I Have Created the Most Detailed Game World!

[NarcoticSqurl]

I must say, I'm extremely impressed by your level of detail. I would love to have the time to do that for my party, but I just don't. I can't imagine the feel that there would be in a game like that!

 

[arbados]

I want to keep offering stuff so that I am not simply spilling out words. Attached is hopefully a useful boat image as well as a game board that I use at my gaming conventions.

 

[arbados]

Here is another.

 

[arbados]

Eclavadra is what I consider the Drow name for Chess! Played very similarly with slight differences. If you want I will email you the rules to this game, although it does require miniatures!

 

[Electric Wizard]

Thanks for sharing your stuff!

 

[Celebrim]

Currently in my personal library for my game world I have six 3" binders, two 2" binders, and seven 1" binders all with information I have personally written detailing my game world of Krinthius!

Let me give you some perspective. I was in a campaign once where the DM wrote a seven sentence description for each named NPC (see 'The Seven Sentence NPC') plus a stat block. By the time I left, the descriptions of the named NPC's in the campaign world alone would constitute a singificant portion of your write up - and this was for a game based loosely on the Forgotten Realms. I know that the write up of NPC's unique to that campaign world (not ones in published sources) was in the thousands.

One of my 3" binders simply contains all the boats that the world has. It has laminated color pics of every boat that the players could get aboard. They go from huge galleons to small row boats all to scale for miniatures. Each boat has a detailed description outlining everything from its hardness, speed, persons needed to reach maximum speed, attacks, any magic, crew required, etc. Every boat detailed to the maximum. This has come in handy on the few occasions that my groups have needed a boat. However, the huge binder with maybe 150 pages is used maybe only 5 times a year! However, it is awesome that when the group does go for a sea voyage I have so much detail to throw out to them!

This was also a sea going campaign. My character sheet for my PC extended out to around 150 pages alone, do the the number of boats, buildings, retainers, hirelings, and the like that was part of my dominion. While there are a lot of areas you out depth that campaign, we out depthed and detailed you on boats by a ton, not just in the type of boats, but in how much we could tell you about them.

My maps ARE HUGE! They are not included in the books. I am not talking about simple 8x12 maps.

Forgotten Realms, mapped at a 1" = 4 miles scale over a significant portion of the Sea of Fallen Stars as well as at a 1" = 1 mile scale over important locations.

Battle of Starmantle - 40000+ combatants - play at 1"=10 yards scale and 10 units to the counter over the course of 48 hours. Naval battles involving 15000+ sailors, over 60 ships, and literally thousands of engines of war.

Look, your campaign sounds AMAZING, and is a testimony to what I consider the definitive quality of a good DM - preparation - but I assure you the level of detail you got is not unique. It does however sound the closest to publishable of anything I've heard about.

You have inspired me to kick it up a notch with my current work though. Currently, I have a 500 page house rule handout that I give new players, and about 150 pages or so of house rules under production. I also have over 500 pages written up on just the current adventure/campaign. But I have so much more to do to get where I want to be.

 

[Randalthor]

What about posting up the high res image as a jpg for people to use? I'd love to see that first town map in the original digital format. That would be great to use for when I need a quick generic section of a town. There are so many locations to choose from on a single map.

I would love to see these as well (and steal them, muahahahaha), especially without the dragon in the way - though he is a cool dragon.

I think the best in this department I have done is putting together information packetfor the players that is in the 30-page range, though with full color images and stuff.

 

[Dragonblade]

My friend, SHARK, who used to post on EN World a lot more back in the day, was similar to you. His homebrew world of Thandor was incredibly developed and detailed over some 20-30 years of gaming, though he was old school. No minis at all.

At his apartment once, I saw multiple stacks of binders and maps, several feet high, detailing everything from obscure religious customs to cities, custom classes, feats, and more. I estimate he had perhaps 30,000 pages of material and hand drawn maps. And that was just what was piled up in his living room! He had way more stuff in his office and bedroom. He sent me a "little adventure" he whipped up once, and it was over 100 pages long!

 

[arbados]

I was in a campaign once where the DM wrote a seven sentence description for each named NPC

As I said, not trying to stir up any battle, but that is nice. I don't have paragraphs or multiple sentences written out for each of my npc's because in truth I know how they are in regards to their personality and traits (I play them out as I know they are). I do, however, have each and every encounter they have had with group members listed down on their character sheet along with a detailed description of what happened. This has come in extremely useful! It is great when I can bring up something relevant from years back or something that had happened to a previous pc which involves a current player! That is always fun!

My character sheet for my PC extended out to around 150 pages alone

Isn't that a bit much for a character sheet? I can understand players keeping detailed information on what is important to them during the campaingn, but a character sheet of 150 pages seems a bit much? How can that even be referenced in a game? I am just guesing here, but do you mean that you had additional information written for your character/campaign for reference when needed and the character sheet was only 1 or 2 pages (not including spell sheets)? Curious? When I make character sheets for the players I try to make them as compact as possible (1 page - front and back). More than 1 sheet simply bogs down the game. I like the game to be fast paced without players constantly having to shuffle through multiple pages of information. I do recognize that character sheets are very personal to each campaign.

we out depthed and detailed you on boats by a ton, not just in the type of boats, but in how much we could tell you about them.

That sounds fantastic! Would love to get more ideas and information. What did you include in your boat descriptions. I have included a sample boat description which I use to compare.

Boat #1 - 2 Decks
*To Move Boat at Full Speed: 12 individuals for sails
*To Prepare all Weapons for Attack: 5 individuals

AC: 25, Hardness: 20, Hull Points: 300
o When hull points are reduced to 75 the boat moves at ½ speed.

Attack/Damage:
o (2) Ballista / Requires 2 men each: +13 to hit/3-30 damage – Range: 300 feet (can turn 45 degrees to each side)

o (2) Battering Ram / Requires 0 men: +15 to hit/7-70 damage, but allows potential boarding by enemy vessel)
 Boat can ram in either direction. Has “two” bows and can move in either direction with no problem.

o (1) Magic Missile Fugue / Requires 1 man: Center fugue can fire up to 12 magic missiles doing 1d4+4 hp’s damage (automatic hit). Range is 60 feet and all can be fired without worry of hitting anyone on board. On a roll of 1 on D20 one of the 12 is destroyed and needs magical repair. Ignores hardness, unless magical resistance.

Speed:
o Total Travel Speed: (78 miles per day / 4.9 mph)

 Sails: (4)
 4 sails operating (12 men): 78 miles per day / 4.9 mph
 3 sails operating (9 men): 58 miles per day / 3.6 mph
 2 sails operating (6 men): 38 miles per day / 2.3 mph
 1 sail operating (3 men): 18 miles per day / 1.1 mph

 Movement per Round Speed: (80 feet)
 Movement per round is determined by miles per day (rounded) and then converted into feet.
 Sea speed is a 4:1 ratio compared to land speed. For each box that would require a boat to move 5 feet an individual would need to use 20 feet of movement to keep up.

 Turning Boat: Requires quadruple movement for each box moved. This includes everything besides moving in a complete straight line. Only 1 check is required per turn. On a successful Profession Sailor check this can be reduced (see below).
 Profession Sailor check DC 35: Normal movement.
 Profession Sailor check DC 30: Double movement (2x)
 Profession Sailor check DC 25: Triple movement (3x).

Crew:
o Sailors: 100 individuals, Warriors: 25 individuals

Special Profession Sailor Checks:
o Additional Speed: Base DC 35. For every 5 that beats the DC an additional 5 feet can be moved per round or 5 miles per day. For every consecutive check that is made the DC increases by 1. Any failed check causes 1 day of half movement on all types of movement. .
o Hide Ship: DC 44 automatic success (sails up). DC 24 automatic success (sails down). Must be made each round. Whenever failed opposing ship may then make an attempt to "Spot the Hidden Ship."
o Spot Hidden Ship: When a "Hide Ship" attempt fails by the other vessel you can make an opposed roll to identify the position of other ship (+6 to check).
o Avoid Water Dangers: DC Dependent on location. Penalty to skill check: -6. Penalty takes into consideration maximum sail use.
o Sail Through Storm w/o damage: DC Dependent on location. Penalty to skill check: -6. Penalty takes into consideration maximum sail use.
o Position Ship to Board Another w/o damage: DC 27 automatic success. For every 5 points failed by 1d12 hp's damage to your own ship and 1d8 to other ship. If DC failed by 15+ considered a crash (see below).
o Expunge Ship from another after a Ram Attack or Crash: DC 40 automatic success. For every 5 the DC is failed by your ship suffers 1d10 hp's damage. Other ship suffers 1d4 hp's damage. Ship is still expunged.
o "Anchor" ship against being engulfed/submerged: DC 28. Each round DC increases by 5.
o Locate Unknown Destination: DC Dependent on location. Bonus to check +7.
o Lower Sails Quickly: DC 30 (2 full rounds) - DC 40 (1 full round). Failed check on any type of roll indicates 1 additional round more than normal (4).

Repair/Additional Information:
o 7 men can repair 5 Hull Points to the ship each round of work.
o If ship is reduced to 0 hp’s it starts to sink. Will usually take 3-12 rounds before sinking. However, for each additional 25 hp’s of damage sustained beyond 0 reduce the time it will take the ship to sink by 1 round.
o If struck by fire a save DC 10 needs to be made or the boat catches on fire and takes 1d10 hp’s ongoing damage. Requires 5 men to put out each 10 hp’s of ongoing fire damage. If still burning, each round another save DC 15 must be made or the fire spreads causing an additional 1d10 hp’s damage in addition to whatever damage it was previously sustaining.
o If boat sustains 40 hp’s or more damage from one strike from another BOAT attack (or 60 hp’s from an equivalent type of spell which does strike damage) all aboard must make an Acrobatics check DC 5. For every additional 15 hp’s sustained the DC increases by 2. If failed the individual falls overboard. A roll of 1 always fails.
o If boat sustains 20 hp’s or more damage from a ram all aboard must make an Acrobatics Check DC 5. For every additional 10 hp’s sustained the DC increases by 2. If failed the individual falls overboard. A roll of 1 always fails.
o It requires 3 men to save every 1 which has fallen in.

To me this has always been enough, but if you and your campaign have more information that you detailed for boats I would love to hear it!

 

[arbados]

I will get a JPEG image of my maps for all of you to enjoy. Had trouble getting it done tonight (computer giving me problems). I will also share a bunch more stuff so stay tuned. I posted this to not "show off" but to see what others have done so each can steal from each other and make all our game worlds the best possible (even more detailed than the forgotten realms - it is possible you know). I do believe it can be done especially with the internet offering you so much information now-a-days!

I don't think I included this but for initiative I use a magnetic dry erase board. I have created initiative indicators for all my players. It includes a color initiative chip, with each character’s name with a magnetic back which easily sticks to the dry erase board. Besides their name it has a blank section that the initiative # would be written on. These cards would then be listed from top-to-bottom with the highest initiative being placed at top. As the battle continues things are written near the character chip to show all, not only the initiative, but also indicate all conditions that have affected the pc or npcs. I have about 20 blank chips which I use for npc's to add them to the board.

I also have condition indicator chips. Whenever a pc or npc is affected by a condition I hand the player as well as myself a chip from the deck so that both can know the impact it has on the character. I have printed and laminated about 7 of each chip and the deck is always kept right by the players to grab when needed. I can show samples if ones are interested to grab. I have, many many more things so if you want I would be more than happy to send you them to help your game. Let's share, and although I think I have detailed the most expansive game world I am SURE there are others that have stuff I don't. Let me take them and I will openly give to you!