Tips for making my own game setting

[Rarelyfly]

Just wondering if there are any general "rules" I should follow for making my own world for the game to be set in, any at all.

[Dimers]

I don't know any rules but I have a couple suggestions.

Address a small part at a time. The players aren't going to interact with the whole world probably ever, and definitely not right away, so build more detail into local stuff that they'll encounter and leave the rest of the world vague for now.

If you're making the world for play with 4e, try to make the world fit the existing classes, because designing a new class to fit the world is very demanding. Races and species are much more flexible. Think about what classes might be most common in different areas the players might visit.

Let NPCs work completely differently from PCs. It's very rare that an NPC will need "levels" for anything. An encounter the NPC is in might need some stats (like the difficulty of using various skills for skill challenges), but that doesn't require stats for the NPC.

It's helpful to have a stash of places, people and encounters that you can fit into different situations with only a little tweaking. That way if the players suddenly ask for the nearest tavern, you can pull one out of your ear ... if they go see a scholar or a local magistrate and you didn't expect it you can still give them someone with personality ... if they're getting too complacent and you decide they need a ninja attack you can drop one on them with no notice.

[neonchameleon]

Just wondering if there are any general "rules" I should follow for making my own world for the game to be set in, any at all.

Consistency is not the virtue many think. The most conformist culture I know of has sumo wrestlers, tattooed triad members, and elegant gothic lolita schoolgirls. Each Race Has A Hat should be resisted.

[Nightgaun7]

Both of those are excellent pieces of advice. I'd add a basic awareness of time and numbers. Your plots won't hold together if things are happening at wildly disparate times (i.e. the heroes wonder what's taking the villain so long, or get to a place 8 hours before a villain possibly could but don't get to prepare in-game),

For example, I've heard George R.R. Martin didn't really consider distance or travel time or the height of the Wall or the size of various cities and castles, just went with numbers that sounded large, and he's said that his books suffered from it.

If there are villains with plots going on in the background, make sure that they're actually happening. If they blow up a mega-volcano at the winter solstice to make the world enter a new ice age thanks to atmospheric dust, and the PCs don't do anything about it, then by golly they'd better need another pair of socks shortly after winter solstice.

I'm running a campaign on this forum, and I have a basic spreadsheet to help keep track of various time-sensitive things. So far it doesn't have multiple plot threads, because the PCs just wrapped up the first mini-arc, but when I need to add them it's simple enough to slide over a column and put it in.

[Tegu8788]

I enjoy the rule of three. Always have three options for something. Binary choices are easy, but give them three and they have to think a lot more. Three villains are doing things, even if they only know about one of them. There are three countries at war with each other. They have to choose between three divine blessings. Have each race have (at least) three archetypes. Give them three doors to decide on.

Getting into this pattern helps you think flexibly. Players are wonderful at finding the third option when you only planned for two. So make the third one yourself, and hopefully that will give you a wider range of responses to suit their schemes.

[Laserlight]

Just wondering if there are any general "rules" I should follow for making my own world for the game to be set in, any at all.

First: find out what sort of game your players want. If they want to be a band of nomad cavalry, and you do a lot of work to prepare social and political intrigues in pseudo-Venice, then someone is going to be frustrated.

Make sure there are conflicts. If all has been harmony, sweetness and light for the last five thousand years, then a) it's unbelievable and b) it's dull.
However, you do not need a detailed 6000 year timeline. Most people don't care much about events that happened before their grandparents.

1000 years ago: The southern empire collapsed as nomad hordes moved in from the northeast. Provinces A through Z became independent.
500 y.a.: Kingdoms formed from Provinces A through D, E through H, I though M. Provinces N through Q are loosely federated, as are R through U. The remainder are indepedent and spend much of their effort on not getting consumed by their neighbors. Waves of barbarians come from the north every 30-40 years; usually they are defeated but occasionally a horde will conquer a country.
200 ya.: EH attempts to become an empire, but is eventually defeated by AD and NQ.
100 ya.: NQ, now unified, defeats EH. AD and RU counterinvade, and the war drags on for forty years, with various factions breaking apart, switching sides, and making separate peace.
60ya: The Silver Plague decimates the population of the civilized world; barbarians successfully occupy NQ and much of IM.
45 ya: In your home country of AD, Queen 1 was overthrown by a cabal of Red faction nobles.
38 ya: An uprising, well financed by the Blue faction, installed Blue King 3 and forced hated Red King 2 to flee the country.
20ya: Red Princess 4 married Blue King 3, who died shortly thereafter
14 ya: Blue General 5 revolted and executed Red Princess 4.
8 ya: Red coup displaced Blue General 5; many people in the northern provinces retain loyalty to Blue Prince-in-Exile 6.


Assuming your players aren't nomads, they probably should know the names of the capitals and a few major towns of their own province and the closest adjacent provinces, and should know a little more about the towns adjacent to their own. A couple of major mountain ranges, a couple of major bodies of water, two or three rivers.

[neonchameleon]

Oh, one more. 1000 year empires almost never happen in the real world. Fantasy timelines are normally absurd.

[Silma]

1. Consider the general "feel" of the world. Is it a realistic, gritty medieval setting? Is it a futuristic sci-fi setting? Are there any fantasy elements to it, and if yes to what extend? These are some basic things you should consider before even beginning to create anything.

2. Magic-Technology. Is there any magic in your world? If yes, how powerrful is it? Is there the kind of magic that raises mountains and creates fireballs, or is it limited to prayers, subtle invocations, and blessing of luck? Also, how rare is magic in your world? Do most people know it exists, or is it reserved for a select few with some natural affinity and/or the right connections? How dominant of a force is it in your world? Same goes for technology. Deciding this early on (even before you start to make the actual world, or explain its creation, and existence itself), will help you have the right tools to explain all the phenomena in your world.

3. Gods, and the Divine. Is there some higher power in your world, or is it one led by science? If such a higher power does exist, is it one supreme being, or a pantheon of lesser gods? Do these gods (or this one god) interfere with the lives or mortals, or do they keep a more passive role?

4. Races. What are the races of your world, and what are their main characteristics? Is your world inhabited only by humans, is it a fantasy setting of elves and dwarves, or do dragons and giant toads live in harmony? It might appear a little strange that we have to decide this so early on, but it will help make the hard decisions easier later on. (Besides you probaly already know what races you want your world to have. I bet you already knew that since step 1)

5. Genesis. How was the world created? Did the gods make it out of pure thought? Was it created by powerful titans who onec ruled it, or did it emerge as the result of a gigantic explosion? (Actually you can skip this part to later on, because sometimes, having the actual world, and knowing where you want it to go can help you decide these things. Whether you do this now or later is totally up to you)

6. Worldbuilding. Creating the actual world.

a) Global phenomena. At this point the general concept of the world is set. We want it to have a certain "tone" to it (the one we decided in step 1), and we know what the great powers of this world are. Now is the time to decide if there are any unsusual phenomena in our world. Does your world have only 2 seasons like the world of Game of Thrones? Is there a global storm that occurs once a year? In most cases, there are no such things because they tend to dominate the interest during gameplay, but if you like such things go for it.

b) Atlas. It is time to create the world map. Is your world one giant continent like Pangea? Is it mostly continental like the earth of our time? Is it a giant archipelago? You decide. Create the map of ther world. It doesnt necessarily have to be very accurate, although it will help you make decisions later on if it is. Personally, I prefer to have a more vague world map at this point, so I can adjust to ideas that I might have later on.
One other important thing you must not overlook is to decide the shape of the world. is it a globe? is it square? This will probably not affect your game in any way, but it is good to get it out of the way.

c) Geography. Try to fill your world with large mountains, giant forests, lakes, or any sort of landmass that is big enough to dictate the geographical face of the world. You will most certainly add more later on, but it is good to have a general outline of the basic geography in our world.

d) The Modern Times. Now it is time to create the world as you want it to be. Decide what state the world is in. Is it one global dominion? Are there many kingdoms in it, and if yes how far does each stretch? How is one kingdom different than the others? How are the different races in your world interact? This part is quite difficult to narrow down, and organise in steps. What you have to do basically, if create the large-scale version of your world. All the important stuff that is happening all around the world.

e) The History of the World. Now that you know where you want your world to settle, try to create its history. How it got here, from the creation of the world (if you haven't done that already, this is your last chance to do it), to the modern times. How did the different races come into being, which wars have occured, and how did they shape the world? Was there an ancient civilization that was destroyed ages ago? And if yes, are there any ruins still remaining? Did the relations between the different races always be as they are today? Such decisions must be made at his point.

f) The Regions. This is where you focus on each different kingdom, and each different region, deciding its local history, geography, political situation, inhabitants, rumors, legends, beliefs, religion, and many other stuff. While it is preferable to do this for all individual regions before you start playing, it is not necessary. As long as you have some general info for all regions (and assuming you completed step 5d successfully, you do) you should be ok. Also, if you left your world map at a more vague state in step 5b (like I tend to do) this is the time to finish it. By creating each individual region, you can improve the complexity of the world map by adding details to it according to the choices you made for that region.

7. Enjoy!!! And don't forget that while all the larger-scale decisions have been made, you can still add and change stuff even after you start playing as long as they don't ruin the consistency of your world.

Anyway, I think that is all. If you find this helpful and you need any more advice, feel free to PM me. I am always glad to help a fellow worldbuilder. Cheers! :smallsmile:

[ScrivenerofDoom]

If you can, grab a copy of 2E's World Builder's Guidebook which was brilliant for creating your own worlds, one of the best single-book treatments of the subject I have read.