It's the little things

[thejc]

Uh wow...this thread is awesome. I'm kinda a beginner DM that has mostly just stuck to campaign settings like Greyhawk, Golarion, or Eberron. I started making a campaign world a few months a go but I could never really get it to "feel" right. A lot of the stuff in this thread will help to fix the problem I think.

Thank you all so much for contributing to this topic with such detailed, great, and evocative examples!

Glad to have helped. One of the things to have spurned this thread is that things like this help it not feel like so much of a grind, like it's just a "Dungeon Strike" scenario.

A tip on campaign building; do as little as possible. Rape steal and pillage what you can dress it up and change the flavor and let the details emerge from that. You just worry about the flavor of the overall campaign and the story.

 

[Rel]

This thread is indeed a gold mine. I'll probably steal some stuff from it and I'll try to contribute a few things too.

One little thing I've done a couple times is have those the PC's have helped along the way give back in ways that are appropriate to their means.

I ran an Eberron game a few years ago that was a city game based in Sharn. In the early going the PC's stumbled across a baker who was into some dirty dealings, using his shop as a money laundering scheme. The PC's grabbed this guy and were going pretty hard on him when the NPC broke down and said that basically the mob was threatening his family if he didn't cooperate with them. The PC's went after the organized crime group that had the NPC under their thumb and made sure that the baker and his family were safe. For the rest of the time they were in Sharn, fresh baked goods would show up on their doorstep every morning.

Another example is something I've talked about in other places around ENW, but the basic concept is called "Fluffy Towels". I had the PC's visiting an inn in the town they all started in. They had gained considerable renown by that point in the campaign and I had the innkeeper fawn all over them. He booted some visiting merchants from the best suite of rooms in the inn, served the PC's up some free drinks and gave orders to the barmaid to go upstairs and draw them a hot bath. He then grabbed her and pulled her close and whispered conspiratorially, "And make sure you bring them...the fluffy towels."

My players are so used to me being a Rat Bastard that they were sure that "fluffy towels" was code for some means of assassinating them. But they were wrong. They were simply the fluffiest towels they had ever had the pleasure of drying themselves with. I love messing with their minds like that.

 

[thejc]

This thread is indeed a gold mine. I'll probably steal some stuff from it and I'll try to contribute a few things too.

One little thing I've done a couple times is have those the PC's have helped along the way give back in ways that are appropriate to their means.

I ran an Eberron game a few years ago that was a city game based in Sharn. In the early going the PC's stumbled across a baker who was into some dirty dealings, using his shop as a money laundering scheme. The PC's grabbed this guy and were going pretty hard on him when the NPC broke down and said that basically the mob was threatening his family if he didn't cooperate with them. The PC's went after the organized crime group that had the NPC under their thumb and made sure that the baker and his family were safe. For the rest of the time they were in Sharn, fresh baked goods would show up on their doorstep every morning.

Another example is something I've talked about in other places around ENW, but the basic concept is called "Fluffy Towels". I had the PC's visiting an inn in the town they all started in. They had gained considerable renown by that point in the campaign and I had the innkeeper fawn all over them. He booted some visiting merchants from the best suite of rooms in the inn, served the PC's up some free drinks and gave orders to the barmaid to go upstairs and draw them a hot bath. He then grabbed her and pulled her close and whispered conspiratorially, "And make sure you bring them...the fluffy towels."

My players are so used to me being a Rat Bastard that they were sure that "fluffy towels" was code for some means of assassinating them. But they were wrong. They were simply the fluffiest towels they had ever had the pleasure of drying themselves with. I love messing with their minds like that.

I love both examples especially the "fluffy towels"

 

[fba827]

He then grabbed her and pulled her close and whispered conspiratorially, "And make sure you bring them...the fluffy towels."

Does that mean the inn had it's own fluffer?

 

[Whisper72]

Some 'mundane' things I also generally add to my campaign worlds as 'fluff':

- famous battles that everyone knows, often the showcase of some specific strategy
- famous generals
- famous bards / travellers who documented large parts of the world
- special greeting customs for certain area's and/or specific social classes
- certain 'taboo's', such as only the emperor is allowed to dress in yellow, only nobles are allowed to own gold coins etc.

I usually also develop histories for relatively mundane magical items. i.e. it is just a sword +2, but it has a handle shaped like a dragon and the mark of the order of Blah, so it must have been the sword of the last grandmaster of that order, or it is a 'standard' staff of the magi but it is shaped like an elongated female. This was the staff of the Mad Arch Mage and the form is actually the women he loved but betrayed him, cursed to form the staff...

Stuff like that...

 

[steeldragons]

Some 'mundane' things I also generally add to my campaign worlds as 'fluff':

- famous battles that everyone knows, often the showcase of some specific strategy
- famous generals
- famous bards / travellers who documented large parts of the world
- special greeting customs for certain area's and/or specific social classes
- certain 'taboo's', such as only the emperor is allowed to dress in yellow, only nobles are allowed to own gold coins etc.

I usually also develop histories for relatively mundane magical items. i.e. it is just a sword +2, but it has a handle shaped like a dragon and the mark of the order of Blah, so it must have been the sword of the last grandmaster of that order, or it is a 'standard' staff of the magi but it is shaped like an elongated female. This was the staff of the Mad Arch Mage and the form is actually the women he loved but betrayed him, cursed to form the staff...

Stuff like that...

I would add to this list:
-Famous Knowledgable Persons: be it a sage, a mage, a prolific cloistered priest/adept. Someone known/acknowledged as the foremost authority on X (within the academic circle of whatever the subject matter is).

In developing my world of Orea, I created (somewhat by accident) a well known (long dead) sage who did extensive research and study (and writings) of the world's races. So 1) in explaining the races there are excerpts from Belbin's treatise on XYZ. 2)There is a name that knowledgable/educated types (wizards, clerics, bards, etc.) would be recognized and trusted on certain subjects. 3) It may spark something in the players/PCs when finding libraries and such "Hey, are any of these books written by Soandso the Sage?"

-Famous Heroes/Adventuring Companies...and their contributions to the world/society.

In my world, the last truly "world famous" adventuring company incorporated the greatest bard of the last age. His followers established the foremost bardic college/training center of minstrels in the world.

The ranger of that group is credited with establishing the current organization of rangers of the northern kingdom. The fighter-type became the first high-king of that realm (sorta an Arthurian figure). The mage became the world's first "Dragonmage" (mortal wielder of draconic magic) since long forgotten ages.

The priestess/cleric was actually "Sainted" by her goddess, creating a new branch of the religion and ascended to demi-goddess-hood worshiped in conjunction with the greater goddess.

Make the commonly known "heroes of legend" truly legendary! They contribute to the geo-political make up, the world's mythology, the world's history (this particular group defeated the demon-demigod who was thiiiis close to taking over the world) etc. EVERYone (or just about) has heard a song or story around the fire involving these guys n' gals.

This kind of common knowledge not only adds flavor to the world's past (possibly recent past), but also provides "inspiration" for the players as something to aspire to.

It provides a reason why they (and others) continue to seek fame and fortune in the "adventurer" lifestyle...cuz someone in the past attained REAL fame and/or fortune...It is possible to reach "greatness"!

-SD

 

[Quickleaf]

Love the adventuring party mythos!

Usually I use setting details towards foreshadowing or to illustrate the results of the PCs' ventures.

There was an upcoming tournament in the PCs' kingdom, and occasionally they'd run in with smack-talking knights gearing up for the joust, ladies in waiting trying to decide who to give their favors to (or to fight themselves), and especially tales of the extraordinary bard Gaston Noteworthy (which really rubbed the group's bard the wrong way).

This spawned several side quests, from finding a stash of "emperors" ( which turned out to be a derogatory geopolitical reference to copper coins) to bets about who would be the last man to bed Lady Rhoswen (which happened to be the name of a particularly strong brandy known for putting men "to bed").

All of this led up to an adventure centered on the tournament itself wherein the PCs participated in order to find a disguised knight before assassins got him.

And, more importantly, the dread bard Gaston Noteworthy got his comeuppance in a Bardic poetry slam of epic proportions.

 

[Dioltach]

In my homebrew, the dominant race are minotaurs, like in Dragonlance's Taladas setting. The culture is somewhat like that of Byzantium, so I figured there'd be lots of temples. And temples mean chanting and singing, but I decided that minotaurs would have a different kind of music: moosic. It involves lots of tonal lowing.

 

[Dedekind]

I add street people. Bums asking for money, hawkers, farmers asking directions, drunks, children, etc. It took a little getting used to at first, as the players thought these interactions were "important." But they aren't, they just exist to suggest a bustling city, sleepy hamlet, or where ever.