Jürgen Hubert
First Post
Well, I started Urbis by thinking about the themes of the world. But you probably don't intend your setting for eventual professional publication, and thus you can do a simpler approach.
Instead, think about the main villain of your campaign (or at least the first major campaign arc). An evil necromancer? A terrible monster? An orc warlord? Come up with something that strikes you as cool.
Then think about his resources, and his long-term plans. What does he want to do? Raise an undead army? Kill every human (or elf, or dwarf) in a region? Conquer a kingdom? Destroy the world?
And what does he have to do to achieve that goal? After all, he probably doesn't have all the resources neccessary for his plans to come to frution - so he needs to acquire them somehow. And for this he has hordes of henchmen, goons, and unwitting patsies who further his plans without even knowing it.
Now think of a small unsignificant town - possibly even a village - where the PCs can start in. Describe it in some detail. List important NPCs and create some interesting local legends which might or might not become important later (you don't have to decide yet whether they will become important - but if you eventually do decide to use them, your players will think you a genius for planning everything that far ahead). Create some interesting adventure locations.
Then think of how the big plots of the villain can interact with this community. It doesn't have to be a very important part of his plans - in fact, it probably shouldn't be, since otherwise the opposition might become overwhelming - but some minor henchmen should be active in this town, allowing the PCs to foil him and learning the first tantalizing hints of the larger issues at stake in the campaign.
You should also create a page or so of things that the PCs know about the rest of the world - what the kingdom they are in is called and who rules it, where the capital and the closest major cities are, and what gods are commonly being worshipped (with portfolio and domains - but if a player with a PC cleric doesn't want to play a follower of one of these deities, work out a new one in cooperation with that player), and places where non-human PCs can come from (if they aren't native to the community). But you don't really have to go into much detail at this stage - just enough to give them a sense of the larger world around them without handing them an encyclopedia.
Then go through character creation. Encourage the PCs to come up with background stories (possibly even given them minor XP awards for them - 100-200 XP should be okay). Their ideas will help you flesh out the world and give you ideas for more adventures.
With this, you should be set for starters. Just make up the rest as you go along - it shouldn't be too hard.
Incidentally, if you have trouble creating maps, I have created a nifty map workshop here at ENWorld...
Instead, think about the main villain of your campaign (or at least the first major campaign arc). An evil necromancer? A terrible monster? An orc warlord? Come up with something that strikes you as cool.
Then think about his resources, and his long-term plans. What does he want to do? Raise an undead army? Kill every human (or elf, or dwarf) in a region? Conquer a kingdom? Destroy the world?
And what does he have to do to achieve that goal? After all, he probably doesn't have all the resources neccessary for his plans to come to frution - so he needs to acquire them somehow. And for this he has hordes of henchmen, goons, and unwitting patsies who further his plans without even knowing it.
Now think of a small unsignificant town - possibly even a village - where the PCs can start in. Describe it in some detail. List important NPCs and create some interesting local legends which might or might not become important later (you don't have to decide yet whether they will become important - but if you eventually do decide to use them, your players will think you a genius for planning everything that far ahead). Create some interesting adventure locations.
Then think of how the big plots of the villain can interact with this community. It doesn't have to be a very important part of his plans - in fact, it probably shouldn't be, since otherwise the opposition might become overwhelming - but some minor henchmen should be active in this town, allowing the PCs to foil him and learning the first tantalizing hints of the larger issues at stake in the campaign.
You should also create a page or so of things that the PCs know about the rest of the world - what the kingdom they are in is called and who rules it, where the capital and the closest major cities are, and what gods are commonly being worshipped (with portfolio and domains - but if a player with a PC cleric doesn't want to play a follower of one of these deities, work out a new one in cooperation with that player), and places where non-human PCs can come from (if they aren't native to the community). But you don't really have to go into much detail at this stage - just enough to give them a sense of the larger world around them without handing them an encyclopedia.
Then go through character creation. Encourage the PCs to come up with background stories (possibly even given them minor XP awards for them - 100-200 XP should be okay). Their ideas will help you flesh out the world and give you ideas for more adventures.
With this, you should be set for starters. Just make up the rest as you go along - it shouldn't be too hard.
Incidentally, if you have trouble creating maps, I have created a nifty map workshop here at ENWorld...
That's why I love ENWorld 
