New fantasy settings; how do you explain to your players?

[Krug]

So you're sick of vanilla flavoured generic medieval Europe fantasy setting and want to try something new, like Dark Sun or Midnight. How do you tell them about the setting? How much do you let them know?

 

[Cedric]

Tough question...

Start general and fill in the details later. Meet with each player individually to give them choices and options in the character creation process.

You might have each player come up with 3 vague concepts. Then, work with them to decide which concept will work best for you and them.

At that point, give them all the information they need to bring that concept to life and to fill their character on what they would know about the world as best you can.

Tell them to assume nothing. Just because you see something that someone calls a troll, don't run up and set it on fire.

Cedric

 

[Najo]

My suggestion would be to tell them only what the common person of the setting/ region would know, and then when you do the PC backgrounds give them details appropiate for their character's race, class and community they grew up in.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Hand-outs. At the start of my campiagns I give my players a couple of pages of notes. A little bit is for the setting and helps fill in the background, some of it is house rules, and then the defination of evil in my games.

 

[Fenes 2]

I usually try to give the players as much of the information their PCs would know as soon as possible, especially when they create a PC native to the setting. Nowadays I compile the information in a file, with images, and mail it them. During play I deal out additional informations, if needed.

 

[Buttercup]

I also use handouts. I have a player packet that consists of a map of the starting location, a brief history of "The World As You Know It", cosmology, house rules, rumors, short bios of a few NPCs, and any other stuff that applies. If players join later, they get a modified packet that includes a map of the current location instead of the starting location.

I tend to give only an outline of the world's history, and flesh it out once I see the players character bios. This way I can weave their stories into the world (and get a bunch of plot hooks to boot).

 

[Nightfall]

Two things I rely on. Handouts and also Ghelspad Gaz. (Though I admit my present hand out works MUCH better. )

 

[hong]

So you're sick of vanilla flavoured generic medieval Europe fantasy setting and want to try something new, like Dark Sun or Midnight. How do you tell them about the setting? How much do you let them know?

Tell them everything you know, and I mean everything. Lend them the book. Point them to websites. When starting with a new setting, the most important thing is to instil that sense of place in your group: what the setting is about; the themes and tone of the game; who are the good guys and bad guys; what social customs and quirks of etiquette exist; etc. The more information you give the players, the easier it becomes to achieve this. Until you make your players truly grok the world, it'll just be FR with funky new toys or monsters, and the labels switched around. The only thing you really have to keep off-limits is modules that you intend to run.

Some would say that this leads to players having inappropriate or too much knowledge, which causes difficulties in maintaining suspense. Bollocks, says I. If you're confident enough to try a non-vanilla setting, you're probably an experienced enough DM that you can keep your players off-balance without having to rely on some grand publisher-supplied metaplot. Conversely, if you can't trust your group not to abuse the knowledge they have, you either have control issues or you're playing with the wrong people.

 

[seasong]

I usually start with a Hollywood line: "It's like Lord of the Rings, except..."

Seriously, it really depends on the setting: what's important, what's unique, what do the players find interesting, what matters to their character ideas, and to what extent the setting requires explanation versus narrative experience.

There's also a lot of teaching techniques that can be used to help players "get it".

For example, when I ran AO (gritty, low-magic, culture-heavy) a long time ago, I showed the players the matrilineal and matriarchal system, how farming families were structured, how traces of northern blood mixed into southron families, the difference between Old Families and Young Families, the radiating of every younger Houses from the old Giant's Stone, and more...

...by working with them to build a 4-generation family tree (about 20-30 people) and filling in a quick phrase for each; and then tacking on some of the ancient (Old vs Young) history. I had rules for generating the family tree that demonstrated the matrilinearity, I asked who the eldest woman was and indicated that she was the matriarch of the family, I asked if any northern soldiers (who had come down 40 years prior) had married into the family at any point, etc. This was hands' on learning, but it was also a great way to get them involved in the campaign . It did take half an hour per player, though.

Visual aids are also good, but I'm rotten at them.

I've also recently learned that Story Hours are a good way to provide setting information. Little bits of academic interest can be trickled in small sips, and the players will take that better than a treatise at the start of the game.

 

[Cor Azer]

It depends on the feeling I want for the campaign. For my email game, I didn't tell them much of anything at the start (mostly because almost everything came from their backgrounds) but as they adventure I've been dropping tidbits of history all over the place. For my face-to-face group, I created a short handout with politcal groups, a brief world history, house rules, and some other little interesting details, but I've continued to expand upon those ideas as the game progresses (In fact, now that they have royal backing, I may do up a new document with even more information).