The history of your world

[fusangite]

Have you developed a detailed world creation for your world?

Yes. Absolutely. My GMing style kind of necessitates that, though.

Do you know how everything came to be - the origins of all the races? Or do you care?

I know the general structure of my universes so I understand the principles by which these things arose. I don't necessarily have an individual story for each species and piece of geography, though. But there are general principles of causation in my worlds and strong divine/historical forces that have shaped nearly all events.

Do your players know this origin? How much of it do they know?

My campaigns typically involve my PCs figuring this out or deepening their understanding of it. They start with a mythology that answers some of these questions but gain insights that, while not exactly contradicting it, deepen and transform their understanding of it.

 

[Nareau]

My current game has the world's history at its core. Before this game, we did a quick, 13-session game that played through a major upheaval 200 years ago. Now, in the current campaign, they're dealing with the results of that upheaval. Piece by piece, they're learning what really happened 200, 1000, 2000 years ago, and how those events have defined the current era. It's been a lot of fun.

Spider

 

[fusangite]

I still build my words that way for my own amusement, but I don't bother offering up the info unless it is sought out.

Same here. If you do all the history and metaphysics expecting your audience to care are "get it," you are setting yourself up for disappointment and bored players.

 

[adwyn]

I've been using the same home brew world for nearly twenty years and my history timeline is barely more than one page. The players don't care too much so instead of detailed timelines I have given them little bits of stories here and there when appropriate to the plot or as part of the background for magic items.

Yet they do have an idea of the order of which empires came in which order and what leaders go to each and a few of the major events that go along with them. This is actually quite sad because none of them can do as well with placing US history in order and they've all had at least a year of that in high school.

 

[Crothian]

Have you developed a detailed world creation for your world?

Not terrible detailed, but I do know it

Do you know how everything came to be - the origins of all the races? Or do you care?

It is actually a pretty important reaslizatrion to those few who learn it.

Do your players know this origin? How much of it do they know?

One player who has been gaming in the world for years knows quite a bit, the other players are just learning about the world and as of yet have no learned this information. They might or might not, it really depends on the players.

 

[painandgreed]

In thinking about setting history, I was curious how much of your own settings is either developed, or known by your players?

Have you developed a detailed world creation for your world?
Do you know how everything came to be - the origins of all the races? Or do you care?
Do your players know this origin? How much of it do they know?

I started with a world creation myth. I wanted my "whole of cloth" homebrew to be consistant and have it's own mythology so I started by creating the creation myth and went from there a general outline of the pre-history myths that dealt with dragons, invasion of outsiders (aboliths, Kua-Toa, kobolds, and other reptilian and Cthulhu type creatures), to the natural order fighting back to throw out the outsiders (by creating elves dwarves, fey and giants), the eventual fall of the elves, the rise of humans, and finally the rise of humanoids.

Recent history (the last few thousand years) is pretty well defined because I wanted it to determine what my current world was like. I used real history as a guideline and started with what considered the foundation of Western history which would be the Trojan War and made it the battle for racial supremecy between elves, humans, and orcs. Humans won although were betrayed by the elves before the orcs could be eliminated completly. The aftermath of that war directly caused the foundation of a great empire (imagine rome ruled by a wizard-king instead of emperor) which grew to cover most of the known world and its eventual downfall and splitting into two empires that slowly devolve and never see the glory of the predecesor. From there, orcs invade instead of huns and mongols (again losely as there is not direct corelation between the real timeline and my own except as much as I describe here). Eventually I just decided to use the real world map also and it ends up with modern day boundries between contries around 1250 in the real world timeline.

All in all, the players know the background (if they choose to read it or have me recite it) as much as they care and have access. It would be the myths and legends that their characters grew up with and would assume general knowledge and inform the if needed. Some might require special knowledges for more detailed info. Also, now with a history of ancient and fallen empires (chaotic outsiders, elven and dwarven, ancient human, and several recent human empires), I can pretty well determine a solid background for any dungeon they might enter.

 

[Desdichado]

1) Have you developed a detailed world creation for your world?
2) Do you know how everything came to be - the origins of all the races? Or do you care?
3) Do your players know this origin? How much of it do they know?

I numbered your questions for easier answerin'.

1). Not really, really detailed, no. But have I done a brief "this is how the setting got to be the way it is," yes absolutely.

2). All the races, no. Some of them, yes. My history's entire purpose is to provide plot hooks, though, not just to be background. If it seems important, or I can use it to propel adventures, or gradually reveal interesting secrets, then I'll write it up, otherwise I ignore it.

3). No, the players usually start off knowing very little. In fact, they are often spectacularly misinformed about the true history of the setting, and one of the key plot devices I love to use is the gradual uncovering of the "true, secret" history of the world. Kinda like in the Call of Cthulhu game; people have the history that they accept and know; the real history of the world, but a key element of the setting is that all kinds of other weirdness was really going on, that most people don't know anything at all about.

That's often how my campaigns go.

 

[Scotley]

I do have a fairly complex world history for my current homebrew. It is written in different forms running to perhaps 50 pages. The pre-history is written as a primative creation myth, while early history is in a scholarly text, the more recent stuff (the last 500 years or so) is in the descriptions of each kingdom or important location. Now I can't say that all my players have even read it or tried hard to encorporate it into their backgrounds. Despite the rich history and variety of possible starting locations one player insisted on an off the wall background that necesitated an 'off the map' foreign origin. I gave the players all this up front, however, there are some behind the scenes things going on that I didn't include in the official history. Some characters have a little additional information, but there are still things they don't know. While I would love it if my players embraced all this information and used it, I mainly did it for myself. I enjoy world building and having explainations for the things that are happening in the world. I use it in game, so the players are treated differently based on their origin. The food is different, the politics and laws are different and the motivations of the npc's are different. Some area are more religious than others. The feelings about goverenment and nobility are quite different in different areas as well. Racial tentions vary with region as well. The players could really benefit by exploring these details and using them, but if they choose not to, that's their loss.

 

[the Jester]

My campaign has a history stretching back about one million years, to the ignition of the sun. My players know more about it all than their players do.

Here's a link to the timeline in the Cydra wiki, if you're interested in checking it out.

 

[RangerWickett]

Myths and legends should never be proveable. That's why my gods don't walk among mortals, and why I've got several creation myths.