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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andre" data-source="post: 2406516" data-attributes="member: 25930">There was a thread on this topic (what do we want in a campaign world book) quite a while back - maybe someone can search the boards and find it for you.In the meantime, I'll give you my own response - just keep in mind that I'm probably not your target audience. I always homebrew, so I use published settings only for ideas that I can steal.1. Core concept. Define your world's hook in one or two sentences. What makes it cool? What makes it special? Even the most generic setting should have a hook of some sort. Don't assume you have to be original or over-the-top here, but (IMO) it really helps if the setting isn't just "everything and the kitchen sink".2. Portability. As I said, I scavenge so I want stuff I can easily port into my own world. Interesting NPC's and locations work well. Same with villages, cities, and such. A list of rumors or myths can be useful. If you create your own pantheon, try to cover the basics - that way if you create an interesting monastery dedicated to the god Mzndafjafkja, the god of Balance, I may be able to use the monastery with few changes. 3. History/Myths/Major Players. I'm not typical, in that I don't really like much of this. I don't buy campaign settings to read someone's novella. I usually have these things already created for my own world. By all means, include these things. But don't take up half the book with them.4. Repeat after me: "Not every book has to have prestige classes...Not every book has to have prestige classess..." Say that a few thousand times. Really, it's true. OTOH, feel free to create your own organizations that fit your world, your version of Harpers, or Rangers, or whatever. Just don't waste a ton of space on prestige classes which are constantly overused by publishers. If you must have them, consider including them as separate free web enhancements.5. Also, you don't have to have your own races. One or two that fill specific roles can be good. A bunch of "elves by another name", "dwarves by another name", etc. is not.6. A short, interesting sample adventure in the main book. An early 3.0 campaign setting had this and I really appreciated it. The adventure was very short (half a session, maybe) but it was focused on introducing the campaign's hook. Great for pointing the potential GM in the right direction for running the world.7. Focused, free web enhancements. If your world changes skills, classes, races and such, a short guide on character creation with all the new material can be a good reference. A short intro adventure (see 6. above). A list of important npc's and their positions/occupations. A matrix of npc's in a town, showing who knows who. All the little things that you'll find you don't have room for in the main book, but can be helpful to those who use it.8. Bears repeating: good, interesting portable stuff. NPC's. Evocative locations. Towns. A ferry. A tannery. An inn or three. Even if I never run your world as a campaign, these types of things will get a lot of use.BTW, I'm not a big fan of a "Players" guide to a campaign world. The theory is that the GM can hand one book to the players that has everything they need, but I've found two problems with this. One, every GM is different, so I would have to go through the players guide and mark out everything that I've changed, decided not to include, don't want them to know about, etc. Two, it leaves the GM with at least two books to reference, instead of one, when running the campaign. "Let's see, which book describes the pantheon? Which one describes the temple hierarchies? Hmm?" In theory, players guides are a good idea. In practice, I've never found one I like.As always, all just IMO. Good luck!</blockquote>

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