Questions

[Dendric Malfallen]

i want to design my own campaign setting, but im not sure exactly where to start. I have been creating my own games for 9 years, but i seem to not be able to actually fully form a campaign setting. I draw my own maps, design all the language and culture, make all the NPC's, as well as running the actual campaigns themselves. I am a military historian, linguist, cultural researcher, and cartographer. Yet with all these skills, i cant find a way to draw it all together. I want a medieval fantasy theme, with heavy western european influence, but with a greek mythology like flare. i have a solid pantheon mapped out, but need a good creation story and more "fleshing out" oriented material. if ya want more details, pls respond with any q's or ideas and i will provide more info as needed.   

[Xathan]

What we have here is a very broad outline - it's hard to ask questions based on what we have. I'd suggest posting, for example, your Pantheon in this thread - that gives us some ideas to work with. :) As a general suggestion, though, I'd start out with reading and posting on some other people's settings too - seeing how other CBGers do it always is a good way to get the mental gears turning.

Also, and please take this in the spirit that it's meant, but people tend to respond better to proper punctuation/grammar. It just makes it easier to read when "I" is properly capitalized and whatnot. I'm a bit type A, which is why I'm noticing this. :P

[Dendric Malfallen]

Gods of Light------------------------

Ria'kara *1– Spirit Mother, Goddess of hope and light, patron saint of paladins-
Av'ianna – Mistress of Beauty and Grace.
Adu'liar – Prince of Justice
Aiyadil – Protecter of the Forest,
Issarya – ice, good, demi-goddess of Av'ianna
Feraval *1- Fire and Forge
Alsuriel – strength,
Khar'dashael *1 - void & silence, chaotic neutral, patron saint of rogues
Chio - home and hearth, lawful good, patron saint of clerics
Am'leraine - air, neutral, patron saint of rangers
Se'heliantir - wisdom and knowledge, lawful good, patron saint of wizards
Valyahir - war, chaotic neutral, patron saint of knights and fighters
Eargoth - earth, good, male patron saint of druids
Ilanya - harvest, good, female patron saint of druids
   
Princes of the Depths-------------

Thrama'kiel *1- chaos & darkness
Dimadren - blood
Malaren - deceit
Khayne - assassins and thieves

*1- the Four Spirit Deities, These deities were born from the void less power known as Spirit.
Ohters -- mortals who have been blessed with the powers of being a deity, or demi-gods

I REALLY JUST NEED ALOT OF FLESHING OUT AND PERSONALITY TO ADD TO THE GODS.

[Seraph]

It sounds like you're actually well on your way.

So it's "tying together" that is your issue?  Remember that "Setting" from a literary standpoint refers to a "Place and time."  So really it is the places that will make the setting.  What is the kingdom of X like? what are it's people like?  If you make a lot of NPCs, you may have some notable personages with which to populate your kingdoms, which can give them life.  Do these places have strange and interesting laws, like a prohibition against riding into town on a horse at sundown, out of respect for a brutal attack from 100 years ago, or anything else?

If you have a bunch of different places mapped out, then maybe you should work on a map of the whole continent, or the whole world, and drop these places into it where they might fit.  

Since you are a military historian, perhaps you want to draw on that.  Talk about major battles from history, and how they affected the setting (or how they are still affecting the setting).  As a cultural researcher, tie that in and play up what cultural differences between kingdoms might lead to conflict.  

I wouldn't worry too much about the creation story.  They aren't as important as people tend to think they are.  But if you want some thoughts, going off of your reference to the "Greek" influence on your pantheon, perhaps do something along the lines of Hesiod's Theogony.  Chaos as a pantheistic over-god, (Pantheism being the belief that instead of the universe being created BY God, the universe IS God.)  with the massive but lesser "Earth, Space, and Love" who together end up begetting the cosmic concepts that define existence, and the gods themselves.  

But yes, definitely give us specifics.  The more you tell us about what you have, the better we can help you to make it all cohesive.  So show us the pantheon, maybe some of the maps, tell us about the places and some of the people you have detailed.  If you do anything unusual with "races" in your setting, tell us about that.  Tell us about the languages and cultures you have developed.  Then we can help you to fill in the gaps and bind it all together.

[sparkletwist]

I'd also add that if you're not sure what you want to do yourself, yet, it never hurts to just hang around and see what others have done, and offer comments. :)

[Lmns Crn]

Gods are fine and all, but nobody is really going to get drawn in by a pantheon unless you've got some more basic things down, first.

What kind of game is this?
What system does it use?
What are the players supposed to be doing in the world?
What are the big, basic conflicts that create friction and drive interest?
What are the big, overarching themes that pervade and unify your setting?

My advice: wherever you are now, take three giant steps back away from the little details, and get the big picture sorted out first.

[Kindling]

My advice: wherever you are now, take three giant steps back away from the little details, and get the big picture sorted out first.

Or, work backwards from the small details that you have fully-formed to establish the bigger picture. What does the fact, for example, that most of the deities are mortals who have ascended to become demigods imply about the larger setting? What does the fact that the deities of Earth and Ice are seen as good say about the larger setting? Is Ice a good thing for the people in the world? Why? If war is seen as chaotic, but not outright evil, what could this tell us about the world? What does it tell us about druidism that they have two patron saints, one male and one female? Et cetera.

[Seraph]

My advice: wherever you are now, take three giant steps back away from the little details, and get the big picture sorted out first.

Or, work backwards from the small details that you have fully-formed to establish the bigger picture. What does the fact, for example, that most of the deities are mortals who have ascended to become demigods imply about the larger setting?

Since the poster referred to a "Greek" influence, I would assume until i hear otherwise that "demigod" uses the original meaning of "Half-god" and assume that these figures have one mortal and one immortal parent each.  This does not counteract the point you were making about wanting to know what this means for the setting as a whole though.  It is definitely important if the gods are active enough in the world to physically walk the earth, and get it on with mortals.  It would suggest that they take active rolls in other things as well, like wars, political intrigue, social revolutions, and philosophical thought.  They might actively aid humans in advancing their knowledge and technology, or help them to create magic items. 

[LD]

Maybe look at some other books/settings for inspiration on how to fuse greek with western mythology?

I can think of one setting that has a greek-inspired flavour-Arga... Sadly the excellent maps links seem to be broken- Leetz? Can you please post up your maps again?

Arga--> http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,68535.0.html

The older map is of an archipelago of islands and it reminded me much of ancient greece.

The newer map changed things a bit... http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,188240.225.html appears to contain the newest map.