What are the tools for Home Brewing a World?

[EvilMountainDew]

Medieval Demographics Made Easy
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm

Roleplaying Tips
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/archives.php

World-Builders.org
http://www.world-builders.org/

TerraGen
http://www.planetside.co.uk/gallery/v/tg09gallery/CraterLake_aerial.jpg.html


World Builder Projects
http://hiddenway.tripod.com/world/

Magical World Builder's Guide
http://www.web-writer.net/fantasy/

 

[JoeGKushner]

If you can hunt down the various blue DMR books, they often contain good information on world building as well as GMing skills that are useful for all editions.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Another thing is to think of the kinds of things that you want to have consistent for your world and create rules for that - for example, I have a simple set of rules for randomly rolling up family trees, which I use for creating noble lineages in cities where I want to know who all the big nobles are; it sets a default for age when married, when children are born, how many children in a family, how long they live, etc.

I might also create a word doc with short notes about what classes are available, races, sources of inspiration, etc, so that I can refer back to it from time to time.

 

[buzz]

...but are there more resources and tools out there that are top notch for helping to create a fantasy campaign setting (not necessarily D&D or d20)?

My list:

1. Pencil and paper, word processor, etc.
2. Your imagination
3. The other people in your group

Inspiring source material (your D&D books, a novel you enjoyed, a cool piece of art, etc) is helpful, but the above are key. Stacks of books on demographics and geography, are, IMO, a total waste of your time.

 

[Mallus]

A promiscuous imagination + good sounding boards + liquor = win.

(More seriously, I really like the suggestion of wikipedia/google maps/flickr. Drawing inspiration from a more motley/random set of sources than say Toliken or medieval German society is a big plus. Your goal should be the illusion of a wide, richly-detailed world, not a working simulation of one...)

 

[Psion]

You need to make stuff that the PCs interact with. History that fills in dates and events from year 200 to year 300 - that's not going to matter in a campaign, so why write it?

It's not?

My most successful campaigns are based on the philosophy of making the present the logical outcome of the past.

What matters is history that affects the campaign's present. You need history that's wrapped up in things that threaten the PCs now, that make the PCs lives more complicated, that gives the PCs something they can use, or somehow rewards the PCs. Otherwise it had better be short and serve some other purpose, like defining a player character.

Wait, so you are saying history does matter? Or I guess you are trying to say only define history that matters to what you have planned right now?

The problem with that AFAIAC is that:
1) The history is not just there for the players, it's there for the DM, too. Gaming can be a complex thing, I frequently have to consider things like how an NPC or nation would react. By plugging into my backstory, I have some grounding to make a consistent decision.
2) I don't always decide how I am going to mess with the players at the beginning of the campaign; indeed, I expect new ideas and opportunities as the campaign progresses. I might not have the perfect way to bring an interesting historical note into play right now, but the time may ripen to bring it forth and make it relevant later. Having stock useful fodder for plots is very useful IME.
3) If you only advertise the history that is relevant to the PCs today, the players see any history you present as personally relevant, which is only appropriate in some sorts of campaigns.

 

[buzz]

Or I guess you are trying to say only define history that matters to what you have planned right now?

I can't speak for Ryan, but my impression was that he's emphasizing what to prioritize.

I'd like to think that he's getting at what I'm getting at, which is moving away from the idea of DM-as-Tolkien. I.e., that world-building is this thing you do alone, compiling reams of data that may or may not be used, with no input from the players, and that is immutable.

I think it's a lot more fruitful to use broad strokes for anything not directly related to what players are going to be doing at the outset of the campaign, and then allow details to be filled in as-needed and collaboratively. E.g., if I write my definitive treatise on elvish history, that may prevent me from throwing it out when my buddy playing the ranger comes up with something much better on the fly during a session. This, I think, will get players much more invested than if your setting serves mainly as a periodic info-dump.

This also keeps me from spending valuable time writing elvish history when I could instead be designing encounters/situations.

But that's just me. Ryan may be saying something totally different.

 

[prosfilaes]

What happens if you don't want Medieval European Fantasy? What if you want African, Polynesian, or Arabic fantasy?

Sure, there are campaign settings for that info, but not straight up 'here's how this would be done'.

That's because there aren't many campaign settings for that info. Worldbuilding guides are a niche market, hence they focus on general information and medieval Europe and space.

 

[prosfilaes]

Stacks of books on demographics and geography, are, IMO, a total waste of your time.

One of the thing that disturbs me about Eberron every time I looked at the map the DM put up was that it looked wrong. Knowing geography can help avoid that feeling so much, and make the setting seem so real.

 

[Ry]

Buzz has me right - it's about priorities.

If you're creating a world primarily for a game, then the time you spend should feed right back into that game. If your game is about a particular dungeon under the city of Ptolus, detailing the family tree of a noble family that lives on the outskirts is a BAD IDEA. Unless you make it about the game - perhaps something in the dungeon gives a clue that that noble family's heir is false, and there should be a struggle for who's the right heir. Then, all of a sudden, the family tree is a GOOD IDEA because it helps your game.

I'm saying if you design an art gallery, you get a place that people walk through and keep their hands behind their backs. If you design an amusement park, you get a place where people are going on terrifying rides, trying to win candy, testing their strength, and laughing about it.