What is important in defining a setting

[Crothian]

At the request of players and friends I'm really starting to organize and type out my home brew of about 9 or ten years now. I've got a half dozen notebooks full of details and events and people and places, but its not organized and they are my notes which really are not as helpful for others. I've always run and explained the setting from my head, it was always easier to just memorize everything. But now I see that doesn't help others as much though it made me darn easy for me.

So, what are the important thins that need to be gotten down to really coinvey a setting to people not just the feeling but mechancis as well?

 

[Herobizkit]

Cro, what you might need to do is pick out certain elements in your homebrew that make it different from "core" D&D, and make them consistent throughout your world.

To illustrate, a Final Fantasy setting would have elements such as Those Big Summon Guys who have different names every game but the same identities (Shiva, Ifrit, Carbuncle etc), chocobo, some guy named Cid, "the one big airship", white and black mages, and so forth.

Terminology is very key. If your Wizards are all called Rune-Knights, make sure they are always referred to as Rune-Knights by the NPCs and especially the players.

As for mechanics, well... for those you'll simply have to make your own Player's Reference Guide. Anything different from "core" D&D and that players should know should go into this Guide for easy access and to remove the need to explain everything as you do it.

So, in short... cosmology, terminology, consistency.

 

[Wombat]

I tend to start with feeling first, mechanics to follow.

Partially this depends on how you are planning to present your material. Is this for people already in your game? In that case I would suggest discrete articles -- places of interest in City X, types of government found, great events in history, regional variations in culture, etc.

If you are presenting it to people who are not already part of the game, I would suggest starting with a mood piece. "Out of the jungles came the sons of Akapa..."

Overall, however, here are the kinds of things my players expect when I put out info on my homebrew:

* a short piece (1-2 pp) on Why We Are Adventuring Here. Often this is in the form of a myth, a short tale of a local event, or something like that, but essentially it sets a theme and a mood for the whole campaign.
* a list of any changes to character generation (certain classes in, out, and/or altered; restrictions on magic, if any; allowable races, etc.). This is always important.
* a recent history with names and at least vague dates. This lets them know what has been happening; this also usually relates back to the first point, so the players feel part of a continuum.
* at least one general piece on local culture - styles of dress, type of government, naming practices, gods worshipped, etc. Often this breaks into multiple pieces on these various topics.

As an example, here are the files I have up at my game group's website:

* Tales of New Mavarga (an introduction, 6 pages, to local history and culture, introducing the races and the type of game that is going to be played, heavily swashbuckling with low magic in a jungle/New World setting)
* Approved Character Classes
* Approved Prestige Classes
* Approved Races
* Approved Skills
* Approved Feats
* Revised Weapons & Armour List
* Languages of New Mavarga
* Recent Timeline (goes back about 75 years)
* Character Background Options
* Character Questionnaire
* Classes and their relations to Occupations (everyone has a Day Job in this game)
* Major House Rules (primarily regarding magic and combat)
* Basic Prices in New Mavarga
* Theudurb & its Environs (the local major city; includes notes on government and guilds)
* Holidays in New Mavarga (religious, secular, and borrowed)
* Jadism and its Variations (the major religion of New Mavarga)
* Mavargan Name Elements (a guide to creating character names)
* Concerning the Klon Hall (the secret society the characters are attached to)
* Important NPCs (a list of known Good Guys and Bad Guys)
* Other Nations and Regions
* Concerning Akapan Society (small notes on a nearby race, little know to the PCs)
* New Mavargan Military (how the local armed forces are organized)
* Sir Ufbert Comes to Theudurb (an introductory tale to get people in the mood)
* Akapan Creation Tale (a story all of them would have heard, even if they don't understand it at first)

**whew** I wrote more than I realized...

Anyway, that is one person's campaign

 

[Agback]

First sketch the forest, then detail the trees.

Details will just cause the readers' eyes to glaze over, they certainly won't remember them, unless you first establish a framework to hold them in their places, to relate them to one another. So write the most important sentence of your background material and put it first.

What is the logical spine of you setting, the premise at its heart? What is the standard that you hold ideas up to, and reject them if they don't fit? What is the one thing that everything else must be changed to fit, and that is never changed to accommodate sudden inspirations? What is the soul of your setting? Whatever it is, write it down a put it first.

How you organise the rest of the material, indeed what you include in the rest of the material, depends enormously on the nature of the world premise. If you have a cosmological premise you will organise differently from if you have a geographical premise or a social premise.

 

[Dragonhelm]

There are three things that are vital to a fantasy setting: geography, magic, and the gods (or lack thereof). Those three things will shape the world immensely.

 

[ThirdWizard]

For explaination purposes you want to keep it simple: the tone of the world, the theme of the world, and how the players fit into these two aspects.

By tone, I mean the general feeling of the world. Is it pessimistic? Optimistic? Is every day a struggle for survival, or is adventuring a luxury? Are people mistreated by those in power? Is it epic fantasy? Grim & Gritty? It will vary from place to place a bit, but the overall tone of the world will most likely resonate throughout. Dark Sun has a tone about it. So does Dragonlance. Where does yours fit in? This will tell the players a lot about a world.

The themes of the world are also important. Not the campaign, but the world itself. What's it about? When the players look around at what is happening outside of their sphere, what will they see? Wars? Struggle of good versus evil? Famine and plague? Ingenuity and creation? Again, it will change from place to place, even moreso than tone, but a general idea is good for the players. It helps them know where the cogs fit together.

And, finally, where they will fit in. This goes into the campaign you're running. Are the players caught up in the events of the world, or are they trying to make it on their own? Is the world unforgiving of those trying to go against the current, or is making your own way a powerful tool for adventurers? Will those in power seek to use the PCs to their own advantage? Destroy them? Leave them alone? What about the gods? Where do the PCs fit into politics?

Once you answer these three questions, the details can come. They can define a great deal about a campaign to the players, however, without having to go over a single place, person, or event beforehand.

 

[tetsujin28]

I'm a tree before the forest person. I never think in terms of the big picture, but of the local one.

 

[The_Magician]

1) Define the physical world. Size, geography, most important/special areas.

2) Genesis. What is the history of that world? How did it all being? What role do the gods play in it?

3) Gods. Which are the main gods watching for the mortals in that world?

4) Magic. How does magic work? Does it come from nature? From the gods? Is it an occult energy (mana), or something else?

5) What is the technology level?

6) Callendar. How many months, weeks and days are there in one year? What about the seasons?

7) What are the races living in that world, what is their history and how do they interact with each other? What kind of monsters inhabit this world? Are there dragons, giants, or any kind of monster that are very threatening?

8) Which are the main nations/kingdoms?

9) Were there any big events in the past, like the creation of a powerful magic item, wars between gods and/or mortals, the opening of portals to other planes, etc etc.

10) Are there any legends of heroes and villains from old times?

11) Are there are main NPCs? Who are they and where can they be found?

12) Are there any main organisations/guilds?

13) What makes your setting different from the others?

 

[MonsterMash]

I like to start at the top and work down.

Basics (this stuff can be sketchy for the world as a whole)
1. Geography, climate, cosmology (how many moons, etc)

2. World history - nations, famous kings and adventurers, world events

3. Races (high level)

Specifics
1. Local geography (climate, towns, nations)

2. Current events - local rulers, recent happenings

3. Local history - what players should know about their region

4. Supplements in use - what's allowed and what's not

Character creation

1. Allowed races/classes - if I don't want standard or non standard races then I'd detail it here.

2. Allowed skills/feats

Personally I'm thinking about doing another setting from an old one I have sketched out for tabletop wargaming and making it a heavily modded version of D&D replacing core magic with Elements of Magic Revised, limiting races heavily and avoiding some of the standard humanoid types (Orcs are so last century). These are pretty much the steps I'm looking at.

 

[Hand of Evil]

To me it is how the characters interact with the setting, the players need to know/feel there is a reason for them to feel an attachment to the game world; so backstory.

I also always tell people to see the following site: http://www.io.com/~eighner/world_builder/world_builder_index.html

And I know I do not have to say to you to see links in my sig...