The history of your world

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Ditto that.

Serioulsy, there was a time when I went to great lengths to describe why trade routes had developed, why nations had antipahty toward one another and all manner of stuff through a reasonably conplete history.

But the players just didn't seem to care all that much.

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.

And ditto THAT...

I have in past done a fair amount of work on campaign history but actually got better results if I made it up as I went along and history was NEEDED - which wasn't often. Still, it helps to have things already in mind as to how I might want them to go just in case.

My last FR campaign (literally last as I swore never to use the Realms again) I set in Cormyr. I made up a completely different nobility structure, made a big list of names of noble families partially stolen from FR and added a lot more, savagely rearranged the map, perverted the history with equal carelessness and so forth. Even had the players known any decent amount of Realms/Cormyr history (And you know what? There's no good reason WHATSOEVER that they should have known much, if any, Realms history despite having played nearly a dozen campaigns in the Realms over the years) they couldn't have cared less. One of my most successful campaigns ever - perhaps even the MOST successful.

 

[barsoomcore]

Making up histories and so on is a big part of the fun of DMing for me. I find the research or creative effort involved as much fun as actually running the games. Part of what makes DMing so suitable for me is that it involves both social creativity and solitary creativity -- I like (perhaps even need) both types.

The whole point of running my Barsoom campaign was to have the players uncover and immerse themselves in the story of the setting. So making up that story (or at least its building blocks; the story itself gets told with the players) was obviously very important. My pirate game was built on a vast amount of research I did on the period and the locale (all very liberally deviated from as I saw fit).

Dunno if that answers the questions, but there you go.

 

[amethal]

My world's history is covered by my campaign setting document, which is (currently) 137 pages of badly written, confusing and occasionally contradictory information - which is expanded upon or changed whenever I get a new idea.

The players are free to read it, but its not very readable. I don't think any of them have done more than skimmed through it. One of these days I'll see about putting it up on the internet, so I can inflcit it on a wider audience.

It also does not contain a key fact, as I am still wondering how best to include it. Basically, the characters "know" which gods created the various races, but in reality none of the races were created by the gods. They just "imported" them, probably from Eberron.

 

[Soel]

My players have always seemed interested in only bits of history, certain key elements maybe, but not the minutiae. They are far more interested in the history they make. Fortunately, this lets me fill in the finer details later of some things as inspiration strikes.

 

[The Edge]

I like to detail my worlds, so far in my current campaign it’s just the local areas history, I haven’t gone into much global or over all detail. If you like to detail your world and fill in history and such and would like to show the players, I say the best way is to let/make them discover it in game. Make it important to what their doing.

I had a very funny moment where a player (his character a new comer to the region) while trying to explore a keep with out invite, tried to claim he was a minor baron as part of a bluff + disguise check. What he hadn’t yet discovered is that the monarchy in this country was deposed roughly 250 years back (a bit like in France). It had seemed to work, he was taken to see the captain of the guard who would ‘great him and make sure he got accommodation fitting for a baron’. Which just happened to be the stocks.

That’s a bit of history he’ll remember next time.

 

[Aaron L]

I have a detialed history of my world going back bllions of years to the planets formation. It's the funnest part of the whole deal for me. Of course very few of the players ever gave a crap about it which is why I dont run it anymore. But I still have a lot of fun creating it.

 

[Funeris]

I also believe worldbuilding to be one of the most enjoyable parts of DMing. So, yes there is an extensive history (not to mention several detailed possible futures...all modifiable to the PCs actions). And I have no qualms about jumping back and editing something my players aren't aware of...if there is a need to inject a little "new life" into the past/futures.

So...yup I know how all the races were created..etc. I need to know. It helps build their cultures and flesh out the world.

My players know a bit. Some of their characters know a little. And as the campaign continues on and on....they'll need to know at least some of which has gone before...unless they decide to run off on an unforeseen tangent. In which case, I can always use the info next campaign.

~Fune