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World Building: Commerce and gold
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9058557" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>I think what tends to work best is having the right balance for yourself--which will vary from one DM to another--of prep and improv. In general, I'm pretty good at making ideas fit together, even if they weren't planned to fit together originally. It's a skill I just sort of...have...without really knowing how I got it. This, plus a couple of careful tools, allows me to do relatively light world-building in advance.</p><p></p><p>But another skill that is supremely useful: <em>researching what you need to know</em>. I know an awful lot of miscellaneous random facts, but much more than that, I know how to <em>find</em> whatever miscellaneous random facts I need for some obscure question I didn't expect to answer, most of the time anyway. With decent google-fu and a bit of practice, one can meld unexpectedly-useful ideas pretty quickly into existing established information. Then, build things up, and <em>write things down</em>. Notes are incredibly important and really help bring things together.</p><p></p><p>I guess, in a sense, you could argue that I did a lot of my prep work purely through just researching and getting myself in the right frame of mind. Reading relevant material, looking up historical information, reading other systems' setting info for similar settings...all that <em>exposure</em> is a form of prep in and of itself.</p><p></p><p>So: You don't need to have written up those skilled tradesfolk per se. But you do, as you say, need to think about <em>why</em> the kingdom has fortifications, and <em>why</em> they're insufficient now but were sufficient before. If you have a trade empire (or, as is the case with my setting, more a very loose trade <em>league</em> of variably-squabbling city-states), you should think about what each city offers in goods, and what goods are highly desirable. If you want one faction to have a lot of power, you should have a reason <em>why</em> it has a lot of power.</p><p></p><p>The smaller details, the workers, the supply lines, the barracks...those can be filled in as you go. But you need at least a bird's-eye view. That's the body. Once you have a body, you can dress it as you like. But if you try to <em>build</em> a body beneath clothing you've already sewn...well. You'd better hope your improv skills are up to the task.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9058557, member: 6790260"] I think what tends to work best is having the right balance for yourself--which will vary from one DM to another--of prep and improv. In general, I'm pretty good at making ideas fit together, even if they weren't planned to fit together originally. It's a skill I just sort of...have...without really knowing how I got it. This, plus a couple of careful tools, allows me to do relatively light world-building in advance. But another skill that is supremely useful: [I]researching what you need to know[/I]. I know an awful lot of miscellaneous random facts, but much more than that, I know how to [I]find[/I] whatever miscellaneous random facts I need for some obscure question I didn't expect to answer, most of the time anyway. With decent google-fu and a bit of practice, one can meld unexpectedly-useful ideas pretty quickly into existing established information. Then, build things up, and [I]write things down[/I]. Notes are incredibly important and really help bring things together. I guess, in a sense, you could argue that I did a lot of my prep work purely through just researching and getting myself in the right frame of mind. Reading relevant material, looking up historical information, reading other systems' setting info for similar settings...all that [I]exposure[/I] is a form of prep in and of itself. So: You don't need to have written up those skilled tradesfolk per se. But you do, as you say, need to think about [I]why[/I] the kingdom has fortifications, and [I]why[/I] they're insufficient now but were sufficient before. If you have a trade empire (or, as is the case with my setting, more a very loose trade [I]league[/I] of variably-squabbling city-states), you should think about what each city offers in goods, and what goods are highly desirable. If you want one faction to have a lot of power, you should have a reason [I]why[/I] it has a lot of power. The smaller details, the workers, the supply lines, the barracks...those can be filled in as you go. But you need at least a bird's-eye view. That's the body. Once you have a body, you can dress it as you like. But if you try to [I]build[/I] a body beneath clothing you've already sewn...well. You'd better hope your improv skills are up to the task. [/QUOTE]
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