Quick and dirty campaign settings

[assault]

One for the GMs here:

 

Assume you were going to run a campaign. You don't want to use a published setting, but you are too pressed for time and inspiration to develop something especially clever. What would you do?

 

The most basic setting is, of course, "a dungeon and a nearby village", but that's lame even by my standards!

 

What I was thinking was creating something like a bunch of oasis cities around the intersection of couple of major trade routes. This combines simplicity - there are only "a few places to go", with the potential for significant political intrigue, military conflict, empire-building and all the other good stuff you would want.

 

The map itself wouldn't need to be anything special - basically a few squiggles showing the main roads and rivers, and a few dots marking the cities and other interesting places. Stick in a few hills and other interesting places, and you're good to go.

 

The politics would be easy too. Just describe who rules each city. A couple of them could be subjects or client states of larger empires which are mainly off the edge of the map. You might want to describe a couple of nomadic groups too, but it shouldn't be necessary to go into much detail about them. Who cares about where they graze their flocks in any particular season? You really only need to know about their leadership, military potential and significant religious/magical sites...

 

Anyway, that would be how I would deal with creating a setting in the least possible time. How would you approach it?

[Nevenall]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

I would pass the map around to all the players and have them add the part of the world their character comes from.

Some of the very best worlds I've played in came from this method.

[tkdguy]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

One DM (we were playing AD&D 2nd Edition) drew a map with mountains, a tower, and a few islands. He put a point in the map where we were. Everything else was blank. If we wanted to know what was out there, we'd have to find out ourselves. Of course, he made the map on the fly, so he didn't have time to come up with names. Still, it had just enough detail for the adventure and allowed for room to grow. Too bad it ended up as a one-shot game.

[Matto]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

The oasis idea is good, and can be adapted to island-hopping archipilegos or Italian-style city-states. Anywhere that could adapt to isolated city-states with insular political structures would make world politics much simpler, and militaries smaller and less complicated. I usually go with starting my players in a small border-town or tiny off-shoot island of a larger Empire. Then, as sessions drag out, I complicate things from there.

 

You could also take existing maps and localities and convert them to fantasy. Drag out a map of the U.S. and put major fantasy cities over New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angelos. You could make the plains states a centaur plain and the Rockies an orcish hide-out. You could also do this with state or town maps, maps of Europe or just about anywhere interesting. It might also make for enjoyable farce: ie, stamping a suitable villain over stereotyped areas. I won't give any examples. This is my second post, and I don't know the geography of other people yet. Don't want to upset.

[Eosin]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

I find a map of a large-ish town with some surrounding details (this may be a second map) that seems to be in frontier type of lands. Come up with and discuss player hooks and go.

[Icel]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

If I need a quick setting for a game, I mustly use islands.

[Krieghandt]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

Keep on the Borderlands. ignore the lame D&D encounters. After characters are created, figure out which one appears to be there for a "reason". Ask the player why his character is there, and off we go.

Krieghandt

[CourtFool]

Welcome to the Chateau d'If

 

"You wake up in a small cell with a heavy wooden door and a barred window. Your head aches. You have the clothes on your back, some straw for a bed, a bowl and a bucket."

[John Desmarais]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

I would pass the map around to all the players and have them add the part of the world their character comes from.

Some of the very best worlds I've played in came from this method.

 

You know, I've never done this, but I've thought about it many times. I may have to try it next time I do a fantasy game.

[Zeropoint]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

It might also make for enjoyable farce: ie, stamping a suitable villain over stereotyped areas. I won't give any examples.

 

Ooh, you could have a "dark lord" type working out of Redmond . . .

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

My solution is Via.

 

I've provided the world framework; players will be getting XP for filling in the details for me. It's built to be contradictory and kind of sloppy, though, by its very nature. I'll be making the area they're starting in fairly detailed (thanks to Campaign Cartographer), then we'll fill in the rest of the world as needed and as they provide material.

[Wulf]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

Sometimes for this I think of some adventures I want to play and the genre. A high fantasy, sword & sorcery ......

Then i create the world, or a low shot background with deitis and demons. Mostly very simple like an panthoen of ten unnamed gods or sth. So, in the game I can figure out names and alignment and the rest, like temples and the feudal system. The region gets a name with some cities. Thats it !

Once I created an adventure in a new region which no one knew. The PCs in a tavern knowing each other (They had to tell me, why did they know each other...).

They all came frome the great city in the north. (Sometimes they need a name for it).

Then the adventure began.

 

 

Wulfi, hope thats not too far from the topic

[Lumbering Ox]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

I've considered doing a single small island caimpaign. One human country of about 30K people, some hinterlands of orc tribes and others either pre exsisting or from a slave rebellian.

 

Not much to map, could flesh out just about anyone important.

 

Could have the country be the last surviving outpost of the mainland overrun by X, which was to far out to be discovered. Thus leaving the possibility of the characters going elsewhere if the desire hit.

[Curufea]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

I like large events occuring nearby to start of a quick setting - wars, plagues, earthquakes etc.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings

 

My brain works differently from most folks. Just about every situation in which I'm pressed for time, I create an opening scene. For example: "And the next sound you hear is the glass shattering beneath your feet as the green-house ceiling gives way and you plummet downwards towards the massive man-eating plants." "But that hasn't happened yet. As of right now, you find yourselves in line, waiting for the evening meal to be served..."

 

it gives me a direction to go, a series of events to create, and a definate 'conclusion' to my opening while I build the world proper. Y'all are thinking globally. I tend to start off thinking locally.