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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 4564404" data-attributes="member: 22779">The following is great advice:but, if I might, can I offer a different direction.Instead of starting with a setting, start with a campaign.&nbsp; Traditional campaign design advice, whether top down or bottom up, basically has you creating a setting in a vaccuum.&nbsp; Even JackSmith's excellent advice is basically the same thing.&nbsp; Create a world, then figure out what kind of games you want to run in that world.IMO, this is backwards.Start by thinking about what kind of campaign do you want to run.&nbsp; Even go so far as to think how long (level wise) you expect the campaign to go.&nbsp; Sketch out a very rough outline of the first six adventures (or so).&nbsp; Nothing detailed, just a general direction for the campaign that takes them through the lower levels (say up to about 8th in 3e or the end of Heroic in 4e).Once you have that, your setting more or less writes itself.&nbsp; Say you settle on a campaign of Lovecraftian horror.&nbsp; You want indescribably nasty critters to ooze out of the woodwork and scare the living bejezuz out of everyone.&nbsp; Cool.&nbsp; So, what do you need, settingwise, to create that campaign arc?Well, you're going to need a central civilization for the PC's to come from, the &quot;known world&quot; so to speak.&nbsp; Then you're going to need a number of isolated locations, each more and more isolated than the last.&nbsp; Starting with a Shadows of Innsmouth fishing village, then moving on to a lost temple in the mountains, and so on and so forth.Now, you kill two birds with one stone.&nbsp; You have a functioning setting AND a complete campaign at the same time.&nbsp; Using traditional setting design methods, you have to do everything twice - create the setting, then go back and create the adventures.&nbsp; Why make so much work for yourself?&nbsp; Do it once and you can be sure that the setting that you create actually ties into the campaign you want to run.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 4564404, member: 22779"] The following is great advice: but, if I might, can I offer a different direction. Instead of starting with a setting, start with a campaign. Traditional campaign design advice, whether top down or bottom up, basically has you creating a setting in a vaccuum. Even JackSmith's excellent advice is basically the same thing. Create a world, then figure out what kind of games you want to run in that world. IMO, this is backwards. Start by thinking about what kind of campaign do you want to run. Even go so far as to think how long (level wise) you expect the campaign to go. Sketch out a very rough outline of the first six adventures (or so). Nothing detailed, just a general direction for the campaign that takes them through the lower levels (say up to about 8th in 3e or the end of Heroic in 4e). Once you have that, your setting more or less writes itself. Say you settle on a campaign of Lovecraftian horror. You want indescribably nasty critters to ooze out of the woodwork and scare the living bejezuz out of everyone. Cool. So, what do you need, settingwise, to create that campaign arc? Well, you're going to need a central civilization for the PC's to come from, the "known world" so to speak. Then you're going to need a number of isolated locations, each more and more isolated than the last. Starting with a Shadows of Innsmouth fishing village, then moving on to a lost temple in the mountains, and so on and so forth. Now, you kill two birds with one stone. You have a functioning setting AND a complete campaign at the same time. Using traditional setting design methods, you have to do everything twice - create the setting, then go back and create the adventures. Why make so much work for yourself? Do it once and you can be sure that the setting that you create actually ties into the campaign you want to run. [/QUOTE]

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