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How do you go about making your own world?
- Thread starter Thyrkill
- Start date
SorvahrSpahr
First Post
Well, honestly I don't know how to qualify this method... for the land, I use faerun's map. I add several cities, caves etc. make a whole new planning of the cities, their background and history. For the Gods, I've been using (as well as our usual DM), the gods from DragonLance. Then, I just change what I need to fit the campaign
MoogleEmpMog
First Post
I start with a 'hook' - this is usually a genre element that I want to play up for the campaign.
Let's say I pick 'airships' as my hook. Then I create a world where airships will play a major role in society.
On the one hand, this could mean that airships are new/prototypes and that the first one to launch will play a central role in the storyline. What role? Perhaps the creators of the airship are a small nation with late Rennaissance tech, threatened by a considerably larger nation or coalition with lower tech but greater numbers. The airship, with its immense strategic significance (it's of the floating battleship variety, complete with bombs), represents the turning point in the war.
This leads me to develop the factions involved. On the one hand we have a small country, higher than average tech, perhaps with a more scientific worldview. The default assumption would be to make them the 'good guys' because they're losing - so instead, I make them the bad guys. Like the Nazis in WW2, they thought their superior tactics and equipment would allow them to defeat all their neighbors, but they ended up biting off more than they could chew and the counterattack has broken their ground forces. The airship is their 'ultimate weapon,' their last-ditch attempt to reverse the war's course and resume their drive to world domination.
I'm getting a picture of a driven people, highly organized, progress-minded, convinced that their philosophy is worth 'bringing to the world,' even if they have to bring it by force and conquer everyone to do it. Their leader is a mad scientist type, immensely intelligent and charismatic as well as completely nuts. With his ideology of enforced enlightenment, he's an antagonist the players may feel some sympathy for - even as they want to smash his face in with a steam-powered hammer for what he's done to their characters in the name of his ideals.
The rest of the world, in contrast, is lower-tech, more late medieval or early rennaissance, insofar as the two can be separated in any meaningful way. More magical/spiritual than technological, perhaps with a strong unifying faith that the antagonist is opposed to. Most of the allied countries probably boast a feudal system complete with knights who have good reason to wear full plate. So far, they've successfully counterattacked based on numbers and personal courage/skill - until the insurmountable power of their enemy's technology puts them in grave danger.
For the airship to be so dominant, domesticated flying creatures (griffons and giant eagles and the like) will have to be excised. Likewise D&D-style dragons with their inborn 'firepower.' On the flip side, wingless land dragons or sea dragons could still have a role. In general, monsters won't play much of a role in this campaign, with most being one-off 'magitech mutations' unleashed by the antagonists or summoned celestials/spirits bound to the protagonists' church.
From this basis, I would detail the regions the PCs were actually operating in, perhaps even getting away from the airship hook as anything other than a looming menace/final dungeon.
Now, even though this whole world is built up around a single genre convention, I could easily develop it in such a way it could be used for multiple campaigns. It would be easy to tweak a few elements to make it playable from either side, particularly by setting it at different time periods. A post-war 'inquisitors hunting down renegade engineers' game with the PCs being survivors of the defeated technocracy (or inquisitors hunting same), for example.
For that matter, the genre convention 'airships' could easily go in entirely different directions, say, by focusing on a whole world where airships were the main means of travel. Floating continents, perhaps? Or islands stranded by a greatly increased sea level?
Anyway, that's my world-building process of choice.
Let's say I pick 'airships' as my hook. Then I create a world where airships will play a major role in society.
On the one hand, this could mean that airships are new/prototypes and that the first one to launch will play a central role in the storyline. What role? Perhaps the creators of the airship are a small nation with late Rennaissance tech, threatened by a considerably larger nation or coalition with lower tech but greater numbers. The airship, with its immense strategic significance (it's of the floating battleship variety, complete with bombs), represents the turning point in the war.
This leads me to develop the factions involved. On the one hand we have a small country, higher than average tech, perhaps with a more scientific worldview. The default assumption would be to make them the 'good guys' because they're losing - so instead, I make them the bad guys. Like the Nazis in WW2, they thought their superior tactics and equipment would allow them to defeat all their neighbors, but they ended up biting off more than they could chew and the counterattack has broken their ground forces. The airship is their 'ultimate weapon,' their last-ditch attempt to reverse the war's course and resume their drive to world domination.
I'm getting a picture of a driven people, highly organized, progress-minded, convinced that their philosophy is worth 'bringing to the world,' even if they have to bring it by force and conquer everyone to do it. Their leader is a mad scientist type, immensely intelligent and charismatic as well as completely nuts. With his ideology of enforced enlightenment, he's an antagonist the players may feel some sympathy for - even as they want to smash his face in with a steam-powered hammer for what he's done to their characters in the name of his ideals.
The rest of the world, in contrast, is lower-tech, more late medieval or early rennaissance, insofar as the two can be separated in any meaningful way. More magical/spiritual than technological, perhaps with a strong unifying faith that the antagonist is opposed to. Most of the allied countries probably boast a feudal system complete with knights who have good reason to wear full plate. So far, they've successfully counterattacked based on numbers and personal courage/skill - until the insurmountable power of their enemy's technology puts them in grave danger.
For the airship to be so dominant, domesticated flying creatures (griffons and giant eagles and the like) will have to be excised. Likewise D&D-style dragons with their inborn 'firepower.' On the flip side, wingless land dragons or sea dragons could still have a role. In general, monsters won't play much of a role in this campaign, with most being one-off 'magitech mutations' unleashed by the antagonists or summoned celestials/spirits bound to the protagonists' church.
From this basis, I would detail the regions the PCs were actually operating in, perhaps even getting away from the airship hook as anything other than a looming menace/final dungeon.
Now, even though this whole world is built up around a single genre convention, I could easily develop it in such a way it could be used for multiple campaigns. It would be easy to tweak a few elements to make it playable from either side, particularly by setting it at different time periods. A post-war 'inquisitors hunting down renegade engineers' game with the PCs being survivors of the defeated technocracy (or inquisitors hunting same), for example.
For that matter, the genre convention 'airships' could easily go in entirely different directions, say, by focusing on a whole world where airships were the main means of travel. Floating continents, perhaps? Or islands stranded by a greatly increased sea level?
Anyway, that's my world-building process of choice.
Mycanid
First Post
Well I can tell you how my recent campaign grew.
1.) It began with an image - I was listening to Jean Micheal Jarre's piece "En Attendant le Cousteau" and all of the sudden an image popped into my imagination. It was of a monster. A particular type of monster. I began to examine and expand the creature and the story just kinda fell into place around it.
2.) The setting I kept it in was Greyhawk (my favorite).
3.) And when I decided for it to be an adventure generally along the lines of RttToEE I was set with location and history framework ... and then everything began to fall into place and develop of itself.
Now I don't know if this method would work for everyone or no, but I had a wonderful time throwing the whole thing together - it had been a while since I had tried my hand at that sort of thing. Maybe it would work for you too?
1.) It began with an image - I was listening to Jean Micheal Jarre's piece "En Attendant le Cousteau" and all of the sudden an image popped into my imagination. It was of a monster. A particular type of monster. I began to examine and expand the creature and the story just kinda fell into place around it.
2.) The setting I kept it in was Greyhawk (my favorite).
3.) And when I decided for it to be an adventure generally along the lines of RttToEE I was set with location and history framework ... and then everything began to fall into place and develop of itself.
Now I don't know if this method would work for everyone or no, but I had a wonderful time throwing the whole thing together - it had been a while since I had tried my hand at that sort of thing. Maybe it would work for you too?
Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
At the most basic level you need to general locales - a place to adventure, and a place where the adventure ISN'T. The two most common approaches are, of course, top-down (starting with the broadest parts of the setting and working down to where you have enough detail to start), and bottom-up (starting with only the most immediate locations and building outward to the limit of where you want the setting to go.) Personally, I take both approaches at the same time.
I'm ALWAYS tinkering with world-building on some level whether I have a game going or not. Even in the middle of gameless dry spells that last for years I've occupied myself with world-building stuff. When it comes to actually getting one going I have settled on first deciding where the outer limits will be, what the grand plan will look like, but then in order to get things started without having to have EVERYTHING filed and on hot-standby I detail as much as I need in order to run at least several initial adventures without needing to supply more than general information about the world as a whole.
I'm ALWAYS tinkering with world-building on some level whether I have a game going or not. Even in the middle of gameless dry spells that last for years I've occupied myself with world-building stuff. When it comes to actually getting one going I have settled on first deciding where the outer limits will be, what the grand plan will look like, but then in order to get things started without having to have EVERYTHING filed and on hot-standby I detail as much as I need in order to run at least several initial adventures without needing to supply more than general information about the world as a whole.
Toric_Arthendain
Explorer
Tinkering is an excellent way of putting it. I am constantly tinkering with my world. Sometimes I have thought that I've spent so much time working on the world that I have little time to work on the actual campaign itself. But then I realize that my best campaign ideas have been born out of the act of building the world so everything works out well in the end.
Woas
First Post
You could always check out the old Ray Winninger "Dungeoncraft" articles at: http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/dnd/dungeoncraft/
Although it is called Dungeoncraft, these 29 articles mainly describe how to create a campaign world.
I have all the rules of dungeoncraft written on the inside cover of my DMG.
Although it is called Dungeoncraft, these 29 articles mainly describe how to create a campaign world.
I have all the rules of dungeoncraft written on the inside cover of my DMG.
GuardianLurker
Adventurer
Well, I kind of do both top down and bottom up.
I find it easier to start top down, as it helps me build some consistency in the world, and think of those great world-shattering secrets.
But I only do a light dusting here, something roughly comparable to the original WoG Gazeteer from the 80's; a country's brief stats, and a few paragraphs.
After that, once I know where the campaign will be set, I start building it bottom up.
Things that I've found have helped:
1) Have one or more hooks/secrets. They don't necessarily have to be something the PCs will know or encounter, or even setting elements. Mostly they're just things that will inspire you. My list for my next campaign consisted of: psionics only, AE, no gods, Aristolean/pure fantasy cosmology, the Roman Empire, India, and a few other things.
2) When you're writing up your cultures/countries have some form of conflict/story setup. Ideally you want to be able to say "I could tell this kind of story here".
3) Slow and steady is the pace. You don't want to take things fast or in big gulps; you'll burn out before you even play.
If you're curious, check out the link in my sig. It'll show you how I bounce around. Right now, it's still all top-level stuff, becuase I don't know where the campaign will start.
I find it easier to start top down, as it helps me build some consistency in the world, and think of those great world-shattering secrets.
But I only do a light dusting here, something roughly comparable to the original WoG Gazeteer from the 80's; a country's brief stats, and a few paragraphs.
After that, once I know where the campaign will be set, I start building it bottom up.
Things that I've found have helped:
1) Have one or more hooks/secrets. They don't necessarily have to be something the PCs will know or encounter, or even setting elements. Mostly they're just things that will inspire you. My list for my next campaign consisted of: psionics only, AE, no gods, Aristolean/pure fantasy cosmology, the Roman Empire, India, and a few other things.
2) When you're writing up your cultures/countries have some form of conflict/story setup. Ideally you want to be able to say "I could tell this kind of story here".
3) Slow and steady is the pace. You don't want to take things fast or in big gulps; you'll burn out before you even play.
If you're curious, check out the link in my sig. It'll show you how I bounce around. Right now, it's still all top-level stuff, becuase I don't know where the campaign will start.
Nyaricus
First Post
I won't get into the details of how I create my world, but here is a my table of contents of my campaign book I am currently writing up in it's proper form for the first time. It's based off of my own observations of ECS and FRCS, as well as some changes I've made to fit my concept of how a Sourcebook "should" look like. Anyone is free to use this as a template for their own uses (but find your own CS name )
Ascension: Paths of Power Campaign Setting
Hope that helps!
) Ascension: Paths of Power Campaign Setting
- Introduction
Welcome to Ascension - Races and Cultures
The Peoples of Ascension - Classes
The Heroic Roles of Ascension - Heroic Characteristics
Skills, Feats and Action Points - Equipment
The Tools of the Trade - Magic and Spells
The Elements of Magic Approach - Adventuring in Ascension
Everything You Need to Know - Faiths and Beliefs
The Forces of Power - Organizations
It's not who you are, but who you know... - The Lay of the Land
The Geography of Ascension - AEons and Eras
The History of Ascension - Prestige Classes
Advanced Heroic Roles - Magic Items and Artifacts
Objects of Power - Bestiary
Enemies and Allies of Ascension - Index and Credits
Many Thanks to Many People
Hope that helps!
