i am looking for tips whats really important if i write my own setting.
which details should be determined at first?
which parts take most time to work out?
and more question which i forget....
my plan is an own 4e Discworld setting because i am the only one who take the time to read the books in my group. i want bring them the whole world closer and the best way i think is a setting.
Have them first decide what races/classes they would like to play, then build a story around the characters. You already have the world picked out (Discworld), so you should have plenty of ideas for places and things that exist there.
Also, find out what your players want and like, I would suggest giving them each an index card (or sheet of paper) and write down the top 5 things they have wanted to see in a campaign, then go through them all (in private) and see what the players want... Don't try to fit them all in, but if you can pick out 2 of the items from each card and work it into the game in some way, that would make the players happy and give them what they want.
A list might look like this:
1) Fight a dragon
2) Battle on the ocean in pirate boats
3) Obtain a magic sword that has a special ability
4) Explore the underdark
5) Find my long lost sister (Role Playing the history of the character)
So you see what I am saying, all of these are good things, but too much to put into one adventure, especially with more players also doing the list, but from the above list, you might get a basic plot going that involves the party having to travel to a distant island (by boat) to battle a dragon... So there are 2 of the five things right off the bat.
Make it interesting to your players first and foremost, worry about pointless history and fluff later if it becomes relevant.
Good luck!
D.
- Is the world idealistic or cynical?
- Is it a place where the world is largely at peace except the monsters, or do wars still rage?
- Is safety and expectation or and oddity?
- What types of monsters are the set peace of the world? What changes to them could make them more prominent?
- Is the world clean and bright, or muddy and dark.
etc, etc.
Once you know how the world should feel, nations and terrain becomes easier.
With my homebrew, I often find myself focusing in a few areas:
PLAYABLE RACES
Which races are available? All the ones from the Player's Handbook? Any left out? No half-elves in my homebrew
. Are there any races from supplements? (such as goliaths from Races of Stone) I feature Muls (from Dark Sun) in my homebrew.
What's unique about the races in your setting? In my homebrew, Warforged are engaged in a genocidal war with the Dwarves.
CLASSES
I ask myself similar questions to those for races. Which classes from the PH are available? Sorcerers but no wizards in my homebrew ;).
Do you use any of the classes from the Complete series? Such as the Hexblade, the Scout, the Spirit Shaman, the Swashbuckler, the Warlock.
How about prestige classes? In my homebrew, Bards, Paladins, and Rangers are prestige classes (as presented in Unearthed Arcana). I also port several from the supplements and re-work their fluff for my needs. For instance: Knight of the Purple Dragon becomes Knight of the Silver Dragon; Unseen Seer becomes Knight of the Arcane Eye (essentially a spy).
ORGANIZATIONS
Make some up or snatch a few from the supplements. I've homebrewed the Arcane Eye for my setting and snatched the Wolves of Maldeen (from Dragon #364) for my own use. I snatch ideas from supplements all the time; nothing wrong with that, is there ;)?
HOME BASE
Check out "Fallcrest" from the 4e Dungeon Master's Guide (starting on page 196); this is what a home base is. This is where the PCs spend their time between adventures.
Develop an initial home base. The PCs might soon move outward in their adventures. Then, develop another, as needed. As always I don't want to create more work for myself than absolutely necessary. This approach ("inside-out") is described on page 135 of the v.3.5 DMG; "Outside-In" (a big picture approach) is also described.
***
I prefer the "Inside-Out" approach to homebrewing. I develop only what I need to flesh the setting (no more). My intenion isn't to create the next Forgotten Realms. That would be near impossible (for me at least), so I don't even try. Instead, I develop what interests me the most, then I put it out there, just have fun with it.
I'm sure others will be along who can describe the "Outside-In" approach ;).
Right now, I'm working on developing a full setting to be published, complete with some rules core doesn't have. That's a bit different, as I need to build up a more thorough history and background and much more overall world building. I'm also hand drawing out the map and cultural weapon flavor drafts (remember those from the Presents series? I loved those.) I'm also working on some mechanics that core doesn't have that I need and a few other things like items and rituals.
From there, I need to work with my artist (a fellow student here) to create a cohesive style and work out details, like a few cities and major NPCs. It's been my experience that these last two should always be the final stage, even if I'm just cobbling something together quickly for my players. Something as small as one magic item can completely change how an NPC will be built or how they view their world.
Granted, I'm weird about these things, especially details. So no matter how I start the world, it usually ends up being very different.
You can either design a whole entire world (or continent or region) at once deciding on history and nations and cities and races.
OR
You can just design the small region where the PCs are adventuring and build-up from there adding more when needed.
which details should be determined at first?
Deciding how much information you need.
Deciding top-down or bottom-up.
Generally you should settle on a theme or basic physics of the world. What makes it special and unique, what defines the world. Generally, if you had to describe your world with a blurb on the back of a book or introduction to a chapter, what would you say?
From there it varies. You don't need much for a bottom-up world except a starting area.
For top-down you might want to decide what the kingdoms you want are, the role of the major races, and possibly the gods/churches involved. Then a map is always nice, sketching out regions and kingdoms. Some attention should be paid to the basic economic questions (how does every town/city/nation make its money? Where does everyone get their food? What do they trade as exports and what do they import?)
which parts take most time to work out?
I always find making cities a pain once I have everything else done. You have to assign a neat "hook" or difference to all these tiny dots on the map and give each a name. Sometimes its just easier to come-up with the city's purpose in-game.
my plan is an own 4e Discworld setting because i am the only one who take the time to read the books in my group. i want bring them the whole world closer and the best way i think is a setting.
Exactly like the world or changing it for D&D?
Exactly like the world or changing it for D&D?
i would like to find something in the middle.
which details should be determined at first?
What is your worlds hook? That is where I start, why am I creating this world and what makes it interesting? It might be an evil ruler who's empire spans much of the lands, or a particular bit of history or a map. It might be a particular type of adventure, such as building a world for high fantasy, low fantasy or humor. It might be a particular terrain feature, such as a hollow world or an uncharted ocean. Start from the hook and work out from there.
In your case, your building a world based on an existing setting. What parts of that setting do you intend to use? Think about what parts you might need to tweak to make them work in a campaign. Diskworlds magic system and races where not designed with a balanced campaign in mind.
Then look at what interests you, what interests your players and what are they likely to interact with?
In the first category, I usually spend some time developing pointless back history for some things in the world, just because I enjoy building those histories. It might be the details of the coinage system used in a particular kingdom, or the flaky linage of a particular noble family. I usually work this stuff in the campaign at some point as detail flavor bits, but they are not really that important.
In the second are things like the back story for races the players like, details of new classes they want and so on. This might be the background story for a noble family that a character will be part of, or the details of world region setup to fit a characters style. You don't have to include everything the players want, but you should try to incorporate some of it.
In the third are things like the various power structures of the world, who runs things and what do they do? But you also need to consider game mechanics like paragon paths and spells that are unique to this world.
Then move to the small scale. Work out what the first adventure will be and develop that in detail. You will usually find some details you need to add to your world as you develop the adventure.
which parts take most time to work out?
That is up to you. Half of the secret to making campaign worlds is knowing what details are worth working out and what are not worth it. Talk to your players about your ideas and see what interests them. There is no point in spending a week building a balanced troll race if none of your players are interested in playing one.
If you intend to add new classes or races, you will need to invest a lot of thought and planning into them. They need to be interesting races mechanically, interesting to your players, and be balanced.
If you intend to add some new mechanics, they should get a lot of work. You need to consider carefully how they interact with the world and the players, do they make the PCs more or less powerful? Will they irritate the players?
Jay
Land masses, islands, rivers, that sort of thing. From there I put cities in the logical places, and divide them into what look to me logical nations.
Then I say "OK who would live in this nation, it is mountianous... Dwarves. This is the dwarven nation up here." For all the nations. Some nations are dual race, some are multi-race.
Then I look at the world and say "Ok, what would some logical problems these nations would face be. Oh,the dwarves don't have a port. They need a port to trade. The elves next door have a port. Are dwarves in this game going to be peaceful and try to rent use of the port, or are they waging war to get that port for themselves?"
This usually leads to racial identites, and racial interactions. From here it is fairly easy to pick a government structure and the little stuff for each thing as you go.
So I wrote the tone of the world with the following, it's going with the general PoL thing although I prefer SoL as shards are easily broken and is a dark and grim place:
Show
This then is the world as it exists today, shards of civilization, the last remnants of the sun glinting from the edges to cast tiny rainbows of all color before nightfall comes bringing with it all the fear and darkness and uncertainty of the unknown.
Those that prefer the light huddle over the remaining few embers of civilization as lonely souls caught in a blizzard of darkest snow huddle over their last precious sticks of wood as the cold winds howl and tear at their fragile shelter.
The biggest cities, once jewels beyond description have fallen into decay and misery, where once hundreds of thousands bustled and thrived in their lives, bare tens of thousands now trudge out their years. Large cities hold bare thousands now with entire sections of city fallen into disrepair and squallor. Untold numbers of towns, villages and hamlets have dropped from the face of the world, swallowed by the darkness unending.
The mighty airships that once traversed the skies carrying goods and passengers far above the dangers of the wilderness are seldom seen, the mighty rituals that empower them seldom cast, or perhaps the numbers of those with the power to cast them shrunk too far to do so.
The brave or reckless who still traverse the countryside to bring trade between the cities do so on foot and wagon and ships that fear to leave sight of land. And their numbers grow smaller every year as each year sees a few simply disapearing never to be heard from again. And each year there are less who have the courage to take up the mantle of keeping the lines of trade and communication open.
The fabled city of Aredale, City of the Clouds is no more, the remains like the shattered golden bones of a mighty drake scattered across the Wind plains with only scavengers to fight and snarl for rapidly spoiling fragments.
The black dank waters of the Black Swamps in the south creep outward a little more each year, eroding and poisoning the adjacent lands.
With the shrinking of the Light so shrink the lives of those who turn their face to it. A hand of decades perhaps is all most of those born human manage between squalling birth to whimpering death. Where once populations boomed, fewer now are born into this world of darkness and fewer survive to adulthood.
Races that once shared an enimity against one another find little strength to hold their hatreds and most realize that only combined efforts hold faint hope of warding off the dark and little hope there is of pushing it back. All those who turn their face from the darkness walk as equals and uneasy comrades as each shard is slowly worn down till it shatters.
Yes, this then is the world of Karn as it exists today. Faint welcome you’ll find as you enter but perhaps, just perhaps, you will find the strength of will and heart and arm to help hold off the darkness for a little while longer, to perhaps give ease and succor where exists only pain and suffering.
This then is the world as it exists today, shards of civilization, the last remnants of the sun glinting from the edges to cast tiny rainbows of all color before nightfall comes bringing with it all the fear and darkness and uncertainty of the unknown.
Those that prefer the light huddle over the remaining few embers of civilization as lonely souls caught in a blizzard of darkest snow huddle over their last precious sticks of wood as the cold winds howl and tear at their fragile shelter.
The biggest cities, once jewels beyond description have fallen into decay and misery, where once hundreds of thousands bustled and thrived in their lives, bare tens of thousands now trudge out their years. Large cities hold bare thousands now with entire sections of city fallen into disrepair and squallor. Untold numbers of towns, villages and hamlets have dropped from the face of the world, swallowed by the darkness unending.
The mighty airships that once traversed the skies carrying goods and passengers far above the dangers of the wilderness are seldom seen, the mighty rituals that empower them seldom cast, or perhaps the numbers of those with the power to cast them shrunk too far to do so.
The brave or reckless who still traverse the countryside to bring trade between the cities do so on foot and wagon and ships that fear to leave sight of land. And their numbers grow smaller every year as each year sees a few simply disapearing never to be heard from again. And each year there are less who have the courage to take up the mantle of keeping the lines of trade and communication open.
The fabled city of Aredale, City of the Clouds is no more, the remains like the shattered golden bones of a mighty drake scattered across the Wind plains with only scavengers to fight and snarl for rapidly spoiling fragments.
The black dank waters of the Black Swamps in the south creep outward a little more each year, eroding and poisoning the adjacent lands.
With the shrinking of the Light so shrink the lives of those who turn their face to it. A hand of decades perhaps is all most of those born human manage between squalling birth to whimpering death. Where once populations boomed, fewer now are born into this world of darkness and fewer survive to adulthood.
Races that once shared an enimity against one another find little strength to hold their hatreds and most realize that only combined efforts hold faint hope of warding off the dark and little hope there is of pushing it back. All those who turn their face from the darkness walk as equals and uneasy comrades as each shard is slowly worn down till it shatters.
Yes, this then is the world of Karn as it exists today. Faint welcome you’ll find as you enter but perhaps, just perhaps, you will find the strength of will and heart and arm to help hold off the darkness for a little while longer, to perhaps give ease and succor where exists only pain and suffering.