How do you focus on things?

[Wolfe-Chan]

I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on how to focus on working on my setting I am creating.

 

My big problem is I am overwhelmed by all the ideas I have and am a bit lost on what I should be working on. What do you suggest is the first order of business while working on a campaign setting.

 

I would like to know where to go from there! I need sorta of a schedule of things that I need to do to get things moving. What do you all do to keep on track?

 

Thanx in advance

 

Wolfe-Chan

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Find out which setting your players want to play. Then set a deadline for when that game will begin. If that doesn't get you focused, then schedule what needs to be done by when to meet your deadline.

[Steve Long]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

First, I'd suggest making a list of the things you feel you need to cover. Once you have your list, prioritize the items based either on what you're most interested in doing, or what's most relevant to the campaign you have in mind. Then start workin' before you forget all those cool ideas you're having.

 

People tend to design worlds in different ways. Some (like me) usually start with the map. Others start with the magic system, or the races, or the politics, or something else altogether. There's no one right way.

[JmOz]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Carry a notebook with you (one of those little spiral ones), when you get an idea jot it down, when you get home have a folder on your computer, with sub folders based on different areas of intrest (Different regions, package deals, magic, races,etc)

 

This is VERY important TYPE UP everything that night so you can remember it more clearly and file it where you want it. Let it be a "Living world" don't try to have everything done before you start, but instead have what you need and start building...

[tgrandjean]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

*laughs*

Well, there are a few good columns out there both on the wizards.com site as well as montecook.com but anyway, depending on your personal style you can either take the top down or bottom up approach.

From top down you do an overview of the setting, describe the nations in your play area, and a few cities, villages, whatever. Then work in detail for the initial area setting and start setting up NPCs and plot hooks.

From bottom up you decide (in general) what you find cool about the setting and decide what you need to do to incorporate it. Detail some good NPCs and hooks and work out the first couple sessions worth of challenges. Then you start working on expanding your scope, always trying to stay 3 steps ahead of your players.

Top down takes more initial prep work, bottom up can leave you scrambling. Each though does have it's advantages.

That is just about as general as I can make it.

[JmOz]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Ohh I forgot the most important thing STEAL STEAL STEAL, any and every idea you can

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Ohh I forgot the most important thing STEAL STEAL STEAL' date=' any and every idea you can[/quote']

No No No

 

BORROW, BORROW, BORROW any and every idea you can use.

 

A lot like stealing, but you file off the serial numbers and write in your own.

 

If you steal everything mishmash without making it integrate into your own world, you wind up with a weird old D&D mishmash...

 

"So a preist of Arioch and a paladin of Zeus walk into Lanhkmar..."

[Old Man]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Detailed world creation can be extremely difficult because everything is interrelated. I would argue that you can't really plan it out by doing (say) geography first, then politics, then history, etc. You're going to have to make multiple passes at the whole thing, adding finer detail with each pass.

[Wolfe-Chan]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Wow cool thanks for all the great advice it has really helped out. I am sure I can get mack on track now!

[Captain Obvious]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

All the advice given has been good. My personal method is a combination of most of what has been given.

 

Get all up in your source material, whether that's historical references or fantasy fiction. Read and take notes.

 

Organize your notes on your computer. Keep your brainstorms on there too. As new ideas pop up, try to organize them as soon as possible.

 

Don't shackle yourself down into working out one aspect until you're ready. As Old Man said, multiple passes are best anyway, because (for example) once your societal morals and norms are set in stone, it gets harder to work in that kewl new magic system you just came up with.

 

Try to work on it a little every day. If you can't keep up at least a little progress, it gets easy to put it off indefinitely. I have countless campaigns sitting around half-finished and gathering dust.

[LordGhee]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Coffee, lots of coffee!

 

no really lots and lots of coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tgrandjean some web address on those site be nice please

 

 

no time will post later tonight

Lord Ghee

[Lord Liaden]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

All good advice. My only addition is to suggest that you don't need to get it all worked out in detail before your players start playing. Draw most of your setting in broad strokes, but concentrate on detailing the background that your players will be drawing on when they start play. That would be mostly the region that the campaign will begin in: its history, culture, races, etc. As the players adventure farther afield, you'll be able to paint in the details as needed when the players encounter them. This will also allow you to integrate the actions of the PCs into the unfolding events of the campaign world, rather than railroading them through a preestablished continuity.

[tgrandjean]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

...tgrandjean some web address on those site be nice please

 

 

no time will post later tonight

Lord Ghee

 

Well crap, I can't find 'em. I suppose they are in the slush pile somewhere on those sites. But anyway, I did locate a fairly decent site with a collection of semi-useful articles. .... Yes it's Geocities... just scroll down to the bottom please....

 

Rich Staats' RPG/World Building Articles

[prestidigitator]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

No No No

 

BORROW, BORROW, BORROW any and every idea you can use.

 

A lot like stealing, but you file off the serial numbers and write in your own.

 

If you steal everything mishmash without making it integrate into your own world, you wind up with a weird old D&D mishmash...

 

"So a preist of Arioch and a paladin of Zeus walk into Lanhkmar..."

:sigh: A long time ago I bought, "Legends and Lore," thinking it would give system and advice for creating pantheons and deities and writeups for common D&D settings and such. Then I opened it up and found only D&D writeups of pantheons and deities for real world cultures! How many times have you ever heard of a D&D campaign actually being set on Earth with real-world cultures?! Heh. It's an interesting publication still, but has never proven of any worth for roleplaying.

[DEFCON Clown]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Well if you suddenly get writers block you could always use my tried and true method. Try really really hard to not think about what you are writting. I know it sounds odd but whenever I really focus on not thinking about whatever I'm writting ideas just start occuring to me, as if my brain is trying to prove I can't tell it what to do.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

"So a preist of Arioch and a paladin of Zeus walk into Lanhkmar..."

You played in that adventure too?

[Killer Shrike]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Personally I rough things out so I have a basic framework, and then build up as:

 

a) ideas come to me

the needs of the campaign dictate.

 

Another useful trick I use is when I make NPC's from various places, I use their background write ups as a forum to work out details of where they are from. It both helps to flavor the character and to spur you to ideas for the region they are from you might not have hit on otherwise.

 

The process of answering the underlying questions of what had to happen to get the character from birth to where they are now will drive you to fill in blanks you probably wouldnt think about if you just sat down and wrote up a nation on the fly.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

:sigh: A long time ago I bought' date=' "Legends and Lore," thinking it would give system and advice for creating pantheons and deities and writeups for common D&D settings and such. Then I opened it up and found only D&D writeups of pantheons and deities for [i']real world cultures![/i] How many times have you ever heard of a D&D campaign actually being set on Earth with real-world cultures?! Heh. It's an interesting publication still, but has never proven of any worth for roleplaying.

Sorry man, but I'm Old Skool.

Deities & Demigods, 1st edition.

With the Melnibone & Cthulhu mythos sections

[Eosin]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Step 1: I start with an idea for a map. Sketch and then ponder. Sketch and then ponder. Pretty soon, some nifty geography with great possibilites come to fruition.

 

Step 2: Now I start thinking about the cosmos. Did a single being create everything? How about a world populated but shipwrecked aliens? Whatever floats my boat but I have to know how the world came about. [Players may never know the "truth" of world origin but I gotta have that down in my mind to help with creation.

 

Step 2A: Using step 2 helps me define magic.

 

Step 3: Once I know the other stuff I pick a base area. This area needs to be sketched out so that I know if it is an isolated city state, a marchland, or a fantasy metropolis.

 

Step 4: Using the information from 3 ~ I begin to rough in the surrounding areas. This is a broad strokes kinda thing.

 

Step 5: Getting down to the nitty gritty. Here I start to do the fine detail work. All the resources are in place to pull from and the world interacts but there still isn't a huge block of immutable concrete.

 

General Advice -

A) work on it, at least a little, with some frequency.

know what you want. Write down things from other setting, movies, books, or mythology that you want to see in the world.

C) revise, revise, revise.

D) Step away from the project completely every few months for a week or two and immerse your self in genre reading. THis is like adjusting the steering on your car. Sure, it'll drive without a tire rotation, balance, and alignment but it is so much smoother when those things are done.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

:sigh: A long time ago I bought' date=' "Legends and Lore," thinking it would give system and advice for creating pantheons and deities and writeups for common D&D settings and such. Then I opened it up and found only D&D writeups of pantheons and deities for [i']real world cultures![/i] How many times have you ever heard of a D&D campaign actually being set on Earth with real-world cultures?! Heh. It's an interesting publication still, but has never proven of any worth for roleplaying.

 

OTOH I've been in several campaigns which used the gods from real-world cultures as the deities of original campaign worlds. If you accept the premise of D&D/AD&D cosmology that there are many alternate "Prime Material Planes," but that the gods exist separately on their own "planes," it's a logical development.

 

In fact the official Forgotten Realms campaign setting used quite a few of those real-world gods. At least it did under AD&D - I'm not up on the setting since D&D 3+.

[Lucius]

How do you focus on things?

 

Start with what know you absolutely want to have.

 

"I think dragons are cool and I have some ideas of how I want them to be and I want them in my world!"

 

"I want to have a magick system based on using the four elements!"

 

"I want to have a society of city-states like ancient Greece - everyone speaks the same language, and has some common cultural assumptions, but within a small area you can have LOTS of variety in politics, religious specifics, customs...."

 

These elements can be as large as Who or What created the world, or as small as what specific kind of pole-arm or design of sword is popular at the time and place the campaign begins. What matters is it's important to YOU.

 

Then work out what has to be true for the world to be as you envision it, and/or the specific implementation of your ideas.

 

If Dragons are rational and social beings with their own society, and each is individually incredibly powerful, you should answer questions like "If the player characters are mostly Human, and Human civilizations exist, why are they not completely dominated by Dragons?" Or maybe they ARE - worlds have been done where Dragons were godlike emperors over Human realms. Maybe some God protects the Human realms from the Dragons. Or vice versa! If the Dragons are few in number and breed slowly, they may be endangered by the spread of Humans into what had been their hunting lands.

 

To sum up, get what you know you want in place; build the rest of the world around it, preferably with input from the players. If someone wants to play a knight, and having orders of chivalry doesn't contradict anything you already have in your world, figure out how chivalry works into your world and let him have his knight. If someone wants a ninja and one of your cultures could have a tradition of secretive assassin/spies, write them in.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

What palindromedary?

[Play4Keeps]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

Carry a notebook with you (one of those little spiral ones), when you get an idea jot it down, when you get home have a folder on your computer, with sub folders based on different areas of intrest (Different regions, package deals, magic, races,etc)

 

This is VERY important TYPE UP everything that night so you can remember it more clearly and file it where you want it. Let it be a "Living world" don't try to have everything done before you start, but instead have what you need and start building...

I'm with you on writing ideas down the moment they hit, but I disagree the rest.

 

Write it down so it don't bug you and block you. BUT PUT IT ASIDE AND DOWN REREAD IT. Or you're so distracted you don't get the outline done.

 

Oh yeah that's the important thing. Make an outline. Get all the basics down before fricking around the details. Have a complete framework. Real general---you don't need the king of Whereveria, just that its a kingdom. And Hereisia is a free city and economicly pwns Whereveria. The basics, dude!

 

THEN you pick up the notebook and put in all the neat ideas and the neat ideas you have putting the notbook stuff into the outline. It grows that way. You don't got your nose so close to the tree you forget to writ ethe forest know what I mean?

 

Cause when frameworks there you keep everything proportion to the rest.

[JmOz]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

I'm with you on writing ideas down the moment they hit, but I disagree the rest.

 

Write it down so it don't bug you and block you. BUT PUT IT ASIDE AND DOWN REREAD IT. Or you're so distracted you don't get the outline done.

 

Oh yeah that's the important thing. Make an outline. Get all the basics down before fricking around the details. Have a complete framework. Real general---you don't need the king of Whereveria, just that its a kingdom. And Hereisia is a free city and economicly pwns Whereveria. The basics, dude!

 

THEN you pick up the notebook and put in all the neat ideas and the neat ideas you have putting the notbook stuff into the outline. It grows that way. You don't got your nose so close to the tree you forget to writ ethe forest know what I mean?

 

 

 

Cause when frameworks there you keep everything proportion to the rest.

 

 

I only say write it down later because I have had to many notes that I could not understand 2 weeks later, if this afliction does not strike you then you are probably safe not to

[Play4Keeps]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

I only say write it down later because I have had to many notes that I could not understand 2 weeks later' date=' if this afliction does not strike you then you are probably safe not to[/quote']

I always found if I couldn't figure it out later it wasn't a good idea anyhow.

 

But I write detailed mostly so it doesn't much happen.

[Enforcer84]

Re: How do you focus on things?

 

I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on how to focus on working on my setting I am creating.

 

My big problem is I am overwhelmed by all the ideas I have and am a bit lost on what I should be working on. What do you suggest is the first order of business while working on a campaign setting.

 

I would like to know where to go from there! I need sorta of a schedule of things that I need to do to get things moving. What do you all do to keep on track?

 

Thanx in advance

 

Wolfe-Chan

Badly, very very badly. See my Edean thread for my drift...