Dip Happen (World Building) *

1. Dip Happen (World Building) *

   #1

   I personally always recomend creating your own game worlds for your campaigns.  It makes the game your own, rather than something you are just using.  Most people will not run characters that other people create. why should game worlds be any different.    
   
   I  love creating game worlds. It comes from being a Fringeworthy GM, where you had to make a new game world every week or so, for your IDET people to explore.  So unlike most game masters, I am used to creating worlds.  
   
   For the rest of you, it is always better, as a GM to create your own game world.  You need to know it and "feel it" to give it versimiltude.  
   
   First and Foremost: Talk to your players.  Find out what kind of campaign they want, what sort of things they want in it, and the kind of adventures they want.  If you go into the world building processes with a list of these from each player, you campaign is off to a great start.  
   
   Now, it is actually fairly simple to create a world. Don't let the size of the task daunt you. Take it one part at a time and don't get bogged down.
   
   There are two ways to create a world DIP and DAS. DAS is Design at start.  It is the best way to create a setting, as you can make all the decisions at your leisure.  DIP is development in play.  No matter how much you do in the begining, you will have to do world building as the campaign progresses.  Every game setting is a combination of these two... the trick is finding the right combination for you.  I recommend to make all the big decisions and decide upon some general themes before the game starts and do a lot of "big picture" DAS. That way you will have a framework to fit all the DIP into.  
   
   There are books on creating worlds and sites as well... spend a little research time.  Many of the books on creating settings are for fiction writers.  That makes it a faster, simplified process for gamers.  
   
   Base your game world on what you know. If you know a period of history, set your game in a world similar to that period.  If you know a book series very well, make a world similar to that book series.  
   
   Some general info on world building:
   MoonHunters Tips on World Creation
   
   http://www.hut.fi/~vesanto/link.networld/networlds.html
     The Site.  Check the info related to the site and the links... very useful info on world building.
   
   And what would be a MoonHunter post without showing off my link collection...
   
   http://www.rpg.net Hit the Articles There are many that are good.  
   
   http://www.strolen.com/
   http://www.burningvoid.com/ Burning Void
   http://www.roleplayingtips.com Four's Site
   http://www.fantasylibrary.com/foyer.htm
   http://www.atfantasy.com/ Articles/ Stories
   
   http://members.aol.com/dwcope/index.htm Uncle Figgy
   http://www.geocities.com/blackhatmatt/ Black Hat Mat
   http://www.io.com/~sjohn/blue.htm Blue Room
   http://www.geocities.com/dr_games/ Dr Staat
   http://www.angelfire.com/tx/afira/roleplaying/handbook/main.html Afira's rpg books
   
   http://www.seventhsanctum.com/ Cool World Building articles
   http://home.mira.net/~tosh/index2.htm Roleplayers Guide
   
   http://www.hut.fi/~vesanto/roleplay.html
   http://www.lit.org/ Resource of writing/GMing
   
   http://www.rpg.net/directory/world.html
   
   
   No matter what setting you choose create a world pack.  Part of the packet should be information explaining the campaign setting. This should all the information they [the players] need about the game environment and the world it represents. This does not have to be in large, long, encyclopedia like sections. It can be a collection of important pieces of information, in simple short sections. GMs: Include as much as you are able, as it will save you having to explain things in the future.
   In detail.... see  

2. Dip Happen (World Building)

   #2

   Now being someone who creates quite a few worlds, how do you do it? Do you have a set of guidelines you want fleshed out before you consider it completed enough to adventure in? How much do you borrow between worlds? How much to you map?

3. Dip Happen (World Building)

   #3

   Depending on your style, you can probably see that the balance between DIP and DAS very much depends on how well you can improvise and how easy you find it to put some time in developing at a later moment in time.
   
   The questions you pose, are next to impossible to answer in general. I know that all I need to start a adventure is just the map of a single city or town, but I do have to say that I had a general idea of what my players wanted before I started. I had been playing two sessions with my gamers before I started.
   
   If you go to my website, I can give you a general idea of what I developed before play started. (www buton)
   I developed the general concept of the world (History of Teolin), including the calender. (I needed the calendar, as that indicates the amount of light during the nights)
   Besides that I developed the entire Pantheon, but that is actualy expanding...
   In the world section I developed two islands.
   I developed one ship, as I needed that for a adventure.
   
   After character creation, I created another four islands, from which the different adventurers came and because of an error I made when developing Mercantie, I had to add another island where the sea-people meet the bi-pedal land dwellers.
   
   From then on, it has been work in progress (i.e. DIP)
   
   For me that works very well. But I know that the player that used to be DM feels this is a terible approach.
   The big difference is that I have no fear for "winging it" where as he needs the knowledge as a assurance that everything will work out fine.
   If we talk about a island during a session, I sometimes just come up with some basics for the island and then jot them down over session and create the island after the players landed there (happend once) Now my player would end the session before leaving for the island, as he did not yet know the name.
   
   If my players would feel that things get out of hand, because I tend to wing it too much, I know they would tell me and I would change my style to prepare more, but so far it works very well for all of us.
   
   Again, I have to warn you here. This works for me. It may very well work different for other people.
   
   Yours,
   
   Ylorea

4. Dip Happen (World Building)

   #4

   As a DM, I wing about 80% of our gaming session. I know the monsters, map and treasure but how to get them there, the descriptions and NPC interaction I do on the fly. For me, I don't think this works well with world creation. I want to give my PC's something more solid for them to wrap their imaginations around.
   
   My problem is that I am not organized and if MoonHunter had some form of set guidelines he uses to create worlds, I would be thrilled if he would pass them on.
   
   I am not looking for anything too fancy, just maybe an outline of sorts.

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