How do you go about creating a campaign setting?

[SoulsFury]

I have been trying for quite sometime to create a world I like and enjoy, that I believe my players will like and enjoy. I've tried creating based on the theme, I've tried starting with a map and adding what I wanted, I tried starting with a small town and working my way out. I can never decide on how small or how big the pantheon should be, how big or how small the nations should be, how large of a poplulation, how far apart towns are, how civilized, how technological, how magical, and a thousand other things. So for you guys with highly developed campaign settings, how do you do it?

Nik

 

[ced1106]

How do you run your adventures? Do you make them yourselves? Are they prepublished? In either case, find some way to connect the two; the more backstory you have behind your adventures, the easier your campaign will grow.

Also, "eavesdrop" on your players. When they come up with a thought on how XYZ works ("there must be an evil hobbit thieve's guild!"), jot down a note and run with it.

Finally, the players themselves can create ideas. Clerical types can make up their own gods. Non-human races can provide a short background for you to start with. In AD&D, there were guidelines to creating your own classes and races; players who did this came up with explanations and thus background to add to the campaign.

Hope to hear other's thoughts!


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Desdichado]

What really works best for me is to start with a theme and some very basic rules (what races, classes, type of magic, etc. For standard D&D, that's already done too.)

Then I generally just get stuck in and make up details as I go. You can even get player input, which makes them generally more "invested" in the setting.

But I've also just developed settings without playing them. Generally settings that peeter out unfinished, though, if truth be told. A setting's only interesting to me if something's going on in it.

 

[Emiricol]

Collaborative settings are cool, and having more people involved can give you a lot of ideas you never would have had on your own. Grab one of your players, if you must, or start a thread in the EN World forums (the one for plots and locations).

Or, click the link in my sig - you don't have to use it as part of the community after all. The history narrative is really cool! Good ideas if nothing else.

 

[EarthsShadow]

Patience, Desire, Time and Will.

It's easy to come up with a cool idea and write down a few paragraphs on what the overall world is like, and even some prehistory. That's easy. The hard part is to continue once you get the basic foundation, and that requires the Will to see it through, and then you need Patience to be able to realize that to create a good setting it won't happen overnight, and in fact I'm sure most good settings take at least a year or two to really get the right feel and continuity and detail so its plausible and real enough for others to see and go, "Now that is a world I want to play in." Plus, you must Desire your ideas enough to actually want to do it in the first place, and you have to have the Time to put the effort into it. Full time job, full time college student, being married, having kids, etc., all takes time away from writing.

 

[jgbrowning]

Patience, Desire, Time and Will.

It's easy to come up with a cool idea and write down a few paragraphs on what the overall world is like, and even some prehistory. That's easy. The hard part is to continue once you get the basic foundation, and that requires the Will to see it through, and then you need Patience to be able to realize that to create a good setting it won't happen overnight, and in fact I'm sure most good settings take at least a year or two to really get the right feel and continuity and detail so its plausible and real enough for others to see and go, "Now that is a world I want to play in." Plus, you must Desire your ideas enough to actually want to do it in the first place, and you have to have the Time to put the effort into it. Full time job, full time college student, being married, having kids, etc., all takes time away from writing.

I'd put them in this order.

Desire, Will, Time, Patience.

This is some of the best advice I've heard in a while....

joe b.

 

[SoulsFury]

ced1106: In 2nd edition I did both, wrote my own or ran printed modules or dungeon adventures. Just depending on the campaign/time frame, etc. I haven't run a 3rd edition campaign except trying to get a couple of online games going but players disappear real easy with them.

Great ideas guys! I think the patience and time are the hardest things for me.

Keep the suggestions coming, I'd love to hear more input!

Nik

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, I can only say how I have done it.

1.) Start with a map, I start with the main play area and the nearby continents.

2.) Create a Mythology. Decide how many mythologies there are and whether all the sea gods are the same god over and over or competing dieties. Or my favorite: gods exist because people believe in them.

3.) Create a history. This can be done semi randomly. (I have a series of tables that I roll randomly on then flesh out using the head muscles...) I have also used Civilization 2, recreating the map for my world, then playing out the game to resolve the borders.

4.) Add plots. The history created usually suggests some storylines, if not add some.

The Auld Grump, yeah, I know it's clunky - but it works for me....

 

[Buttercup]

Borrow liberally from other sources.

In my current campaign world, which we just started playing in two months ago, I started with a map of a small city from Dungeon Magazine a few years back. I used some names from a plotting discussion that took place on this board about 2 years ago, that I had copied to my hard drive. I used deities from several published sources, and made up a few of my own. Then I borrowed part of a creation myth from alsih2o, and fleshed it out with my own details. Finally, I used some images Knid Vermicious created (look in the Art forum, his work is incredible) and wrote up some stuff about them.

I put most of this into a packet for players, and opened it up for questions. They've been asking me some interesting things, that make me think through other parts of the campaign world. Then too, as the players create their biographies, I get all sorts of details which make the world grow. It's really an organic thing. At this point, I don't have a world map yet. I'm still thinking about what the world might look like beyond the general area the players started in. I haven't named oceans, and I've only located one mountain range. I've mentioned the name of the Imperial Capital, but only said that it is "far away to the south". The world will grow over time.

But this isn't really a general guideline for how to do it, it's only what I'm doing currently. EarthShadow has given the best summary of the process and requirements I've ever seen.

AuldGrump, I think maybe I'll try using Civ II to make a map. It's a good idea!

 

[s/LaSH]

I gestate, long and hard. I come up with the kernel of an idea - a map, a 'what-if' scenario, a compilation of cool stuff from TV or games or whatever - and swish it around a lot. Bits fall into place. Other bits get rooted out. Ten years later, I'm ready to go.

(I'm 22.)

I'm also fond of shortcuts. I set my campaign in medieval Europe because it's easy, there's lots of material to draw upon, and a couple of little changes makes everything so much cooler. The core idea of the campaign is known to the players, but not to anyone else - you'll have to read my webcomic for a few years before I reveal what precisely the 'twist' of the setting is.

Ah, twists... how I love ya. Take something normal. Change something about it. Proceed logically from there. Brainstorming and free association are the important things here. It's where I got my Trollslayer world from (a weird little idea involving a feudal state completely covered by water to a depth of about a foot, and it grew into something much stranger). My scifi ISAF setting doesn't resemble the original vision much at all any more, and is so much cooler because of it (it's also my oldest setting - the ISAF itself wasn't created until years after the setting was laid out, and that momentous foundation itself was a decade ago).

Maybe I just have a mind like a jigsaw. Not the puzzle, the thing that makes the puzzles.