Gazetteers - what to include?

[Emiricol]

For a gazetteer I'm going to write up on a single country within a home-grown campaign world, which will potentially be used by a couple co-dms and several parties of PCs.

I know opinions will differ, but this is hopefully going to give me an idea how to focus my efforts.

What I need to know are these kinds of things:

- How long should such a gazetteer be, in your opinion?

- What level of detail?

- What are the must-include items for the gazetteer to be useful?

- Are narratives by NPCs useful, or a waste of time?

- How detailed should the NPCs and their plots be?

- Is a metaplot a good idea or bad?

- Any other darn thing you can think of

 

[Ulrick]

I would like to know the answers to these questions as well, since I'm undertaking a similar project.


A little daunting isn't it, Emiricol?

For now I'm using the campaign reference sources I have as rules of thumb...particularly "The Marklands" and "Iuz the Evil" from Greyhawk. I figured that since these were done by a professional company, I should probably mimic them.

One piece of advice that I can give is don't try to do everything all at once! Especially if you're the only one doing this project.

I tried to tackle my homebrew all at once and I just got burned out. However, it does seem like you're focusing only on one area.

 

[Emiricol]

Yes, I'm only involved with one area (at the moment). And it is daunting. And it'll be semi-public, so a little scary too. I've done writing before under a pseudonym, but still... this is personal and that was just a writing project. I wasn't invested in the project as with a homegrown world.

I've got about 24 pages now, but it only has a couple orgazinations and a few NPCs - really just the country leader, the heir, and the military's leader.

It also has a timeline, but I might just merge that into the core setting material.

 

[Ulrick]

Awww man, nobody has answered yet...



Come on DMs...give Emiricol a hand. Remember how you felt when you started typing up your creation?

Here's what I'm doing:

Occasionally I consult the World Builder's Guide book for inspiration about developing a country.

I write up a brief history of the country. This helps develop "The feel" the realm and its culture. This is a page or two in length.

I have two or three paragraphs for decribing each major city, town, and sites of interest.

Then I have three or four paragraphs of "current information"

For now, my NPCs are detailed in abbreviated format. Ex: Ulrick (ftr 10, N) followed by a brief description a paragraph or two long.

So far, with just that, one of my nations has about 15 single spaced 12 font pages (its not done yet, a lot of it is still hand written notes).

 

[jgbrowning]

well its not really exactly the type of information he's looking for, but i'll just repeat what my professors always said to me....

kill your children, only you love them.

basically when you write make sure you're only writing useful stuff. if its not necessasary kill it.

also, always remember that what you write isn't you. you're just the writer... there's really no difference between what you write and what you eat.... their just choices you make in differing aspects of your life.

other than that, to more directly address the topic.... id say "write every day. just a paragraph if you can't do more. but write everyday."

joe b.

 

[johnsemlak]

What to include:

Just my two cents--this all comes from reading Campaign setting materials and the Gazatteer series from the old Mystara setting (which I really liked--I think they are great models)

1. Maps--good maps. Including high-scale/slow scale and maps of cities.

2. Prestige classes. I really think Gazatteers and setting supplements should be the primary place for PrCs. The DMG says they are campaign-building tools.

3. Sample adventures. Very improtant. Makes the gazatteer a much more ready-to-use product. I really liked the ones in the '83 WoG set, and the GAZ series for D&D was good too. Especialy if there are no published adventures for you setting.

4. Detailed interesting history. Write it with the though of adventure hooks in mind.

5. Details of religions, which main deities outlined; enough to create cleric characters. Include evil deities.

6. New setting-specific monsters are good, but not essential IMHO. Tehre are plenty of existing mosters out there. Better to have details on how existing monsters function in your setting.

I'll try to think of more.

Again, my favorite products for models of such things are the 83 WoG boxed set (which may be much bigger than what you want to make) and the GAZ series (Karameikos, Glantri, etc.). I loved them. I wish more such products came out for existing settings now.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Here's how I do things with Urbis:

After had the basic idea of the setting (many city-states with populations ranging into the millions, and shaped by magical architecture), I took a notebook with me everywhere, and when I had a cool idea, I made a short note of it. Later, when I sat down at the computer, I took a look at all my notes and wrote some of them up and put them into my website.

So, gradually, Urbis began to grow, and it continues to do so to this day.

Unless you are working under a deadline, it isn't a good idea to sit down at your computer and say: "Today I am going to detail the barony XYZ!" Unless you already have some specific ideas for that region, forcing yourself to write something on it will result in a boring writeup. It's better to come up with vague ideas first, and then thinking about how to put it into your setting. Once you have done some work in this way, new ideas will suggest themselves to you that will help you fit everything together.

So I'll say it again: Always take a notebook and a pencil with you. Always.

 

[Emiricol]

Thanks for the tips, folks! I think I've got a lot to work with now - especially maps and a couple sample adventures. Some other ideas came up too! Fortunately the monsters and PrCs are in a more general setting book (the Gazetteer I'm working on is just for my little portion of the community)

I'll have to find an old GAZ - that's Mystara, right?

Cheers!

-Emiricol

 

[Katerek]

Never force yourself create more than you must.

For every part of the campaign you create, create a secret to go along with it.

Those are the two Rules of Dungeon Craft that I use the most. Teh World Builders guidebook is invaluable.

Dont spend ten pages describing the economy of the area if no one is going to give a rip. If there are things that only you care about; and in the past you have found yourself thinking "Man, I wish the players would look at this more.", do not write it down.

Like the previous post said: Kill your children, only you love them. Invaluable advice, it will save you lots of tiem and heartbreak in the long run.

 

[Voadam]

What I would want

Maps with roads, rivers, terrain, cities, major villages or forts, and scale.

Major cities described.

rulers and how the country is run

Major power groups

Politics, internal and external: what is going on, and why.

Major races, churches, and monsters found in the country. Stats are not needed but flavor descriptions are (the Hyrdrin tribe of orcs lives in these mountains numbering between eight and twelve thousand. They maintain wary truces with the several hundred stone giants who maintain their own villages. Raiding from the orcs is not uncommon but they have not erupted into a horde in fifty years)

some hooks like legends or individual things that are going on but not actual adventures, this is a resource for others to use as a backdrop, not a module.

Some history for why things are as they are.