How to -- 4th century BCE setting

[Max_Killjoy]

hahahaha YES. This is something I struggle with all the time. I'm not sure if this is the best approach, but here's how I've handled it.

I build the world to my heart's content, fleshing out regions, cultures, and trivia about the region I want to play in. Mostly only in broad strokes, but with pockets of detailed explanation. For example, I have a large pseudo-Roman/early Renaissance Italy empire. Most of it's cities only have a name and a sentence of facts, but the entire secret police organization is mapped out in painstaking detail because they struck me as particularly interesting.

When it's time to game though, I focus in on a microcosm and only mention the outside world where it relates to the story. I'll lay the ground rules of the setting and a two paragraph summary of what the heck is going on politically/historically/culturally as it pertains to the players. Even though I have a whole backstory for the city they're in, I'll only allude to it, mention it in passing, in game unless the players want more info. As the game evolves and players become more invested, I work in more details of the setting gradually.

This way, the players are free to engage with the setting as much as they want, but I have the satisfaction of building my world they way I like. Also, it makes me seem smarter than I am because I can answer off the wall questions easily, since I've already figured it out in the background. Case in point: the construction of traditional merchant ships from a country 1000 miles away in a campaign limited to a single city.

As daria would put it, only when I'm awake.

I don't have much to add to what NRSASD said, so I'll just say some rough experimental play-testing might not be a bad move at this stage in development. It might give you a better idea of what players tend to bump up against.

System is a ways out yet, I'd have to temporarily run it in an existing system.

The issue I was thinking of is the conflict between strict "what makes sense in this world", versus "this is a place people go to experience interesting things and engaging stories", that can come up.

The Wilder or one of the other species might not be entirely fitting, I don't know, but to me they're just plain interesting, dare I say that they're just plain cool.