Grounding Players in a Setting

[Paka]

Two words: collaborative setting design.

So how do these two words...three words work. Here's how my friends and I do it.

As a GM, I throw out a few ideas, real vague.

- a city built over hell, designed to keep the demons from the world

- a city under seige, doomed

- a magical library and its strike force who go out and get new books when a wizard passes or get's books back when they are in dangerous hands for too long

The players seem excited about the city built over hell and details about that city come out from character generation. If someone wants to play an elven prince from the north whose people have always had warriors in the city in order to guard against demonic incursion...rock on. When someone suggestions that there is a secret society of rogues and wizards who have watched the going's on of this city throughout history but were kicked out by the last human king...rock.

The danger with too much setting is that it can force a good GM to say, "no," to solid ideas their players put forth, even when they are awesome in genre ideas because it goes against the dotted i's and crossed t's of the GM's notes. I prefer not to cross those t's nor dot those i's and the players have a hand in the creation of the setting.

And once we make a world together, you can be damned sure that they will want to save it and once the group goes through this process, it is pretty obvious what parts they are excited about.

Hope that makes sense. Setting creation is one of my favorite parts of this whole hobby.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When trying to get my players involved in a campaign world, I:

1) Try to give them an outline of the campaign world, not a tome, within which they can shape their PCs.

2) Tell my players that well-written PC backgrounds (limit- 2 pages) will gain their PCs some PC-appropriate benefits.

3) Keep an "open door" policy. Talk to me (you choose the method) and I'll tell you what works & doesn't.

4) Let PC's actions have lasting effects, but so do NPC's. This I've done in various ways, but the best success I ever got was with a 1 page handout disguised as the "rag sheet" organizational newspaper (Pagemaker or Word documents, printed or emailed). In it, there were summaries of the PC's last adventures ("Good job capturing Dr. Shung's right-hand man, the Inscrutible John Cobra!"), some behind-the-scenes stuff ("Attempted Prison Break!- a dry run for Shung's Minions?"), and news & rumors from around the campaign world ("Another ship attacked by 'Fish-Men' in Indian Ocean!" "Bizzare Artifact Stolen from Museum of Natural History!" "Strange sightings over St. Petersburg" "Martian Laborers Revolt! Cinnamon Addiction Suspected"). It got posted in our host's game room, so it could be read at any time. The table talk thus generated let me know what players were thinking, allowing me to tailor adventures to their guesses...or overturn their assumptions.

 

[LostSoul]

Good stuff

Cool, I like it, like it a lot.

It's not just setting, though, right? You're also talking about "what do the characters do?" and "who are the characters?"

Doing that sort of thing has led to my favourite campaigns, for sure.

 

[Paka]

Cool, I like it, like it a lot.

It's not just setting, though, right? You're also talking about "what do the characters do?" and "who are the characters?"

Doing that sort of thing has led to my favourite campaigns, for sure.

Right on but what the characters do and who they are can be hugely influenced by the setting.

Basically, the outline for the setting comes from the character concepts.

 

[LostSoul]

I see it like one big wheel:

Setting helps define who they are and what they do
Character helps define setting and what they do
What they do helps define setting and who they are.

Never forget what they do! I had a setting that I thought was cool, but then I was faced with, "What will the characters do?" And I drew a blank. Back to the drawing board.

 

[Gold Roger]

I use shared world as well, though with a different approach.

My homebrew is essential a total kitchen sink. I have my own designed setting elements (mostly designed for cool adventures), the rest is generic. When a player creates a PC I tell him everything is allowed, but he has to fit it into the (generic) gaming world. Then I work with the players to flesh out the basics of the immediate enviroment. The I fill in some of the blanks and place some of my predesigned setting elements, therest is developed as we go.

The advantage is that eceryone can play what he wants, the thing was designed together, so setting elements someone doesn't like are few and the players feel more invested, because they had part in the whole thing.

It's advantegous for me as well, because it opens more time and creative effort for the more important stuff and gives me impulses I won't otherwhise.

 

[JohnSnow]

One of the tricks I use is to draw comparisons to real world cultures. Thus, when I described my Ulek campaign as being in a Celtic-themed setting, the players already have an idea of what to expect. The details can come out in play, but they're already in the right mindset.

*nodding vigorously*

It's definitely a good idea to hang a setting on some kind of hook. That way, if you say "Celtic," your players know to expect cattle raids, the giving of gifts, boar hunting, etc. A setting where they play "knights errant" or "ronin" is very different, but has its own assumptions. For example, my last DM (Akrasia on these boards) described his campaign "feel" as "Excalibur meets Cthulu." Okay. Check. Got it.

For the best guide I've ever read on campaign and world design, I recommend Ray Winniger's excellent Dungeoncraft articles. If it helps, I'll post Winniger's rules of Dungeoncraft and his basic design steps.

First Rule of Dungeoncraft: Never force yourself to create more than you must.
Second Rule of Dungeoncraft: Whenever you design a major piece of the campaign world, always devise at least one secret related to that piece.
The Third Rule of Dungeoncraft: Whenever you have no idea what the probability of success should be for a particular situation, consider it 50%.
Fourth Rule of Dungeoncraft: Always challenge both the players and their characters.
Fifth Rule of Dungeoncraft: What's done is done.

Basic World Design Steps:

1. Come up with a world "hook" - culture, environment, class/race, opposition, situation.
2. Consider the implications of your "hook."
3. Set up a Home Base (City, Stronghold, Town, Farming Village, or Wandering Tribal Camp)
4. Determine Local Government and Economy
5. Determine "National" Government
6. Determine Something about Neighboring Governments
7. Develop Your Religion
- Choose Polytheism or Monotheism
- Determine the nature of the major god(s)
- Describe the faith and worshippers
- Create Two Myths
- Imagine Other Faiths
8. Start Naming Things
9. Design the Homebase - make sure it includes the following features:
- A Local Authority
- Townsfolk
- Shops
- A Temple or Church
- Fantasy Elements
- The Rumor Mill
- Interesting NPCs
- Something Related to a Secret
10. Map the Base
11. Map the Region around the base
- Start with the Familiar
- Include the Unknown
- Plan Ahead for adventures
- Integration of the Local Economy
- Monster Lairs
- Hard to Reach Areas
- Clue Pointing to a Secret
12. Design the First Adventure

That's it. Although the actual articles are more helpful, hopefully this brief outline is a good start. I have the articles if anyone wants them, but I don't think I can post them - copyright laws and all that.

 

[Paka]

JohnSnow, do you think the rules of Dungeoncraft and the Basic World Design Steps contradict each other a bit?

I'm particularly eyeing the First Rule of Dungeoncraft and the long list of to make up in the Basic World Design Steps.

Thoughts?

First Rule of Dungeoncraft: Never force yourself to create more than you must.
Second Rule of Dungeoncraft: Whenever you design a major piece of the campaign world, always devise at least one secret related to that piece.
The Third Rule of Dungeoncraft: Whenever you have no idea what the probability of success should be for a particular situation, consider it 50%.
Fourth Rule of Dungeoncraft: Always challenge both the players and their characters.
Fifth Rule of Dungeoncraft: What's done is done.

Basic World Design Steps:

1. Come up with a world "hook" - culture, environment, class/race, opposition, situation.
2. Consider the implications of your "hook."
3. Set up a Home Base (City, Stronghold, Town, Farming Village, or Wandering Tribal Camp)
4. Determine Local Government and Economy
5. Determine "National" Government
6. Determine Something about Neighboring Governments
7. Develop Your Religion
- Choose Polytheism or Monotheism
- Determine the nature of the major god(s)
- Describe the faith and worshippers
- Create Two Myths
- Imagine Other Faiths
8. Start Naming Things
9. Design the Homebase - make sure it includes the following features:
- A Local Authority
- Townsfolk
- Shops
- A Temple or Church
- Fantasy Elements
- The Rumor Mill
- Interesting NPCs
- Something Related to a Secret
10. Map the Base
11. Map the Region around the base
- Start with the Familiar
- Include the Unknown
- Plan Ahead for adventures
- Integration of the Local Economy
- Monster Lairs
- Hard to Reach Areas
- Clue Pointing to a Secret
12. Design the First Adventure

That's it. Although the actual articles are more helpful, hopefully this brief outline is a good start. I have the articles if anyone wants them, but I don't think I can post them - copyright laws and all that.

 

[Faraer]

For me, as a player, the setting is fundamental to my enjoyment of roleplaying; I enjoy being part of a living, organic, detailed world which gives context and meaning to my character and actions. There are selfish, egotistical persona players who only care about their own PCs, but I don't play with them.

While there are ways to encourage this attitude, above all by DMing the setting and its NPCs with great vigour, changing what people want is rarely going to work.

 

[Jack Morgan]

I'm just setting up a new campaign. i give the players the option of reading the hand out or giving it a miss- lots of people in today's world don't know anything about history or world affairs, I don't have a problem with players that chose ignorance. it mimics real life rather well, actually. That said my world has several things going on in it that will require characters of certain types to pay attention. For instance one group of people enslaved the bulk of the continent for a long time. That's over, but these people are hated everywhere; they are also associated with sorcery, therefore sorcery itself is looked down upon in most places, and in some others, its use can lead to imprisonment and/or lynching ect... If the PC's choose to ignore these details it will be to their own detriment, but in acting out of ignorance, they certainly would not be unique in this world or any other. When i first left home I had only the vaguest ideas about the world, but I thought I knew it all. i paid the price for my ignorance, and had many "adventures" because of it. I extend the same right of ignorance to the PCs. Now, if somebody wants to read the Background, I'm good with that too, because they will likely come away from it with ideas about things they would like to do. Either way I'm given good fodder for adventures.
Also I tend to start in the middle of things, with a ship wreck, or the characters on their way to the gallows, or during an attack on the city by an army of ghouls... ect.

I agree that a detailed setting can be overwhelming for SOME players; others love it and want to explore the whole thing. Both sorts of players give me foddder for adventure just by their outlook, and both can sit at my table and have a good time.

Also, I'm playing the game too, and creating a detailed world is part of the fun for me- although only a small part.

One other thing, i don't use standard races except for humans. Players more or less need to do at least a bit (like a couple of paragraphs) of reading to know what is what with each race. Truthfully, I don't think it's so much to ask. i mean, the players might want to think about how much prep time the DM has to put in before each and every session. Is reading a ten page background so much to ask? I just don't think it is. At one time i had a DM that basically said, "read the setting stuff or be prepared to die fast." That worked pretty well for him.