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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greg K" data-source="post: 7267779" data-attributes="member: 5038">Want I am looking for is the DM to have a setting1. What is the general world like ( a desert world? an ice world?  a gothic setting?  an Asian themed setting? medieval Europe but with magic, a mix?) and what are the cultures,races and nations? What is the basic subsistence pattern of a given culture?2. What are each of the cultures like in a general sense?  Is a group nomadic horseman herding animals? Is a country a theocracy or mageocracy?  Is a region made up of various city states? Is it a monarchy? Is it an island serving ruled by "demon worshiping" elves known feared as pirates? Do noble houses compete at the expense of others for power or to be close to the ruler?3. Who are the rulers? Who are the major NPCs in the a region? What are the major institutions (e.g., temples of deities, wizard academies, etc.) and where are they located? Are their prestigious knightly or paladin organizations and, if so, where.4. What are the cultures like?What is their economy like? What is valued? Individuality? Competitions between members? Harmony with the group? Personal honor? Dealing truthfully with members of their own culture, but it is okay to cheat and get the better of outsiders? How do they punish crimes?  Shunning? Banishment? Imprisonment? Forced labor? Chopping of limbs for stealing?5. What classes and specific subclasses can be found there6. What are some notable historical facts from the past that?7.How is magic viewed by the culture?8.  What are some relevant current events for a player that might be relevant to a character from a specific culture? Is the character's country at war? Is there trouble with trolls from a nearby swamp? Is the King looking for eligible suitors for the princess?  Has the ruler's daughter been kidnapped? Was the legitimate monarch replaced by a usurper and now a band of "outlaws" are trying to reinstall the rightful ruler or their heir? 9.Think about religion. Is it monotheistic, polytheistic, shamanism, or animism? Is there more than one existing in the world? Do multiple exist in a society.  If there are deities, who are they? what are there relations? what are their domains? what are their relations with one another? what are their priests like? Are their priests clerics or some other class? What is their holy symbol? What distinctive clothing and/or other adornment identifies the priests, the tenet of  a deity's priests? what are there religious strictures on a deity's priests (if any)? what are key holy times?10. If the DM is inclined, what are marriage patterns like? how are women viewed? how is kinship traced (through the mother's line? father's line? both?) what are naming patterns like (Do only nobles have last names? Is the family name listed before the given name or vice versa?  Is the son's last name his father's name with son added to the end? Is the last name based on a family occupation?) What are common types of body adornment (Piercings? Tattoos, jewelry?)? what is the cultural attire like and are there differences by class (can only nobles wear certain colors or items? Are peasants forbidden from wearing clothing with color or limited to a single color?). What are key holidays?Some of the above elements may be influenced one another. Subsistence patterns might affect the type of religion and classes. Religion and how deities interact among themselves may be reflected in the society itself.I don't need the DM to create long  detailed histories of each nation, create unique languages, etc. What I do want is a sense of the world, its religion and cultures, and some basics that a) help me feel my character exists in a world; b) develop a background based in a specific culture; and c) provides me with possible character hooks. If warrior prestige is important and the ruler's daughter is kidnapped setting out to find her and gain status might be my reason for adventuring which might be different from someone else that hails from a monarchy ruled by a usurper and whom is trying to get help other nations in removing the usurper.   This, however, is just my own preference. The DM builds a setting.  The players build characters based within the parameters of the setting and its cultures as determined by the DM. The DM should be able to get a lot of ideas for adventures from the character background, with a little work, tie the goals together in some way and use them to bring the party together.  He or she can still throw in other hooks, or an occasional adventure along the way (it should be a "living" world). However, the campaign direction, once it begins, is determined more by the players, their goals, whatever hooks they make, where they decide to go, the enemies they make along the way, etc. Again, this is just my preference and what I find more interesting than the DM pulling out the canned module of the week or saying, "you should stick to this narrow region, because I have focused my time on this small section and didn't think of the setting on a larger scale despite allowing characters from outside areas (e.g. the elf kingdom, the dwarvish clans, the "barbarian" kingdom, some other neighboring kingdom(s)) without giving additional thought to those ahead of time.</blockquote>

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