World/campaign building: combine ideas, or focus?

[Fanog]

As many gamers probably do, I've collected quite a bunch of ideas over the years. They're taken from books, movies, published adventures etc. You all know what I'm talking about, probably... All of these things, I would like to include in my games if possible.

Now, I'm trying to build a new campaign and accompanying world, and I'm faced with a problem. How do I use all of these things while still keeping a smooth and coherent campaign? I'm curious how other people handle this.

Do you try to incorporate as many of these ideas as possible, thinking of a way to link all of them? Or do you rather pick up one idea as 'central' and keep it at that, leaving all of your other ideas on the shelf?

What do you think would lead to the 'best/most enjoyable' campaign?

Thanks for your input and ideas.
Fanog

 

[hong]

Personally, if I was setting out to design a game world, I'd pick one central theme, and build the rest of the world around that. If you do it bottom-up, you risk ending up with a whole bunch of disparate elements that have only a peripheral connection to each other. And that's fine, but it's also not that different to published worlds like Greyhawk or FR.

A disadvantage of picking a central theme is that it may not give you enough room to move later on, when you want to add new bits or players want to try something new. That's why Greyhawk and FR are so useful as game worlds. They may be a bit untidy, but they're also flexible.

 

[Desdichado]

Depends on what you mean by "disparate elements." Few of those elements, probably, are suitable to be a "theme" of your campaign; they probably are just one of the things on the "cool stuff to incorporate" list. I think settings benefit from having a twist, but not being completely different. If you've got too many ideas to incorporate into a single setting, save some for the next time.

 

[Carnifex]

One good way is to build a main area in which you can be fairly sure most of the action, at least initially, will take place, with themes that you want to focus on for the time being. Whatever that theme may be, you can leave the rest of the world fairly fuzzy until you *need* to clarify it. You know, far-off empires across the sea or desert, distant lands, etc. Then if you fancy a change of pace/theme, off you go to one of these places, building it as you like.

Eg, very nature-orientated campaign, PC's part of some big conflict between medieval kingdom and forest dwellers, lots of wilderness etc.

Then there's a new threat from across the sea, and the PC's have to travel over there, where they discover the amazing sight of a culture with moderately advanced steamtech - warriors in steamwork armour, trains, bizarre arcanomechanical equipment. Or a culture based heavily on ancient Egypt, shifting the campaign into a more desert-based area where they fight lots of undead and the encroaching return of an ancient, evil god... or anything really...

 

[Rel]

One good way is to build a main area in which you can be fairly sure most of the action, at least initially, will take place, with themes that you want to focus on for the time being. Whatever that theme may be, you can leave the rest of the world fairly fuzzy until you *need* to clarify it. You know, far-off empires across the sea or desert, distant lands, etc. Then if you fancy a change of pace/theme, off you go to one of these places, building it as you like.

This is sort of the route I took. Actually I borrowed the setting from another guy on these boards but it was choc full of interesting ideas and place names that had not been fleshed out. As one example, he hinted at a place to the west called "The City of Endless Summer" but he gave no other information about it. When I started running my campaign, I had a horde of orcs attack the northlands. Many of these orcs wore ceremonial headresses that had brightly colored feathers in them that you might find on tropical birds and the party eventually surmised that they had come from "The City of Endless Summer". I only had the vaguest idea of what was going on there so I just made a few quick notes about it.

Now (after a lengthy break) we have returned to that compaign and the primary focus of the whole thing is for the party to find and investigate the City of Endless Summer. So a place that started the original campaign as just a name of a place has evolved into the main point over time.

Your approach should probably depend on your style as a GM and here I'm speaking of your style when it comes to preparing, not just playing. I'm a little lazy when it comes to prep work but I'm also fairly creative and can usually gin up a solid night's worth of adventuring in about half an hour. I keep a loose idea of the "Big Picture" running in my head and then I quickly flesh out the areas the party comes to as they get there.

I hope some of that was helpful.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I think it's important to define a theme, a feel, a hook, or whatever for the entire campaign. This will help it feel more cohesive and real, but will immediately force you to remove many of the cool ideas you've collected from consideration. Maybe some can be adapted, but there are just way too many cool ideas out there for them all to be compatable. As long as they aren't too specific, many will still fit quite well in the world, but some just won't. Ever.

That's OK; in the future there will be other campaigns and other worlds to create. You can always stop by the island of misfit ideas and collect them then.

-Dave

 

[fusangite]

My idea of a good way to make a world is to take apparently disparate elements and find the point of congruency. Take GRR Martin's Song of Ice & Fire; one of the most compelling elements of the world building is the way that Martin overlays Spain's seven kingdoms on top of Britain's seven kingdoms. Look at a place like Dorne: the richness of the product when you fuse Granada & Cornwall.

So, if you're going to mix material, don't do it in an ad hoc or scattered way; mix it in a way in accord with the theme.

 

[Tonguez]

I say through in all in a big pot of disparate bits, let it stew for a while then add cream and sift out the bits that haven't clarified properly

in other words brainstorm your bits and get your theme from that - trimming any excess as required...

 

[Rel]

My idea of a good way to make a world is to take apparently disparate elements and find the point of congruency.

In other words, seek metatextual harmony?

 

[Fanog]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.

I've often tried to 'start small' and gradually build up the campaign world, but that didn't really seem to satifsy. For me, that often leads to a lack of coherency. Because of that, I wanted to do some more planning ahead to ensure a single mood and feel for the campaign.

Try doing that when you want all of the following: low magic, lots of dragons, D20 modern classes, short combats, lower PC fatality rates etc.

For now, I'm putting my money on a renaissance-style game. There's a single, strong empire, that has just discovered a new continent. Most of the action will focus around the building of a new city and civilisation on the new continent, and exploring what's in the inlands. The rapid development of the empire should give me a good mix of technology and some of the 'old ways': magic, myth etc.

Any other advice, perhaps?
Fanog