What does a campaign setting "need"?
- Thread starter Remathilis
- Start date
Depends on what you call homebrew : do you mean creating a new campaign world entirely without using published elements ?Remathilis said:
I'd say : maps : yes, at least the one pertinent to the area the PC s are in.
gods : they help set up the flavor.
races : no, unless you want to center the stories on them
monsters : no more than once in a while, otherwise, it gets old. The ones you create should be recurrent.
planes : usually no.
For a typical game, you do not need much. Players will have a lot of assumptions based on their previous gaming experiences, or their view of what medieval life was like.
Trickstergod
First Post
Name the freakin' world and continent for one!
I remember playing in one friends homebrew and while the group was plane-hopping, we ran across someone from Toril. All right, fine. She begins talking about her world, and Toril, and at that point, I begin talking about where our group comes from - and it's at that point that I ask the DM what people usually call the planet/continent/whatever that we come from. Some sort of name to indicate the place where all the countries and cities and forests lie.
He told me there wasn't one.
The game had gone on for quite a few months, which for one shows, well, perhaps it wasn't that important, but also should have been ample time to come up with something. Generally, in all the homebrews I've done, that's one of the first things I come up with.
I didn't think to highly of my friends intelligence that day when he said the world didn't have a name or anything; he hadn't even tried putting in a placeholder until an actual one could be plunked in like Terra or Earth or anything. It really jarred me out of the game at that moment.
So what does a setting need? Little details like that. Or perhaps to put it better, if there is a map, everything on the map. Start with the world, go to the continent, then name all the major features on the map, especially in the area specifically the game will be set; nameless rivers, nameless woods and nameless mountains give a rather distant feel to a setting, that makes it difficult to really get into it.
Other than that, though...
Gods? Planar cosmology? New races and monsters? Not necessary. Look at Midnight. It kind of has gods, but really just the one, has no planar cosmology to speak of, and its races and monsters are about as standard fantasy as you can get. All you need is a new twist, some hook that makes even the old hat stand out once more.
I remember playing in one friends homebrew and while the group was plane-hopping, we ran across someone from Toril. All right, fine. She begins talking about her world, and Toril, and at that point, I begin talking about where our group comes from - and it's at that point that I ask the DM what people usually call the planet/continent/whatever that we come from. Some sort of name to indicate the place where all the countries and cities and forests lie.
He told me there wasn't one.
The game had gone on for quite a few months, which for one shows, well, perhaps it wasn't that important, but also should have been ample time to come up with something. Generally, in all the homebrews I've done, that's one of the first things I come up with.
I didn't think to highly of my friends intelligence that day when he said the world didn't have a name or anything; he hadn't even tried putting in a placeholder until an actual one could be plunked in like Terra or Earth or anything. It really jarred me out of the game at that moment.
So what does a setting need? Little details like that. Or perhaps to put it better, if there is a map, everything on the map. Start with the world, go to the continent, then name all the major features on the map, especially in the area specifically the game will be set; nameless rivers, nameless woods and nameless mountains give a rather distant feel to a setting, that makes it difficult to really get into it.
Other than that, though...
Gods? Planar cosmology? New races and monsters? Not necessary. Look at Midnight. It kind of has gods, but really just the one, has no planar cosmology to speak of, and its races and monsters are about as standard fantasy as you can get. All you need is a new twist, some hook that makes even the old hat stand out once more.
Drakmar
Explorer
personally I would have to say that the most important thing that any campaign world can ever have is Culture. More importantly culture that the players can relate to. What culture basically allows you to do is open up more roleplaying opportunities. For example if I gave you a character sheet and said this is a 4th level fight/7th Paladin.. many people would think instantly of a knight in shining armour kind of char. But.. when I say he is from a Nordic/Viking Culture, the picture that develops is different... and it would be again if I said he came from a culture like the Bedouin.
To me everything from the way you play you character, to the way your character views the rest of the world if firmly entrenched in your characters culture.
Also.. as a DM it is WAAAAY easier to determine how a NPC is going to react in a given situation if you know what the culture it comes from is.
As to other things.. Gods are important.. sorta. I have played in a couple of games now where all we did was use the PHB ones. That worked fine.
Map.. you do need one.. but it doesn't need to be an art contest winning one.
New Races.. heck.. the PHB races work fine.
etc.
tis all about Culture.
To me everything from the way you play you character, to the way your character views the rest of the world if firmly entrenched in your characters culture.
Also.. as a DM it is WAAAAY easier to determine how a NPC is going to react in a given situation if you know what the culture it comes from is.
As to other things.. Gods are important.. sorta. I have played in a couple of games now where all we did was use the PHB ones. That worked fine.
Map.. you do need one.. but it doesn't need to be an art contest winning one.
New Races.. heck.. the PHB races work fine.
etc.
tis all about Culture.
Remathilis said:
Maps are nice, but not always necessary to start with. Eventually there will have to be some so players can get a sense of scale and place.
Gods are one of the things I absolutely must have in a campaign setting since I really enjoy playing clerics and characters who pray to specific gods. They have to be really cool gods for me to get enthusiastic about a setting. A pantheon cribbed from real world mythology is cool in my book, but I find most gods of Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms to be pretty lame, which is a large part of the reason I dislike both of those settings. Along with gods I like to have religions with cool trappings. Also I like the gods to be real gods, not necessarily omnipotent, but still way beyond even super-powerful mortals.
New races aren't something I care about. I know some people can't live without elves and dwarves and all that, but I'd be happy in an all-human world with only the occasional monsters. Humanity can provide plenty of villainy for the PCs to oppose. What you really need are new
cultures. I think that's what intrigues me most about fantasy campaign worlds. Cool cultural tidbits are a major way that I get hooked into a setting.
I don't think new monsters are necessary either. I tend to prefer the classic monster types over the stuff that was made up for D&D (beholders, illithids, digesters). What you really need is a monster palette that fits the world and style of campaign you want to run and makes sense.
Planes aren't necessary, but cosmology is a must in my book. You don't need all those wacky outer and inner planes and stuff, but cosmolgy goes hand-in-hand with having cool gods. What happens to people after they die? Where do undead come from? Where do summoned creatures come from? If there are such things as demons and angels, where do they come from and how do they fit together with the gods? If there are forces of absolute good/evil/law/chaos in the world where do these come from and how do they relate to the gods? These are all questions a good solid cosmology can/needs to answer.
One thing not on your list which is essential, is that a successful campaign world needs is something to hook the players. All of the things you mentioned are different ways you can hook the players. Some players like exploration, maps and new monsters may hook that type. Some players (like me) dig learning about new cultures or interacting with interesting NPCs, new races may hook them.
Also for a successful homebrew campaign, I agree with those who said the setting needs to feel consistent. Otherwise it's difficult for players to buy into it. And it's very helpful for players to know up-front what style of campaign you're running and the general tone of the world.
Now all that is for what I like to see in a successful homebrew campaign world and, thankfully the two I play in have all those elements. Both are pretty generic fantasy as far as what's included, but one is closer to standard D&D in its explanations for everything, while the other has more "If I don't care for what it says in the books, I've got my own reasons for why this is so that fit better with the cosmology I've come up with."
For a "typical" D&D game you can get by with a lot less. All you really need, if your players are willing to forego explanations of where their divine magic comes from, is a dungeon, some monsters and some kind of town/base of operations where the PCs can recover their resources. Then you can add all the things mentioned above as they become relevant. If you are careful about keepng things consistent, gradually a successful homebrew campaign world will grow from those humble beginnings.
SamSpectre
First Post
Important Elements
In addition to much of the above, I think one of the most important elements for a DM's world (and this for homebrewed or off-the-shelf) is to develop engaging NPCs. This is part of a DMs style and skill, but it is very important for the over-all enjoyment of that particular game. Players will rarely "get-into" a game to a greater degree than the DM, so it is important that the DM immerse himself to a great degree.
In addition to much of the above, I think one of the most important elements for a DM's world (and this for homebrewed or off-the-shelf) is to develop engaging NPCs. This is part of a DMs style and skill, but it is very important for the over-all enjoyment of that particular game. Players will rarely "get-into" a game to a greater degree than the DM, so it is important that the DM immerse himself to a great degree.
Psion
Adventurer
Remathilis said:
You don't need too much -- but a certain amount of detail will make the experience more comlpete.
A few of the most important elements will be things that the PCs interact with regularly - most notably cultures/nations and things that directly affect cultures, like religious systems (which may or may not mean deities.) This also means anything that affects chargen. Planes/cosmology may be largely irrelevant beyond what exists in religion unless you do lots of planehopping or it directly affects some aspect of the environment.
Not listed, the foundation of your campaign will be upon things you have not listed, but background/history, power groups, and conflicts. (I can't emphasize the last one enough. I have seen published campaign settings go out with a whimper because they lacked a driving conflict to care about.)
A few basic maps is probably essential, thuogh to start you may not need much more than a small region.
In many cases you can draw upon existing metasetting or supplements for many details. I use a slightly tweaked great wheel for my cosmology; you might use that one or another from MotP or DDG. You might use deities from any of various supplements or the default greyhawk set.
I don't think new monsters are essential at all; there are a bevy of monster books out there. However, I do think it is helpful and aids flavor to be selective and work creatures into your setting background. For instance, in my game, the only lycanthropes are undead, and ratmen from Creature Collection as a consequence of the same event that caused that...
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Evilhalfling
Adventurer
I think starting with local maps is fine but you should know roughly what and where the surrounding countries are. I started with a paragraph of description for the starting area and 5 others, including what they are famous for. If you mention early that one of the countries is famous for mages, monks or wine then the world feels real even if you don't have those areas fleshed out. You should also know where the major centers of demihumans are. There should also be one or more world famous cities - ie Rome, London, Greyhawk city, or Waterdeep. That are far away but known throught the world.
Starting in a backwater place, at low level is easiest - this lowers the amount of info about the world the players would expect to have, then once the game has grown then it can move on to larger, busier places. I usually ask that if the players are going to travel to a new city/country then they plan for it one week and go the next. Of course, if the plot/story is leading them then I plan the next area ahead of time.
If you are not planning on using the gods from the PH then you probably need names and a few commonly known details about them. Myths and stories can come later. If no PC has a high knowledge (religion) then no one is going to need details anyway. When a player chooses a cleric then their god has to be fleshed out of course. I ran a campaign for almost a year before fleshing out the demihuman gods - everyone knew the chief racial dieties the rest came as people played different races or went to demihuman kingdoms and asked about it.
I believe in allowing the world to develop over time, a huge briefing at the begining is almost always forgotten.
Starting in a backwater place, at low level is easiest - this lowers the amount of info about the world the players would expect to have, then once the game has grown then it can move on to larger, busier places. I usually ask that if the players are going to travel to a new city/country then they plan for it one week and go the next. Of course, if the plot/story is leading them then I plan the next area ahead of time.
If you are not planning on using the gods from the PH then you probably need names and a few commonly known details about them. Myths and stories can come later. If no PC has a high knowledge (religion) then no one is going to need details anyway. When a player chooses a cleric then their god has to be fleshed out of course. I ran a campaign for almost a year before fleshing out the demihuman gods - everyone knew the chief racial dieties the rest came as people played different races or went to demihuman kingdoms and asked about it.
I believe in allowing the world to develop over time, a huge briefing at the begining is almost always forgotten.
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