Campaign Setting Creation [Archive] - Wizards Community

Campaign Setting Creation [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
EnigmaRPG
07-24-05, 10:37 AM Let's say I want to make my very own campaign setting. I was thinking I would do it off of Terry Goodkinds books in the sword of truth series. How does one go about such a daunting task?
solandras
07-24-05, 11:07 AM Well firstly, great book series, glad you read it, and I've actually thought of making a setting based on it. but anyways...

Everyone is gonna say you can make a CS in a variety of ways, but here's one...

1) Decide whether or you to make it on a large scale, then go inward to the detail, or small then growing outward. The CS I made focused on a single city originally, and has been growing outward by where the PC's end up. Once they arrive, I create the place. However I do have a base map of where major cities are located, the geography, things like that.

2) Usually when making a new CS you want something to be diffferent. If you are basing it off the Sword of Truth series, you already have enough. Firstly stress the Additive/Subtractive magic, as that is vital to the system. Unfortanatly (I had to do it too) you are going to have to take whatever books you allow, and convert their spells to either additive or subtractive. Based on that, characters mostly will be resticted in what they can use. As an additional note, remember there is only one kind of magic user really. They don't split them into Wizard, Cleric, Druid, etc. They all do the same thing, all use the same thing. There is also the thing about how they can usually cast spells seemingly all day, so maybe institute a spell point system or something to accomidate that.

3) If it's BASED on his books, that's one thing and you can make maps/timeline or whatever as you wish. If it takes place in the same storyline, then you'll easily have a map to use, but you'll have to figure out where in the timeline you'll be running.

Ummm really everything else it pending on what you want, and the amount of details. A simple thing could be to use the DMG random town generator and make cities that way, list everything in there, then write down some brief notes. (that's what a friend of mine did).
OmiKapSi
08-06-05, 04:19 PM I generally find it useful to go over the chapters in the PHB and DMG and work out, chapter by chapter, what I'm keeping, what I'm changing, and what I'm removing.

This may seem daunting, I've listed the twelve aspects below that I consider most important. However, it's quite all right to start simple, go with the defaults, and just make a few minor changes. As the campaign develops, you can add and modify what you want to.

For example, when going over the races section, I changed just about every race except half-orcs, removed halflings, and modified the racial attributes, dividing them into racial and culteral modifiers. Thus most physical things (stat modifiers and physical abilities) are racial, and the rest (skill modifiers and other such things) are cultural modifiers. Any race can come from any culture (in theory), but it's not common.
On the other hand, it's quite all right to just leave them as written. It's certainly easier.

Chapter by chapter this give you:
Abilities: Usually unchanged.
Races: What sort of races are available to player characters? What sort of races are common?
Classes: Same questions as races.
Skills: Generally it's only necessary to clarify a skill or two.
Feats: What feats are available? Are there any new ones available? Are there any that aren't available for some reason?
Description; This is broken down into:
Alignment: How do alignments work in your setting.
Religion: Of importance later on. Immediately, what deities exist and what their alignments and domains are is of importance to clerics.
Equipment: Are there any unusual items or weapons available to the characters? Are there any that are not available for some reason? Are there any new materials available?
Magic: Are there any changes, cosmetic or ruleswise about magic?
Once that is done, the DMG deserves a quick look, although there's only three chapters relevant to campaign building;
Campaigns: This will give you pointers on establishing background and setting, and making it realistic. It deals with the two parts of your world, civilized, and savage. Civilized includes such things as politics, economics, racial demographics, culture and society. Savage includes such things as geography and ecology.
In addition there are sections on religion and magic, and how they work (or don't work, as the case may be).
Finally, history and cosmology are useful, but not always necessary.
Characters: Mostly important for considering any modifications that you may want to do to core races and classes, but also useful for considering whether you want to incorperate prestige classes, and if so, which ones.
Magic Items: How common they are and how they function.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
EnigmaRPG 07-24-05, 10:37 AM	Let's say I want to make my very own campaign setting. I was thinking I would do it off of Terry Goodkinds books in the sword of truth series. How does one go about such a daunting task?
solandras 07-24-05, 11:07 AM	Well firstly, great book series, glad you read it, and I've actually thought of making a setting based on it. but anyways... Everyone is gonna say you can make a CS in a variety of ways, but here's one... 1) Decide whether or you to make it on a large scale, then go inward to the detail, or small then growing outward. The CS I made focused on a single city originally, and has been growing outward by where the PC's end up. Once they arrive, I create the place. However I do have a base map of where major cities are located, the geography, things like that. 2) Usually when making a new CS you want something to be diffferent. If you are basing it off the Sword of Truth series, you already have enough. Firstly stress the Additive/Subtractive magic, as that is vital to the system. Unfortanatly (I had to do it too) you are going to have to take whatever books you allow, and convert their spells to either additive or subtractive. Based on that, characters mostly will be resticted in what they can use. As an additional note, remember there is only one kind of magic user really. They don't split them into Wizard, Cleric, Druid, etc. They all do the same thing, all use the same thing. There is also the thing about how they can usually cast spells seemingly all day, so maybe institute a spell point system or something to accomidate that. 3) If it's BASED on his books, that's one thing and you can make maps/timeline or whatever as you wish. If it takes place in the same storyline, then you'll easily have a map to use, but you'll have to figure out where in the timeline you'll be running. Ummm really everything else it pending on what you want, and the amount of details. A simple thing could be to use the DMG random town generator and make cities that way, list everything in there, then write down some brief notes. (that's what a friend of mine did).
OmiKapSi 08-06-05, 04:19 PM	I generally find it useful to go over the chapters in the PHB and DMG and work out, chapter by chapter, what I'm keeping, what I'm changing, and what I'm removing. This may seem daunting, I've listed the twelve aspects below that I consider most important. However, it's quite all right to start simple, go with the defaults, and just make a few minor changes. As the campaign develops, you can add and modify what you want to. For example, when going over the races section, I changed just about every race except half-orcs, removed halflings, and modified the racial attributes, dividing them into racial and culteral modifiers. Thus most physical things (stat modifiers and physical abilities) are racial, and the rest (skill modifiers and other such things) are cultural modifiers. Any race can come from any culture (in theory), but it's not common. On the other hand, it's quite all right to just leave them as written. It's certainly easier. Chapter by chapter this give you: Abilities: Usually unchanged. Races: What sort of races are available to player characters? What sort of races are common? Classes: Same questions as races. Skills: Generally it's only necessary to clarify a skill or two. Feats: What feats are available? Are there any new ones available? Are there any that aren't available for some reason? Description; This is broken down into: Alignment: How do alignments work in your setting. Religion: Of importance later on. Immediately, what deities exist and what their alignments and domains are is of importance to clerics. Equipment: Are there any unusual items or weapons available to the characters? Are there any that are not available for some reason? Are there any new materials available? Magic: Are there any changes, cosmetic or ruleswise about magic? Once that is done, the DMG deserves a quick look, although there's only three chapters relevant to campaign building; Campaigns: This will give you pointers on establishing background and setting, and making it realistic. It deals with the two parts of your world, civilized, and savage. Civilized includes such things as politics, economics, racial demographics, culture and society. Savage includes such things as geography and ecology. In addition there are sections on religion and magic, and how they work (or don't work, as the case may be). Finally, history and cosmology are useful, but not always necessary. Characters: Mostly important for considering any modifications that you may want to do to core races and classes, but also useful for considering whether you want to incorperate prestige classes, and if so, which ones. Magic Items: How common they are and how they function. Hope this helps. Good luck.