Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Tashiro Aug 19, 2014 22:13:12	Some of the discussions I've seen in my short time returning to this forum has me wondering:  How much world building do you do for your campaign?   There's the obvious, of course - here's the nations, here's how they interact with one another, and here's what's stomping around for the campaign.  Pantheons, magical societies, or whatever are all par for the course.  But I mean deep world building.   For example - are your clerics different depending on 1) race, 2) culture, 3) god worshipped?  Like, significantly different?  Do you add cultural taboos to your races and cultures, to add texture to them?   Rather than having, say 'elves come from elflandia', have you rearranged the borders so there's more of a mixing part, so rather than having 'generic human' and 'wild elf, high elf, drow', you have 'people from Here' versus 'people from There' instead, and actually gave racial adjustments to the different races based on nationality, only slightly modified by race?   Have you had the same god worshipped under different names and different aspects, depending on what nation you're looking at?   How often does national (and cultural) prejudice show up in your setting?  Have you had someone arrested simply because they were from the wrong nation or wrong race?  Have you had someone refuse to do business with the PCs because one of them is in the party?   ----   Actually, I had the PCs in my game world-walk into a parallel setting (I have four settings which are interconnected, so there's the means - though rare - to travel between them).  There, they discovered that there was a race of elves - horrifically tall, alien looking elves - who kept halflings as hounds.  These halflings didn't have a culture par se, but instead were raised as mostly sentient hound dogs by the elves.  The human race were seen effectively as slaves, to be captured and rounded up by the elves, to build the elven homes and do menial labour.   The PCs also discovered that the gods were ... grounded.  Effectively, there was no 'outer realms'.  Instead, the gods were effectively avatars, whose very existence was shaped by the beliefs of the populace.  The gods had no true identities of their own, but were forced into the appearance and mentality dictated by common belief.   The PCs then got into exploring the setting - and were admittedly fairly freaked out by what they saw - it was so far removed from your normal D&D game, that it took them quite some time to get accustomed to the world they walked into.
#2 CCS Aug 19, 2014 22:55:59	I mostly make up the smaller details as I go/as needed. The ones that seem to work get carried into future campaigns.
#3 The_White_Sorcerer Aug 19, 2014 23:11:25	I love creating worlds, but I've noticed that those worlds are very unlikely to ever be played because they're never finished enough for me. So now I've taken the approach of having a general idea of the geographical layout and cultures of the world, using LAW as much as possible and adding elements to the world based on the characters my group creates. Then I create new things as necessary. This also, theoretically, leaves the world open enough that others in the group could set their own games in some other corner of the same world, allowing us to have a shared world that changes and moves forward, rather than basically resetting the game each campaign.
#4 Xeviat-DM Aug 19, 2014 23:27:45	All the way.
#5 JohnLynch Aug 20, 2014 0:02:45	If you check out my blog you can see which races I've incorporated into the mainland and which nations are there. For clerics each race worships a different pantheon. Whether it's different aspects of the same god no-one knows. The drow who live on the surface at the moment have forsaken their former gods and are currently without a pantheon. Clerics of all races see this as the perfect time to bring them into the fold of the worship of their deities. As for different cultures I haven't gone into this yet. Until 85 years before the campaign began there were two empires of Dragonborn however one of the empires was sacked by savages from the Frozen North. As such the entire empire devolved into feuding territories controlled by warlords. Much of their former culture has been lost. Humans on the mainland are united in their faith of the same pantheon. But humans from other continents do not necessarily worship this pantheon. Halflings can and do cross all borders and can found in any community. However this doesn't come with any mechanical differences.
#6 Marandahir Aug 20, 2014 1:55:13	I'm currently working my way through The_Jester's guide to world building to prepare a living center-out world for my upcoming campaign this fall.  He's got some really good advice (and it's free on his blog 5mwd or really cheap as a pdf compilation!)
#7 OrwellianHaggis Aug 20, 2014 1:57:09	I tend not to adjust stats, but I try to account for cultural differences, languages, ethnic crossovers (at the border of nations, or in nations that have grown and shrunk through war), and religious concerns. Admittedly I don't do a very good job, but I hope it's good enough to bring a little bit of immersion to the players.
#8 Emerikol. Aug 20, 2014 6:00:34	I do all of what you suggest and more.  I often change the culture of the races to something completely different from what the players hand book says.      I really enjoy doing the religions and often have elaborate pantheons with all kinds of different religious practices.  I enjoy politics and history too.  I did a list somewhere on these boards of what would constitute a minimal starting point for any campaign I'd run.  Typically I do several continents.  I always do at minimum one.
#9 spelley Aug 20, 2014 7:06:45	Currently in the process of making a campaign bible for my custom campaign I'm working on. Here is how I divide it up:   <Name of World> Couple of paragraphs explaining a basic, overarching feel of the world. Include the basic, fundamental things in here that describe what makes the world unique. My current one has the world as a single island in an endless ocean on what is presumed to be a flat plane. I also describe the major players and any major events that have happened recently.    <Geography and Important Locations> Describe the basic layout of the campaign world. Include a map if you'd like (and want your players to know the whole area at the start). After that, list all the important locations, usually just Country -> Major City and maybe a famous landmark or two. Don't describe every town up front, though I tend to keep notes that basically amount to the Personality Traits/Ideals/Bonds/Flaws for locations. It's basically Appearance & Feel, Purpose, Bonds and Flaws. Appearance & Feel describes the physical characteristics roughly, the Purpose is "why" the location was built, the Bonds is how it interacts with it's neighbouring cities and Flaws is what major problem faces the city/town/location.   <Important Figures> Describe the major players. Usually I just describe the leaders of the nations and the heads of the countries, and maybe a famous/major general. A single paragraph for each, two if they are super famous. I keep a Personality Traits/Ideals/Bonds/Flaws card for each so that I can see how they would react on-the-fly instead of pre-canned dialog/situations.   <Pantheons/Gods> Describe each of the major pantheons/Gods, or reference what pantheon you are using from a different setting. My current one is dominated by a single religion, with different cultures having (slightly) different takeaways. Describe the customs, practices and how wide-spread it is. In my campaign, it is pretty much the only religion in town and is considered "assumed".   <Class/Race Changes> This is the meat and potatoes for the players. You put this at the bottom, however, because all of the above shapes what changes you make. For my own campaign, as an example, some Races lore/fluff will change fairly significantly (Halflings live in xenophobic communities, think White/Blue Kithkin from magic and thus are rarely adventurers, Elves are wanderers and less "austere"). Also, changes to the Pantheon/Gods usually lead to rebranding some of the Divine-based subclasses.    Depending on amount of effort, I will make new subclasses (specific to 5e of course. In 4e, it was Paragon classes for instance) that embody certain aspects of the lore. Usually ends up tied to a major Figure or Location that is described above.    All in all, this is usually just a table with Race/Class | Fluff Change | Mechanical Change   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Behind the DM Screen.... I keep a list of "steps" to the various plots, no "real" specifics, that the major players are doing/planning. I take a look at it and see what, if any, part the players may play in any when the opportunity arises. I then make modifications to these plans, trim them if they aren't interesting/have no real consequence once a certain part is interrupted as the players interact with them. This essentially makes up the Main Story/Plot of the campaign. If you have an Open World then you have a bunch of these running concurrently and the players just react. Story-driven campaigns usually mean the plans only advance forward as the players interact with them. This is simply a playstyle thing   Everything else, including (most) of the minor towns and such are left in a grab-bag list. Pre-generating/randomly generating a sizable list of Locations and Character archetypes means I can put things in place quickly and smoothly. I'll also come up with a few generic Sub-Quests in case they get restless. I only ever really plan 1-sessions extra worth of quests for the players, as I don't have time for more.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Hopefully, this helps anyone who is interested!
#10 iserith Aug 20, 2014 7:22:37	Tashiro wrote:
#11 sailoroswald Aug 20, 2014 8:35:20	The world I'm putting together right now revolves around a single event in history and how the world is coming to terms with it. The world was once a technologically-advanced place. But then the event known as the Reckoning happened. What happened for sure is no longer known, but the effects caused a near do over. The world is advancing, only this time with magic.   A few religions are based on the "meaning" of the Reckoning. One (The Twin Snakes) believes that the Reckoning occurred because the ancients tried to rival the gods (who are fairly non-descript in their religion) with technology and were punished. They believe that the rise of magic will give way to another (and final) judgement day. While mostly non-violent, they oppose technology and magic.   And then there's a subset of the order (The Tangled Snake) that actively works towards bringing on the next Reckoning. They believe in reincarnation and think the next event will cleanse the world completely so they can truly start over.   I also have a 'religion' that revolves around luck, knowledge, and strength. Religion is in quotation marks because some view it as merely an ideology (hoping to achieve some kind of balance), while others do believe in three goddesses that control/power the three pillars.   I also include things like general beliefs and terms, such as "The Land of Lost Kings" not referring to a specific land, but areas scattered across the land filled with the ruins of the technologically-advanced ancestors.   I've really only just started though, and I don't want to put too much, because I want my players to try and come up with things to add also; like their characters' faiths, or groups they've worked for, etc. I want just enough made beforehand so my newbie players can get inspiration or even pick from what I've created if they can't think of anything.
#12 iserith Aug 20, 2014 8:48:04	sailoroswald wrote:
#13 sailoroswald Aug 20, 2014 9:00:07	Thanks iserith!   I'm kind of adapting bawylie's ideas of "Aspect" and "Subject". Just getting the major ideas of things written down.   I feel like if I leave them kinda' where they are, they'll get well-defined in play (as I imagine would happen in your group). Or they won't and that becomes an aspect of that group/idea/whatever.   I have a few more things written down, but I'm probably going to slow down a little bit until I can talk to my players a little bit. Get their brains turning as it were.
#14 The_Jester Aug 20, 2014 9:18:50	Far enough to write a book on the subject.   I love Worldbuilding, so I do it for fun and have a handful of campaign settings on paper or my hard drive waiting for use. Plus a shelf full of settings I'd like to try someday.
#15 iserith Aug 20, 2014 9:28:55	sailoroswald wrote:
#16 JohnLynch Aug 20, 2014 10:10:58	Emerikol. wrote:
#17 seti Aug 20, 2014 10:23:59	Tashiro wrote:
#18 Mechatarrasque Aug 20, 2014 11:28:24	I prefer to start my campaigns in a transitional zone between larger political entities or cultural groupings.  Transitional zones don't tend to be politically dominant, and I figure for the most part, one group of oppressive foriegners look pretty much the same as any other, and the political maneuvering is pretty much the same.  This lets me leave the stuff outside of the transitional zone nebulous unless a PC's backstory requires something more specific, or if the group travels a lot (in which case I will ask the group what they want to do and try to build something around that).   If there is someplace like the World Wound in Pathfinder or someplace where you can run into dinosaurs or dragons are common, I try to figure out those places ahead of time, but they are often far away from the starting location (road trip).   I have 18 big gods, and they are widely known, but different groups have strongly differing opinions on which are the more important ones.  The gods are more interested in social engineering than collecting souls (alignment-based outsiders are very interested in that, though, and alliances between gods and outsiders tend to cloud things for mortals).  Their clergy focus on efforts to bring about/maintain the social activities the gods are interested in (although they can be sneaky about it if that helps the god's goal--clerics of Asmodeus are more likely to talk about security and creating more effective government then they are about devils and tyranny).  As PC's gain power, they become more valuable to gods in acheiving their goals (and once they break into level 3, their souls are more valuable as the PC will skip the petitioner status when they die).
#19 autolycus Aug 20, 2014 11:50:20	For my next campaign I plan on calling all the characters together for a pre-campaign session.   There they will make characters. I will also ask each player to give me: 1) Two facts about the campaign world. These could be tiny suggestions or huge sweeping ideas. 2) A relationship of some kind  with the character of the player sitting to thier left. Can be anything from casual to formal, friendly to hostile.   I will collect all the ideas, put them up on a white board, and then the players will vote on which to keep and which to discard.   Then I will take the characters (with backgrounds) and the player suggestions and proceed to build the campaign world.
#20 sailoroswald Aug 20, 2014 12:02:34	iserith: Feel free to give advice. The majority of what I do on here is look around for chunks of knowledge that I feel will help me grow as a DM. And as I've said before, I appreciate your posts/advice.   I hope to at least get something close to a session zero. But my players and I are all busy people and probably won't manage to meet more than once a month. I'm hoping to write a few emails and accumulate everyone's ideas at the very least.   And I totally plan to steal that adventure idea from you if you don't mind. ;)   seti: I've always liked the idea of a campaign like that (the last world I created for fun was based on flooded planet/sky islands), I've just never gotten to run one. Yours sounds pretty awesome!
#21 Centauri Aug 20, 2014 12:14:46	Tashiro wrote:
#22 BecDeCorbin Aug 20, 2014 13:56:37	I've gotten bored with building elaborate fantasy worlds. I've done dozens. My new love is no world building at all, but focusing strictly on the adventures and the details important to them. It's pretty much "The Mad King's Tomb" rather than "The Mad King's Tomb as set in the World of Greymoor".   Maybe it's because my players are less concerned with esoteric points of ancient history than they are about finding some orcs to decapitate.
#23 Tashiro Aug 20, 2014 14:07:22	The current setting I'm using is the classic Mystara setting.  The PCs built characters from the different nations (I have the Gazeteers, so that certainly helped), and had the PCs meet in the capital of the grand duchy.  From that point, I had a meteor crash into the far north, and the PCs had to head up there to investigate it.  Along the way, they got to witness how the different nations operated, got involved in some minor politics and intrigue, and got a feel for the world around them.   Then they found out that the meteor was turning into a hive for a biomechanical horror which was invading out, and assimilating cities.  The PCs decided they couldn't face that threat, so had to do the long, arduous treck to find the Princess Ark - a flying ship which also doubles as a time machine.  That specific journey brought them into contact with scads of nations, cultures, and people, and along the way they made some pretty impressive enemies.   Now that they've got the time machine, they've hopped back a few times, and are looking at the cultures they've visited, and how things have changed a hundred years back.  They're also fretting over the loss of family and friends, and are wondering how much their actions are impacting the setting.  One PC is thinking of founding the nation he's from before it was founded, so he can lay down the rules and traditions for the time.  Another player accidentally turned his nation into a nation of undead.   This kind of campaign wouldn't be possible if we didn't have setting material - the players are invested in their particular nations, the people they've met, and their character's backstories.  Without any of that, the impact of the campaign - you're trying to save your nation, and your people, would be lost.  And with the time machine... the worry about how your actions will affect your own background... would be lost without that investment in the history of the setting.   ---   Another setting I made involved PCs world-walking into one of the 'adjoining' prime material planes to the world they know.  Here, the elves rule - they're eerie, alien-looking psychic beings who have turned the halfling race into mostly-feral hunting animals.  The dwarves and humans are besieged, and definitely in the minority.  The gods aren't in the outer planes, but are instead very much in the prime material plane - and the belief of the populace actually defines what these gods look and act like - they're slaves to mortal belief.   The players were in shock.  Which was kind of nice..  I like making my campaign worlds interesting and different, and when I use a standard campaign, I prefer keeping things at 'ground 0' at the start, with no deviance from the official stuff, and then pulling out the surprises as we go along.  Half of the game is getting the player's attention, and that means making a setting which draws their attention.
(Reply to #22) Tashiro	BecDeCorbin wrote: