Catavarie
First Post
Setting Information…. World Building 103 from another point of view*Updated 11/11/05*
First off I would like to start with a couple of definitions:
Setting – The area that affects and is affected by the Player Characters
World – The planet upon which the setting is located
Slaunt recently wrote what I at the time thought to be a very concise and complete for a starting point. But going back with fresh non-sleep deprived eyes I find myself wanting a better-defined set of guidelines that I am going to attempt to accomplish this and add on to my previous post about creating a RPG.
As the DMG points out there are two different methods for creating your own game world…internal and external. Internal means to start with a small area such as a village and immediately surrounding areas. External means starting with the big picture and then adding in the details throughout. Now I would like to say that I start small and then work out since this could save a lot of time upfront…but I’ve never been known to do things the easy way, I use External mode of world creation. The external mode needs a lot of time upfront, I have one that I’ve been working on for over 2 years and its still not finished in my eyes, but once you finish you have all the information on your world before the players even start creating their characters.
Now Slaunt stated that there are three basic world types: The Generic World, the Specific World, and “The Kitchen Sink”. In my opinion there are nearly limitless world types possible the selections are only limited by our imaginations, and I don’t begin to think that I know them all but I will make a humble effort to provide a few examples to help get your brain juices flowing freely. (Although my terminology may differ from Slaunt’s the ideology is still the same for the first three.)
The First four in this list I treat as a skeleton for my world, they give me the basic structure of my world and how it is setup...geographically, technologically, socially, religiously. I always start with one of these Types before I decide on anything else.
Standard (General):
A world that closely resembles many other worlds found throughout Fantasy settings. These will include some if not all standard races and character classes from the PHB.
Minimal (Specific)
Narrowly defined setting within a world that has only a small portion in which the PCs will be able to act, although part of a larger world the players are for the most part secluded from the greater world, but major acts of heroism or villiany do leak out slowly to other areas of the world.
Potpourri
Think of this as a world made up of various Minimal Settings, each area being secluded from the next. This way each region could evolve differently with different religions, different rituals, and different styles of magic, and different combat techniques. Think of it as each setting being an island in a huge sea of islands each separated form the others.
Amalgamated (The Kitchen Sink)
This world type seems at first glance to be the same as the Potpourri type, but the difference being that instead of having several smaller settings unaffected by the PC involvement, but in actuality this is a much broader connected world. This world could have everything that the writer could think of is there but has a specific place where it belongs and it fits in.
The next six in the list I veiw as being the flesh on the skeleton, these are what give the world its personallity, its distinctive feel and aura. These give your world life and helps them to seem as if they are living, breathing, organic worlds. Instead of just a bunch of notes scribbled on a Legal Pad.
Terrian (Earth)
Basically this is your stock world where everything reacts as it would on Earth. Your Physics are normal, your weather is normal, your seasons are normal...everything is easy to relate to for your players because it is for all intensive purposes just a Fantasy Earth.
{I added this world type in order to add some clarification to fact that you don't have to make an 'off the wall' type of world. But that even our world is vast enough to offer ALOT of inspiration.}
Legendary
In this world news travels faster than lightning, or so it would seem. Even though the PC might take out a minor War Lord their tale spreads and grows rapidly, so much so that by time they reach the wilderness fortress several months later they are welcomed as Legendary heroes that stood up to the largest villainous army ever assembled and triumphed with only sticks as their weapons.
Grim & Gritty (by Xcorvis)
This world is the total opposite of the Legendary world type. Instead of the PCs becoming widely known heroes to point that citizens of cities sing songs of their adventures, they are in fact rarely even noticed by the world around them, they are lothed by those of the aritocracy for being lowly in station and therefore considered to be equal to rats and pigs, and yet they still tred on to do what they can although everytime the win a battle or defeat a mad man it seems that someone else is given the praise and credit for it as 'the PCs obvioulsy couldn't have done it themselves' so they continue on always unknown by those they may protect.
Psychedelic
This type of world can be a somewhat difficult one to create, in this world nothing is what it seems, every action that PCs take despite how they think (or logically should) affect the world around them it doesn’t always turn out so simply. This type of world is full of so many different plot twist and varying degrees of morality that it seems to come alive so easily once its fully developed. The major driving force behind game play in this type of world is true Role-Playing…NOT COMBAT…in fact combat in this type of world seems to only complicate things further, because no matter how much good you do for one group, your doing bad for another.
Improvised
This type of world can be extremely fun and entertaining and provides for a lot of laughs down the road. This world is exactly as it seems its completely developed on the fly while running a game. This can cause a lot of work for the DM during the session taking notes constantly and after the session organizing these notes so as to not to contradict themselves at a later time.
Predestined
In this world type players might have a tendency to claim that they are being railroaded because no matter what they do the final result of the world is the same. The reasoning behind this is based on the “3 fates” of mythology where everything that a person has done or will do has already been recorded and even thought he PCs decide to change their ways it was already known that they would do that. Therefore if your players become aware of the fact that everything is predetermined in the world they could become upset.
I may try to further elaborate on each of these design ideas when I have the spare time. but for now this might help those out there that may be looking at starting their own campaign setting but having trouble figuring out where to start. And certainly there is much more to designing a setting than simply deciding upon the type of world you want there is town designs and architechture, besitarys of the differing regions, religons, cultures, technological advances, Notable NPC design, etc. This is just a small starting point to very long and ardious process that pays off in the end.
EDITS are in Brown: note I will be more than glad to add any ideas to the above list that someone may think of, and I promise to give credit where it is rightfully due, afterall I'm not a genius as Nightcloak is considered from time to time...especially when releases a new chapter to the GM Notebook
First off I would like to start with a couple of definitions:
Setting – The area that affects and is affected by the Player Characters
World – The planet upon which the setting is located
Slaunt recently wrote what I at the time thought to be a very concise and complete for a starting point. But going back with fresh non-sleep deprived eyes I find myself wanting a better-defined set of guidelines that I am going to attempt to accomplish this and add on to my previous post about creating a RPG.
As the DMG points out there are two different methods for creating your own game world…internal and external. Internal means to start with a small area such as a village and immediately surrounding areas. External means starting with the big picture and then adding in the details throughout. Now I would like to say that I start small and then work out since this could save a lot of time upfront…but I’ve never been known to do things the easy way, I use External mode of world creation. The external mode needs a lot of time upfront, I have one that I’ve been working on for over 2 years and its still not finished in my eyes, but once you finish you have all the information on your world before the players even start creating their characters.
Now Slaunt stated that there are three basic world types: The Generic World, the Specific World, and “The Kitchen Sink”. In my opinion there are nearly limitless world types possible the selections are only limited by our imaginations, and I don’t begin to think that I know them all but I will make a humble effort to provide a few examples to help get your brain juices flowing freely. (Although my terminology may differ from Slaunt’s the ideology is still the same for the first three.)
The First four in this list I treat as a skeleton for my world, they give me the basic structure of my world and how it is setup...geographically, technologically, socially, religiously. I always start with one of these Types before I decide on anything else.
Standard (General):
A world that closely resembles many other worlds found throughout Fantasy settings. These will include some if not all standard races and character classes from the PHB.
Minimal (Specific)
Narrowly defined setting within a world that has only a small portion in which the PCs will be able to act, although part of a larger world the players are for the most part secluded from the greater world, but major acts of heroism or villiany do leak out slowly to other areas of the world.
Potpourri
Think of this as a world made up of various Minimal Settings, each area being secluded from the next. This way each region could evolve differently with different religions, different rituals, and different styles of magic, and different combat techniques. Think of it as each setting being an island in a huge sea of islands each separated form the others.
Amalgamated (The Kitchen Sink)
This world type seems at first glance to be the same as the Potpourri type, but the difference being that instead of having several smaller settings unaffected by the PC involvement, but in actuality this is a much broader connected world. This world could have everything that the writer could think of is there but has a specific place where it belongs and it fits in.
The next six in the list I veiw as being the flesh on the skeleton, these are what give the world its personallity, its distinctive feel and aura. These give your world life and helps them to seem as if they are living, breathing, organic worlds. Instead of just a bunch of notes scribbled on a Legal Pad.
Terrian (Earth)
Basically this is your stock world where everything reacts as it would on Earth. Your Physics are normal, your weather is normal, your seasons are normal...everything is easy to relate to for your players because it is for all intensive purposes just a Fantasy Earth.
{I added this world type in order to add some clarification to fact that you don't have to make an 'off the wall' type of world. But that even our world is vast enough to offer ALOT of inspiration.}
Legendary
In this world news travels faster than lightning, or so it would seem. Even though the PC might take out a minor War Lord their tale spreads and grows rapidly, so much so that by time they reach the wilderness fortress several months later they are welcomed as Legendary heroes that stood up to the largest villainous army ever assembled and triumphed with only sticks as their weapons.
Grim & Gritty (by Xcorvis)
This world is the total opposite of the Legendary world type. Instead of the PCs becoming widely known heroes to point that citizens of cities sing songs of their adventures, they are in fact rarely even noticed by the world around them, they are lothed by those of the aritocracy for being lowly in station and therefore considered to be equal to rats and pigs, and yet they still tred on to do what they can although everytime the win a battle or defeat a mad man it seems that someone else is given the praise and credit for it as 'the PCs obvioulsy couldn't have done it themselves' so they continue on always unknown by those they may protect.
Psychedelic
This type of world can be a somewhat difficult one to create, in this world nothing is what it seems, every action that PCs take despite how they think (or logically should) affect the world around them it doesn’t always turn out so simply. This type of world is full of so many different plot twist and varying degrees of morality that it seems to come alive so easily once its fully developed. The major driving force behind game play in this type of world is true Role-Playing…NOT COMBAT…in fact combat in this type of world seems to only complicate things further, because no matter how much good you do for one group, your doing bad for another.
Improvised
This type of world can be extremely fun and entertaining and provides for a lot of laughs down the road. This world is exactly as it seems its completely developed on the fly while running a game. This can cause a lot of work for the DM during the session taking notes constantly and after the session organizing these notes so as to not to contradict themselves at a later time.
Predestined
In this world type players might have a tendency to claim that they are being railroaded because no matter what they do the final result of the world is the same. The reasoning behind this is based on the “3 fates” of mythology where everything that a person has done or will do has already been recorded and even thought he PCs decide to change their ways it was already known that they would do that. Therefore if your players become aware of the fact that everything is predetermined in the world they could become upset.
I may try to further elaborate on each of these design ideas when I have the spare time. but for now this might help those out there that may be looking at starting their own campaign setting but having trouble figuring out where to start. And certainly there is much more to designing a setting than simply deciding upon the type of world you want there is town designs and architechture, besitarys of the differing regions, religons, cultures, technological advances, Notable NPC design, etc. This is just a small starting point to very long and ardious process that pays off in the end.
EDITS are in Brown: note I will be more than glad to add any ideas to the above list that someone may think of, and I promise to give credit where it is rightfully due, afterall I'm not a genius as Nightcloak is considered from time to time...especially when releases a new chapter to the GM Notebook
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) into a pile and your focused brainstorming sheets into another pile.
