World Creation

[GradonSilverton]

This is a question that I seem to see popping up on numerous boards from WOTC to Rpgnet... So I thought I'd bring it here. There are many people who have put much time and effort into creating campaign worlds for fantasy games (and many more genre's). Some keep it simple with the whole intention of "create as you go" just so they can have something to game in. Others have spent years of their lives fleshing out worlds that the hope to someday write novels in, get published, etc. The question that I keep finding is on the lines of...

I'm looking to create a world for my fantasy campaign. The problem is that I have no idea where to start. I also have no idea what to concentrate on: history, politics, scope, details, etc. Can anyone offer help as to where I should start? Espically those who have created before!

I myself have spent some time on creating a world and have decided to put all those damnded post-it notes I scratched on at school, work, etc. into a nice printable format (and who knows, maybe when I get my 250000 word document together, fit into the writers guidelines, maybe I can find a buyer for say 7 to 8 thousand.. but thats another stiry all together). I've offered suggestions when I see these questions, but there always seems to be a wide scope of opinions.

So I thought I'd make this post 2 parts...

#1 Where would you reccomend someone start for their world creation?

#2 What worlds have you created? And if you have a web page for it, why not post it for all to see.

Lets see what everyone has to say... who knows, maybe we can get those people that make a living doing this to guide us mortal fools.

Disclaimer Notes : Everyone who reads, post, links, or travels to a link from this thread... please understand the Intellectual property rights should be adhered to.

[Tclynch]

Hummm, well...I'd look at some published (paper & websites) to get a feel as to how they did it. I think I would start small with a city or town and the surrounding area...

[Nelijal]

Do a web search on "world creation" or "world building." You'll be amazed at what comes up.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Check local game stores, Ebay, other online retailers, etc. until you can track down a copy of AD&D's World Builder's Guidebook. It proposes seven possible approaches to assembling a fantasy world, and advantages and disadvantages of each. It also covers topics like putting terrain together realistically, how to avoid making ecosystems too predator-heavy, the effects of magic on all this, etc.

It's certainly not the be-all and end-all of fantasy world creation, but it is an excellent primer to the issues you have to consider.

[Old Man]

The biggest problem I've encountered in detailed worldbuilding is a chicken-and-egg issue. How do you determine the place names of a place without developing a history for it? How do you develop a history without having named anything? How do you work the history backwards from where you want the story to take place?

The most success I've had so far was to start with a really vague 3-way map: cultures, races, and climate, determining in a general way where I wanted them to be in relation to each other. Then, with some idea of what languages I was going to have, I went ahead and just started writing down names for all kinds of common stuff in the various languages. (This is the hardest part for me, because I'm just not good at pulling good fantasy-sounding names off the top of my head.) Armed with the general map and a partial lexicon in each language I am then able to flesh out the histories and cultures.

After that it's just a matter of keyboard time. Once you reach a certain critical mass it gets pretty easy to put down more stuff.

[lensman]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GradonSilverton
[B]
#1 Where would you reccomend someone start for their world creation?

#2 What worlds have you created? And if you have a web page for it, why not post it for all to see.

#1: I say start at the top and work down.
Gods, Magic, Tech, Races, Environment, Culture, History.

For each of these create:
Emotional Theme, Plot theme, Mechanics

Then do the "details" as you go.
Politics, Infrastructure, local flavor, Personalities

Obviously this scales based on the campaign desired. If you intend to run City-State of the God Emporer then your location is relatively narrow. Want to run a World spanning, plane shifting, polynational campaign, much more work required.
Beginning players, to the system, or veterans?
Characters are paupers or Princes?

#2 Attached is a write up for players to my Seven Kingdoms campaign

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by Old Man
The biggest problem I've encountered in detailed worldbuilding is a chicken-and-egg issue. How do you determine the place names of a place without developing a history for it? How do you develop a history without having named anything? How do you work the history backwards from where you want the story to take place?

Uusally what I do is strat with the topographical map. Then I make a copy of it in B&W and plant the first tribes of each race and name those places, then I try and develop migration patterns and as people move over places, the names change. It's still kind of artificial, but if you make notes as it goes then the process seems more organic.

AND the players are inpressed when you tell them that: "This is London, it takes its name from the latin Londinium (when the roman's ruled here), before than it was lun doon..."

[Talon]

I tend to start with a map as well, but I think the best idea is to start with whatever "hook" captures your imagination.

In terms of knowing what to do, I highly recommend getting a copy of the Forgotten Realms base setting book. Forget the content; the form in which it is presented makes a perfect template for worldbuilders.

My technique for worldbuilding goes more or less as follows:

1) Initial world idea: create whatever is inspiring you to make this world. For me, it's usually a map.

2) Make a rough pass at the rest of the world: gods, magic, history, races, nations, and other unique aspects. A couple of pages max.

3) Pick one of these aspects and expand upon it.

4) Repeat #2 with a little more detail, and taking into account the detail you just added in step 3.

5) Repeat 3-4 until you're done.

[Seenar]

I start with a theme and and tone. Pretty much I build the universe around the Game I want to run.

[keithcurtis]

I start by deciding the genre I want to run.
Example: Fantasy

Then I think about the story elements I want:
Odd races, lost cities, adventurous tone, etc.

Then I think about how such a world could come to be.
Post apocalypse leads to a rise in a new "magic" technology. Mutations have created new races.

Then I begin writing details.
History, special game mechanics, magic systems and so forth, all geared to support the game world as I envisioned it.

I may repeat some of these steps several times, revising as I go until I feel comfortable that I have "got it right."

Then I begin with specifics:
Maps, cities, prominent NPCs, recent detailed history.

Finally, I write a short fiction piece to see if the details all work thematically.

The last world I created was The Savage Earth
The inital fiction piece (which is admittedly heavy on exposition) can be found here

[Enforcer84]

Oddly enough, I start by playing video games.

I have three worlds that I want to develop. Just for me so the going is slow.

I have based these three worlds on the following games.
1. Breath of FIre
2. Suikoden
3. Final Fantasy IX

Original? Nope. But I have thought of cobbling together what I like about the consol RPG's that I like so much and put them to a pen and paper setting.

[GradonSilverton]

Since we've had a decient number of replies to this thread...and hopefully more to follow... I thought that I might throw up some of the stuff I'm working on in a cheap looking web page...

The link will take you to a document, that when finished is designed to represent a Book put together by an extremely prominent Mage. For those that have read my Help with This Armor thread.... the Order the Mage belongs to is the one designed to protect the Armor in question, along with a few other Things....

http://www.herogames.com/forums/show...=&threadid=574

...This book is to represent the 1st complete account and history of Nalrius.....

Any help or ideas are appreciated... anything that is added as creation goes along that comes from suggestions made to me via email or on this board will recieve due credit in the notes at the end....

I will update it from time to time as I get my notes together and on digital paper...

http://webpages.charter.net/shawnawa...ius/Index.html

[Nelijal]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth
Check local game stores, Ebay, other online retailers, etc. until you can track down a copy of AD&D's World Builder's Guidebook. It proposes seven possible approaches to assembling a fantasy world, and advantages and disadvantages of each. It also covers topics like putting terrain together realistically, how to avoid making ecosystems too predator-heavy, the effects of magic on all this, etc.

It's certainly not the be-all and end-all of fantasy world creation, but it is an excellent primer to the issues you have to consider.

The World Builder's Guidebook can be found as a $5 PDF download at SVGames: http://www.svgames.com/tsr9532esd.html.

I've just bought it, but haven't had a chance to look thru it. SVGames has an odd setup; you buy the first part of a split PDF file, and the other part(s) and the winsplit utility to join the parts are downloaded from the product page.

[Old Man]

Originally posted by Nelijal

I've just bought it, but haven't had a chance to look thru it. SVGames has an odd setup; you buy the first part of a split PDF file, and the other part(s) and the winsplit utility to join the parts are downloaded from the product page.

I was all set to buy it until I read that last line. I avoid windows for a reason. Oh well, that's $5 they won't get from me.

[Nelijal]

Originally posted by Old Man
I was all set to buy it until I read that last line. I avoid windows for a reason. Oh well, that's $5 they won't get from me.

So, you're a Linux man?