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Worldbuilding: How far should things be?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lackofname" data-source="post: 8117845" data-attributes="member: 87598"><p>While this is specific to my current situation--see post two for the setting I'm working on--it's worth asking <em>in general</em>: when trying to go for some sort of semblance of believability, how far should things be from one another, geographically speaking? Villages fo different races. Ruins/forgotten things from places people actually live. How far should PCs travel from one thing to the next? Essentially, how <em>densely packed</em> should any general <em>outdoors</em> region be? And how distributed should things be, racially?</p><p></p><p><strong>I know the answer is "whatever fits your situation/setting</strong>", but I'm looking for a <strong>general</strong> practice, a rule of thumb here, beyond my specific circumstance. What makes <em>sense</em> at first glance. Sure you can come up with any sort of in-world explanation for it, but players may never find that out. You're fighting against the first blush impression that it's contrived, neat and artificial. It's also exhausting to come up with an in-game excuse for every design decision.</p><p></p><p>For example, let's say Here is a Human Village, and Elven village, and a Gnome village. How far should they be apart? "It depends," you might say. But it seems a bit too neat and tidy that there are three racially segregated communities say, an hour's walk apart. Why are there three, and each are three separate races, than five human villages and then the elf and gnome, to show more of a distribution than it being so neat and tidy?</p><p></p><p>I run into this problem with D&D and its tons of races. How all the races (plus monsters, plus...) have <em>room</em> to exist all in one place, rather than crowd each other out. (Even without things like "how do you find enough mating pairs to keep this race actually surviving in this area...).</p><p></p><p>But aside from racial distribution, the core issue is still: how far should x be from y? And in one sense, distance and travel time doesn't much matter; if nothing interrupts the PCs, they get from Point A to Point B instantly by way of handwavium. Until it does matter. To quote the speed of Babylon 5 ships, "They move at the speed of plot." But when you've established that distance for verisimilitude, when they need to get back to town and warn things, a day's travel and an hour's matter, so making that decision well before you have a plot, can be important.</p><p></p><p>Because here I am, looking at some Pathfinder APs for inspiration and a sense of scale, and it's blowing my mind. One has PCs going on an expedition, and it takes them <em>two months</em> to get from start to finish. That feels <em>crazy</em>. Another has the area to be explored extensively, to be roughly the size of the US state of Maine. And I wonder, is that too big or too small, to cram full of stuff? I don't know. All I'm going by here is a <em>feel</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lackofname, post: 8117845, member: 87598"] While this is specific to my current situation--see post two for the setting I'm working on--it's worth asking [I]in general[/I]: when trying to go for some sort of semblance of believability, how far should things be from one another, geographically speaking? Villages fo different races. Ruins/forgotten things from places people actually live. How far should PCs travel from one thing to the next? Essentially, how [I]densely packed[/I] should any general [I]outdoors[/I] region be? And how distributed should things be, racially? [B]I know the answer is "whatever fits your situation/setting[/B]", but I'm looking for a [B]general[/B] practice, a rule of thumb here, beyond my specific circumstance. What makes [I]sense[/I] at first glance. Sure you can come up with any sort of in-world explanation for it, but players may never find that out. You're fighting against the first blush impression that it's contrived, neat and artificial. It's also exhausting to come up with an in-game excuse for every design decision. For example, let's say Here is a Human Village, and Elven village, and a Gnome village. How far should they be apart? "It depends," you might say. But it seems a bit too neat and tidy that there are three racially segregated communities say, an hour's walk apart. Why are there three, and each are three separate races, than five human villages and then the elf and gnome, to show more of a distribution than it being so neat and tidy? I run into this problem with D&D and its tons of races. How all the races (plus monsters, plus...) have [I]room[/I] to exist all in one place, rather than crowd each other out. (Even without things like "how do you find enough mating pairs to keep this race actually surviving in this area...). But aside from racial distribution, the core issue is still: how far should x be from y? And in one sense, distance and travel time doesn't much matter; if nothing interrupts the PCs, they get from Point A to Point B instantly by way of handwavium. Until it does matter. To quote the speed of Babylon 5 ships, "They move at the speed of plot." But when you've established that distance for verisimilitude, when they need to get back to town and warn things, a day's travel and an hour's matter, so making that decision well before you have a plot, can be important. Because here I am, looking at some Pathfinder APs for inspiration and a sense of scale, and it's blowing my mind. One has PCs going on an expedition, and it takes them [I]two months[/I] to get from start to finish. That feels [I]crazy[/I]. Another has the area to be explored extensively, to be roughly the size of the US state of Maine. And I wonder, is that too big or too small, to cram full of stuff? I don't know. All I'm going by here is a [I]feel[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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