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Trobby
2009-12-13, 08:02 PM
Okay, I'm a little tired here right now, but I'm going to do my best to explain my situation.

I've been playing DnD for awhile now, and I want to try my hand at starting a campaign. It's going to be an original setting and plot, complete with altered attitudes for the standard 3.5 races, and new deities.

But...that's just it. I have a massive collection of ideas, many of which I could probably start roleplaying as a free-form right now, but nothing solid. No sheets, almost no maps, basically just a sketch of the land, a good idea of how the world works and operates, and how each major species relates to one another.

Now I don't intend to change any of the basic mechanics of 3.5, but I do intend to make a world that is fairly unique from the usual setting. So...how do I go about turning my creative concepts into a solid 3.5 Campaign?

Edit: I guess I should describe the world a bit...well, I'll describe it as best I can without spoiling anything.

The world I'm creating is pretty small, and mostly ocean. There's a large island with a North and West beach, some small towns scattered about, large port cities near each shore that are far more technologically advanced, and the South and East parts basically being untamed wilderness.

This, however, is a small part of the world compared to the stretch of land to the North and West, creating a rough "C" shape around the central island. This stretch of land, dawrfing the central island (this, by the way, is the canonical name for the island) has a coast on either end from which ships sail to the central island. A little bit further in along the "C" at the North is a range of mountains that lead into a massive uninhabitable desert (The very edge on either side of the desert is a sheer fall into the ocean), where the Orcs live. They are not, as in usual settings, inherently evil, but they DO host raiding parties on caravans trying to pass through the desert, and the desert itself is riddled with extremely deadly monsters.

Down off the mountains the land becomes extremely fertile due to water flow, and this is where most of the world's food comes from. South of here is a densely-packed forest, where much of the lumber of the world comes from.

Unique to the world is the attitude of each basic race. Already I've pointed out how the Orcs are different. Humans are not the dominant species in this world; most of them tend to farms in the fertile plains, while most of the rest run independent establishments or smaller farms on the central island.

The chief leaders of the world are, remarkably enough, Gnomes. The reason for this is the bizarre tidal patterns of the world. The ocean between the central island and the C continent is huge, and the tides at mid-sea are so massive that no regular boat could even hope to pass through it. But gnomes, with their natural ability to create unusual devices, developed a method of transport that can cross the waterway, and built entire cities based on this new dependence on water, creating cities with phenomenally advanced plumbing. This was easy enough for most races to accept, as the abundance of water in the world has caused the deity of water to become extremely popular and important. In fact, water is so important, that the key feature of most adventuring parties, the tavern, is here replaced by bath houses, which serve patrons as a tavern would, but the major importance of them is the act of social bathing. The adventure actually starts in a bath house (with more self-conscious players being allowed to give their character bathing suits), and the first encounter forces the player to work under the stress of having to either retrieve their equipment, or deal with the situation with minimal tools.

As for the rest of the races, Dwarves operate the major mining operation of the world, with massive mines at the North end of the C continent, and caravans that take travellers across the barren desert. Elves own the forests, and are a bit more open about giving away their trees, so long as the desire for wood does not encroach upon their sacred lands deep within the forests. Halflings have not changed much, but are more well-integrated into society due to the prominent social position of Gnomes.

Note that despite there being a focus on water, this is not primarily an ocean adventure. The intent here is to lead the player through most of the world, giving them the impression that the central island is the major focus of the world, before bringing them to the massive C-continent, and having them interact with each major race, before finally delving into a mysterious underdark. There will be bandits, there will be dragons, and there may even be dragon bandits.

clockworkmonk
2009-12-13, 08:08 PM
The best way to do it, in my experience, is to just start writing it down. doesn't matter if you get it wrong the first time, you can always go back and rewrite it later. just get it down on paper. Often, when I create a world, at first I leave the landscape undefined until the first group plays and starts to define.

To be honest My friends and I disagree on the best approach. Some say the thing to do is to make the starting location, and allow the game to define the world as you go, While I always define cosmology first.

Really, it sounds like a cop-out, but pick a method and go with it. If it doesn't work, try another until you find one you like.

But definitely write something down.

mr.fizzypop
2009-12-13, 11:12 PM
I personally make a map first, to see what I have to work with. Then I start naming major towns, areas where specific races live, and landmarks. I don't write in small towns, so I can fill in a town if needed for a future adventure. I also like to get a campaign map going, draw where the PCs are going to go to, so I can focus on those. Sometimes I set up a pantheon, but I like to stick with the deities in the players handbook.

I also disagree with clockworkmonk's friends idea, I tried that once and it made the world seem too small, and I had to make up names of gods/town names/continents on the spot, which I would end up changing later.

BooNL
2009-12-14, 06:24 AM
Sounds like you've got a pretty good idea for you world already Introbulus!
As suggested, start writing that stuff down. At least put the major cities and trade routs on the map and write up some of the more influencial characters. The rest can be done on the spot or prepared before the start of that evening's adventure.
Trying to write down and stat everything before the game starts takes a huge amount of work and most of it won't be used for months. So I've always found it best to write stuff bit by bit.

Unless I use the 'standard DnD world', I usually have a problem with hundreds of playable races. You might want to ask yourself what each of those races are bringing to the table. From the looks of it, halflings and elves aren't really contributing. How about half orcs/elves?
The movers of this world seem to be gnomes, orcs, humans and dwarves. Maybe those will be enough?

As said, you've got plenty of world building material already. Now it's time to start thinking about an adventure hook. Your players have a nice big sandbox, now you can give them a shovel and a mission!

DonEsteban
2009-12-14, 06:40 AM
Maybe you want to have a look at how the Giant does it (http://www.giantitp.com/Gaming.html) (bottom of page).

Lord Loss
2009-12-14, 06:46 AM
Here's how I do it, sometimes. It's not the most used method, but it works:

I feel like starting them off against Kython... hmmm... and they'll fight Yuan-ti later on so... Hm. There'S an island with yuan ti near this swamp... I'll put kythons in the swamp and cultists in the town. Oh there are Sau_Hagin on the island, so I'll say they worship the evil entities that created the Kyhton...
SO the campaign starts near the town! I'll add some Half-Kython using Kobold stats and voila! All set!

pffh
2009-12-14, 07:07 AM
I usually create a large general map of the world and then another more detailed map of the area that most of my current plothooks are in. Then I wing it creating NPC's, leaders etc as needed for each session and often in the middle of the session as a reaction to what my PC's do.

dsmiles
2009-12-14, 09:33 AM
There's two general approaches:
Macro (Universe-in)
Micro (Location-out)
Either way you go, you can come up with a good campaign world.

It seems to me like you should use the Macro approach. You have a good starting theme and mythology planned, so you should next work on defining the geography (continents and countries) and terrain, then move on to major cities (and appropriate NPC's, etc.), then individual locations (dungeons and such). It takes more time to create this way, but you end up improvising less (as far as locations, countries, kings, guilds, etc.).

If you work from a location out (Micro approach), you end up improvising more, as characters move between towns and countries, but it's less work for the DM, as players inadvertently help write the campaign world as they move through it. Also, it takes less time, IMO.

Jastermereel
2009-12-14, 01:48 PM
There's two general approaches:
Macro (Universe-in)
Micro (Location-out)
Either way you go, you can come up with a good campaign world.

I'd perhaps add a third, though it's more of a hybrid.

When starting a campaign recently I used a sort of web approach. I had ideas for a series of sub-adventures (some home-brew and others pre-made modules) and had access to the Kingdoms of Kalamar Atlas and I figured out how things would fit from both ends. Need a small town? Throw a dart at the middle of the rural regions. Need a major city? Plenty to go around. What about a mountain chain with some deserts and forests nearby to make use of the Red Hand of Doom sometime next year? Bingo.

Building a detailed map up front is a lot of work that the players will almost never make full use of. Building it piece by piece as the players move about will keep you busy trying to keep up with their whims. But trying to get a general sense of where the players might go combined with a vague map and a few major set-piece adventures will let them have some freedom without taking over your life.

Trobby
2009-12-14, 02:05 PM
The way I'd really prefer to do it is with a focus on key locations.

Ideally, there are eight locations that are absolutely key:

The first bath house
The Major Port City of the North
The Dwarven lands
The Demiplane of the God of Water
The Orc Badlands
The Human Lands
The Elven woods
The Underworld


Ideally, there will also be at least one village between the first city and the start of the campaign, and a good portion of the adventure will be in getting transportation from point A to point B, while solving disputes along those points.

I guess what I'm looking for is advice on where to start building the cities and characters. I have some character ideas too, including...


The Hag who owns the first bathhouse
Glar Goldstar: Waterworks and Transportation CEO
The King of Dwarves
The God of Water
The Chief of the Orcs
The Cheif's daughter
The King of all Humans, who himself is decidedly not human
The Elven Councilmen
The God of Earth
The Halfling and Human Duo who Cause Trouble Through the adventure


Everyone else would be more of a bit player to the universe, or a minor villain in the way of the heroes.