Post/Author/DateTime	Post
constanzza 08-01-07, 04:36 PM	ok people, I'm interested, how many of you there around the world(i hope you are not all from America) creating your own world?how much time you spend creating it?how long have you been creating it?where do you get ideas? does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs?what's a DM to do, helped me alot in some of those questions. what happens ingame, in your worlds?what do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? wow , alot of questions I've asked, but , hell, i need to know how many of you are same as me:P cant wait to see your posts:D :invasio:incog: :lop: n: :cheer: :duel: :mage: :dragon: :bounce: :dancin: :ayyyy!: i like these smilies
Khadmus 08-01-07, 04:54 PM	If I could wrap my head around town placement, I'd build my own maps and do all of the above. As I haven't done any of these, I can't give you advice.
psidragon13 08-01-07, 05:32 PM	I ALWAYS create my own worlds, I make my own maps, and I create my own stories and plot lines. One of the big things is to not put too much into it from the beginning, try to build the world for your players not build them for the world. With that in mind, you have to be able to come up with something immediatly. I have absolutely no problem with just thinking of something right of the top of my head, unless it's a name and I keep a list of those for immediate reference incase my players talk to someone I hadn't planned on them talking to. If you have a hard time coming up with things off the top of your head, I would suggest that you always keep a few different options in mind. Never stick to a one-path plot, always keep other options open. I usually spend about 30-45 minutes making a detailed map on a regular sheet of printer paper, however for the campaign I'm currently running I'm making a giant map and just the basic land-mass outlines took me about 1 hour and I've been working on cities and details as we go, although I started with a few basic cities that were needed to start off and were involved in backstory. My ideas just flow. If I ever get writers block, which has only happened in my out of session work, I just turn on some music, relax and think about it until I can come up with something. If that doesn't work, you can probaly find something that will here. My group is really more role-playing focused so I don't spend that much time on dungeons and encounter maps since we also don't use minis. Hope this helps.
Kedami 08-01-07, 06:03 PM	I build all my worlds. I've built huge dungeons before as my players enjoy kick-in-the-door style play, but that doesn't stop them asking about NPCs, so I have to make them as well as I can. I've never spent an hour on a map's outlines, but my dungeon and city maps tend to be fairly detailed. My country maps are drawn fairly quickly as I make sure there is a good distance between towns (for actual reasons, like natural resources, not reasons that include "I need to make space here on the map"). All my maps are drawn on graph paper, but that's me (I work better in a structured system). I've had to get better at making stuff up on the spot, but I've also learned to plan minor details. Like psidragon13 said, never make one-path plots. Because I've known my players a long time, I can guess which way they'll choose and flesh that out a bit more (it's usually the path with the large battle and the treasure). Never underestimate the entity known as "The Random Idea of a Player", which always causes you to work around your notes rather than with them.
Artifact 08-01-07, 06:09 PM	Excellent idea for a thread, constanzza. I'm curious myself about the answers to some of these same questions. Here's my answers: How long have you been creating it? Speaking of KoE: On and off for well over twenty years (not much there considering). Over the many years (very haphazzardly) I've snatched an idea here and there and added it to the setting, or even developed it whole-cloth (which is rare for me). How much time do you spend creating it? I work on it purely as a hobby. I spend maybe a couple of hours a week actually adding or even taking something from the setting. Most of my work now relates to formating the actual documents in Microsoft Word. I've also recently converted everything into PDF files (PM me, if genuinly interested in a CD copy :)). Where do you get your ideas? I've taken a lot of inspiration directly from reading the Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle, even Robin Hood by J. Walker McSpadden. D&D of course, was a very big influence, and with that, so was Lord of the Rings by Tolkien (less directly perhaps). Lone Wolf. Endless Quest. GrailQuest. Anybody remeber those "pick your path" gems of yesteryear? ;) Many, many others I can't remember off the top-o-me head ;). The setting isn't so much a mechanical design of my own, as it is a "place holder" for things that others have created, which I've thought were :cool: and wanted to use someday in my own little world. Does your head hurt when trying to create something of your own? Oh, absolutely! ;) Mechanical game design is very, very challenging for me. One of the things I love about these boards is the wonderful ideas freely shared by others. They make things seem so effortless, so complete on the first pass. I am quite envious of that kind of natural talent. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own dungeons, plots, stories, NPCs? Yes, and maps are by far the hardest for me. I've handrawn a few solid maps for use by our group, but they aren't really what you would call good. Even if I had access to the top map-making software however, I doubt I could end up with a map I'm happy with. What happens in-game in your world? Much the same as happens in any other setting, I would guess. The heroes (PCs) started out knowing a little (or a lot) about their "homebase", then in tme, as they gained experience, learned about the wider world. If our games last long enough, they will even become major movers and shakers in the setting. In our current campaign (which we've been playing for several months now), the heroes are approaching what I call "name" level (a hold-over from an earlier edition of D&D); that is, they are now well-known locally, and their influence is beginning to spread to other locales. What do you do if the PCs aren't going the way you thought they were? At the start of a campaign, I try to get a conscensus (or even just a gut feeling) about what kind of game the guys and gals are expecting and wanting to play. For example: Knights of Everest is basically a homebrew, thinly-veiled version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We've got a Barbarian, a Druid, a Rogue, and a Sorcerer in the party mix right now. Not a knight in sight-- damn ;)! Still, the setting being what it is, we've played a short series of games in which the group is on a Quest for the Eternal Cross ("Holy Grail" if you will). There may be a knight in this group yet. The games have worked, that is, everyone is entertained, because that's kinda what they expect when playing in such a setting. No railroading necessary, because fun is the name of the game. Again, great idea for a thread, constanzza; I too can't wait to hear what others have to offer!
blowfish 08-01-07, 06:13 PM	I've spent about two months on my setting, though that was spread over a longer period of time. I've only had one campaign and the beginning on a second using my setting, but the players seem to really like it. I haven't made maps yet, but I may do so if I ever use it again. I started with my pantheon and the settings "in the beginning" story first and made breif history from there. Then I altered some of the races to suit the setting and the pantheon. Then decided what house rules I'd use and went from there. The actual placement of places and the design of important NPCs developped over time as we played. Good luck to you.
unundindur 08-01-07, 06:39 PM	ok people, I'm interested, how many of you there around the world(i hope you are not all from America) creating your own world? I would guess a lot. I for one started with 2 friends creating a world called Passajial, although it was scrapped. After that I have started making the world of Eiir (se my signature). How much time you spend creating it? Its a bit hard to tell as I just write down tidbits I come up with every now and then, but lets say a good 100 hours perhaps... How long have you been creating it? Well, as it had some parts from the old Passajial I guess I have to say arounnd 6 years. Where do you get ideas? Hehe, well they come when I for example walk for an hour and think "how awesome wouldn't it be to do ", and then I make a character, ogranization or item or whatever that does this. That usually spark my imagination further, and I start thinking of how other organizations relate to this new peice of information for example :) Does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? At times. I think what bothers me the most is to write down something that is utterly clear in my head, but that is very important to get [I]right on paper. A typical example is when I try to type out the worlds history, where a plenora of strands of information are twisted together and everything have to be written in an understandable manner. That can be a daunting task, which I have some problems motivating myself to do. Another thing I dislike is to stat NPCs properly, I just htink its so booring writing down what listen skill mr Important have. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs? Definately yes. To me that is the main goodie of beeing a GM, I get to use my creativity and unleash it on others :P I just brought Campaign Cartographer 3 for the mapping of Eiir, and when I at some point get the hang of Layers and Sheets I should be producing maps by hte speed of sound! What's a DM to do, helped me alot in some of those questions. What happens ingame, in your worlds? Yes, its a useful column, although often quite self explainatory. What happens in my world is a bit of a generic question, that is best answered by checking it out in the signature. In short its a dark and bitter world overtaken by wizards and have an over average amount of Intrigue. What do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? I improvise. The last thing I think I learned as a GM was to never create to spesific quests. This is just because you then either have to know your players well enough to never make mistakes (I've known mine for a good 10 years), or you have to force them into your plot (not optimal) or you have to scrap a lot of hard work. That way its just easier to scrap the hard work already, nad create some looser conditions and let hte players make the adventure. Its a lot more rewarding, and to the GM its more intense, you have to be everyone but hte players logic to a greater extent than usual :) Wow , alot of questions I've asked, but , hell, i need to know how many of you are same as me:P So, how are you ;) Cant wait to see your posts:D Me too, interesting topic!
queenfange 08-01-07, 06:59 PM	I make my own worlds, though I used to use the Forgotten Realms deities. My current world I began work on three months ago, and I work on it probably an hour a day. I get inspiration from all sorts of strange places. The ones that stick out to me are the twi'leks in Star Wars (for one of my homebrew races), Guns, Germs, and Steel (realistic resources and technology for nations), and the random button on dictionary.com (all sorts of fun deities came from that). My head only hurts when I've played too much World of Warcraft and then try to work on DnD. Never, ever play a MMORPG. It drains out all of your DnD creativity for the rest of the day. :tantrum: I make sad graph-paper maps because I can't find Campaign Cartographer in any stores near me. I love making my own NPCs, cultures, and deities; I hate making my own adventures and plots, but I muddle along. I enjoy seeing all these responses; good thread!
Dog_O_War 08-01-07, 09:44 PM	I make all the setting(s) for my players. I only have one reasonably complete setting for dnd right now, and have been working on some others for other games. My dnd setting is called Phenn, and I obsess about things such as distance and time, so my map and calendar for the world are both extremely acurate. As for the others I am working on, one game is about wwII, but with a dark and occult twist, and yet another one is a from scratch system space setting, about aliens, human scum, and the deep mysteries of the black void. This one setting alone is enough to give a guy a migraine. For the most part I make my own NPC's, using a personality base coupled with an idea of how they should act. If they're semi-important I give them a class and a level, with a quick thought of what their two good skills are. Only active NPC's, ones the PC's match wits and steel with get full stats. It can be tough to track, but I have (and hopefully will get to use one day) set world events, as well as on-the-fly happenings that are related in some way to the actions of the players. If my players ever decide to abandon their main objectives, I think about and semi-prepare what the consequences of those actions would be. Needless to say, I get alot of headaches and have horribly messy notes.
Baernwulf_of_Nor 08-01-07, 09:57 PM	You'll find that most DMs make their own world. And even if they dont make their own world, they usually make up settings for their players to have quick little adventures in. I have played under around 5 DMs and they have always made up areas for us to adventure in. To your question about what if they go course B instead of A, have A be in A or B. For instance... Hardy adventurers(and eager players) start out in Littleton. They are told of a mysterious murder occuring in Hawkford. They are given no map, so they set out. This way, whether they go on road A,B,C, or Q, you will place Hawkford in their path. If they do know where to go, and purposefully go the wrong way, have the map be wrong, or have that person purposefully have wrongfully misdirected them. Both are entertaining and the latter might be a good plot hook.
taradusis 08-01-07, 10:23 PM	Well,I've been playing since D+D maroon box.I originally stated out with the "Keep on the Borderlands"town map and began adding buildings.When I switched to 2ed AD+D I invested in the world of greyhawk box set and added towns as needed.When playing Marvel Superheros we used the New York city box set.About the time Spelljammer came out I began designing worlds.I now seem to focus on developing island nations that can br dropped into a campaign,this allows me to recycle fantasy nations I've created over the years.I'm really begining to appreciate the "short"form of island creation,you don't need to be logical when developing an isolated culture,you also can have a unique monster show up that you don't want to feature in your main campaign.RANDOM THOUGHTS
constanzza 08-01-07, 10:40 PM	hey, I'm glad you people answered my thread.i surley asked alot of questions there, and sure thing i got a lot of answers.I'm glad are kinda similar in creating our worlds. by the way Im interested in the map program you've been speaking of, is there an free download somewhere or crack for it:P ok , i have some more questions . :) but let me say what how i do some things. I have only PHB and DMG in real .other books i have on computer. well,since im from Serbia(thats not Siberia), D&D is not so popular like in America, but there are a lot of poeple playing it.I really enjoy playing it, as well as NWN1 and 2, icewind dale2 ,temple of elemental evil, and stuff. i get my ideas from movies,books I've red, or simply by visiting this great website full of ideas,help,explanations and stuff. I am DM for about 4 or 5 years. (by the whats the difference between GM and DM)I have alot fun DMing.Also i havent played for a long long time as a PC. since I like to draw manga and other things, I easily draw my maps on paper,world maps,maybe some site to show it to my players. everything i do , i do it on real paper, i know its kinda stupid, but it gives me alot of joy,feeling like some old mage or something:P i hate when i dont have the inspiration, trying to squeeze something from my head so hard , that my head's hurt. :D i use miniatures for the game, cant go without them.but i dont have everything you guys have available, so i have to make something up, like small wooden boards to make the rooms and doungens. i make alot of mistakes, thats why im wisiting this site, , and asking about everything.i dont have anyone so good at it to tell me the how to lead.since english is my second language, somethings are hard for me to understand in books. i have some problems with doungens description, but i think im overcoming that slowly but certantly:P trying to balance hack&slash and role playing. i have problem with calculating CR, for players, i really dont get that thing? and how do you give players exp after a battle?dont know to calculate that either, i simply give them exp how i think its enough. cant remember what to say else, but I'm surley glad to see you answering this.I'll remember somethings tomorrow , or after i see your replys:)) cant wait your replys:)
unundindur 08-02-07, 07:18 AM	Here is a link (http://www.profantasy.com/products/cc3.asp) to the program, but its not free, and they don't have a demo yet. And DM means Dungeon master while GM means Game master, its the same term except that Game master sounds a bit broader :) Regarding books its no problem not having all the books really. I read most DnD books for the heck of it more than them beeing useful. To me they are simply a good read, and sometimes trigger my lust for playing DnD. From a GM-perspective I really don't need more than the Monster Manual and Possibly the Players handbook.
constanzza 08-02-07, 12:01 PM	so the therms are the same, but when you say game master it sounds more like a gey master,lol. i prefer DM doungen master. as it concerns about the books, i had a chance to read eberron campaign settings, and five nations,beside PHB DMG and MM.i liked those drawings very very very very very very very very very very very very very very much.and descriptions history they have made and towns,maps,really good
constanzza 08-02-07, 12:33 PM	i remembered more questions. what about the climate?wheather? do you make your own calendar,i tryed to make it.partialy succeeded:) tryed to make name of days,months,years. what do you say to your players?its now winter,its cold, freezing wind is biting your limbs and face.then after 3 or 4 sessions, you say what , it has passed about month and a half, now the wheather is warmer.and similar. do you do that?its kinda hard to try to grasp everything and tell them, that is raining ,snowing, wind is blowing,sun is scourching.nice wheather.clear .cloudy. damn it ,its too much.surounding?forest,barrens.meadows?d oungen,?
unundindur 08-02-07, 12:41 PM	i remembered more questions. what about the climate?wheather? do you make your own calendar,i tryed to make it.partialy succeeded:) tryed to make name of days,months,years. what do you say to your players?its now winter,its cold, freezing wind is biting your limbs and face.then after 3 or 4 sessions, you say what , it has passed about month and a half, now the wheather is warmer.and similar. do you do that?its kinda hard to try to grasp everything and tell them, that is raining ,snowing, wind is blowing,sun is scourching.nice wheather.clear .cloudy. damn it ,its too much.surounding?forest,barrens.meadows?d oungen,? Pretty much just like that ;) My campaigns have a tendancy to start in spring, which gives me some time before i have to get dirty with snow and slow speed and all that :)
taradusis 08-03-07, 10:06 PM	I usually require players to pick a town to winter in.This is a good time to craft magic items and get training.This takes up one session in real life then its warm enough to go campaigning the next session.Game master is what I call myself because some of the RPGs I play are set in space like traveller or in modern times like Marvel Superheros,how can you be a Dungeon Master without a Dungeon?I also buy a cheap,3 subject notebook and divide my ideas up.Section One is crude adventure notes of less than 100 words(when I develope it further it goes into a manilla folder with graph paper and junk.)Section Two is some crude racial notes,again keep it to less than 100 words,Wait till you're filling out the monster sheet to go into detail.One entry I did was 2 words long "Indian Centaurs",this eventually became a race of pony sized centaurs whose cultures were based on american indians.Section Three of the notebook is fantasy nations:Amazons,All male society,Theocracies of all sorts,Magocracies,Plutarchies,Alignment-based societies,Non-human societies,Undersea societies,Cloud Cities,Hives,Underground Cities,Fungle(mushroom jungle),Slave owners and various others.Try to describe as briefly as possible then set up a manilla folder when you go into more detail.List how the fantasy nation interacts with other nations on a seperate sheet of paper and you can recycle the nation for a new world by changing or replacing the interaction sheet.Get used to carrying the notebook around and write the idea down as soon as you have it!Many thoughts are lost at work or school because you forget by the time you get home.RANDOM THOUGHTS
constanzza 08-04-07, 11:17 AM	interesting way to create.:) when i got the idea how to make a quest or part of a story, thats the interesting part.i like to make history of items,persons and stuff. for example i gave to players black longsword +1, and explained them its history it belonged to a personal guard of some lord , who lived near gnoll forest(in which were goblins on spiders and alike) in coming battle most of them died(personal guard) but their armor and weapons remained on the battle, in which evil side won.evil side took those weapons and armors , and mostly goblins did, and carried it around the world, some were killed by some adventurers or wild animals or something so, thats the way that weapon was spread over the world. i like doing that ,but of course it a longer verion in my story. as a for wheather, when its winter, i like bothering them with winter gear:)sleds, or maybe persuade them to buy cart with horses, maybe, just to spend their money.its not good when they have alot of money,they can become too powerfull, so i talk them to buy little things , and stuff.
ragoftag 08-05-07, 04:56 PM	Time creating?-40+ years, started as a world to write stories in, but the advent of word processing crushed my ability to get things down and I stopped writing until 3.0. Odd. I now blow a dozen hours a week bringing it all up to date. Ideas?-Eurasian history major, talk about overload! Chinese style nobility based on merit, Hindu inspired pantheon with scads of gods from all sources, Stalinist semi-centaurs, dwarves based on ancient Tibet, desert goblins riding ostriches (RW, this kind of cavalry existed in an African kingdom, Ripley's!), you name it! Does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own?-Lol, Always! Maps, dungeons, plots, stories, npcs?-Yes, published stuff can be bought by players and read for advantage in game. Once was enough for me. I have been through Sunken Citadel 5 times, having to pretend I was surprised by...whatever. No fun. Yet, I buy lots of adventures to fuel the idea monster. "What happens in game, in your worlds?what do you do if players are not going the way you thought they are , and you haven't made story for the part they are going to?"-Panic! I was thrown in the first game I ran by players pulling some off the wall stunt I had no clue how to handle. Fortunately, it was a world I had been writing in for years and I had some clue, but made the epic level genius decision to let the players handle the details. They took over and all I had to do was cover their interface with the world itself. Hey! They have PHBs, too. Keeping them busy running the game frees me up to stay a step ahead. Climate, weather, calendar...what do you say to your players?-I casually ask them to save or take damage from the icy rain, etc. Same as I do when the X hits them with an attack. Gets their attention real fast. I have a 20 month, 20 day calendar with relevant days noted in the game log. A team are currently racing for a pass before the spring thaw renders it flooded. I is expected on the third day of next month (diviner in party) and they have 8 (?) days to make it. They were stuck at the Mid-Winter Faire networking elves (Pays to have levels in Perform: dance.) and couldn't get a lot of travel in. Make the stuff matter and it will! Create events based on dates and places and make them relevant to the adventure. It will pay dividends.
ewancummins 08-05-07, 07:03 PM	RW ostritch riding ''cavalry'', no kidding? Can you please provide a source? I just have to read about this one. Too weird. :)
TheHarrow 08-05-07, 07:19 PM	I'm a 24 year old still in college who runs his own game world. It is called the Harrow (thus my name). It includes both real world and fantasy relegions, modern and ancient (thus Odin has Yahweh and Ra on speed dial, lol). It deals heavily with the question of "What is true Good and Evil" and thus borrows heavily from the HoH and The BoED books. The main bad guys are more analagous to the Dark Powers of the revenloft setting then the DarkLords, but these Powers have Vassal lords beneath them running their rather large (5 make up one continent) Realms. Taint and Madness are a must. Climate, weather, calendar...what do you say to your players?- In The Crow the protragonist said "It can't rain all the time". Well it does in Harrow. And think eternal night, as in Dark City.
Hochiu 08-05-07, 10:48 PM	Time creating? I always end up ditching my campaign worlds because I grow too bored of them. A year or so ago I was really hardcore into making a viable human-only campaign world, but now I'm focused on something a little more D&D general, known as Kamos: The Gilded Kingdoms. It's a bit more of a standard campaign world, because I found I can't get my players to actually work on it enough to get into it unless it's remotely familiar. I've been working a few months on this, but who knows when/if I drop it. Ideas?- For Kamos? I'm a history/anthropology major, so a lot of what I'm interested in from both subjects gets included. Current, Kamos is built around a handful of ideas, both traditional and not. The five core concepts it is built around are: 1. Traditional Fantasy, but built in the shadow of influence from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth, and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, with a little bit of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time for added flavor. 2. A major aspect of the world is social change, and a drive towards modernity. The old order is shifting towards something resembling post-reniassance, with the rise of corporations. Noble families are finding themselves to be a dying breed in terms of prestige, but they still cling tenaciously. 3. Dedicated "Oriental" elements to the game, despite it being a Eurofantasy feel. This is because the "East" had a major exodus into the West due to a nasty event, so you get things such as Ninja class and Shugenja being absorbed into society. 4. Non-standard technologies are prevlanet, which often leads to a contradiction. There are four of these: Firearms (as per my rules in my sig), sailing technology from the Age of Pirates, and World War I-style airplanes, and flying chunks of earth an rock that the elves sent up in their own exodus from the surface which triggered their own cultural paradigm crisis. Traditional fantastic elements are still there, however. I'm going to enjoy the day the players go up agianst a dragon in their flimsy Nimuran Solstice Triplanes :schemes: . 5. Magicians are non-political entities that are sworn to remain out of temporal affairs and if they violate the edict, they are dealt with by the wizards of the world. I have some lame Cheese idea right now for the reason of this, but its still hard to believe. Likewise, magic items are never for sale on the open market. They can be aquired by trade, payment for creation (can work out deals with the wizard), or be found in what few dungeons I'll have. This generally has the effect to limit circulation, and makes those wizards, clerics, and druids in the party to consider actually taking item-creation feats. Other themes are marked changes to standard races, that give them more of a unique feel, including names to the races as well as their social and political outlook. I'm always on the look out for unique ideas and more additions I could make. Does your head hurt when you're trying to create something your own? At times. I'm one to consistently "re-invent the wheel", because I don't feel right taking other people's things. Its often hard to find something that's "unique", though, and that's my problem. I loath when someone comes up to me and says, "Heh, that's just like X's idea!", or even when they say, "Look at Y's setting, I think that's just what you're looking for." Maps, dungeons, plots, stories, npcs? Only published adventures, and that's not even if I have to buy them. I tend to take inspiration from them and then rather brutally slaughter and rebuld the story. Otherwise, I try to make everything at all original. Since my game is so different in feel from other aircraft "What happens in game, in your worlds? What do you do if players are not going the way you thought they are , and you haven't made story for the part they are going to?" I generally have at least some idea what the players are going to do, and prepare for the most possible outcomes. They're fairly straight-shots and easy to predict. However, I do need to work on thinking on my feet - so I'm playing a different game almost completely ad libbed, DMing it, to help think of ways I can get better at this. Otherwise, I generally am trying to force more political-intrigue onto my players, than anything, and I'd hate to see my games devolve into simple puply games. I don't have a problem with pulp, but I'd like the feel to remain epic fantasy. Climate, weather, calendar...what do you say to your players? I haven't gotten thar far yet. I'm tempted to pull a George R. R. Martin and have some unique peternatural effect happen to give more flavor to the world without being too obvious to those few who have heard of the book series. I've not bothered with the calendar yet, but I usually end up making extensive ones. And I'll add another question: Gods? How do you deal with them? Cosmology? For Kamos, I'm relying on a single pantheon based heavily off of Latin Christianity (Prior to the Great Schism that divided the West and Eastern churches), divided into orthodox and heterodox traditions, with the focus (and power) being in orthodox. Non-scripture followers fall under the heretical heterodox, as do the revisionists and rectificationists that want to change or just do away with the orthodox church. Most of the deities of Kamos have been subsumed or are no longer worshipped, except for the "Old Ways", being the Nature religion, and a few hold outs of older gods, most likely drawn from real-world inspirations, like Norse gods.
Golem011 08-05-07, 11:30 PM	*shamelessly copies formatting* How long have you been creating it? My current setting, Wonders, has been in the works about... two months? Ish? About eight months in total, with all the conceptual settings and all, but its current incarnation, two months. How much time do you spend creating it? Half an hour a day, maybe? I try to add a new post every day, but sometimes I add a lot at once. Where do you get your ideas? From my head, from history (a lot of that, surprisingly) from mythology, and (some) from regular DnD. Does your head hurt when trying to create something of your own? Not really. Mechanical and fluffy design come relatively easily to me. *shrugs* I do get writer's block frequently, though, which is the reason for my sporadic updates. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own dungeons, plots, stories, NPCs? Nobody else would do it if I didn't. :P What happens in-game in your world? Holy wars, mundane wars, backstabbing, politics, crime, and treachery and diplomacy on almost every level of society. What do you do if the PCs aren't going the way you thought they were? Improvise, and hope nobody notices any minor inconsistencies I may accidentally make.
doct1400 08-06-07, 01:14 AM	ok people, I'm interested, how many of you there around the world(i hope you are not all from America) creating your own world? I’m in the process (though its mostly on hiatus right now) of creating my own world. how much time you spend creating it? Right now none, when I’m dialed in I’m usually an hour or two a day to maybe ten hours a week. Sometimes more if I’m on a good tear. how long have you been creating it? Going on a decade. where do you get ideas? My primary motivations vary somewhat based on the country and the city. My “asian” based lands Tang’shi is based largely on various animes. Naruto’s politics are a large influence on it. If you look at Gant and Melosa, Gant is largely based on John Norman’s Gor where as Melosa is based mostly on Xena’s Amazons. The Technics (the usual stand in villain for my world, though they eventually become just normal guys) are based on the Empire from Final Fantasy 6. The short answer is I get a lot of inspiration from a lot of things. does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? No, it hurts my head when I look back at something I’ve done and realize it doesn’t work into the rest of the mythology. Trust me retconning one thing during your early history has a lot of reprocussions. are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs?what's a DM to do, helped me alot in some of those questions. I hate mapping, I usually do dungeons on the fly or just find something online. Hell I’ve actually used the maps in the back of the books a few times. My groups tends to role play more and dungeon crawl less. And unless it’s a minataur we’ll usually laugh and be like why would somebody build their house into a maze? It’s got plenty of history both mythical and physical. Hundreds of pages of stories (though some of them are lost on old computers, or worse yet on paper lost someplace in a garage). I usually try to only write down important NPC’s but I never throw anything away, even if an NPC is killed I keep them and they can become random guys at the bar or what not. what happens ingame, in your worlds? I do not understand the question. If you are asking if their actions shape the world then yes. My players actually founded a village, named it Ayatollahville (It’s a WWF thing, it was later shortened to Ayatol during one of the many reboots I’ve don’t to try to make sense of the world. what do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? I count myself as lucky when the players are going the way I thought they would. I actually do much better when I’m just playing things fast and loose, the more plotted I have the path the more screwy things get. Climate is usually sadly ignored unless it is inclimate.
ssvegeta555 08-06-07, 04:59 AM	How long have you been creating it? I've been working on my current setting, Soullos, for about 3 years I beleive. Even in that time, I'm still not complete with one continent, and I have 3 more to go! How much time do you spend creating it? Not all that much nowadays. College, writing my novel, playing video games and creating D&D adventures takes up most of my time. I havn't worked on my world for a month or two now. Where do you get your ideas? Mainly from my head, I just stare off into space letting my mind take over. As I fall asleep, I think about stuff I want to expand upon. Oddly enough, I get my best ideas before I zonk out. Thankfully, I can remember the ideas when I wake up, something I can't say for dreams. Does your head hurt when trying to create something of your own? Nope, never had that problem. I get writer's block from time to time though. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own dungeons, plots, stories, NPCs? Of course. I make a whole world, why not create adventures for it? I'm currenlty DMing a solo campaign that spans the multiverse, the objective is to sop the Far Realm from spilling it's madness all over, altering reality forever. What happens in-game in your world? Typical fantasy stuff. Dangers, political intrigue, good dooers doing good deeds, more Danger, rampaging dragons, and so on. What do you do if the PCs aren't going the way you thought they were? Hook 'em by the plot hook they apparently missed and reel them in. :P Okay, not really. I try to improvise and steer them back on track. But thankfully my players arn't the type to ruin the planned adventure. Climate, weather, calendar...what do you say to your players? Climate isn't something I focus on. Usually at the start of the day(s) I describe the weather and thats it. It doesn't get any screen time unless it's an immediate threat. Though in my current campaign being set in Sigil, I doubt weather would make an apparence for a while. As for my caldender, I use 12 months over 365 days. Each month is named after one of the 12 dragon gods. Five months are 31 days each, and the rest are 30 day months. I'm thinking about just making it more streamlined by making each month 30 days. Gods? How do you deal with them? Cosmology? I have 4 panteons. Soullos pantheon consists of the gods presented in the PHB (though I am planning on creating my own unique gods). The dragon panteon has 12 dragon gods, 11 of which are in the Draconomicon. The 12th is Sardior, a psionic dragon god detailed in the Mind's Eye article on the Wizards website. The 3rd pantheon in the Kami Pantheon. Only seven gods exist within this pantheon, but they are a tight pantheon. Meaning that a cleric can worship the pantheon as a whole and choose any domain contained therein. Only two gods of them arn't considered part of the pantheon for a cleric to take advantage of (The Kami of Fiery Rage, and the Kami of Eternal Night). The last pantheon in the monster pantheon. It's pretty much a mish mash of monterous deities. Oh and then there are the Primal Deities. These are gods that are extremely ancient, dead or forgotten, most of which are dead or fogotten.
annoyinglizardvoice 08-06-07, 08:41 AM	I always use my own fantasy setting when DMing (though I have used Shadowforce Archer for Spycraft). I tend to use a Conan-esq low magic setting called Helstasha. A lot of it's based on actual history, with the major fantasy races fitting in where it makes most sense (humans are by far the most common in my games). Most of my world is owned by one of four empires: Lorvea (based on medieval Europe), Agrabak (halfway between anchient Persia and late medieval middle east), Nayen (based on fuedal Japan) and Helsss (an elf-run dictatorship), but smaller states exist and large areas of the world are no-go for any of the empires. One thing I've had fun experimenting with is givening characters different racial characteristics based on their place of orgion, rather than just having "humans". The games slowly been built up over several years by a variety of players. Most of my ideas come to me when I'm either on the bus or on the bog. Sorry about the bad spelling.
constanzza 08-06-07, 09:35 AM	And I'll add another question: Gods? How do you deal with them? Cosmology? For Kamos, I'm relying on a single pantheon based heavily off of Latin Christianity (Prior to the Great Schism that divided the West and Eastern churches), divided into orthodox and heterodox traditions, with the focus (and power) being in orthodox. Non-scripture followers fall under the heretical heterodox, as do the revisionists and rectificationists that want to change or just do away with the orthodox church. Most of the deities of Kamos have been subsumed or are no longer worshipped, except for the "Old Ways", being the Nature religion, and a few hold outs of older gods, most likely drawn from real-world inspirations, like Norse gods. well , in my world, cosmology is not that important.I do let players to choose diety, and if they write it in their bio to be important , then it is:) But I'm not concerned too much with it.But then, good thing you brought it up,alot of DMs use it :) I'm glad you people found some time to answer my questions.nice thing to share expirience with others. I have been creating my world for about 3-4 years,nice quite active but, from time to time.I've made 3 continents, from which ,the 1st one i made is mostly designed with landscape,tombs,doungeons,cities,small towns, trees,rivers,and it is surrounded by ocean.i have made city map for 4 cities,8 or 9 tombs/doungeons myself.I made up few Npcs, 2 or 3 are evil. Made some city restrictions,names,rules, and so on.I found it quite amusing and alot of enjoyment in making that world. PCs do change my world, for example pc of mine was a paladin, he reached 6th lvl in pladin class, and is 1st lvl in purple knight.I will make him very important. I made my own calendar it has 10 months, numerically arranged 4 weeks, week of snow,rain,heat and clearness week has 10 days, wheather randomly changes(snow week,snowing,extremly cold,heavy snow,light snow ) same in other weeks and so on. where do you get the names? i made some up, some I made from Tolkien's sindarine, or quenya language, or grammar books i got from net. I'm glad you are interested in this thread.looking foreward to your answers:)
ragoftag 08-06-07, 08:03 PM	RW ostrich cavalry-Was in one of those Ripley's, Believe it or not! books. They are chock full of oddball things that 'really' happened. I've run a few down (Lord knows, there are thousands!) and found them to be true, but one or two were 'point of view' dependent. Great way to fill your mind with trivia like waterfall heights, crocodile lifespans, loony people, etc. Might even be on their website. Did you know one ancient king was so afraid of assassination, he had his beard trimmed with hot coals from a fire? A siege was ended after the besiegers ran out of stones for the cannon. The king (different one, I think) ordered the warchest's gold melted into balls and fired them at the city! Believe it or not!
Optimized_Commoner 08-06-07, 10:12 PM	I hope you are not all from America Australian. Born and bred. How many of you are creating your own world? Every campaign I run, I create a new world for. I've created a lot of worlds in the past and I'm working on a new one now for my next game. It's called Tyrros and you can find it on the campaign workshop board (a few pages back because I've been working on maps rather than written material for the past few days). how much time you spend creating it? A few months usually. Though it can vary, and I often 'touch up' areas after I start it up if they're lacking in detail. how long have you been creating it? I started Tyrros maybe 2-3 weeks ago, if I recall correctly. where do you get ideas? I decided to make a bronze age setting because the other DM was running a high-tech D&D game and I didn't want our settings to clash. Based on the fact that it was a bronze age setting, I did some research into ancient rome, the phoenicians, greece and the mediterranean, etc. Other than actual historical research... I don't know. I just invent. While I was going for a walk today I invented a new sporting game that's played on the world (haven't chosen where to put it on the map yet though). Wasn't really inspired by anything, the thoughts just popped into my head. does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? No, it hurts when I don't. are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs? Yes on all counts. I've been drawing maps for years and it's probably the field of artwork that I'm best at. I don't usually use dungeons, I like overground adventures personally, but I'm a little strange that way. As for plots and stories... well, I start them off, but as soon as the players get involved then it's both of us working together that determines the plots. What I invent for a plot is a starting point, "The dark lord bob is invading the world from a hidden army base in the south pole", it's then up to the players to decide if they care and what they want to do about it. Npcs. Yes, I invent my own. what happens ingame, in your worlds? A lot. I try to make it a realistic world with a life of its own, so there are wars, births, deaths, political feuds etc. Many of which have nothing to do with the players, unless they find out about them and want to get involved. what do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? I don't try to script what the players are going to do. If the players go somewhere I haven't thought about before, then I invent details about that place on the spur of the moment.
ValaR 08-08-07, 10:02 AM	PCs do change my world, for example pc of mine was a paladin, he reached 6th lvl in pladin class, and is 1st lvl in purple knight.I will make him very important. Hehe, that player is me. :D My paladin will be important NPC !!! YEAAAHHH ! Sry 4 offtopic but I just couldn't resist. Constanzza is really good DM but he is little shady in roleplay. Maybe some help in that department would improve his campagin. :) @Const 3nityAcidTribe yo yo yo ! Make it your way ! 3nity way ! sry 4 bad english and offtopic :)
Temmogen 08-08-07, 04:21 PM	How many of you created your own world? I have created two campaign worlds. How much time you spend creating it? One of them, I've been tinkering with for 18 years, on and off. The other I've spent close to 2 years working on. Where do you get ideas? Mostly from books I read, or movies I see. Occasionally I have that rare flash of insight and come up something original. Does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? Only if it's 3am, and I dont have anything prepared for my players the next day. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own dungeons, plots, stories, npcs? I do draw my own maps, dungeons, and cities. However I have been know to shamelessly steal plots and stories from books and movies. What happens ingame, in your worlds? Not sure what you're asking for here.... What do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? then I wing it, I make it up as a I go along. That's the real freedom of creating your own world.:D
constanzza 08-09-07, 01:14 PM	How many of you created your own world? I. What happens ingame, in your worlds? Not sure what you're asking for here.... well, first of all , im glad that you came by to see this thread and post areply, thanx. I asked, what happens in your world, beside of players.maybe politics, assassinations, major events, wars, and so on. how players fit in, are they importnat , does their actions influence world around them?
TheFrohmen 08-09-07, 02:49 PM	Warning: Semi-Spoiler for Elder Scrolls!!! Read at your own risk How many of you created your own world? I have created one based of of my Dwarf Fortress world (Check out DF, kicks ass), and one in an alternate Elder Scrolls universe. How much time you spend creating it? I mainly go on and off. Only really started them last year, but its hard with school. Its easier with ES cause I use most of the story. Where do you get ideas? Books, movies, games (hell yeah!), and of course, D&D/ Does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? Only if i look at the screen to much. Then i just take aspirin. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own dungeons, plots, stories, npcs? All right. I'm guilty. I take maps from online of ES, some npcs, lot of dungeons, and most plots. However, I am working on the alt plot of ES and the DF plot (though i did steal Apocalypse Now and edited it to fit DF) What happens ingame, in your worlds? DF: Group of settlers go to mountains and try to survive. ES: Emperor survives at cost of wounding of the hero from Oblivion (not dead, just badly wounded). declares war on oblivion forces. Lots of huge battles, but still working on making heroes fit in story. What do you do if players are not going the way you thought they are , and you haven't made story for the part they are going to? ES: I usually have a load of backup stories and if i don't, i just make a few (actually a hell lot) of strategic edits to one of the regular plots of the game and give 'em one. DF: I still am working on the world, but I probably will finish it by January '08. Anymore questions?:king: BTW: I'm probably going to post my Elder Scrolls world some day for all you to enjoy and comment/bash. :D
Coolrush 08-09-07, 09:12 PM	How many of you created your own world? Ive created a couple of worlds over the years. Ive even started over from scratch before because i didn't like the way my campaign was going. How much time you spend creating it? For my current campaign Ive been working on it on and off for around half a year. Where do you get ideas? Just about anything really. Mostly various anime, movies and video games and any ideas that just pop up. Does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? only when I cant think of a new idea or on how a map should look. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own dungeons, plots, stories, npcs? Yes I create my own maps and characters or at the very least try to mix them up a bit so they wont be too recognizable. What happens in game, in your worlds? lots of things..wars, pirate battles, assassination attempts, power struggles between multiple factions What do you do if players are not going the way you thought they are , and you haven't made story for the part they are going to? try to wing it the best I can and either try to improvise, adapt their direction into your original plans or think of a new quest.
PurinaDragonChow 08-10-07, 11:30 AM	I watched a lot of Rome and Sopranos when I was making up my current campaign world, so there's a lot of intrigue going on between different factions. I've created a fairly complex Thieves' Guild organized into three competing groups with different spheres of influence. I came up with a Council of 14 NPCs, most of which have their own interests and motivations (although a few of them are unimportant). I statred with the idea of an iconic party that had carved out a kingdom in the wilderness, and then fast-forwarded thirty years into the future, when the realm is under a new threat. Each of the members of the original party are going to have some effect on the story line. I spend a few hours a week coming up with stuff. Mostly when I'm driving to and from work. Creating the world gives me a chance to create a lot of characters that I might never actually get to play. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle some of the party's choices yet. I created a group similar to the Magi from The Mummy movies - and one of the characters showed them a plot item they had found, which I didn't expect (but obviously should have, I guess). So the way these guys work, they had to take the item from the party, dead or alive. I haven't quite figured out how that's going to play out yet. For deities, it isn't that important, because the group doesn't have a cleric. But I'm generally using the Greyhawk pantheon. I drew a map of the kingdom in the beginning as part of the concept of the campaign. Right now, I'm working on a map of the major city. One thing I tried with this campaign that has been really cool so far - I worked with each character to come up with a backstory that tied into the campaign world somehow. Most of the characters had some information that they didn't want to share with the party - it's been really interesting watching the group reveal their secrets to one another over the first few sessions. I gave each of them a different little piece of information that will be useful in solving the big issue in the campaign. In addition to creating role playing opportunities, it spreads my copious backstory over all of the characters - so I can get more information out there without overwhlming the players with a bunch of crap they don't care about.
constanzza 08-10-07, 11:52 AM	One thing I tried with this campaign that has been really cool so far - I worked with each character to come up with a backstory that tied into the campaign world somehow. Most of the characters had some information that they didn't want to share with the party - it's been really interesting watching the group reveal their secrets to one another over the first few sessions. I gave each of them a different little piece of information that will be useful in solving the big issue in the campaign. In addition to creating role playing opportunities, it spreads my copious backstory over all of the characters - so I can get more information out there without overwhlming the players with a bunch of crap they don't care about. yeah, thats a nice thing to do with players, make them work as a team.but i have a problem with that, because my players know each other very good, and they are actually playing as a team, so there are no secrets. DF: Group of settlers go to mountains and try to survive. ES: Emperor survives at cost of wounding of the hero from Oblivion (not dead, just badly wounded). declares war on oblivion forces. Lots of huge battles, but still working on making heroes fit in story. BTW: I'm probably going to post my Elder Scrolls world some day for all you to enjoy and comment/bash. :D OBLIVION RULEZ!AS MORROWIND DOES!:) hope i'll get a chance to read your story:)
Sisial 08-10-07, 11:54 AM	How much time you spend creating it? It changes a lot depending on the time given me. For example now that I'm enjoying summer break I'm trying to create a new campaign for the coming semester and the first 4-8 adventures so that I won't have to think about it at all during the semester. How long have you been creating it? This one has only been under construction for about 2 or 3 months. I never spend more than 6 months creating a campaign before I start running it. I know. I'm impatient. But also if I wait too long I have a bad habit of coming up with a million good campaign setting ideas and changing. Where do you get ideas? Anything exciting. I try to keep my DnD generally feeling more serious and intense. Due to my natural personality it always takes a macabre twist here and there. And no I'm not a vampire kid or something like that (no offense vampire kids!) Does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? Oh yeah. Often. It's intense. But after being in college for 2 years I can fight through it pretty well. I just have to take a break when it begins to cause a serious mental break. My inspiration and thus my productivity seems to come in waves. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs? I draw my own maps. First on graph paper, and then I map out any areas of combat using photoshop in 1 inch size squares. It works quite well actually. What happens ingame, in your worlds? All sorts I run a lot of traditional DnD games, but I've also run a bizarre world completely of my own creation and I've made plans for a western themed campaign. I always like to play very low magic. What do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? I generally can come up with something that leads them full circle back to where they were. If not I'm f-ed, but this is rare for me. I only give players the illusion of choice. As long as they buy it right? cant wait to see your posts I WOULD LOVE TO SEE SOME RECORDS OF ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL CAMPAIGNS ON THE ADVENTURES BOARD. I think that would be much more exciting that the red hand of doom over and over. :P
Temmogen 08-10-07, 02:14 PM	well, first of all , im glad that you came by to see this thread and post areply, thanx. I asked, what happens in your world, beside of players.maybe politics, assassinations, major events, wars, and so on. how players fit in, are they importnat , does their actions influence world around them? Oooohh!!! There are alot of things like that. The War of Spheres, in it's second cycle. The Order of the Raven is regularly preventing trouble. Illithid incursions happen quite frequently. Freemaids come out often from thier city. The players contribute greatly to the plots and stories. I did have a party fail to prevent an assassination, and it plunged the 2 largest kingdoms into war. Is that what you were looking for? :D
TheFrohmen 08-10-07, 03:31 PM	OBLIVION RULEZ!AS MORROWIND DOES!:) hope i'll get a chance to read your story:) Hell yeah! My story still needs work, so expect it 'round X-Mas (sorry :raincloud, but school is like getting kicked in the :censored:) Edit: as a prieview, here's a secret. It... will... be....raining... wood Elves! :)
OleOneEye 08-11-07, 12:28 PM	How much time you spend creating it? It heavily varies based on how inspired I feel. Sometimes an entire weekend can be spent. Sometimes I can go a month without doing anything. How long have you been creating it? Off and on for close to two decades now. Where do you get ideas? Anywhere they can be cannibalized. Being an armchair historian, real world history and anthropology are certainly very important influences. Brainstorming how various critters from the Monster Manuals would fit in is highly influential. Really, anything that sounds interesting. Hochiu's comment on this thread about his Nimuran Solstice Triplanes just inspired me to make some fantastical versions of aircraft. Does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? Not at all. I feel energized when working on it. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs? Hand-drawn world maps are something of a passion for me, though it took me forever to settle on how to draw mountains and I am still not happy with how I draw hills. Perfecting the art of drawing the same location with different scales took a significant amount of time. The largest problem I have is the continuiosly desire to revise them, and so, I have folder upon folder of old maps that no longer reflect my world. In creating dungeons, I prefer to draw out the location and detail the various NPCs, but not to actually place them or give them set tactics. Thus, depending upon the PCs approach, they can use flexible tactics. Plots and stories are mostly derived from how the various nations and power groups would interract. I am heavy on war scenarios. I often enjoy statting out NPCs, and I tend to keep old characters of mine or my players, so I have a folder full of many fleshed out NPCs sorted by level to plug in wherever necessary. What happens ingame, in your worlds? Of primary importance is the influence of the PCs on the world. One became the king of a nation and his descendents still rule in the current time. Another became the proto-typical archmage consumed with the quest for power whom all mages refer to this day, and his aging tower has never been conquered. The most magical city in the world was sunk beneath the ocean. PCs have won wars, released imprisoned gods, founded towns, etc. Little stands still as the PCs adventure about. They hear tales of the glories of other adventurers, machinations of various nations and power groups progress, new merchant shops open up and old ones close, NPCs die, etc. The desire is to make it feel like a changing world. What do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? There has long been a gentleman's agreement in my groups games to play the adventure the DM worked on. As we all trade DM duties, we all see the importance of not going too far astray. That said, unexpected things happen, best you can do is roll with it.
constanzza 08-11-07, 02:51 PM	How much time you spend creating it? What do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? I generally can come up with something that leads them full circle back to where they were. If not I'm f-ed, but this is rare for me. I only give players the illusion of choice. As long as they buy it right? I'm interested how do you do that, what do you say to them , give me an example,please:) Oooohh!!! There are alot of things like that. The War of Spheres, in it's second cycle. The Order of the Raven is regularly preventing trouble. Illithid incursions happen quite frequently. Freemaids come out often from thier city. The players contribute greatly to the plots and stories. I did have a party fail to prevent an assassination, and it plunged the 2 largest kingdoms into war. Is that what you were looking for? :D well yes.:) Hell yeah! My story still needs work, so expect it 'round X-Mas (sorry :raincloud, but school is like getting kicked in the :censored:) Edit: as a prieview, here's a secret. It... will... be....raining... wood Elves! :) cant wait to see that:) [B]Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs? Hand-drawn world maps are something of a passion for me, though it took me forever to settle on how to draw mountains and I am still not happy with how I draw hills. Perfecting the art of drawing the same location with different scales took a significant amount of time. The largest problem I have is the continuiosly desire to revise them, and so, I have folder upon folder of old maps that no longer reflect my world. There has long been a gentleman's agreement in my groups games to play the adventure the DM worked on. As we all trade DM duties, we all see the importance of not going too far astray. That said, unexpected things happen, best you can do is roll with it. I like hand-drawing maps too.It seems more.. ancient :) well only problem i have is the town map.sometimes i dont know what the down should look like.i need to imagine town map, and to draw it as a picture to easily explain to PCs how that town look like. yes, that is very important for DM-PC's relationship.respect.not to stray to far from the story like, if they want it to be fun, and not get killed:)
Arco Versipellis 08-12-07, 04:36 AM	How much time you spend creating it? I spend a few hours almost everyday writing something out. How long have you been creating it? I've been working four year on Alles, and I have only been playing the game eight. Where do you get ideas? The History Channel. I watch a lot of stuff on Rome and the Egyptians of course, but I really like stuff about barbarian cultures, especially the Celt, and Native American cultures. I use a lot of their mythology. Also, anything about Atlantis, because it is a major part of my world. Tolkien, of course. Also, the Brothers Grimm and traditional folklore. Marvel Comics and Star Wars as well. Does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? Sometimes. I can spend all night working on something and then feel like I have wasted my time. But then, something clicks, and I'm back in the game. Are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs? I am terrible with maps. Since I play solo campaigns almost all of the time, I don't have to have them. Still, I try. I visited Europe not tolong ago, and I got to tour a lot of castle, and I even brought back some maps. It helped me a lot. Our group usually does wilderness journies or urban investigations. I spread the fight out over several locales, which really breaksdown the concept of a dungeon. However, I do create all of my own dungeons, such as filling the above mentioned castle wih fey. Yeah, I write all of my own plots and stories. I connect everything and leave very few loose ends, though the PC may not ever realize it. I try to keep things open-ended, and the PC influences things a lot. I always feel like that is an advantage of a solo party (usually with DMPC though...) is that the players can really shapethe story. I build NPCs all of the time. I don't use them all, but I do save them and all of my old characters. There are so many intersting things you can do in the game, and NPCs are a fun way to explore that. They tend to get my players more excited about the game than places. What happens ingame, in your worlds? It caries greatly. Some characters follow a path of a wanderer seeking pleasure. They may battle strange beasts and have affairs with nymphs, having little impact on the rest of the world. Sometimes they spend five levels dealing with pirates, and another were a pair of elves simply adventured. However, a lot of the times PCs become major figures. I've had PCs become nobles and build armies, act as military leaders, defeated figures that threatened the world, raise Atlantis from the sea, build a necropolis, save a halfling caravan from certain destruction, and, most recently, lead a faction to victory in a singles tournament to see who would control the most complex series of planar pools in the cosmos. What do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? I roll with it; I'm good on my feet. I had a group that was 2/3 nonpsionic become invovled with the Shrine (major psionic guild) in a war with their enermy. You throw in a slaguthered clergy and some giant eagles, the cleric and ranger don't really care.
Armsman 08-12-07, 11:41 AM	I'm working on my own campaign setting now. Game mechanics I don't have much of a problem with. There are three things I have serious difficulties with, though. I'm no good at coming up with place names -- last night I spent an hour trying to think of a name I liked for a nation of Goblinoids. All I came up with was a name for one Dwarven city. I can't draw a natural-looking map. Never could, probably never will. I also have a hard time building a comprehensive cosmology. EDIT: Of course, as soon as I say that, I'm inspired. Vallagia, a nation ruled by Goblinoids.
Malruhn 08-12-07, 11:09 PM	For my own world, I figured the group would need nothing more than a "kingdom" sized land, so I took a map of Europe and very sloppily traced the coast of the Med. Then I turned it upside down, and made the REAL Mediterranian side the land, and the real Europe side the water. I grabbed a reference book from the library to put in mountain ranges where it seemed logical, added some rivers and forests... and was done with that part. Total time, about 60 minutes. I made about 20 copies of the map, then I looked at where the rivers came out of the mountains, and where it looked like there were passes through the mountains. I looked at the real European map again and put cities where they seemed logical. Then I looked at where the rivers hit the ocean, and put cities there. I added them in different colors on different maps, so I knew that THIS map was nothing but elven cities... and that map was nothing but dwarven cities, etcetera. Then I started naming them. This part is easy (Armsman). If you turn off your brain and don't think too hard, that is!! What are you naming? An Elvish city? Then it has to flow and be beautiful - and be Elven in nature. Google for an Elven dictionary online, and look at your own location: Blackfoot. That would be "Mor"="black", and then something for foot... who takes care of feet? Podiatrists... How about: Mor Podorian? It was named after a great battle against the black-footed orc tribe the elves defeated. Dwarvish? Google again and start out with the dwarven word for dwarf: Khazad. For Blackfoot, you are stuck... but you can get creative with "strong bones"... Karakthorden. For human settlements, it was easier. My high-school history teacher was Mr. Hagen... so this little barony out in the middle of nowhere was "Hagenheim" (Germanic for Hagen Home). A capital can be named after a major city: Rotterdam becomes Rottalanda... Moscow becomes Muzkana... Even Blackfoot can become Ebonsoul (from ebon sole... sole of the foot?) If you shut down Mr. Brain, a whole lot of this gets very easy. My total time for initial creation was about two hours, total. Since then, it's been several thousand hours, with adding Baron Hagen's court and stats and economic info (who grows what, where, and who needs it), and weather, and monster locations, and all the other poop that goes into making a complete world. Oh, and I have stolen very liberally from books I have read as well. The place names are great!! You can use character names also... but not the main characters. If Drizzt meets Mara the healer... then use Mara as a lower level cleric in charge of a tiny church in a backwater town. If Fizbin meets Ultarin the Brave, then Ultarin is now an old baron who used to be a brave knight. See what I mean about turning off the brain? ;)
Armsman 08-13-07, 01:19 AM	That sounds awful difficult for a brain that is turned off -- which I'm terrible at doing, BTW. Like I said, stats are the easy part for me. I can create a character in my head, complete with point-buy build, feat selection, skill allocation, armor class, average health, a selection of basic equipment. I can then carry that character around in my head for hours without losing one iota of that info. Numbers are easy; words are difficult. Sometimes I wonder why I decided writing was a good career choice. I have a solid grasp on the English language, but I have a deathgrip on numbers.
Angorath 08-13-07, 01:52 AM	Sometimes I use this technique to come up with names. Get a set of index cards and write a syllable on each one. Shuffle them around and lay out cards until you get something you like. There are enough Elvish/Dwarvish/Orcish/etc names already around to get plenty of syllables from.
Armsman 08-13-07, 02:13 AM	In the interim from my last post I've come up with some names to use in a Dwarven kingdom I'm working on. The kingdom itself will be named Wularia. The king's palace will be named Whitehall, on account of the pearly white marble used to build it. And there will be a city somewhere in the kingdom named Bruganburg. They tend to come in bursts for me.
constanzza 08-13-07, 09:38 PM	Then I started naming them. This part is easy (Armsman). If you turn off your brain and don't think too hard, that is!! What are you naming? An Elvish city? Then it has to flow and be beautiful - and be Elven in nature. Google for an Elven dictionary online, and look at your own location: Blackfoot. That would be "Mor"="black", and then something for foot... who takes care of feet? Podiatrists... How about: Mor Podorian? It was named after a great battle against the black-footed orc tribe the elves defeated. Dwarvish? Google again and start out with the dwarven word for dwarf: Khazad. For Blackfoot, you are stuck... but you can get creative with "strong bones"... Karakthorden. For human settlements, it was easier. My high-school history teacher was Mr. Hagen... so this little barony out in the middle of nowhere was "Hagenheim" (Germanic for Hagen Home). A capital can be named after a major city: Rotterdam becomes Rottalanda... Moscow becomes Muzkana... Even Blackfoot can become Ebonsoul (from ebon sole... sole of the foot?) If you shut down Mr. Brain, a whole lot of this gets very easy. My total time for initial creation was about two hours, total. yeah man, thats what im talking about, creativity in place, master at work:)) that's why people with same interest need to meet each other, to share ideas, way of lifes and so on.you gave me new way to create.thanx. well i hope this post will continue. answer the rest of the questions, not just those five above.
Malruhn 08-16-07, 11:16 PM	Sorry - I didn't realize that you had asked more questions! I just went with the floe... (as in, "ice floe", rather than "flow"). does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? Not at all. I do what I can, when I can, and when I bog down, I quit. Like Armsman, it all tends to come in spurts... I can be gaming, or playing on the internet, or eating dinner, and that PERFECT name for the dwarven necromonger comes to mind. I grab a hunk of paper and jot it down. Unfortunately, I then tend to lose the paper until AFTER I needed it... are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs? I do my own maps, but a I also plagarize a LOT. I can watch a stupid 1970's sitcom on TV and get an idea for a side-adventure... Adventure-type cartoons are great for adventure hooks as well. If players watch enough TV, they may pick up on it. It also helps that I'm in the military... so I move every couple years, and can re-work old ideas that worked well... what happens ingame, in your worlds?what do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? First off, the plot will continue - no matter what the PC's do. If they don't rush out to save the princess from the dragon, she ends up being lunch. If they murder a blind nun, the church investigates and puts a contract out on them. If the players let the kobold run free, he MAY end up building an army to go slay the humans... or he may help some hurt human to "pay them back." If I have a "Save the Princess" planned, and the group wants to go West... and not stop... I will let them. The Princess dies, the people that tried to hire them get ticked off, and the group goes West. I now have enough of my campaign world built that I can wing it if they do stuff like that. If I plan a "Save the Princess" and they wanna go drinking, I let them, and then I make sure that the characters hear about the horrid death of Princess Saveme. I have enough old adventure seeds and hooks from years as a player and DM, that I can wing something. When I plan a scenario, I also plan for contingencies. If they are going to the Big Bad Tower of Ultimate Evil (TM) to save the Princess, I start with the obvious... they'll go through the front door. If they do this, then AAA will happen. If they go through the back door, then BBB will happen. If they fly up to the big window, then CCC will happen. And so on... Eventually, after four or five alternatives, I figure they won't go further, I go with it. The only time I've been burned is when there are female gamers in the party - cuz girls don't think like boys - and If I plan for five alternatives, they will almost ALWAYS pick alternative 14... or alternative BLUE. It REALLY keeps me on my toes, and is one of the big reasons I love to game with female gamers. I also try to have my NPC's use their skills and stats. If Bob the BBEG is scheming and sly, he will react that way to the party... he WON'T rush in and start swinging his big sword. If the players are sniping defenders, they will start waving helmets to draw fire and force the characters to waste arrows. If the BBEG is inbeatable, BUT is also very vain, if the characters compliment him, he will begin to listen. This can end up being used to defeat him... even when he is "unbeatable." And the last big rule is: If the character does something stupid, he deserves to get what he earned. It may be a broken sword... it may be an opportunity for the player to roll up a new character.
Elthbert 08-17-07, 07:06 PM	ok people, I'm interested, how many of you there around the world(i hope you are not all from America) creating your own world?how much time you spend creating it?how long have you been creating it?where do you get ideas? does your head hurts when you're trying to create something your own? are you drawing your own maps, creating your own doungens, plots, stories, npcs?what's a DM to do, helped me alot in some of those questions. what happens ingame, in your worlds?what do you do if players are not going the way you tought they are , and you havent made story for the part they are going to? wow , alot of questions I've asked, but , hell, i need to know how many of you are same as me:P cant wait to see your posts:D :invasio:incog: :lop: n: :cheer: :duel: :mage: :dragon: :bounce: :dancin: :ayyyy!: i like these smilies I run My own world, I have been runnigngthe same word for about 20 years now. I do all my own maps, NPCs etc. One of the big advantages to it is that PC's actions can have real effects on the world without worrying about the next published enhancment. I run about 95 % origional adventures with the occasional adapted adventure module. If my players do something unexpected I just run with it--- that seems to be quite often actually. But I have a rich history and such to work with so going off the cuff is not that beig a deal.
constanzza 08-18-07, 07:24 AM	If Bob the BBEG is scheming and sly, he will react that way to the party... . sorry but i dont know all acronyms:P whats BBEG? read my thread well, from the start, there are alot of questions, then after few replys and quotes i asked another 10 or 15 questions:) Im glad you found time to answer at all , all of you:) thanx I've been creating my forld for past few days, and it felt very good.i have about 10 or 15 towns , for which i haev to think city-map, city descriptions, NPCs in those towns, history and so on.uhhh ,kinda hard but worthy:)
taradusis 08-18-07, 07:46 AM	Big,Bad,Evil,Guy.
Mr_Seth 08-18-07, 08:58 AM	Time creating? - A few hours. My worlds are loose frameworks that I can work with whilst I DM. A map, a listing of gods, a few good ideas and some important power groups, and I'm golden. My worlds have either stayed relatively close to the core campaign world - the same gods with a few others added in, just different places - or strayed from it in pretty drastic ways. I actually created a campaign world on the Giant in the Playground forums that was an alternate version of the Abyss, where ANYONE who died directly opposing the will of ANY of the gods could be sent. That said, I'm currently working on two new worlds at once - a new semi-oriental setting, and my Magnum Opus, Vrennell. I don't think that Vrennell will ever REALLY be finished, but one day I might just get that one into publishable shape... Does your head hurt when you're trying to create something your own? Nope. I just go with my first instincts and hammer out the joints later on. Maps, dungeons, plots, stories, npcs? World maps are done first. Dungeons are done on-the-fly, with a general idea of what's going to be in them, and a stack of notes on monsters/villains/traps to include. Plots and stories? Also made up on the fly. I get a core idea of what I want to happen, but most of it depends on PC choices. I make sure that these guys are at the center of what's happening, and they know it! "What happens in game, in your worlds? What do you do if players are not going the way you thought they are , and you haven't made story for the part they are going to?" Doesn't really apply - I make almost everything up off the cuff anyway. If worse comes to worse, I have them run into something absolutely bizzare. Once I had a group run into a cactus that kept reappearing. They weren't going in circles, the same cactus just kept... showing up. Then they melted the cactus - the next time they saw it, there was a vast field of cacti - and the melted one in front. He'd brought backup. The PCs ran, but not before a saguaro punched one of them - and stole his cookies. Wild magic fields can explain a lot. Don't be afraid to be a little silly from time to time. Climate, weather, calendar...what do you say to your players? I give them a general time of year, and say what the weather's like. That's about it. Gods? How do you deal with them? Cosmology? Sometimes I use the core deities; most of the time I make my own. My Abyssal campaign was chock-full of dead gods, ranging from Irata (a goddess of order that was turned into a living statue by Erythnull, to be splintered apart and reformed at his pleasure) and Yaw-dim Ylaab (The Torturous Master, a god that loves using mortal pawns to do his bidding). My cosmologies are often quite different from standard - one campaign world I was thinking about doing had ALL the planes (except for the Ethereal plane) colliding with the Prime Material, making a gigantic Uber-plane. That world had a heavy nautical theme, so the different shards of planes became islands and the surrounding sea - a chunk of Mechanus would have perfectly symmetrical currents and cubical icebergs, for example; the Plane of Fire would be represented by volcanoes and boiling seas that flames danced atop.
TheFrohmen 08-19-07, 11:52 AM	'K, I got it. I believe i can get a recruit/help thread started here, but it will still take some time to get it together. I plan to get it into pdf formate too. :pint: Drink up me hearties, you :censored: :eek: :D
Arthnek_the_Boar 08-19-07, 03:31 PM	Fun thread! Welcome to the hobby. It is wonderful to hear that there are Dungeons and Dragons fans in Serbia. World Creation I began creating my own campaign settings in 1978. As a Dungeon Master in those days I spent a moderate amount of time creating my own maps, dungeons and so forth. In 1988 I began playing around with a new idea for a D&D setting which evolved into The World of Skybourne. I have been writing for that setting off and on for the last twenty years. By 1995 I realized that this setting was by far my best creative work as a writer and I began to invest more time into it in the hopes of someday producing several fantasy novels. For the last twelve years or so I have been working on Skybourne at a steady pace despite moving away from my own group of players and seeking a new playing group. Right now the Skybourne campaign resides in fourteen books and fills more pages of maps and notes than I'd care to admit. I have full books of histories, studies of languages, climates, three ages of religious change, quite a number of original monsters and beasts and on and on. Why do all this work? I suppose I just love writing fantasy. At some point as a writer you cross the line where you are no longer just writing to finish a school paper or a novel but you write because you love it. Skybourne is a labor of love for me and always will be. I still work on the novels for the setting and have one edging closer and closer to being finished. I also have plans to begin posting my books on the internet as free .pdf downloads for those looking for something fun to play as a campaign setting. I would love to share all this work I have done with other DM's and players. It is just a matter of editing which I am working on right now. Creating a world which is deep and alive, almost breathing is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Keep at it as it will only become more rewarding as you invest time into your work. Best Regards, Arthnek
constanzza 08-19-07, 08:34 PM	Fun thread! Welcome to the hobby. It is wonderful to hear that there are Dungeons and Dragons fans in Serbia. I would love to share all this work I have done with other DM's and players. It is just a matter of editing which I am working on right now. Best Regards, Arthnek I'm glad that you've heard of serbia:) most people dont know. there are alot of poeple in serbia playin DMing as well, like me.I have problem , not being player.havent played for 3-4 years , and im dying:P i would love to see your story, and if you are willing i could share you mine, which i've been creating for 3-4 years, maybe, but thats mostly unsorted work, but you can find something:) I liked idea on writting my books, actually i tryed to write a real fantasy story, but i've reached about 30 A4 papers:) other thing im planing is to write already played D&D campaign i led , its about paladin, 7th paladin/1st purple knight.interesting. Im glad you liked this thread. Banzai!