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<blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 1531990" data-attributes="member: 172">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...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Psion, post: 1531990, member: 172"] 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... [/QUOTE]

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