try to be "creatively focused". So if you make up a supercool king from 500 years ago then plug his tomb in walking distance from the party’s base and let them find out his story from murals and artifacts as they explore it.Even if that means moving his tomb from the capital you want them to travel to in the final campaign arc.Also you need to be comfortable with telling characters "Your character is familiar with the history of the ancient Suel Empire, the only things that you can recall that would be relevant about this particular situation are a) b) and c)."If you wind up making up the d) then make a note and transcribe that relatively quickly.Also, PS Steal rampantly from published books and change the absolute minimum (ideally only visual stuff).Also, Keep notes. If you start to get confused about what's happening stop and take notes. Getting hopelessly confused isn't going to help anyone.Also, Be frank with the PCs. "You've moved into the world I haven't got fully mapped out yet. My focus is preparing content for the next session. There may be times when I need to be vague about some tangential pieces of information. If a minor NPC comes from a town from far across the continent I may not be able to tell you much about all the details of that person’s voyage here. If you guys can let the small stuff slide for a while that would let me keep the focus on the game" Players are much more understanding if you're straight with them about what's happening.</blockquote>

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