Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sparhawk104 10-09-03, 01:22 PM	Hello I'm currently working on a fantasy roleplaying world of my own and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on how to go about doing that. I have very little experience of pen and paper roleplaying games, I have only played PC games. Regards, Robert
Triton 10-09-03, 01:54 PM	Start with your favorite campaign theme, and leave lots of room for further development.
avian tiefling 10-09-03, 05:11 PM	i, too, have never played pen-and-paper versions, only AD&D. i have, however, devised a coulple settings of my own. using a setting of your own leaves lots of room for innovation. a good way to start would be to take an exhisting setting and modify it to fit your liking. for example, take the FR setting. if you think it needs something, add it. if you don't like something, get rid of it. here's a few tips. -think of what races you like and which you don't want to use. -come up with a philosophy for the setting. (planes, dieties, supernatural forces, etc.) -take your favorite classes and make societies(guilds, governments, tribes, etc.) based on them. for example, i favor rogues; so i make thieving guilds a prominent thing in my setting. -think of whether you want to use bright setting, like FR or planescape, or a dark, bleak one, like in Warhammer. -the era it takes place in (FR is a medieval style, or you could use a futuristic setting, and so on and so forth) -take some thing you enjoy or believe in, and make it an important feature (if you like sports, for example, make them a focal point of society, even inventing your own is a good idea.) -figure out what kind of supernatural powers you like. (FR uses magic that is drawn from some source, some settings have the power come from the strength of the wielder,) -decide on which magical items you like, and make them either common or, if you want to use them as a part of a story, make them extremely rare. you can even make your own, as making a setting of your own gives a lot of leeway and room for inovation. hope it helps.
Sparhawk104 10-12-03, 03:13 AM	Thanks for all your tips, I'm sure they will help me with my project:) .
chris7476 10-12-03, 11:45 AM	Go to the What's a DM To Do? board and search for the Useful DM Links thread.
FineasBoggs 10-14-03, 02:29 PM	I remember reading about some of the ideas that Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis talked about when they were developing the Dragonlance setting. The one thing that stood out was that you have to have history. Even if the entire background isn't fleshed out, you still need to have names and events in the past the lend to the settings authenticity, color and depth.
Morka 10-15-03, 10:44 AM	I good way to have a credible geographic setting is to go with the continental drift: Start with a large island, and divide it in some smaller portions. Determine the way each portion should travel. Draw your map a few thousands years later, and change the way of some land portions: some of them could collide together and make some high montains (think of the Tibet or Pyrene). Other land portions could continue at a far distance to simule a "New World" on your setting. You can decide that a meteorite could collide with your planet and form a sea somewhere it is not supposed to. Different races can evolve in each continents. Each race could have his own technology (one could breed large animals for their defence, while another race could prefer to use manpower in large legions, or war mages.). Start a war between all them, and you have a wonderful setting.