Help me organize my campaign world

[Imaro]

This is a thread I want to use for advice, tips and general oppinions on how one organizes a campaign world. Lately I've gotten the bug to make a hombrew world for C&C called "The Isles of Mysts", and realized I've mostly played in either "official" campaign settings or vaguely defined little pockets. Now that I'm trying to create my own world I've hit a roadblock, not as far as ideas, but how to turn my ideas into a cohesive whole.

So I pose this question, once you have the general idea of your campaign world, how do you...
1.) structure and organize the information in a cohesive way(do you use notebooks, laptop etc., what format do you use, etc.)

2.) Present this information to the players( handouts, mini-gazetteers, lifepaths, something else)

3.)Suggest tools, supplements or programs that would help

4.) Any general info you think might be helpful.

 

[Piratecat]

Well, I do it by scattering information between four computers and having twelve different folders of paper stored all over my game room without having anything immediately findable. That way I have to keep everything in my head.

*sob*

I'll be reading this thread with interest.

 

[Crothian]

Like PC I have stuff a lot of different places, but I have started to slowly get it all on my Wiki. It is not perfect but it does serve as an easy resource for my players to have access to and completely ignore.

 

[EricNoah]

I have started by examining published campaign settings and kind of copying their structure. Even the table of contents for, say, the FR campaign setting could be a good place to start.

Also ask your players what they would want to know about the campaign world. They may have some needs that are obvious to them but not to you (things like name of months, what year is it, what is the basic history of the setting, etc.).

My stuff is in different Word documents and I hyperlink them together wherever I see fit. I also place hyperlinks to PDF files on my computer that I might need (monster books, a city book that I'm using in the setting, etc.).

 

[Emirikol]

Our group keeps it simple. We play in the CONAN setting with the D&D rules.

Here's our organization
1. We have a YAHOOGROUP. All discussions and game schedulings are done there.
2. We have a house rule book (attached)
3. Any and all files and are stored on the Yahoogroup
4. Since players pretty much 'never' reference setting materials, I can just look up what I need or read a Conan novel

We don't have to learn a computer programming language to contribute and there's no wasted space on stuff that isn't read (if you're a DM you'll know what I'm talking about).

jh

 

[Woas]

Like PC I have stuff a lot of different places, but I have started to slowly get it all on my Wiki. It is not perfect but it does serve as an easy resource for my players to have access to and completely ignore.

Tell me about it. I also have a wiki: (http://dualkingdoms.pbwiki.com/) for my little game too. I don't know how many times I have to remind my players to check out the wiki.. especially to check the map out so they understand what I'm talking about exactly and what they'll encounter if they do decide to go north or east or where-ever.

But for myself the wiki is nice and helps me keep basic stuff together that would normally go into a type of "homebrew campaign setting sourcebook". As for other game information I also have a three-ring bind with plenty of three-hole paper in it. A lot of my game isn't even made up. For example if you went to the link I had up there and did check out the map, you'd see some cities that were part of the map but in undescribed areas to the north. Following the First Rule of Dungencraft, I only create what I need. So those areas are complete wild cards purposely left un-defined. If and when the game needs to include one of those cities as the plot changes then they are available to be formed into exactly what the plot calls for. So my point is that you don't need to write out everything like you would find in a published campaign world.
I also use a three-hole binder with lots of loose-leaf paper. I take notes as DM what my players do, how they reacted to NPCs, what info they do know vs what is still secert... that way I keep out the garbage/clutter info that you might find in a published setting that is just extra words never used. The information I keep directly relates back to the game and makes it more uniform.

 

[GuardianLurker]

I've found that the Web has many different ways of presenting the info, almost all of them good.

Technology Survey:
MS Help/CHM files - My first attempt at electronic info distribution, pre-Web days. Standard web-pages are easier to deal with.
Standard web pages - This is what I primarily use right now. I don't get very fancy - just well-linked static pages for the most part. But it suffices.
Wiki - I play in a game that uses a Wiki. It's OK, but the wiki isn't organized very well, and there's an issue with exactly how much editorial control you give to your players.
Blog - I used one while building my current/upcoming campaign. It's great for a journal, not so good for presenting info in a well-organized manner.
Yahoo Groups - Some *really* nice free tools in this; Calendars, polls, file storage, record keeping, and (of course) the mailing list. I use a Yahoo group right now. The best benefits are the mailing list, the calendar, and the databases (which I use to keep a record of the PCs experience).

Right now, I'm using Web pages and Yahoo groups. The combination works really well for me.

A bigger issue is how you organize the stuff. I break it down into Rules, Setting, and GM Info.
Rules is anything that can get houseruled, essentially, plus detailing what options I'm using. I'm a big fan of the "tuned" ruleset ("No, no warlocks, and these feats aren't available..."), so this tends to be fairly large. I organize the Rules section to match the PHB, plus a few additional sections (like Prestige Classes).
Setting is the public setting info; gazetteer-level stuff. I started using the WoG(1980) format, but the FR and Kingdom of Kalamar formats work as well. These days, I use my own format. Whatever format you choose, it should contain only the bare minimum info you need to keep the country in mind. Placing hooks in here is a good idea, but you probably shouldn't put secrets in the description. And be careful. You can easily drown your players in detail, and most of them won't read the stuff anyway.
GM Info is stuff just for me; my players never see it. I keep it all on one computer, but a flash drive would probably work better. I tend to make a directory for the campaign, and then just shove the stuff in there willy-nilly. Adventures (and adventure notes), NPC names and stats, whatever seems important.

You can see examples at my campaign sites, Olerra and Darelth. I won't claim they're the best campaign sites, but they went up (and stay up) fairly easily.