How to make a player's guide?

[Ry]

I'm putting together a new game, and the setting is exotic and somewhat complex. I'm wondering how to structure the player's guide to the setting (really no rules information, because we're using Iron Heroes and it's all-human). Has anyone gone about this successfully? How much information do you include?

 

[Crothian]

I start with the gods, the countries, the places, and the history of what the players should know to be able to create their character. I keep ity basic and flesh it out for characters that need it, makinmg certain that each player has info the others do not.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

I have two online for different settings (www.falconmoor.com and www.the6elements.com) that might be of help. The first is primarily for flavor of the setting, the second includes considerable house rules as well. My players consider them successful; perhaps you can find them of use as well.

 

[the Jester]

My thick Players' Guide to Cydra is divided into sections by tabs. Each section is printed on a different color of paper.

The sections include Feats, Base Classes, Equipment, Setting Info, Prestige Classes, Spells, Religion and Epic Stuff.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

I'm putting together a new game, and the setting is exotic and somewhat complex. I'm wondering how to structure the player's guide to the setting (really no rules information, because we're using Iron Heroes and it's all-human). Has anyone gone about this successfully? How much information do you include?

One thing I've found as a DM and player is "the pronoun problem" - that is, at least for me, the more names of things I run across, the harder it is to get it all straight - this king, that country, that race that died out 2,000 years ago...zzzzz. I try to usually keep focused on just a couple of main themes and suppliment the information either before the campaign or during with more handouts, or the results of knowledge checks. Not sure that helps!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

A hint I learned from participating in several LARPs over the course of a couple of years is to tailor the information to the character (and, thereby, to the player).

This was done by a system of differently-colored sheets handed out as part of your character packet. (I may have the colors wrong, but ...) Whitesheets represented single-player-only information (like your character sheet), greensheets represented secret information shared by a small number (like the description and goals of your secret organization), and bluesheets represented information that was common knowledge (like the history of the town the event took place in).

Anyone could read any bluesheet they came across (and everyone was generally given a copy at the beginning of the game), but was prohibited from reading white- or greensheets that weren't their own.

I'm using a similar system for the one-off I'm about to run in a couple of weeks. I've attached a zipped sample of a whitesheet (Char_Defensive_1.doc), a greensheet (Org_Emancipators.doc), and a bluesheet (Org_Warforged_Division.doc).

Of course, I expect that none of the players in my group will read any of these before-time, right?

So, basically, I recommend thinking about what people in the world would know, and placing information accordingly. It's OK to hand only the player whose character is from Strongbadia the Strongbadia City greensheet, while everyon else gets the General Geography and History bluesheet - that way, while you're playing the game, he can chime in with information about Strongbadia that no one else knows. Bonus to the player, who gets to play an in-game expert, and bonus to the DM, who gets to give his world a bit of mystery.