[Help!] What should I write about?

[Fayredeth]

I haven't gotten a chance to play in a while, and for the past couple of months, I (and my friend) have been working on a campaign setting to be used in an undetermined later date. I enjoy writing this stuff, and I have a tendency to have things fly through my head, but now I believe I have a terrible affliction:

Writer's Block.

Thus I turn to you, fellow members of the EN Boards! Please throw out suggestions as to what to write about, or maybe little seeds for a part of the campaign world that I could expand upon. You could say "why don't you expand on religion more, adding a cool twist like _____" or "how about a magical place that does _____". All I need is a little... inspiration.

Thank you!

 

[Crothian]

What you need is a good well defined city. Make it with hundreds of NPCs and many, many shops and buildings defined along with a really nice full colored map. THis way the PCs can go anywhere and everywhere in the city and it will come alive with the colorful NPCs and the multi dimensional levels of intrigue and plots woven into the places and history of the place.

Or, you need to define the legnds and myths of the place. Not just creation myths, and about the gods, but stories of past rulers, villians, and adventurers. Every story can be an adventure hook and you'll never run out of ideas for the PCs.

Or you need a Paladin Orginization that answers to no king, only to it's own LG diety. They are known world wide for helping people and righting wrongs.

Hope that helps!!

 

[Anabstercorian]

Start with some interesting foes. Foes are the meat and drink of an adventure. Why have orcs when you can have something really cool? Or at least some really cool orcs?

 

[William Ronald]

Try to create a story about one specific place or event in the campaign. Ask yourself what happened and how it shaped the present. What does that place or event mean to most people in the campaign?

Perhaps a story of a city saved by a band of heroes who either died saving it or vanished without accepting any reward. Or a story about a place that has been a site of pilgrimage for centuries.

A setting must have a feel of reality. If all else fails, adapt something from real life.

 

[Theron]

Writer's block is too often the result of trying to get it right on the first draft. Relax, throw out a bunch of ideas, people, locations, a monster you've never used before.

If that doesn't get things flowing, I recommend consciously NOT writing for a week or so. I find that if I intentionally forbid myself from writing, by the end of that time, I'm bursting with ideas (most of them useless at the time, but that's the great thing with ideas, they're imminantly recyclable).

 

[LostSoul]

Write some famous legends (just at point form at first) about great heroes, some living, some dead, that did great deeds with great magics at strange locations.

Perhaps there was a famous warrior-knight who held back an entire army with just his small warband at a mountain keep. He used a horn of blasting (or some powerful item) that crushed the army; but, alas, it killed him as well.

Now the players know about this guy, a buried keep (dungeon), and a magic item underneath. Maybe they will want to search for the item themselves. Maybe a sage will later tell them about the warrior-knight's hidden treasure. Maybe they will have to recover an artifact that the warrior was carrying for some arcane ritual. Maybe the warrior-knight was the only one who knew about some important piece of information, and the PCs will have to "Speak with Dead".

The important thing is to design your legends around adventure hooks.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

I have to agree with Crothian---a good, well-defined city goes far, especially if it serves as the springboard for future adventures. Oerth has its Greyhawk; Toril its Waterdeep; Nehwon its Lankhmar. More often than not, it'll be a port and/or at some sort of crossroads

Along the same lines, if your PCs are going to be more wilderness-bound than roaming established countries, there still should be some sort of well-defined village/town/outpost for the characters to go to.

Hope that helps.

 

[Larry Fitz]

Encounter Charts...

Make yourself some random Encounter Charts for various environs..

And some really well defined NPC's. Create some character backgrounds that you can plug one or two of your players into, or better talk to your players about the kind of backgroundsthey want there characters to be from and make two fully fleshed out character histories for each character. The first is what the character knows and you give them a copy, the second is what's really been happening, that one you keep as a reference and a way to further develop your plot....