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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5570145" data-attributes="member: 3820">Very interesting topic. What I've found work for me is to engage the players' interest in as early a stage as possible; of late, I've tended to ask players to vote for the kind of game they want to play. So, for instance, I would have a list of ideas like "remnants of mercenary band," "Romance of the Three Kingdoms-inspired struggles in a Chinese-influenced setting that is between emperors," "Castlevania/Ravenloft gothic fantasy D&D," and so on. When the players get to pick their favorite group concept, that tends to influence them to design characters that fit the theme rather than just creating setting-agnostic character concepts.(Disclaimer: My players are awesome. I have not tested these results with not-awesome players.)So from there we get a lot of the basics down as we discuss individual character concepts: "okay, you're an elf, elves are probably from here, which is a kingdom with strong military rule," or "What kind of priest are you looking at? Okay, here are the gods most relevant to that concept", and so on. This stage is totally a dialogue, where I encourage questions and offer suggestions. It isn't where I try to tell the players everything. Both I and the player try to focus on the most important things for them to know to feel comfortable. Once everyone has character concepts settled, I'll usually write up a page or so of setup. Like "The estate of Andelac Borsari is set deep in the heart of rustic Calvera; as summer begins, his vineyards are healthy and promising a good year's harvest. This year he has had a few guests at his estate, such as [PC number one]..." Beyond that, it's introducing information as it's needed, or as players ask for it. I really like the wiki format, since I've discovered it; it allows me to upload information as it becomes necessary, and it lets the players read it at their own pace when not at the table. (And in the age of smartphones, some players even check the wiki when at the table...) I'm actually fine with relating a lot of information verbally at the table as well, because some players do better when you tell them a useful fact and they write it down for themselves than handing them a sheet. "Yes, you'd know that the gentleman in the white and green robes is a priest of the Queen of Hell, who's named Isreelve. She's one of the Lower Nine, but her worship is generally tolerated because it stresses punishing the wicked rather than destroying innocents. So, the evangelist seems to be talking about scourging your contact in the guild..." Plus, it gives us an excuse to talk about games over lunches or email or things like that.A fictional world can have a lot of details, and usually it takes time and repetition to get the really important ones welded into players' brains. It took me over a decade, but my wife is a freaking encyclopedia where my game world is concerned.</blockquote>

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