I'm in the middle of creating handouts for players in my campaign. It's basically a gazeteer of my campaign world. Has anyone done such a thing? And what information did you include? I'm basically trying to give the players the sort of information their characters would know about the game world. Also, I'm toying with the idea of making it a PDF that I would send to the players with photoshop maps to accompany the information. How much effort should I put into this?
Player Handouts
- Thread starter Edgewood
- Start date
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
I did a similar thing at the start of Riveria, but on paper not PDF: a gazetteer of the home realm...its cities, towns, villages, and regions...along with a thumbnail sketch of significant places not in the home realm that an average low-level adventurer might have heard of...and a map of the home realm and another map of the surrounding area; the second map having lots of blank areas on it for future development and-or to indicate not much was known.
The maps have been worn out from use to the point where the originals are now in plastic sleeves and multiple copies exist.
The gazetteer? I'm not sure if anybody looked at it. Ever.
So, unless your players are voracious readers, I'd key on the maps and make the gazetteer a lower priority....
Lanefan
The maps have been worn out from use to the point where the originals are now in plastic sleeves and multiple copies exist.
The gazetteer? I'm not sure if anybody looked at it. Ever.
So, unless your players are voracious readers, I'd key on the maps and make the gazetteer a lower priority....
Lanefan
Masquerade
First Post
Lanefan said:
Similar experience. The key is to keep it short and interesting or else only the most devoted players can be expected to read it all (and even then--how much do you think will stick with them? 25%?)
For my current campaign, I have a wiki which I keep updated with this sort of information for easy reference. I also encourage my players to contribute to it.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
I created this PDF for my most recent campaign's players: "Second Son of a Second Son" Campaign Player's Guide
C.W.Richeson
Explorer
I do it for just about every game. Rules summaries, system explanations, special rules for the campaign setting, discussion of the setting, major game themes - the works.
You need to know your players to really figure out if the work is worth it. Most players I've had read the thing once and that's the end of it. A rare few will use it as a resource throughout the campaign, and then it adds a lot to the fun.
You need to know your players to really figure out if the work is worth it. Most players I've had read the thing once and that's the end of it. A rare few will use it as a resource throughout the campaign, and then it adds a lot to the fun.
You may want to check some of our editable handouts.http://www.roninarts.com/store/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=handouts&x=0&y=0 They may save you some time.
bento
Explorer
I created a Gazeteer for the island my players started on because it was a continuation of my campaign, and half knew what was going on and the other half were new to the setting. I did it as a two column document with embedded clip art and maps.
I liked it but I'm not sure how many of them took the time to read it.
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I liked it but I'm not sure how many of them took the time to read it.
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Dragonbait
Explorer
Some of my players are fairly illiterate. Scratch that.. Most of my players are fairly illiterate. Reading hurts their souls. If your group is anything like mine, avoid using more than 2 sentences strung together, and use images (for the idea of what places look like, races, and so on). Images really help!
Okay,
So basically, the gist here is that players don't read allot. It's a good thing that WoTC puts out books of 100+ pages as much as they do.
Anyway, despite that, I do like the idea of something small and quick to digest. Putting things in small factoids and easy to understand pics and maps is the way I want to go. I take it something that is about 6-12 pages would be enough?
So basically, the gist here is that players don't read allot. It's a good thing that WoTC puts out books of 100+ pages as much as they do.
Anyway, despite that, I do like the idea of something small and quick to digest. Putting things in small factoids and easy to understand pics and maps is the way I want to go. I take it something that is about 6-12 pages would be enough?
Ben Robbins
Explorer
I would say there is a different psychological factor at work. If you are creating a big handout for a new game, it's cart before the horse: you are making it look like they have a lot of homework to do _before_ they are even interested in the game.Edgewood said:
Just let them play and find out what they need to know in game. Later, when they are hooked and into the game world, then they might want handouts to fill in more detail about what they already experienced in play.
