Help! First Time World Building

[Panthanas]

I have a question to the home brew world builders out there dealing with ::gasp!:: world building!

Anyway, I've run a number of campaigns in published settings over the years, but I have an idea for my own world along with the basics of a story I would like to tell. If it matters, it will be a fantasy setting using Grim Tales (From Bad Axe Games) and Fields of Blood (From Eden Studios). Additionally I already have a very basic map drawn out.

My question is, when you have put together your own worlds, where have you started (with a specific kingdom/realm, with broad overviews of the whole world, etc.) and how much detail have you had before beginning play?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bayushi Seikuro]

When I put my worlds together, sometimes I begin with the main area where the adventures will take place, and paint the rest of the world in broad strokes, places and things to be explored... kind of the way I feel about the Real World - living in the US, I can make some broad generalizations about the UK or Austrailia, but once I travel there, I find out that it's not exactly what it's been claimed.

Other times, I start with races and themes for them. Right now, the world I'm working on uses Frostburn - so it's cold weather. It's a prison plane where small baronies have sprung up, the two most warlike being a necromancer-based land, the other being a land of artificers and halfconstructs.

Othertimes, I just go crazy and whatever pops in my head goes.

 

[Gulla]

First a discalimer: I run 'site based' adventures/campaigns. That means (to me) that an encounter is what 'fits the location' not tailored to the PCs. If the 1. level party hears about the gigantic, red dragon they should not try to go there. Fortunately my players understand this.

The two times I have started totally from scratch I had a 'general feeling' of the world as a whole. To communicate this to my players I use common references (in my cases 'Prince Valiant as in the comic with a background between Asterix and Medieval Europe' and 'Nobodies becomes heroes, D&D as in the core books with a twist you'll discover very soon'). Using books most players have read is another good way. "My Amber is like the books, with a mood more like Steven Brust's Vlad-series"

Then I detail the area where the players will start. Map out the village/town. Write down 'adventures' locally and stat up a few encounters. Then I let the players in, and make the world as they discover it (or as I get inspired and have time). It will take a while before the players are very mobile so just start up the game and harvest inspiration and ideas from them for the rest of the world.

That's my way. No complaints so far

Håkon

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

When I put together my own homebrewed settings, I do both.

Firstly, I put together some overarching plot or theme or idea. Usually, my campaigns are epic and long-standing (by epic I mean "world saving" and not necessarily 20th+ level). That is my basic premise. I'll map out a few bad guys, some good guys, special/pertinent items, etc.

From there, I focus into the local area I want to start with. Starting at first level, I'll just start with a village/town/city. I don't map out much more beyond that to begin with. I do the same thing I did as appove with mapping up pertinent NPCs, places, recent events, and future plans.

One thing that I would do since you already have the map is to map out the kingdoms/countries/cities etc. This can help greatly in creating out a plotline and NPCs.

The other thing I've found extremely helpful is to allow the PCs help you build the world. Their history and background will be full of world-building groups, cities, regions, and religions. Let them burden some of the load cause it is easier on you and can be surprisingly ingenious.

 

[DragonLancer]

I tend to start by scribbling notes in a pocket notebook, and then work on the map of the campaign area (Usually a single continent or half of one if its big).

Deities and mythology come next. The gods of the world (IMO) dictate alot of how society and the world look & feel.

Once thats done I write out cities, personalities and places of interest, then work out more detail as I go along.


The only problem I have, is that I'm never sure when enough is enough, or how much detail I really need.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

If you are going for a low-magic, psuedo-realistic setting, I'd recommend the Magical Medieval Society books. They are very good for creating a framework that provides the kind of internal consistency that can be hard to achieve in homebrews.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Start small, with a campian area, this is where most of your adventures will be and needs to have details in it. The rest of your would limit you detail, example the cold lands are to the north, they are cold and have wooly monsters, you only go into detail when the players get there.

Now for some web sites you may want to check out. See the links...

http://www.io.com/~eighner/world_builder/world_builder_index.html

 

[Terwox]

To echo, do it bottom up. Make the surrounding area and some stuff for your PCs to start with. If you have a plot thread in mind, sketch it out a bit, and detail the parts relevant to the session that the players might be aware of.
Check your adventure and setting to note that it will be fun for your players specifically, and smile when you realize it will be.

 

[Panthanas]

If you are going for a low-magic, psuedo-realistic setting, I'd recommend the Magical Medieval Society books. They are very good for creating a framework that provides the kind of internal consistency that can be hard to achieve in homebrews.

I own MMS: Western Europe, and it is excellent. I'll be sure to use it as put everything together.

http://www.io.com/~eighner/world_bu...lder_index.html

Cool site. Thanks for the link!

Also, I want to thank everyone for their responses. All good advice and all very helpfull! Thank you again.

 

[Wombat]

When I create a world, it starts with a concept -- what is the campaign going to be based upon.

For example, my latest campaign is based on a professor's comment in a lecture I heard many years ago regarding the colonization of the New World, that one reason that the Aztec, Inca, and the like fell so quickly because the Europeans arrived during times of internal division, and that if the Europeans had shown up 20-30 years earlier or later the situation may have been quite a bit different. So I created a region that is much like the Central American coastline (more or less like Guatemala, etc.) with a not-quite-European area on the Eastern coast and not-quite-Mayan/Olmec/Aztecs in the interior. Then, just to make matters more interesting, I set up a not-quite-Chinese enclave on the Western coast.

After that I created the broad cultural outlines of each of the three groups, including bits on religion, politics, art, diplomacy, economics, and military. And, since the European-types would be technologically somewhat more advanced, I had to determine what set of rules I wanted to use for early firearms -- as it is they are slow, smokey, prone to breaking down, but cut through armour like nobody's business (which makes them primarily useful against heavily armoured European-types, but no extra use against the Mayan-types).

I also made an important decision at this point about adventuring in this world -- there are no sentient races that are not available to PCs (aside from a few undead, but that is a different matter) and there are only about seven sentient races. This means there are no orcs, goblins, etc., to attack. On the other hand, since there is a lot of jungle out there, there are a lot of wild animals (and monsters), including some truly vile plants, etc.

But where would the PCs want to adventure? Well, I now have a fully-developed city with many intrigues going on in it; equally, following the Mayan historical pattern, there are several abandoned cities now re-covered by the jungle, probably with fine art work (read: gold and jade/jadite), folding-books (potentially with magic), and guarded burial chambers (read: mini-dungeons). So between city intrigue, monster fights in the jungle, and ruins exploration, there seems to be quite a range.

I also started creating legends, vignette stories of daily life, superstitions, a calendar and holidays, and other little bits to flesh the world out.

Maps? Well, I've got a few of them, but given the maps that would have been available to the cultures at the time, "generalized" actually works. I a few better maps for my own purposes, but most of the geographical information that the players have is rather more sketchy (...suddenly I am thinking of Blackadder: "Do fill it in as you go along...").

So, there is a the good beginnings and, as I said, the world started from a concept and worked out from there.