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<blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 5120728" data-attributes="member: 15470"><p>Hmmm, I'm not sure "Top down" and "Bottom up" are the only ways to approach things.</p><p></p><p>I decided to create my <strong>story</strong>, and then shape the world according to it.</p><p></p><p>So, for example, I tried to figure out who the Level 30 villain might be, and from that, who the Level 20 villains might be, and from that, who the Level 10 villains might be ... then pegged a bit of "okay, who is opposing them?" ... and also "who is supporting them" ...</p><p></p><p>That got me onto the subject of conflicts between different gods, so I fleshed out my pantheon, theological history, and current conflicts between the gods. (Definitely<em> using the 'everyone has a secret' idea.</em>)</p><p></p><p>By that point, I had a lot of ideas for plot hooks, plans, repercussions from events of 1500, 1000, 500, and 100 years previous coming to fruition in the current year, and have a basic clockwork idea of <em>how evil triumphs</em> if the PC's do nothing. I fully expect them to throw a hundred wrenches into evil's plans, only three of which being things I'd thought of whilst world-building!</p><p></p><p>So, that's "top down" in one sense, but its a plot-driven "top down" not a map-drive "top down". </p><p></p><p>In play, then, I have some sense of the events that are unfolding on the larger world map, but I DM from the "bottom up" in that I'm not bothering to give any kind of game stats, world maps, etc, to anything until the PC's are close enough to conceivably get there in a single game session.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Amaroq, post: 5120728, member: 15470"] Hmmm, I'm not sure "Top down" and "Bottom up" are the only ways to approach things. I decided to create my [b]story[/b], and then shape the world according to it. So, for example, I tried to figure out who the Level 30 villain might be, and from that, who the Level 20 villains might be, and from that, who the Level 10 villains might be ... then pegged a bit of "okay, who is opposing them?" ... and also "who is supporting them" ... That got me onto the subject of conflicts between different gods, so I fleshed out my pantheon, theological history, and current conflicts between the gods. (Definitely[I] using the 'everyone has a secret' idea.[/I]) By that point, I had a lot of ideas for plot hooks, plans, repercussions from events of 1500, 1000, 500, and 100 years previous coming to fruition in the current year, and have a basic clockwork idea of [I]how evil triumphs[/i] if the PC's do nothing. I fully expect them to throw a hundred wrenches into evil's plans, only three of which being things I'd thought of whilst world-building! So, that's "top down" in one sense, but its a plot-driven "top down" not a map-drive "top down". In play, then, I have some sense of the events that are unfolding on the larger world map, but I DM from the "bottom up" in that I'm not bothering to give any kind of game stats, world maps, etc, to anything until the PC's are close enough to conceivably get there in a single game session. [/QUOTE]
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