General world building advice?

[Eleven]

I'd love to have a chance to talk to you guys about how you build worlds. Most of the ideas here are actually pretty marvelous. I, like many (I'm sure), have about half a world in my head, and maybe a quarter written. If I learn your tricks, I hope they will help me.

Here's how I figure out mine:

I always imagine by connections - think up one element that I'd like to see and try to understand potential causes and consequences. I want to see Goblin nomads roaming the sky; I ask how and decide villages upon flying whales; I ask how whales could possibly be impelled about the sky, I imagine the goblins as symbiots, bringing them the world's stories.

Then I do classes or something. And then racial relations. And then geography.

Sorry, that was a drawn out example. I guess it leads to a larger feel for the whole & a bit of a narrative element?

What methods do you use?

[utherphoenyx]

hello well i started by building a single city (large city) and then its environment and then some of the surrounding cities/nations but i can see as the players walk in the 60ft tall mountain stone gates and in front of them is a weapon and metal armorsmith, to their right is the dancing dragon inn with the dragon roost livery adjacent to the inn the massive temple is behind the players near the gate in between the inn and smithy is a cobblestone plaza with a beautiful fountain the plaza is similiar in design to st. peters square i think its called and to the north is the mining district as well as the barracks to the east is the "elven" quarter aka magic acadamy and noble district and to the west is the beggers nest where the prison and thieves guild is rumored to be on lowbie games i start with a goblin or kobold raid from the mines... the mines themselves run deep and they get iron and silver but on occasion cold iron mithral and adamantine can sometimes be unearthed.

[utherphoenyx]

my personal opinion in that drawn out example is start with a site you want most adventures to start and work more of your geography and such from that point its like in ebborron with DDO they started with programing stormreach then they added the outside stormreach is the only town in the Xen'Drik continent

[Thinker]

Along with geography, come up with local politics, people, landmarks, cultures, history, climate, and zoology/botany. You can make a place seem bigger if you can come up with demographics that fit the area and simply use random tables to decide who/what they meet. Random encounters (when employed properly) can also make the world seem more alive so coming up with appropriate encounters is important.

[Greysect]

Hey, Thinker, I find the idea of using random encounters effectively to enliven the world interesting. Could you give links to posts or blogs using this technique, or at least explain the right and wrong ways to use random encounters? All I know about random encounters I learned from Vaarsuvius, this being that random encounters are just a single skirmish of wolves or bandits between point A and point B. What is the true potential of random encounters? When should they be used?

[Thinker]

Hi Greysect. I will try to provide some good feedback and advice for you. The Alexandrian makes a few notes about random encounters:

• During his discussion of Node Based Design, he mentions a use for random encounters.
• And in a discussion about his Open Gaming Table idea, he discusses another way to use wandering monsters (i.e., random encounters).

In my opinion, there are a few components that random encounters must have in order to make sense for your game. First, they must fit the location, so you can roughly break up random encounters into three types: Urban, Overland, or Dungeon. Second, random encounters should fit the specific environment, such as a road, mountain, or a forest. Finally, the encounters should not be static events.

Deciding what type of location should inform what type of encounters are on your random table. The location helps to create meaningful choice for the party while they travel. If the group decides to stay in an Urban environment, their encounters will likely be safer than those in a Dungeon environment. While traveling, if they can take ships between Urban environments, that might be safer than wandering through the Dark Woods of Doom overland, but also might take longer. Locations should affect the frequency of rolls for encounters.

Urban encounters refer to events that take place in populated areas. This table should only be rolled on at gates/entrances, gathering places (such as market places), inns/taverns, or temples. Try to limit Urban encounters to once when first entering the area and once per day if the players visit any of the aforementioned places.

Overland encounters refer to those encounters that take place while traveling between places. This basically means on the game map. These encounters should be rolled for when changing environments or once or twice per day while traveling in a single locale.

Dungeon encounters refer to encounters that take place in dangerous areas and can include enemy fortresses, the Forest of Doom, Swamp of Souls, or any other place that could stand in for a dungeon for the players. These rolls should occur once per zone/area/floor in the dungeon and should be rolled for every room (though the encounters rolled should then be restricted to the room) if the players leave for 24 hours or more.

The encounters should work with the environment because the idea is to immerse the players in a living world, rather than to create a roadblock for the players. From this perspective, they have to make sense so as not to ruin the suspension of disbelief. A furious Furry Ice Monster of Crunchiness needs a good explanation for being in the Scorching Deserts of Heatstroke. Encounters for a road might have a small percentage of bandits, but are just as (if not more likely) to have soldiers, merchants, nobles, farmers, or tax collectors. The odds of each event should be tailored to the locale, including odds of nothing happening at all. Each area should have it's own table (with some overlap between tables).

When an encounter comes up, try to think of a good reason for it to occur. It's an opportunity for you, as the GM, to shed more light on your world. When you create your random encounter tables, you can jot down some notes about some of your inclusions to remind yourself later. You rolled for some bandits in the catacombs beneath the Temple of Win so you should come up with a reason for the bandits being there. Maybe they have a bounty on their heads and are trying to wait for their pursuers to give up. On the other hand, they might be there for the same reason as the players and might be willing to help out for a cut of the profits.

The last piece of advice I can offer for random encounter is that they should not be static events. A random encounter does not automatically mean combat. They're more like random events that can occasionally turn into side quests. Your roll for the marketplace turned up with meeting a noble woman. This doesn't seem as interesting as if you had rolled for thieves, but there are plenty of reasons for the noble to be there. Maybe she is searching for her lost child and offers the players a reward for its safe return. On the other hand, she might be trying to find a rare item at the market and that turns into a fetch quest for the noble.

Whether the players decide to go for these random hooks should matter to the world. The noble woman who saw her child returned safely is now favorable to the players and might help them out of a bind later. Allying with the bandits in the catacombs ensured success of the mission, but also led to a bounty hunter tracking them down when one of the bandits spilled his guts. Killing the Dire Bear in the woods allowed some werewolves to increase their turf.

When repopulating dungeons by rolling, try to think about it logically. Where did the Kobolds that are now in Room 4 come from? Are they a part of the tribe found on Floor 3 or are they a rival clan scouting out the turf? Is the troll here scavenging for food or is he moving in permanently (and if so, where is his old lair?)? You don't have to think these things out ahead of time, but once you've rolled an encounter, you should take a few notes to provide yourself with future material.

This seems to work best in a sandbox campaign, but can provide a lot of extra material for a more conventional story, too so long as the main quest isn't time sensitive.

Sorry for the wall of text and I hope that's what you were looking for. If you want some sample random encounter tables, I'd be happy to write up a few for you with some notes included. Just give me the locales.

[Greysect]

First of all, this Alexandrian Site you linked to was extremely helpful, and I have never seen so much information just about running a game before, besides handling bad players.

Your wall of text was a pleasure to read, and its got me pumped to write out some encounter tables for my urban adventure, too. Thank you very much.

[Thinker]

I'm glad it's helpful. Let me know how it turns out.

[akma]

When I start to build a world, I start with a major theme. I don`t use every idea I have for a world to make a setting, it has to be very diffrent from the rest so there will be little overlap between the worlds, otherwise I just make it a part of an existing setting. Each campaign setting got a diffrent style, and diffrent adventures will run in each one, so they can`t be declared as part of the same multiverse.

My general goal in building campaign settings is being able to make adventures without needing to work on much background information.

Usually I don`t work on my campaign settings. Whenever I think of an idea I`d like to integrate in a D&D world, I think of which campaign setting/s it will be appropriate, and mold it appropriatly. If something seems off or needs an explanation, I integrate it anyways, and think of an explanation later (I decided that the sun is covered in gold years before I thought of why).

Sometimes however, I feel like working on a specific campaign setting, so I think of how to explain unexplained things in the world. It can be things I put ahead of time without explaining, or things I realise later.
I`ll bring exemples from a campaign setting I made in which the only humanoid race is humans, and they were exiled underground by indesructable shapeshifters.

So how humans see underground? They bind light elementanels to objects. They put those objects in streets, but there is not enough - a lot of streets of each city are dark.
And a lot of other questions were brought up - what do they wear? How do they tell time? What is their currency? If they are deep underground, why did their ancestors go so deep? Why don`t they try to go back overground?

I answered each of those questions, some of them diffrently for each city, and they made the world more intresting, unique and complex. Each city got unique attire, unique naming system, unique currency, unique resources, unique social classes, unique governing forces (if any) and is very isolated (by the way, there are only 6 cities).

[Axeman]

Now I'm no pro at this but if you want my advice I say your doing what needs to be done already. You see I always like to start small like a single city or region just to get my bearings, this area is usually were the PC's start. I then make a sort of map of raw statistics like inhabitancies. I like Humans, Giants, Dwarfs so I add them pick a dominate race and think on how there home and its other inheritance affect them and from there add other things I like building from there but stopping when I say for instance don’t know what to put on the other side of the mountains.

Then I make a second small place, it does not matter how small, then a third and a forth. These ideas are not contained but shear a single theme. I now have a handful of ideas so from this I start connecting them in any way I see fit like there on the same continent or there in the same empire. Now I have a rough map that I just keep adding to it.

There you go, hope its of some help but remember this method works very well for me but you will have to find one that works for you. So my final piece of advice is for you to do whatever feels natural. Good luck.

[DodgerH2O]

Depending on things, I usually start with a general idea: Low-magic medieval, Stone Age, Subterranean Mushroom Kingdom, etc.

After that, I draw a map. I like maps, and sometimes will go through several before finding one that "suits" the image in my mind. In the process I will develop potential cultures based on geography (Desert nomads, Jungle volcano-worshipping orcs, etc.)

Based on the cultures I will often homebrew some classes if necessary or choose which ones I will accept (No psionics or sorcs in low-magic, no Artificers in Stone Age, etc.)

At that point I just hop around and do whatever catches my interest. I've been working on homebrew classes for my low-magic setting for ages now. Every so often I scrap the cultures and such and start over, but each time it gets closer to what I had in mind in the first place. I have races that I've developed only to toss and then bring back in months later. It's all rather haphazard, but it fills in nicely.

Once sufficient details exist, I run a one-shot to test the current version of my campaign. Then back to the drawing board.

[Venser]

Any hints and tips on making a huge world, a massive world in which I can hold all of my future campaigns?

What I am meaning to say is that I want to create a massive world with multiple kingdoms, several continents etc. But I have a problem with beginning the process -.- also, map drawing is a killer to me -.-

How to start?

[Yora]

There is just one word of advice: Don't!

Paying attention to small details greatly improves a setting, but in the end, you usually want to eventually make use of the work and so you should put all of your work into things you'll actually going to use. And with a setting, this is actually remarkably few.
Think of some of the biggest settings in recent years. For example, Star Wars. Easily more than 100 writers having worked for 35 years to create hundreds of thousands, if not even millions of pages of material that describe all the places and people of the setting. And still there are only say about 30 planets that get actually mentioned for more than just one chapter in a comic or one level in a game.
For a single RPG campaign, a comic, or a novel, you actually need, and get chances to ever use, much much less. Nobody cares for a setting that is big, but only for settings that are detailed and well done. My advice would be to go for a world the size of Europe at the most.

The first question always should be what kind of stories you want to be told and then create the places in which these stories will take place. My setting is about exploring ancient ruins left behind by extinct civilizations and braving the dangers of nature that lie beyond the walls of the town. So I need lots of ruins, town, and background information on the ancient civilizations. Spending a lot of work on heaven and hell, the political plans of kings, and conspiracies of wealthy merchants would not contribute much, if anything, to these stories of exploration, so I don't have to bother much about them.

[shawnhcorey]

How to start?

Start small and build up. Start with a village, town, a neighbourhood in a city. You can name far away places but don't bother with the details unless the PCs actually go there. And don't worry about changing your mind. Tales from far away are just that, tales, and often wrong with only a hint of truth.

[Thinker]

Any hints and tips on making a huge world, a massive world in which I can hold all of my future campaigns?

What I am meaning to say is that I want to create a massive world with multiple kingdoms, several continents etc. But I have a problem with beginning the process -.- also, map drawing is a killer to me -.-

How to start?

Vaguely describe the different large regions with a brief history, cultural background, and religion. You might also create a few landmarks or cities that might be heard of far away from those areas, but don't go into very much detail. Don't worry about the specifics for any region until you're going to start a campaign in that area.

[Venser]

Vaguely describe the different large regions with a brief history, cultural background, and religion. You might also create a few landmarks or cities that might be heard of far away from those areas, but don't go into very much detail. Don't worry about the specifics for any region until you're going to start a campaign in that area.

I have done as you said.

I have started by creating a region, a human empire, and when I was done with geography I went to making its history. As I was making its history I slowly developed other nearby lands :)

Now I have finished religion and I am not sure should I move to cities and landscapes in the empire or should I first do something else?

[Thinker]

I have done as you said.

I have started by creating a region, a human empire, and when I was done with geography I went to making its history. As I was making its history I slowly developed other nearby lands :)

Now I have finished religion and I am not sure should I move to cities and landscapes in the empire or should I first do something else?

If you don't know what part of the empire you plan on running a game in, you can flesh out some areas a little bit, create some cities and landmarks, some important individuals and organizations, and some adventure hooks for the same. You only really need to touch on basic information that would be known throughout the empire.

Think about the United States (assuming you're from there). You might not be from New York City, but you've probably heard about the sprawling metropolis that is the heart of our financial wealth. You know that LA is famous for it's movie stars, out of control celebrities, immigration problems, and gang violence. You know that Silicon Valley is where most of our computer advancements come from. You know who the president is and a little bit about how he rose to power. You have probably heard about the Tea Party and the Occupy movement. You know about recent military activities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lybia. You probably have stereotypes that you associate with people from New England, the South, the Southwest, the Midwest, and so on.

Come up with something similar for your empire. You could say that The Ivory City is known for its financial wealth and is the headquarters for many of the empire's most important trade guilds. Entertainers and thieves could call Foamcrest their home, with a great Bardic Academy at its heart, though Foamcrest is also the home to refugee camps from a war-torn nation to the south. A century ago the great sword smith Roland made his home at Redhouse in the north and since then dozens of other smiths have based their practice there. Empress Reppa the IV rose to power when his cousin was assassinated three years ago and he is generally accepted by the citizens. Supporters of Reppa's brother might plot to overthrow the empire, while the Jarvan the Red fights to stop the Guilds at every turn. The empire has been in ongoing conflict for the past decade, with campaigns in <insert countries here>. The people in the west have a reputation for being rude, but well educated. The people in the east have a reputation for being polite, but uneducated. The people in the midlands have a reputation for being self-righteous, but have a good work ethic. The people in the north have a tradition of self-reliance, but also paranoia.

[Axeman]

Yes it's all well and good to just keep building and building on your world but there is a pit fall hinging on whether your players are going to go North, South, East or West. If you build too much then chances are your players are going to miss half of it and you'll feel that all your work has gone to waste, speaking from past expirence here. So to stop myself from getting carried away I always ask them “What’s next?”, but this only works if you’re doing to whole co-op world building thing which in my experience has served me well. Also I guess you could try to get them to tell you what they want or were they’re going next without them knowing they just helped you make there next adventure. So you’ll have to be discreet.

And again try and find a way that works for you.

[Zarrgon]

Yes it's all well and good to just keep building and building on your world but there is a pit fall hinging on whether your players are going to go North, South, East or West. If you build too much then chances are your players are going to miss half of it and you'll feel that all your work has gone to waste, speaking from past expirence here.

This is common. A DM will spend a couple weeks making the 'Dark Hills' and the players will zip by them in like three minutes of real time.

I've always taken to 'half building' things. Come up with an idea, make as much of it as I feel like, and just write it down on a square of paper. I'll often have dozens of them. As the game moves on, i'll make little notes and additions to the paper.....based on ideas that come to me, but even more importantly what the players say.


So I make a dwarf forge with a fire elemental at the bottom using it's heat to make things. As the game moves along, we have a large dwarfen kingdom, so it feels odd to have the 'unknown forge' so close...so I make a quick switch to goblins. The players make a comment about 'no dragons around' and the fire elemental becomes a captured dragon. Then it's just the matter of sprinkling in some magic weapons to the next couple of humanoid-types(even batter strange and odd ones, like a sword that shoots 'stench grease'). Enough so the players wonder 'where are they getting all the weapons', then toss in an attack on the home town and the players are off to find the source of the weapons.

I always keep things fluid. So while the dragon was going to be a captured gold, I suddenly changed it to red, so the group could fight it.