Rather than following the setting template employed by WotC, I was hoping to get input from our great designers here on creating a setting template. I have asked about such in the past, and the general consensus has been that the guild doesn't want to impose a template on our members. I myself, though, love guidelines and structure. Rather than creating a template for everyone to use, I was hoping to get input on creating a template for myself that other people are more than welcome to use. I think the process of creating it, through offering suggestions on necessary material and on discussing the importance of said material, will be an enlightening exercise for participants that could help everyone out, even if they don't want to use the template.
Soon, I will be running a game in my setting on Live Journal. As such, I need to put together a concise campaign setting guide"book" for players to reference. More importantly, I need to put together brief primers for different topics, so prospective players aren't required to read a setting bible before getting started. One of my strengths turned weaknesses in setting design is my tendancy towards overwriting; I type up way more information than is necessary. Having a template would help limit my overwriting, as well as offering consistancy between entries to make it easier to read.
So, please post any suggestions you have here. What information would you absolutely require, as well as what would you like, to know about a setting before you sit down to make a character and play? What do you want to know about the races, nations, cosmology, the world itself, and magic? (note: it will be a class-less game, but it will use Mutants and Masterminds as its base system for rules)
Thank you for any and all of your suggestions. I'll be looking through published setting books, as well as settings here, in creating this template. Expect to see a sparatic flurry of reviews while I'm at it.
I know this is not really what you are asking for, but it is in the same league. We developed a setting stat-block on the boards a year or two back which still lives in the dank abandoned corners of the wiki:
http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php/Setting_Stat-block
Quote from: Conundrum CrowI know this is not really what you are asking for, but it is in the same league. We developed a setting stat-block on the boards a year or two back which still lives in the dank abandoned corners of the wiki:
http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php/Setting_Stat-block
Wow I forgot all about that... That was my first real attempt at contributing to the CBG, it was sooo long ago. Ha! I was a major hand in making that and I dont even use it for my setting on the Wiki... maybe I should correct that...
That's a pretty good blurb entry, and it could be expanded to work as an actual outline.
It would probably be beneficial to implement it as an actual template. I'll do that right now. :D
I am all for templates being around, as long as there is no pressure for anyone to adhere to them who doesn't want to. They can be useful ways to organize your info.
I put one up for Discworld on the wiki.