How do you go about making your own world?

[Agback]

I started with a moment from a movie and half a line from Keats. Then I worked out to one feature of the big picture, and then back down to a handful of details, then out to the big picture again, then back in to another handful of details.

HOW I BUILT GEHENNUM

My friends at university and I had been playing a lot of HindSight in Tonio Loewald's setting 'Fvaldanon', and also a lot of ForeSight in my SF setting 'Flat Black'. We used to have a lot of time for RPGs back then. Anyway, I wanted to GM some fantasy, and my prospective players felt like a break from Fvaldanon's high-latitudes continental (and quasi-European) setting.

One idea that had been festering in my mind for some months was that 'religion' in fantasy settings usually combines mythology, powerful supernatural beings, and moral standards, and that these things didn't necessarily belong together. I decided that I would experiment with a world in which mythological entities were prominent, but the 'gods' of the Sun, the Sea, etc. were also real, and of a different nature and significance, _and_ moral codes would come from secular and speculative philosophies, largely separate from the two classes of gods.

Then I was watching the old movie "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" on TV, and a couple of things struck me. One was that when Mrs. Muir first went to the house, she felt as though it was welcoming her, even though the ghost was hostile. I thought of somehow putting the PCs in a haunted house where the god of the house wanted them to stay (and repair and maintain it), while the ghost was sullen and hostile. The other was the phrase "Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam/ Of perilous seas in fairylands forlorn." (it's Keats, from 'Ode to a Nightingale').

I realised that I would need to have something to keep the characters in the haunted house and in conflict with the ghost: a crucible, though I did not then think of such things in those terms. Then I had the idea that it might be a castle that they were given by a king as reward for fulfilling a quest. But why would a king give people a haunted castle (and make them stay in it) as a reward? Obviously, because he didn't want them to complete the quest, even though he said he did. Perhaps he wanted somebody else to complete the quest. Perhaps the entire quest was a setup to allow him to reward somebody, and he was really piqued that the PCs had jumped his favourite's claim.

That seemed like a good idea, but it obviously suggested some things about the setting. For a start, the king was under some sort of constraint: he had to make an excuse to reward his favourite. I decided that the kingdom would be an amalgam of conquered states, and that the descendants of the former monarchs of the subsumed states would have some sort of legislative power over the king. So I had a king and a house of lords: I decided to throw in a house of mayors to give the commons some clout, and this suggested city-states to me. So I gave the cities an old democratic tradition.

The usual reward for completing a quest for a king in fairytales is his daughter's hand in marriage and successor-ship to the kingdom. I toyed with the matrilocal patriarchy ideas of James Frazer, but I'd already done that in something else, so I thought that maybe this king had an only daughter, and that her husband would be heir-presumptive. Why? Perhaps he was estranged from his wife, like the Prince Regent/George IV from Princess Caroline (IIRC). Why should her not simply divorce her, and marry another wife? Or just take another wife? There has to be monogamy, obviously. And maybe some other authority had control over his ability to divorce? What about the houses of lords and mayors? At one time a divorce in England required an Act of Parliament.

I ended up deciding that divorce in this country would require proof of wrong-doing, and that a wrong-doing against the king would count as treason. and I decided that the nobles (including the Queen) would have a right to trial by the house of lords, not by a judge appointed by the King. The Queen's sympathisers in the house of lords would not give the King a divorce, because that would mean finding the Queen guilty of treason.

Obviously, the King's regime is pretty unpopular. What, then, keeps it going? This was beginning to look like a big bold sort of setting, so I thought it better not be anything too subtle. I decided that the King's regime was maintained by Count Jasper of Souvenir, whom everyone was scared of. Obviously, Jasper had a corps of much-feared secret police. To make sure that Jasper was feared and loathed, and to make the PCs think twice about fooling with him, I established that he had conducted thorough purges of the Royal Family, the nobility, and the leading lights of the democratic tradition. But then, why has the King not simply had Jasper kill the Queen. Very likely Jasper is not devoted to the King, but has another agenda and supports the king to a limited extent and for his own reasons. Jasper is a man of some principles: he will summarily execute the King's relatives to maintain the regime, but not do the same to the King's wife to indulge the King. To make this clear, I decided that the King had impeached his wife for treason, but that Jasper had voted for acquittal, and the other lords, relieved of the fear that Jasper would punish them for voting against the King's wishes, had followed.

So I decided to go all the way: Jasper would be a man of very strong principles. Why should such a man support a weak and feckless, not to mention scheming and faithless, king? Hmm. Perhaps he is deathly afraid of civil war. Why? Well, his much-beloved wife was killed in the last one. And his son, why not? The last one? Okay. The King had a succession war to gain the throne. The opposite side killed Jasper's wife and son. Jasper joined the King's side, and was instrumental in the King's victory. To prevent another such war, Jasper offs all the people who might usurp the throne or raise a rebellion against royal authority. It works. Jasper is obviously a military genius. Perhaps he has made innovations of tactics and doctrine. Okay. He has invented the legion and those neat formations like the testudo. Everyone else uses, say, pike phalanxes.

Right. That's got the political and government situation sorted out, and suggested something about military affairs and the family structure. How about the physical setting?

Everyone is tired of cold snowy places like Fvaldanon. Let's make this place tropical. I really want to drive home the fact that this is a place dramatically unlike Europe. So I'll take away horses and the associated social features. Why are there no horses? Well, horses are grasslands creatures. Perhaps there are no grasslands in this place. And so horses are not imported, let's say there are no grasslands anywhere on the planet. It is a planet covered largely with water, dotted with islands, but lacking any continents.

This place is tropical, and I want to get away from European defaults. I'll make the people brown-skinned and black-haired. And small and nimble. I'll put in some European types for contrast: call their land Fairon. Hmm. this close to the equator they're probably a colony from somewhere else. Seafaring. We want them to be fierce and uncivilised. Think of them like the Norse colony in Iceland.

Tropical islands: the place is going to be wet as well as hot, and probably has monsoons (this turned out to be wrong, and I fixed it later). We'll have the Gehennese grow rice as their staple crop. And there'll be jungle on the uncultivated parts. That's interesting. Make this country an archipelago of rather rugged islands, with lots of volcanoes and jungle. Stick in tigers and elephants (or maybe jaguars and tapirs- think about it later (I ended up settling on the tigers and elephants)).

Now, I want the Gehennese to have an advanced physical culture. Maybe up to clockwork. But to make things a bit different, I'll make metals scarce and expensive, so that people still use flint edges when their blades don't have to resist chipping. Scarce metals? The world is probably less dense than Earth. But I don't want people bouncing around in Martian gravity. Make the world bigger to compensate.

Now- the sky. A sun. Make it like ours, to be simple. The year? Why not 361 days- different enough to be distinct, like enough to avoid the necessity of awkward conversions. A moon? Yes. Why not. Give it a month of 32 days. A few planets. One inferior, like Venus. Three superior- make them red, blue, and green. Is anything going to be different? Well, lets reduce the obliquity of the ecliptic a bit, to reduce seasonal effects. And for a sort of romantic symbol of the whole thing, lets put a bright light, like Venus or brighter, in geostationary orbit. That's vivid and romantic. From any given point it will be invisible, or will be fixed at a certain point in the sky. Neat! You could navigate with a sextant and compass. Or just a sextant it you were careful. You won't need a chronometer. I think I'll call the geostationary star 'Indarian'. From the country I'm working on it appears, say, low in the western sky.

Okay, I'm beginning to like this. What about those 'Charm'd magic casements' and 'fairylands forlorn'. Well, perhaps the haunted castle has magical gates set in some of the window-casements. That'd make a good device for some future adventures. And one of them opens into a forlorn fairy-land. But why is the fairyland forlorn? Are the fairies dying out? Or going somewhere else? The latter? Okay, but we don't want the PCs to go there too: that would defeat the purpose of designing this place. Make it a 'mysterious otherworld of bliss, terror, and perpetual Indarian-light'. Call it 'the Sidhe', for convenience.

Now, this place is on the equator, in the intertropical wind convergence and blocking the equatorial wind drift. Make the seas around it a warm shallow eddy, a Worl-of-Isle Sargasso. Where the sea-dragons come to breed (maybe intrepid people will hunt the sea-dragons-- for bone, or leather, or oil, perhaps). All sorts of things will drift there and wash up on the beaches. And getting away from the place by sail-power would be awkward. That gives me an idea: perhaps in other countries 'go to <this place>' would be like 'get lost' or 'go to Hell'. [Agback rummages in his memory for an obscure hell- finds 'Jehenna' (Arabic)].

I'll call the place 'Gehennum'.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Patricia Wrede's worldbuilding site from 96 is primarily for fantasy authors, but it asks a lot of questions you'll want to ask yourself.

http://www.sfwa.org/writing/worldbuilding1.htm

second this.

 

[Ghendar]

With this said, I want to try my hand at creating my own world and putting some life back into my game and my Dming. Trouble is, where do I start? How do you create a world? Do you start small and work outwards or do you create the Grand Design first and then work inwards? If anyone is willing to part with their thoughts, ideas, and wisdom, I would be incredibly greatful.

There's no one right or wrong way to do it. I've created worlds by making huge continental maps and then working downword and I've done the opposite, create a much smaller starting area and then expand from there.

Sometimes my ideas just srping from one seemingly insignificant idea, such as what if elves got tired of human domination and human excess, and human wars and decided to take over and try to rule them in what they believed would be a benevolent way, but of course the humans don't see it that way. They see it as domination. What kind of world would that produce?

And then I build on ideas from there.

 

[Gold Roger]

Inside out and piece by piece, slowly, over the course of the campaign and hugely influenced by what the PC's are and open for player input.

This current campaign started out with just a dungeon and its background. I've worked out the basics of the realm the PC's life in (the Bismarches, a confederation of 7 small to very small kingdoms) and then, when the party makeup changed of their elvish homecity (Within a ) together with the PC's. More stuff was added based on modules I plan to use and on some ideas of my own.

This is an overview of the temporary endproduct:

Once there was the kingdom of Bis. To the south, west and North it was bordered by the ocean, with a group of island further to the south populated by the Äkin, a human people of pseudo-egypt/viking slavers and pirates. To the east the kingdom of Bis was bordered by a long chain of mountains only called "The Wall". Behind "The Wall" where "The Untamed Lands" populated by terrible beasts, humanoids and the likes.

For a long time Bis had to fear nothing but the occasional scirmish with Äkin and humanoid, while trade to the West and North flourished. But a few hundred years ago a Dark overlord rose in "The Untamed Lands". This Overlord set his eyes on Bis and his hordes sweped across "The Wall". He almost succeeded in destroying the kingdom, but when he led the most powerfull of his forces against the capital, the greatest mages and priests wrought a great spell spell of stasis that enveloped the whole battle of epic scope. With one strike the greatest heroes and villains of their time and lands where forever removed from the picture and the frozen battle can still be seen from highest hills that once sorrounded the old capital.

The remains of the kingdom fell to chaos. Over time seven small kingdoms emerged from the ruins, broken up by areas still held by remains of the overlords hordes. The remaining elves of the realm, who have lost more of their numbers than any other race, secluded themself to one small enclave to the southeasternmost end of the former kingdom. "The Wall" is almost completely populated by goblinoids. The landscape is dotted by old strongholds of the Overlord and lost keeps from the old kingdom. All in all, it's a perfect time to be an adventurer.

 

[Ghendar]

It's also on sale for 5$ for the print version see this thread

Just grabbed one. Hoody Hoo!!!!

 

[an_idol_mind]

I've found that a useful way to worldbuild is to start with an adventure and build the setting around that. I started out with a quest for the players, and built up a world map and some relevant information about the kingdom the PCs were adventuring in. From there, everything expanded organically. When the PCs wanted to journey off the map, the map got expanded. When gods and faiths came up, I added in a unique cosmology. Some pieces got retconned between campaigns to smooth things out, but the campaign is still running strong six years later. And, even six years later, my world still has a lot of pieces that are left intentionally vague. The map has a lot of empty space, and some aspects haven't been fleshed out at all. This is largely because there are still pieces waiting to be explored.

Unless you're Tolkein, I would recommend coming up with the story you want to tell first. It's generally easier to build a world around an adventure than to try building the world first. If the setting interests you, you can always expand from there.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I've done both the outside in (Start with a big map of the world and get smaller) and the inside out (start with only a small city or what the players need in the immediate future and get bigger) approach.

Inside out is easier in the beginning, but much harder in the middle and the end unless you are very dilligent in the beginning. This is because if all you are giving the players is just what they need, you don't have to come up with much. But you must be very diligent to keep track of what you give out because as the players expand their knowledge of the world and their worldview increases, you'll be the one in charge of making sure it all fits together and stays together as their perception of the world gets bigger. This can be tough it you don't take your job as a worldbuilder seriously.

The Outside in approach is much more labor intensive in the beginning. You essentially create a whole world (I only do continents, rivers, mountains, forests, large cities, and their suburbs - no need to do things like dungeons/caves/etc). The downside is that in creating the world, you realize you are creating places your party will never get to unless your world is tiny.

Once I have the world, I try to place a few important people and give them alignments. An LE wizard here that dominates a town through subversive political avenues, a CE orc tribe that keeps another town small in population through enslavement, a NG druid in a forest in one place that nobody has met but who has saved travellers from bandits many more times than once, etc. That helps me flesh out what the typical alignment in a given area will be. For example, the people in the town by the CE orcs are much less likely to be happy-go-lucky NG. And the people near the druid are much less likely to be selfish CE. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, of course, but it helps.

The next step - and as an earlier poster said this step is much more crucial than people think - is to create a pantheon of gods. Most of the time the players just want WotC standard I give 'em the Greyhawk deities they desire. That is easy, of course, but not much fun. I really enjoy creating pantheons, and this helps me figure out the mythos of the general public. I thik up a few creation stories from the different perspectives of the gods. I write up a few short stories as to fights that the gods have had. Basically, I create a simple mythology. This is like icing. It covers the world, makes it look pretty, and helps hide any small holes that might be on the surface.

Once I have that much done, I figure out where we are going to start. I create a simple map of the starting location and create as the pary needs. Because I have the big picture already done, the small picture stuff comes easy and I don't have to worry about holding it all together because the big picture stuff is already done.

Hope this helps

 

[Odhanan]

It's also on sale for 5$ for the print version see this thread

Oh. This is... sweet!

 

[Mallus]

Haphazardly and with great enthusiasm...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One of the simpler (and most fun) aspects of world-building seems to get lost nowadays: Pick up the Monster Manual and pick which monsters you want to be part of the initial campaign area. If you know, for instance, that there are no orcs around, but there are goblins and kobolds (one of my decisions), you instantly start coming up with ideas. Likewise, knowing that humans, gnomes and dwarves are the only player races in the initial area also helps shape what the setting looks like.

The world already has enough kitchen sink settings -- go for one where you keep the stuff that YOU like the most and dump the stuff you don't. The setting will immediately start to look the way you want it to, and when you start extrapolating what the world is like based on those decisions, it'll instantly look different from the more "cosmopolitan" settings out there.

And limiting the monsters doesn't mean removing them from the setting; this is just the "local area." You can always have monsters come in from the edges of the map if you decide you have a really good idea on how to use a stone giant, or whatever.

Repeat with classes and planes. I dropped monks and all planes but the Plane of Shadow and Plane of Mirrors until a big world-changing thing happens in the campaign setting.