The Campaign Builder's Guild

I'd like to bump this up a bit and try to get this discussion started again.  It might sound silly to say that a "world-building theory" (nice phrase, Corn) could be developed, but I think it would be a worthwhile project.  A really nice essay to put into a future issue of the Campaign Builder's Guide...  It could come in really handy, and maybe even spark a debate or two about best practices, which could possibly help people to discover underlying "rules" they had been following without knowing it.

Anyone interested?


edit *cough* I know I post at strange times throughout the day, but I do have a job...  I work from home, which has the benefit of great freedom, with the price of uneven productivity.  ie, for every 5 minutes I spend working on something fun during the day, I have to spend 7 minutes in a few weeks rushing to meet a deadline while promising myself some rubbish about modifying my work habits.

Yeah, the implication was that those in the most fertile areas were the baron's favorites, and I'm sure that some of them will be there because of their "yes-baron" mentality, but certainly not all of them.  1 or 2 of them will likely be there at the "request" of the baron's senior (thanks for that idea) and another 1 or 2 will be there because of religious pressure (thanks Crit, for bringing up religion and making me think of that).

After some thought on the general social structure, I've decided that the districts/domains will be called Parishes, and now I'm going to have to start thinking about religion.  It's going to have a major impact on the setting as a whole, and I'm pretty sure that whatever standard I set for this barony will be followed for the majority of them.

I'll use the search function, of course, but I wouldn't mind some examples of how people have looked at faith in gritty, low fantasy settings.  Because of the time period I'm looking at, I don't want a large (or even mid-sized) pantheon.  I'm thinking that, just like in the real world, there is one god that people (generally) agree on, though everyone is pretty damn sure there's is the right way of worship.  I have no experience with implementing something like that in a game, so any anecdotes would be appreciated.

Quote from: Natural 20Also, I would outline the faith systems of the region, but I'm just really into faiths and their effects on culture.

That was a tough decision for me- do I outline the faith system first so that I can develop npcs and social structures around their faith, or do I develop social structures first, so that I can make religion model society?  (Late Catholicism and feudalism vs. Reformation Protestantism and early capitalism) I know that faith will play a HUGE part in these people's lives, but part of me wants to know who they are before I decide how religion affects them.  I already know that their religiosity will come more out of a "fear of the devil" (or Bane *cough*) than any "love of the god," but I'm not sure how it will look yet.  Some advice on how others have faced that would be helpful, too. ;)

Quote from: Stargate525I would also look at the kind of power plays that are going on within your little Barony. This is a feudal era, so the infighting should be immense.

Yeah :)  That's going to be a big part of the setting.  There are 11 domains in the barony, each of them locked in a bloodless power struggle with the others.  Once I have the major npcs developed, I'll start looking at how they interact and play off of each other.  When I drew the map, I looked at which areas would be more fertile, and decided then which people would be the baron's favorites.  Now I just have to write them up and figure out why they're his favorites, and what exactly that means.

Ok, my first substantive post ;)

It's going to be several months before I start playing again (I move back down south in August or September), but I'd like to have my setting and rules ready to go before I move.  I have a basic theme in mind.  It's going to be low fantasy, think around 900-1100 AD, very low and unpredictable magic, human only (well, undead too, but humans are the only playable race).

I've started with the region that the players will start in, a Barony of almost 15,000 people.  I've drawn out the map and placed the major towns and villages (11 of them, ranging in population from 220 to 1,879).  I also went to the medieval demographics site and figured out the number of butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers, where to put them, etc...

I know that the answer to this question is entirely subjective, but where would the rest of you go from here?  I'm sort of torn between to different methods.  The first is to detail each of the towns in order.  Draw out the maps for each of them, create the npcs, etc.  The second method is to create a rough outline of each of the towns, then delve into each of them individually after that.  The advantage of the first method (IMO) is that I get right into developing personalities that can help me flesh out the other areas.  The advantage to the second method is that I get a better picture of the entire barony, which could make building the individual areas fit into a broader picture a little better.

As I write this, a third option has come up...  Each of the towns is a focal point for the region that it's in (with each region being governed by a knight or magistrate).  I suppose I could sketch out the regions first, then follow that with the towns.  

*coughs* Anyway, I'm sure there are more than those three ways available.  I'd just like to hear how others approach this.

Thanks!

Thanks for the welcome everyone :).  I have no questions yet, but I'm sure that I'll be posting way too much once I actually start learning a new system and putting together a campaign.

Hey all, I'm glad to have found this site and I'm looking forward to going through the resources when I finally start building (and learning the new system).

Gaming systems you use
I haven't played PnP since 2nd edition...  I've had an introduction to modified 3rd Edition through Neverwinter Nights

General gaming history
I started playing D&D about 14 years ago (7th grade), and dming about 6 months after that.  I dabbled in Cyberpunk a bit, but D&D was really the only thing I could get into.  I'm a little anxious about learning 3.5, but I'll be easing back in with a good group; some of them were in my group at the beginning.

Personal likes and dislikes
Likes: Indie rock, good books, mountains, gaming
Dislikes: Being bored...

Strengths and weaknesses in game design
I am pretty detail-oriented.  I was always able to make very memorable locations and npcs.  On the downside, the big picture tends to be tough for me to see.

What published settings have you used/do you like?
I played in FRCS, and in Dragonlance a little.  I like them both, but I don't think I'll be going back to them.

Major influences on your world-building
It's been so long since I've done any world-building that I really don't remember.  In the setting that I built for my weekly online campaign, my education in sociology came out a lot more than I expected.  Having some understanding of how society works (and doesn't work) has really helped me make even small villages come to life.

Ha; sorry for missing the official thread, stickied and all...  A mod can feel free to delete this post, and I'll mosey on over to the official thread now.

Hey all.  I'm just getting back into PnP games after a hiatus since 2nd edition.  I figured that it would be cheaper (though certainly not easier) to build my own CS than to go out and buy all of the updated stuff, and stumbled across this site while looking for resources.  I've been running a weekly NWN game for a little while now and while it is fun, it just hasn't satisfied that itch...

I'm currently going through a lot of the material that you've posted here, and will certainly be asking questions once I actually get started working.  There seems to be a lot of great resources up, and I'm looking forward to delving into it.