YOU Build The Setting...

[Robotman]

Would like to follow up to Dragonspawns YOU Build A Creature thread in celebration of True Bestiary with a step by step setting creation, in honor of the Worlds of Adventure PDF preview being out.

Lets use this thread to develop an original True20 setting from our collective imagination.

Together we will create a setting that can be as minimal or as fleshed out as you all want it to be. As Dragonspawn before me, I will try and compile everyones notes and our discussions into a cohesive form when were done, whenever that may be.

First person to post to the forum gets to set the "Mood" and initial concept by providing a quick one to two paragraph piece of fiction to spark our imaginations.

We'll go through a few steps based off of realm development I have used before and what appear to be the common formulas used.

If I've missed a step, please add it. If you all feel one is in the wrong place, move it up or down. If something just jumps to someones mind out of sequence thats fine too, this is all about letting the ideas flow naturally.

Here are the steps:

1: Mood and Concept

2: Kingdoms and Rule

3: Religion

4: Races

5: Economy

6: War

7: Magic

8: Technology

9: Learning

10: Domesticated Animals

11: Common Foods

12: Outsider Contact

With intermixed discussion of the following areas mentioned by Dragonspawn:

Population Size & Racial Makeup
Political Structure (Feudual, Democracy, Dictatorship, Mageocracy, Theocracy etc.)
Terrain (Forest, Island, Coastal etc.)
Climate (Arctic, Subarctic, Temperate, Tropical, Subtropical)
Primary Exports
Secret Locations
Mysteries
Conspiracies
Secret Organizations
Trade Guilds and other not-so-secret organizations or factions.
Tourist Attractions
Bars, Taverns and Pubs
Unique Features

[jaldaen]

[Deleted: Now that the thread's ground work is better understood]

[Robotman]

deleted

[jaldaen]

Oh please do pull, pick at, and change it as you all would like... I'm way too busy with True20 Nevermore to do much more than offer this up for others in the community to work on and enjoy

[The Shadow]

Looks like "Mood and Concept", at least one "Kingdom", and "Religion" are already taken care of by one person...

I don't think a setting can be created this way quite so easily as a monster can be. For one thing, a setting takes a lot more work and has a lot more facets.

Another problem is that if everyone isn't on board with the "Mood and Concept", they will rapidly lose interest in the project as a whole. For example, the start of this one doesn't interest me at all.

The "round-robin" method might work for a rapid sketch of a setting, but for any degree of detail something else will be needed.

For a breathtaking example of how to do a richly-detailed communally-created original setting, take a look at the Community World-Building forum over at Giant in the Playground. (Home of the fabulous "Order of the Stick" webcomic.) I'm not involved with it because I came too late to the party to feel really invested in it, but I'm truly impressed with what they've pulled off.

Of course, it's not necessary to do anything quite *that* elaborate. And if you just want to produce quick thumbnail sketches of settings, the round-robin should be fine. But what I'd like to see is maybe something a little between the two... A brainstorm thread where we thrash out a common "theme and concept", then rapid-fire suggestion of new elements from a variety of people... and we mutually figure out how to weave them together.

[Robotman]

And if you just want to produce quick thumbnail sketches of settings, the round-robin should be fine. But what I'd like to see is maybe something a little between the two... A brainstorm thread where we thrash out a common "theme and concept", then rapid-fire suggestion of new elements from a variety of people... and we mutually figure out how to weave them together.

This is exactly what I wanted to do. So Jaldean, if you don't mind we shall attempt to push forward with:

"Theme & Concept"
10 Rapid Fire Elements
Weave It Together

And the following advice from The Community World-Building forum

The goals of all this are different for different people but these are among them:
1) Share cool ideas for a campaign world and get cool ideas for your own use.
2) Build a cohesive campaign world that is fun, flavorful and unique.
3) Have fun talking to people interested in building a campaign world.
4) Build something of our own that we had a hand in crafting that we might eventually DM or play in as a PC.

[jaldaen]

Don't mind at all... do you want me to delete my post and replace it with something more in line with what you were aiming for?

[Dragonspawn]

A setting is a bit too big for this kind of treatment... that is if we are designing an entier WORLD.

Maybe we should just design one location (town or city). Posters could determine things like:

Population Size & Racial Makeup
Political Structure (Feudual, Democracy, Dictatorship, Mageocracy, Theocracy etc.)
Technology level (Age of Steel, Age of Steam, Industrial Age, Modern day, near or far future etc.)
Terrain (Forest, Island, Coastal etc.)
Climate (Arctic, Subarctic, Temperate, Tropical, Subtropical)
Primary Exports
Secret Locations
Mysteries
Conspiracies
Secret Organizations
Trade Guilds and other not-so-secret organizations or factions.
Tourist Attractions
Bars, Taverns and Pubs
Unique Features

[Robotman]

deleting to clarify

[The Shadow]

Again, I suggest that we hash out "mood and concept" as a group. If you don't buy into the basic mood and concept of a setting, it just plain doesn't work for you and you certainly don't feel inclined to add to it.

Basically, I think we should toss out ideas *on this subject first* and then hold a vote. I wouldn't want to see this fleshed out by a single person.

Also, I guess I want to know how big a project we want this to be? What exactly is the end product going to be? A few-paragraph "blurb" for a setting? A few pages of description? A book? :) (Don't laugh too hard - that's the goal of the Community World-Building Forum.)

My two cents on both topics:

I'm thinking in terms of a moderately low-magic fantasy world. I don't want it to be too gritty or bleak - there should be room for good-guys and derring-do - but I'm not getting a high-fantasy vibe either. I'd like to see some serious twists on the typical fantasy tropes - no point in hashing out yet another version of the Forgotten Realms or whatever.

To toss out something specific, for whatever reason I'm remembering a story in the Dragon, where *everybody* who dies comes back as an undead of some sort. The undead pretty much keep to themselves - they're not necessarily evil, but definitely alien, and wander the countryside. Revered and mildly feared as ancestor-spirits.

This intrigues me, though perhaps the idea could be modified. Basically, when people die they become a corporeal undead, then after the passage of time as their body rots an incorporeal one. The undead mostly lack interest in their former lives, though there may be exceptions. Different cultures may well have different patterns of dealing with the passage to the undead state, and the status of the undead.

Themes addressed would be some pretty heavy ones of life, death, and relationship. There would be some heavy-duty effects on culture and religion which could be great fun to explore.

I'm not throwing this out as something set in stone, just one possible way things could go. As other possibilities are tossed in, perhaps we can hold a vote on which (or which combination) we want to run with.

As for the scope of the project - I'm not sure. I'm thinking right now in terms of a few pages, but if we get swept away it could get bigger.

[Robotman]

Sounds a lot like Ghostwalk by Wizards. Though I have a short story I wrote that discusses your idea on different levels.

But agreed. I've been leaning towards alternate history setting of some sort.

Honestly, I want to generate something here that GR would turn into a book hailing it as the first community developed True 20 Setting.

[The Shadow]

Never heard of Ghostwalk - what is it?

Anyway, I was looking over the Community World-Building forum again - back at the very beginning - and they discussed and voted on the following categories:

High/Low Magic
High/Low Fantasy
High/Low Historical Fidelity.

Tones: Dark, Light, Gritty, Heroic, Cinematic, etc.

Themes: Things like "Underdogs Against the Bad Guys", "The Struggle For Magic", "Recovery From A Huge Plague" (that last is one they went with).

[jaldaen]

So far I'm getting the following from Shadow:

Genre: Low-magic Fantasy
Hook: A world where the afterlife is part of normal life.

From Robotman:

Genre: Alternate History
Hook: None mentioned yet.

Now both of these ideas could work well with each other...

What if something happened in our world's history that made it impossible for the spirits of the dead to move onto the afterlife? What could such an event be? What moment in "history" would be the best jump off point into this "grave new world" (sorry could not help myself

There are many other questions such a world would bring to the fore, but those are just a few to get people thinking/debating on whether this is a direction we would want to move in.

[aaronil]

Wishing you good luck with this project! I'll drop by as I'm able to check it out.

And so that I don't leave without contributing something, here's an expansion of The Shadow's idea: This just reeks of voodoo magic to me - Not too bleak (indeed, the potential to be humorous) and with room for swashbuckling heroes.

What if we took away the "wander the countryside" part and instead gave the dead their own nation? So now the underworld is a physical location, and trips to the underworld entail a physical journey.

But wait. How does a corpse in nation A get to nation B as a corporeal undead? They walk of course. The infamous "Death March to the Boneman's Kingdom" if you will, which takes place annually. During this day of the year people hide indoors and listen to the moaning of their ancestors awaking. The Death March is a long journey that often takes place at night, with spectral ships waiting for the newly dead by the shore.

So the undead don't "wander", instead any undead encountered is trying to reach the undead nation.

A question: Are dead souls judged before becoming undead? Or do the undead have no souls? What does being "undead" mean in this setting?

[The Shadow]

I was in fact dropping the "wander the countryside" part - like I said, different cultures would have different attitudes. Some might be *ruled* by the dead, with the living as menials. Some might be the reverse. Some might regard the dead as wise spirits to be consulted, but that shouldn't get involved in daily life. And so on.

Your "death march" could still exist. That would be an area where the living and the dead have basically concluded they can't coexist, and the dead have their own kingdom.

"Undead" might not be the best term, though there are obvious similarities. Maybe "dead" is the best description, with undead being the evil, life-draining types we all know and love.

I don't think they're judged yet, I think they're just hanging around. The incorporeal ghosts eventually fade away and go to their reward, I think, so you don't have people lingering on for centuries unless something odd is going on.