Top down, or bottom-up?
- Thread starter der_kluge
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nopantsyet
First Post
13 years and still not finished, PCat? Excellent! I don't feel nearly so bad. I took a similar approach. I started with one city....
Interestingly enough, not the PCs home in the campaign, even though it's whe campaign began. Their home didn't get created until a year and a half into the campaign.
Uh...less than two weeks ago. (Now where's that embarrassed emoticon when you need it.)
Interestingly enough, not the PCs home in the campaign, even though it's whe campaign began. Their home didn't get created until a year and a half into the campaign.
Uh...less than two weeks ago. (Now where's that embarrassed emoticon when you need it.)
MavrickWeirdo
First Post
First I'm not a DM, but i am a "World-Builder"
At different times I have done one or the other, but usually not both in the same world.
When going "Top-down" I usually start with a culture. I try to imagine what geography would reinforce that culture, and what other cultures would be their neighbors. What does the culture do well, what trades to they exceed in, what do they export. What do they not do well, what trades do the discourage. I make up organizations, religions, trade routes.
When I create "Bottom-up" I often start from a single character. I make up family and friends. A community to live in. I try to add some diverse elements (see what other races, classes, religions, can I reasonably include?). Then a mentor who inspires/encourages the character to to do more with their life. I create some background for the mentor, his community/support system, ect. I put in some chalenges. People or Organizations to oppose the character (childhood bullies, bandits, narrow-viewed leaders). Suddenly I realize that I have made 4 or 5 communities (including at least 1 city) spanning at least 3 cultures/races/nations, all built arround 1 character.
At different times I have done one or the other, but usually not both in the same world.
When going "Top-down" I usually start with a culture. I try to imagine what geography would reinforce that culture, and what other cultures would be their neighbors. What does the culture do well, what trades to they exceed in, what do they export. What do they not do well, what trades do the discourage. I make up organizations, religions, trade routes.
When I create "Bottom-up" I often start from a single character. I make up family and friends. A community to live in. I try to add some diverse elements (see what other races, classes, religions, can I reasonably include?). Then a mentor who inspires/encourages the character to to do more with their life. I create some background for the mentor, his community/support system, ect. I put in some chalenges. People or Organizations to oppose the character (childhood bullies, bandits, narrow-viewed leaders). Suddenly I realize that I have made 4 or 5 communities (including at least 1 city) spanning at least 3 cultures/races/nations, all built arround 1 character.
Romnipotent
First Post
I guess I started with a city, but it wasn't the main idea, it was a focus. I also made dice with random things on it, so theres things aroung the map that seem out of place. But then I wrote the history around it, and factored in the major aspect of the long forgotten history.
DragonLancer
Hero
When I do build a homebrew world I always start from the top and work down. I think starting small with a small area and building up would be just too difficult for me to handle.
clockworkcrab
First Post
My homebrew started out with a few general concepts, such as the size of the "active world" and an outline of some of the major nations. I defined a few major gods, and a few factions that most common people would have heard of. From there I used these concepts to build a short history of the region I was setting the campaign. This was more of a starting point to get a specific flavour down. I wanted there to be a clear sense of history and political tension, so I needed these larger concepts to be both defined and known.
Once I had this macro view of the region, I left the rest of the continent undefined - mostly because it just seemed like too big a job right away. I picked one city where I expected the campaign to be based for the first several sessions, and began to fill in the nitty-gritty details that would have a more direct on my players.
This is the way I've been building the detail in my homebrew since - as the players encounter or discover it, they or I fill in the details. This is one reason my players rock: they're very much into helping me build the world around them and seem to be curious about even mundane details about the world. This is nice - but wow do I need to take alot of notes.
This can be overwhelming, so at times when they've started asking about something I haven't really planned around I say "make it up yourself". I was worried about this approach at first, but it's worked pretty well so far and we're several months into the campaign. I guess at some point they'll have done something that conflicts with where I'm trying to go, but I'm hoping it won't be too much trouble. Has anyone else done this?
Once I had this macro view of the region, I left the rest of the continent undefined - mostly because it just seemed like too big a job right away. I picked one city where I expected the campaign to be based for the first several sessions, and began to fill in the nitty-gritty details that would have a more direct on my players.
This is the way I've been building the detail in my homebrew since - as the players encounter or discover it, they or I fill in the details. This is one reason my players rock: they're very much into helping me build the world around them and seem to be curious about even mundane details about the world. This is nice - but wow do I need to take alot of notes.
This can be overwhelming, so at times when they've started asking about something I haven't really planned around I say "make it up yourself". I was worried about this approach at first, but it's worked pretty well so far and we're several months into the campaign. I guess at some point they'll have done something that conflicts with where I'm trying to go, but I'm hoping it won't be too much trouble. Has anyone else done this?
ThirdWizard
First Post
MavrickWeirdo said:
I find this a very interesting concept, which I have never thought of before. I think the next time I build a town, I'm going to try this. The PCs don't even have to meet this individual, it will just be interesting to see what evolves from such a singular thing. I'll start with your everyday farmer and see where that takes me.
I start with enormous world premises and work down from there. The last D&D campaign I ran was based on the following premise: a world based on a cyclical theory of time marrying Taoist alchemy, the three states of matter in 20th century physics and Aztec cosmology. Virtually everything from that point forwards was a logical entailment of the initial premise or detail unrelated to the premise that had to be sketched-in.
Assenpfeffer
First Post
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