Pitfalls in Campaign Creating and Building

[Slapzilla]

I used to create grand plots with overarching themes and subplots for each character that had ties with my grand one.  I'd create personal nemesis for each and tie them all together in a separate nemesis subplot.  I'd create and plant magic items and clues that meant something to a character that connected with their past... on and on.  I'd then watch them go in a completely different direction so far away from any element of my grand plot that I'd get stuck halfway though a session not knowing what to do or where to go.

I then learned to listen to the players and discover what the characters were interested in, and then learned to follow them.  I'd toss in seemingly random esoterica for mood or atmosphere filler and one of the players would get all interested in a book about the planes and I then knew that planar travel might be in the near future.  Perhaps mention of a goblin raiding party got the players all excited.  Let the goblin hunting begin!  Sure does keep a DM up on tiptoes, but that's part of the fun too!

[Matt Larkin (author)]

You're correct, in the most part - of course, there're some players who're fascinated by these details, but few and far between are they. I'm writing my campaign more for fiction purposes at the moment, though... so I suppose I'm not so bothered.

If you're writing, you have to do work and research that won't come up. But you only have to do so much of it, of course.

I would still say the same thing generally holds. If you spend a lot of time working on something that your readers don't see, unless it majorly affects something they do, it's not important except as a hobby to entertain yourself.

Certainly when writing, I do lots of background research and development. But usually the idea is that what I'm doing, while it won't appear directly in any given story, will influence one or more stories less directly.

And yeah, if you have a player that enjoys language (or whatever) then you're not wasting your time, because you are doing it for a reason. So it's great (I guess) if you find players that like that kind of thing.

[Superfluous Crow]

Major pitfall:
-Making every place sound like it's somewhere near Hell, or is just generally a dark and horrible place. The dark forest, the mountains of dhoom (why oh why, Robert Jordan?), and what have you... Many places in fantasy settings just sound like they are ripped off from bad horror novels. Okay, it's not always bad; some places are bad places and therefore deserve a dark and foreboding name. But generally, it's taken much too far, i think.

[Kindling]

Major pitfall:
-Making every place sound like it's somewhere near Hell, or is just generally a dark and horrible place. The dark forest, the mountains of dhoom (why oh why, Robert Jordan?), and what have you... Many places in fantasy settings just sound like they are ripped off from bad horror novels. Okay, it's not always bad; some places are bad places and therefore deserve a dark and foreboding name. But generally, it's taken much too far, i think.

What about when your whole world is actually horrible? What about when the whole PURPOSE and POINT of the world is that it is vile and terrifying and hellish?

That said, I do actually agree with you about cheesy names such as the "dark forest" or whatever... but I do have a region in my own setting called the Dead Mountains, so perhaps I have fallen prey to this myself?

[Xeviat]

Phoenix elaborated on what I said nicely. It is very important to write as much as your player (or reader) would like. If you're writing primarily for yourself, then by all means go all out.

[Superfluous Crow]

Well, if everything is horrible, then nothing is really that horrible by comparison, since everything else is just as horrible. But yes, in a dark campaign, you should of course use dark names in most cases, i'm just saying it's overdone much of the time (which was also your point). And well, if you can only name one place, then you've hardly fallen prey to it, and there is usually a good reason for the Dead adjective = )

[Pair o' Dice Lost]

I don't think the ominous names are overdone; features such as mountains and forests are named by the inhabitants of the world, and if I were Joe Commoner in a world full of the supernatural and came across a forest from which few return alive, I'm going to call that place the Forest of Doom and Despair or something like that.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

^^ Agreed.  I think that anyplace which is named by locals (and not by the government) will take on names based on emotions and mythologies.  If people have been hearing spooky sounds and seeing spooky lights coming from a forest south of their village for the last generation, then they're going to refer to it originally as "That there spooky forest."  Eventually, they'll shorten it to "the Spooky Forest," and when they draw maps, the maps will say "Spooky Forest," and the name will catch on.  I see no problems with those names.

[Nomadic]

Indeed. The Ironback Mountains in UR are so named because the locals have found massive deposits of iron ore there. UR is actually interesting in this regard as the land was originally settled by two different nations and thus has it's language roots in two separate languages that have split into others and merged in some places.

On one hand you have obviously English based stuff (like the Ironbacks) and on the other you have things like the Raimeil River which in a funny yet classic example of language mixing translates into River River.

On this notion I have to ask why so often people are so set on following one language for naming everything in an area. In the real world it isn't like this. Especially not where cultures mix (take a look at the names of American cities). If we look at many of these campaigns that are like this we see massive cultural mixing without mixed naming conventions. Cities of elves and men and halflings etc all together and living in one place. Yet, the cities and surrounding landmarks will often follow the same style of names all around. Then when you go into say an elf only city you will have it with a very elven name. You would think a mixed culture would bring in more outside influence than that.