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edappel
Learned Scribe
Brazil
211 Posts |
 Posted - 12 May 2009 : 15:35:36
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Well, after reading Ed's post of how he build The Realms, I started to create mine.
The huge difference about it, is that I'm grouping some others Brazilians DMs to help me on it, and every group that will play there, those characters will have a direct influence at the history of the world. It will be like "living FR", except that it will be really alive. (Like OWBN)
This world, obviously will have some influence of FR, and I'll try to put a little bit more of "horror", philosofy measures, Portals, Nothing from planet earth, no gunpowder or technological mechanism.
But now I'm here to ask you, what do you think a new world may have to be a success?
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--- Ed Appel
*** I'm a brazilian FR fan. So, feel free to correct my writing mistakes to improve my english. |
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edappel
Learned Scribe
Brazil
211 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2009 : 15:55:24
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| * Ed Greenwood and Brian James as designers doesn't counts. ;) |
--- Ed Appel
*** I'm a brazilian FR fan. So, feel free to correct my writing mistakes to improve my english. |
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Kuje
Great Reader
USA
7915 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2009 : 18:22:06
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You're probably not going to get a straight answer about this but my opinion is that the lore/history/nations/etc, has to have consistency and the reasons why these things exist has to mesh together, which is why I grew tired of Wizard's FR.
The constant shake ups to the setting just got out of hand and the events became implausible to me. The constant wars, divine events, etc, happened year after year. Small events, sure, but these constant world/continent changing events were really hard to believe. |
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet and excite you... Books are full of the things that you don't get in real life - wonderful, lyrical language, for instance, right off the bat. - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium |
Edited by - Kuje on 12 May 2009 18:56:44 |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2009 : 18:53:53
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A new world should "feel" right. It has to make sense, and it has to be consistent.
Hmm not much more to say atm |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Tyr
Learned Scribe
225 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2009 : 19:13:58
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yeah, can't really add more than has been said, it basically needs to be believable.
So it should have a plausible history and real reasons why things are the way they are.
My advice would be to just start simple and build it up from there, if you try to make something like the Realms without the 40 years of baby steps inbetween then you'll probably have a hard time keeping track of things. |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2009 : 19:41:55
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quote:
Originally posted by edappel
This world, obviously will have some influence of FR, and I'll try to put a little bit more of "horror", philosofy measures, Portals, Nothing from planet earth, no gunpowder or technological mechanism.
Every civilization has technology, including the ones of Faerun. Lighting a campfire is technology. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
Edited by - Rinonalyrna Fathomlin on 12 May 2009 19:42:40 |
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Mace Hammerhand
Great Reader
Germany
2296 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2009 : 19:50:23
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quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
quote:
Originally posted by edappel
This world, obviously will have some influence of FR, and I'll try to put a little bit more of "horror", philosofy measures, Portals, Nothing from planet earth, no gunpowder or technological mechanism.
Every civilization has technology, including the ones of Faerun. Lighting a campfire is technology.
No technology would mean...
no chairs
no wheel
no doors
no swords
no clubs
no bows
clothing would be very basic because of no needles etc
very stone-agey... or pre-stone-agey rather
I'd rethink the whole no-tech-idea  |
Mace's not so gentle gamer's journal My rants were harmless compared to this, beware! |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 12 May 2009 : 23:00:47
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I'll tell ya' what it shouldn't have...
A Spellplague, a hokey sister-world, and a century timejump. 
Okay, now that thats out of the way... 
_____________________________________________________________________________________
A reason why.
Why now? Why does the world 'need' heroes at this juncture?
I always like my games to be an 'Aftermath' scenario. Perhaps not as all-prevasive as the Spellplague, but the world (or at least the main area the campaign is focused in) should have recently undergone some change, for better or worse. Maybe a war (a'la Eberron, or others), or a 'revolution' (like what happened on Athas - Freedom), or just the collapse of some ancient, decadent empire (Melnibonea and Moorcock's Young Kingdoms, or even Greyhawk and it's 'Great Kingdom' Aerdy).
I like the 'fallen Empire' scenario the best, and it doesn't have to be on the same continent. In fact, having some strange, foreign invaders that were tyrannical rulers, and then left all of a sudden for some inexplicable reason is one of my favorite setting-types (Iron Kingdoms, or Wheel of Time's Seanchan). It gives the whole thing the air of a intangible yet very real threat still hanging over everyone's heads.
If on the same continent, it could also double as your 'Monolthic Evil'. Suppose the evil Empire has been in decline for centuries, but now suddenly wants to start retaking its former provinces? Thats the kind of scenario you have with Sauron, in LotR. The 'sleeping evil' suddenly re-awakens, and everything is about to change.
You need at least one 'goodly kingdom' (Cormyr, Arthur's England, etc...), at least one greedy mercantile one, at least one cabal of evil wizards (who may have their own kingdom, a'la Thay or Stygia). You need one 'super-metropolis' - the city everyone knows about and is a THE major hub of the world. Then you need it's opposite - the sleazy pirate port where anything and anyone can be bought and sold. This could be a remote port on the mainland, or in a chain of islands. I usually do both - I like sea-borne campaigns.
You can also turn that on it's head - make the super-metropolis old and decadent (like Calimport), and have a younger, smaller city be the 'shining jewel'.
A forest Kingdom is usually a must (Elves normally, but a Robin Hoodesque human Kingdom or Arboria will work as well, like the Dales). You could also go with a Forest realm of 'Wee Folk' (or whatever fits the 'halfling niche' in your setting, like Warrows, Kender, or even Brownies).
I'm not a big fan of the Underdark - too pervasive - but you'll need a few large, mostly forgotten cavern complexes, some filled with Dwarves or some-such (Gnomes, Duergar), while others are filled with monsters (solitary like Dragons, or whole tribes of things like Goblinoids). The usual trope is that the Dwarves are on the decline, and the world is filled with the ruins of the subterranean cities of their heyday.
You should also figure out where your main 'fey' region will be right from the start, unless you want every forest to have Fey.
Giants in the mountains; another must. Could go with typical ogres or Hill Giants, or get a little creative with stuff like Eldritch Giants or Goliaths.
Dragons are another trope, but one I myself don't use very often. I prefer just a few, VERY poweful individuals - the last remnants of an ancient race - living in remote locales. Having tons of Dragons underfoot isn't my thing, and one of the few things I really dislike about FR. However, its your setting, not mine, so if you like them go for it.
At least one very militaristic nation is also cool, and it could be either one of the 'goodly' ones, or an evil tyrant-state like Zhentil Keep. I'm also partial to theocracies as well. Something about church knights figting 'the infidels' (read: anything that doesn't agree with them), or inquisitors that try to 'convert the masses' (read: torture the innocent until they confess their sins). Several settings use that, like the White Cloaks from WoT, to the theocracy of the Pale in GH, to the church-states of Eberron and the Iron Kingdoms.
Remember it's all been done before, so just pick and choose what you like, and then try to put a fresh spin on it. And the most important advice of all - just have fun. 
Edit: And strangely enough, I just found This Site while looking for something related (Fantasy Tropes). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 13 May 2009 14:59:35 |
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edappel
Learned Scribe
Brazil
211 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2009 : 13:32:41
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My god... thanks for the answer Mark... You gave me a bunch of ideas..
Later I will say something more, but I have somethings to do here at work.
Just to explain, what I meant with no tech-mechanism, is: no "Warforged", gunpowder, gond-machines, tinkers, etc.
I'm planning to restrict many factors, 'cause like we gonna have more then a handful of DMs, I don't wanna have a completed mixed-world, every Realm with completly different things and themes. Our major theme, DMing or just Ploting, will be POLITICS, REALISM and CONSISTENCY.
Cya later. And thanks for everyone. |
--- Ed Appel
*** I'm a brazilian FR fan. So, feel free to correct my writing mistakes to improve my english. |
Edited by - edappel on 13 May 2009 13:53:32 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2009 : 15:10:03
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No problem. I've built a few worlds in my day. 
Your last comment also reminded me of something very important I forgot to mention - history does NOT exist in a vacuum. FR is a pretty good example of a very inter-connected setting, but even it has it's flaws (the lack of connections to Kara-Tur, Zakhara, etc..).
When your placing all your 'kewl' stuff on the map, keep the history of the world in-mind. If you place two countries next to each other, you have to be fully aware of how they would interact.
It might be a good idea to make a table with the name of each political entity across the top and down the side, and then write-in how they feel towards each other. If you do this at the beginning while world-building, you'll get a good idea of the political climate, and won't accidently create any 'strangeness' (like several powerful states surrounding a weaker one they all hate).
As a part of this, also try to think about who is trading with who, because trade has a huge effect on international relations. If you take all of these things in consideration early-on, the history will practically write-itself. Always try to draw lines of connectivity between places and groups, and good design will folllow.
A good fantasy setting is much more then a bunch of cool-sounding names written on a pretty map.
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"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 13 May 2009 15:11:24 |
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Arion Elenim
Senior Scribe
933 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2009 : 16:51:19
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| The most fascinating part of the Realms for me has always been religion. A vast pantheon with lots of deities to choose from as a patron (possibly the worst change 4th ed made, IMHO) always made Toril seem like a massive, massive place. |
My latest Realms-based short story, about a bard, a paladin of Lathander and the letter of the law, Debts Repaid. It takes place before the "shattering" and gives the bard Arion a last gasp before he plunges into the present.http://candlekeep.com/campaign/logs/log-debts.htm |
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Alisttair
Great Reader
Canada
3054 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2009 : 18:23:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Arion Elenim
The most fascinating part of the Realms for me has always been religion. A vast pantheon with lots of deities to choose from as a patron (possibly the worst change 4th ed made, IMHO) always made Toril seem like a massive, massive place.
I agree to an extent. I find/found that to be one of the most fascinating parts (and I agree that the changes are bad but in some cases good, such as the Exarchs...it was just done overkill and would have needed some tweaking a bit) |
Karsite Arcanar (Most Holy Servant of Karsus)
Anauria - Survivor State of Netheril as penned by me:
http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/172023 |
Edited by - Alisttair on 13 May 2009 18:24:25 |
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Ghost King
Learned Scribe
USA
253 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2009 : 21:34:44
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I really have nothing I can add more than what has been said, except to add always and I mean always try to put a new spin on the old ideas. Make the world something you've always wanted to see done a certain way, not the way someone else does it. Who knows you might just surprise yourself and make it better then it has ever been done before.
Another thing I would strongly advise is try making up whole new names completely unique to your world. Maybe knights are not called knights in your world, maybe there is a completely unique name in your world they are called but serve the same idea as knights how we think of them. Also feel free to break from traditional races as the standard or put whole new spins on them to make them original only to your world/setting.
Basically, what I'm saying in a nutshell is be as creative as possible without restraint. |
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Asgetrion
Master of Realmslore
Finland
1564 Posts |
Posted - 13 May 2009 : 23:01:36
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I'll add this (if anyone didn't already say it): study the official, published settings, especially racial/cultural histories and how they tie into the timeline. A good example would be Golarion -- it felt like a mishmash setting until I read the timeline in the campaign setting, and understood how much the Starstone and Aroden's death later on influenced the whole world. Keep it simple -- generic outlines at first, because details might change radically over time (and if you've written 25 pages of history and details for the arcane kingdom of Sytheria, it's frustrating to scrap it all when the general consensus decides that there should be no "wizard kingdoms" in the setting).
Also, choose which types of fantasy and/or science fiction (subgenres) the setting should cover; even if there were individual kingdoms/areas fulfilling a certain niche or subgenre ("This duchy is like Ravenloft, and this continent is like Dark Sun but with some technological twists"), try to find a general "feel" to the setting. For example, at its heart, Golarion reminds me a lot of the pulp-era fantasy fiction with the general "low fantasy" undertone to it (but it can be about high/epic fantasy as well).
And the pantheon is really important, as well, so I'd design the "bare bones" of the Pantheon as soon as possible.
Otherwise, I'm pretty much on the same wagon with Kiaransalyn and the old goa... oops... Markus! |
"What am I doing today? Ask me tomorrow - I can be sure of giving you the right answer then."
-- Askarran of Selgaunt, Master Sage, speaking to a curious merchant, Year of the Helm |
Edited by - Asgetrion on 13 May 2009 23:06:10 |
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edappel
Learned Scribe
Brazil
211 Posts |
Posted - 18 May 2009 : 19:35:40
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| Do you think its necessary to write short storys or novels of the Realm to pull it up? |
--- Ed Appel
*** I'm a brazilian FR fan. So, feel free to correct my writing mistakes to improve my english. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31774 Posts |
Posted - 19 May 2009 : 00:46:03
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quote:
Originally posted by edappel
Do you think its necessary to write short storys or novels of the Realm to pull it up?
I believe both are integral for such an established setting as the Realms. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 19 May 2009 : 04:46:10
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Stories are good to present the flavor of the setting (which has as much to do with 'tempo' as it does culture and history).
Stories don't even need to be as long as the typical short-srtory; just three pages is enough, sometimes, to convey the feel of a place. Also, myths and legends (which are usually fairly short) are a great way to present the religous aspects. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Matt James
Forgotten Realms Game Designer
USA
918 Posts |
Posted - 19 May 2009 : 15:12:05
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| Allow for growth. If you do this, it will inspire others and spark their own imaginations. This is what I feel is integral to an ever-evolving story. |
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Jorkens
Great Reader
Norway
2950 Posts |
Posted - 20 May 2009 : 19:04:46
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quote:
Originally posted by edappel
Well, after reading Ed's post of how he build The Realms, I started to create mine.
The huge difference about it, is that I'm grouping some others Brazilians DMs to help me on it, and every group that will play there, those characters will have a direct influence at the history of the world. It will be like "living FR", except that it will be really alive. (Like OWBN)
This world, obviously will have some influence of FR, and I'll try to put a little bit more of "horror", philosofy measures, Portals, Nothing from planet earth, no gunpowder or technological mechanism.
But now I'm here to ask you, what do you think a new world may have to be a success?
I think one of the most important questions is what do you want it to be? What seems like fun for the people involved. The quality should be judged after how well you manage to incorporate these elements into a whole that you can enjoy and that serves your purpose. Then again, I prefer Lin Carter to Tolkien, so I have a soft spot for whimsical elements and things thrown in just because they are fun. My Realms aren't exactly by the books any more.
A world can be just as successful without giving much thought to the real world logic. If you want floating islands, talking opossums working for the skygods and wizards with unpronounceable names making illogical plots within the towers, then a "logical" fantasy world is rather pointless. The old Gods and Magic argument can be used for anything.
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 21 May 2009 : 14:53:26
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| Talking opossums make any world a bit more fun. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Saegis
Acolyte
Canada
23 Posts |
Posted - 21 May 2009 : 20:58:06
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I think it was Oscar Wilde who once said "A good artist borrows from his influences, a great artist steals". I've been working off and on for a world I'm currently building and I found that two things have helped me the most (I can't say these will help though). I like to search for art websites and image websites (deviantart.com, google images, and flickr.com). I like to search for all kinds of fantasy related pictures to get visual images of things I want to see in my own world.
The other thing I love doing is playing a video game called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It's a great open world game that allows you to play different kinds of characters from all walks of life and society. You also get to travel to all kinds of places. You commit murder for an assassin's guild, pull off a high profile crime, fight a cult of necromancers as a member of the mages' university.
I find that if I can develop an environment that is visually appealing and captures the flavour of the players occupation then I have created a good experience for them. There will always be details that you will overlook and need to clarify or even omit. Only time and experience will allow you to develop an in-depth world.
As for my world I tend to work in a certain pattern. I'll develop a name or a style for a country, once those two are determined I'll place them somewhere on the world map. I'll then think about a few details on their culture (such as flag colours, style of politics, views of on others, main form of national income, etc.) I find that if you develop a few key details about a country you will start to get an overflow of ideas later on while working on something else.
I also enjoy changing game mechanics to add flavour to my world. The people I play with don't really enjoy playing sorcerers so I decided that I'd change the sorcerer into two sub-classes. In my campaign you can choose to be one of these two sub-classes which gives you slight bonuses and penalties that adds a certain style to your character. This also allowed me to make a distinction between sorcery and wizardry, where the former is outlawed in some places while the latter is respected.
To make a long story short, if you surround yourself with inspiration you will find that the sky is the limit |
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Marquant Volker
Learned Scribe
Greece
273 Posts |
Posted - 21 May 2009 : 22:35:54
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| Another small addition could be a land with many smaller kingdoms (like border kingdoms) individual lords and barons where war is common and the political situation is unstable. This could provide the opportunity for the PCs to gain their small keep/kingdom, beside that its an interesting land for adventuring |
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Jorkens
Great Reader
Norway
2950 Posts |
Posted - 22 May 2009 : 07:39:18
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quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Talking opossums make any world a bit more fun.
It depends on which ones you meet. Some of them just hang around and make trouble.
I should add though, that the addition of heavily armed poultry is always a nice addition. Players get a bit off balance when running from ducks. |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2009 : 16:53:16
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Hrm... not much I can add here... Markustay has made all the big points, and Rinona and Jorkens have made the important small points... but I would also add that correct identification of the poultry is important... sufficient ranks in Knowledge (Poultry) will keep your PCs from crouching when someone yells "DUCK!"... and getting goosed as a result. 
Apologies for that one, but I can say in my defense it's not mine originally... well, not really... it's my synthesis of two traps from Grimtooth, "Duck!" and "The Cranequin Goose"... check out "Grimtooth's Traps" by Blade/Flying Buffalo for more evil hilarity. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 24 May 2009 16:56:00 |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36805 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2009 : 16:58:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Jakk
Apologies for that one, but I can say in my defense it's not mine originally... well, not really... it's my synthesis of two traps from Grimtooth, "Duck!" and "The Cranequin Goose"... check out "Grimtooth's Traps" by Blade/Flying Buffalo for more evil hilarity.
I read one of those books, and found it most disappointing. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 24 May 2009 : 17:05:56
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Re: Wooly: I was disappointed with them too, but mostly by the lack of stats for the traps. No, I didn't pick up the d20 hardcover; no money in the gaming budget at the time.
[/edit]
In short, what I meant by my previous post is, make sure there are *occasional* *little* things that are good for a laugh. You don't want to go overboard with them, but a little humour goes a long way. I was playing in one campaign some years ago (in the Realms) where my halfling ranger's war dog companion was attacked by a swarm of tressym. Yes, I know tressym don't swarm, but we just happened to be playing on April 1st and the dog was barking at something (I don't recall what, exactly, except that it was something a well-trained dog had no business barking at) and he woke the tressym from their midday nap in the big tree near the PCs. The tressym weren't dumb enough to get within range of the dog's bite; they just got close enough to maximize the impact of their all-at-once feline hiss. You never saw a dog shut up so fast.
We now return you to world-building advice more practical than mine... |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 24 May 2009 17:08:26 |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 25 May 2009 : 09:12:01
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Been hanging around a long time to reply to this topic, and now I have both the time and the inclination.
I can echo a number of the other comments (especially Markustay's), but that'd be a waste of bandwidth, so I won't.
When I went on to design my world, I started working on two levels - the continental and the very local. The very local level (VLL) basically concerns the PC's homebase, which might be a small village and its surroundings (think Shadowdale). This locale can be highly detailed, and is relatively easy to detail. A big part of the detail that goes into the VLL is determined by the kind of adventures I, as a DM, plan on running. I started out detailing the local level using bits and pieces of generic villages detailed in Dungeon Modules, and transposed NPCs (or merged NPCs), even for adventures that would happen in a couple of levels or so. To do that, I often work with the archetypes - the local baron / lord and his or her retinue ; the local priests and/or druids, tavern keepers, shopkeepers, blacksmith, and so on. Many "village-based" modules usually contain some of these, and depending on needs, you can detail them.
Villages are easy enough to flesh out, because the scope (in space and people) is limited. In case you want to start out with city-based adventures, I usually start out by stealing (sorry, borrowing) published material, which can either be generic cities (Ptolus, for instance, or even Sigil), or cities borrowed from other settings (Greyhawk and Waterdeep spring to mind). Of course, if you want to make the world your own, you will need to change some NPCs and religions (more on religions later), but at least you have a washing list of locales and NPCs to bewilder your PCs with, as any fantasy city should. In my particular case, I went with the city that brought me into roleplaying in the first place, Laelith (created by the staff of the French gaming magazine Casus Belli). It's usually possible to put just about any city-based adventure into any city, so that's handy.
The other level is the Global/Continental Level (GCL) - this is a relatively rough outlay of the continent and of the major areas. It does not need to be very detailed, nor set in stone. If you start PCs off at the local level, the GCL basically serves only to feed some information to the PCs ("Have you heard that in the great City-State of Laelith a six-legged pig was made God-Emperor?"), and, to quote the Old Grey Box "On my word as a sage nothing within these pages is false, but not all of it may prove to be true." If you feel the need to change something, you can shrug it off by saying that "well, you should have known better than to trust that drunk snake oil peddler, right?" Still, you need some basic consistency (no millenia-old mega-empires showing up just fifty miles away), which is why you need to settle on the GCL design around the same time you start your campaign.
This brings us to current events. I love a world's history as much (or more) as the next guy, but if you want a playing world, you need, first and foremost, a present. In the present, things happen on a global scale, that do not necessarily need to affect the VLL, but can pop up occasionally, and have an influence. For example, the core setting for my world was a former empire that fell apart around 150 years before the present day, following a massively bloody war with the next-door empire (which won the war but at such a high cost that it was unable to hold on to its conquests and withdrew). This resulted a) in huge areas of the former empire being abandoned, b) a couple of independent city-states gaining a lot of influence (if not actual power), c) a lord somewhere up north starting to work on reuniting the empire - by force; and d) the rival empire, having recovered from the last war, starting to look into grabbing what it had to abandon 150 years earlier. None of this matters one whit to your village, but the following things could happen:
- refugees pass through the area and want to settle (lots of land become vacant, remember?)
- emissaries from Laelith trying to sell "protection"
- roving bands of raiders (human or not), because of the breakdown of central government
- warbands passing through on the way to whichever local war is going on a couple of hundred miles down the road
- something for the travelling peddlers and gypsy caravans to tell tall tales about.
Religion, then. Of course, everybody would love to be able to produce work in the quantity and quality of the 2E "God-Books", but in truth few of us have the time (or the skill, dare one say it). Anyway, there are a couple of ways of going about it, in my view.
Way the Firste - do nothing. A cleric is just a cleric, a servant of the god(s), no detail required, just a holy man deriving power from something (Dark Sun, for instance, where clerics derived their power from the Elements).
Way the Seconde - You can go with top-down design of a pantheon, with detailed lists of deities. Nice (see the 2E "God Books", but time consuming and not necessarily what you need to start play or start telling stories).
Way the Thirde - Open House! Free-for-all, all deities from all books can get worship, you can have Mystra representing magic in one barony, Wee Jas in the next city, Isis in the village down the stream. Lacks a bit in coherence, though. Religion tends to be closely tied to the world's history.
Way the Fourthe - aka the million gods. As the lands were fragmented, there are a lot of local spirits and godlings - each village might worship a couple of local spirits and local shrines. Of course, in most cases there is no actual power behind it, but the cleric's prayers are answered by one of a limited number of Powers whose portfolio matches the prayers the most. For instance, Demeter, Earthmother, Hoongapoonga the Autumn Spirit, and the Great Big Wheat Stalk may all be provided for by Chauntea, even though the worshippers of those individual local gods may not realize it (or even recognize it when confronted with the facts). It's an approach that was used to some degree in Dragonlance, where its 21 deities were known and worshipped under a multitude of names. Next to the myriad locals, I had the Druidic faith, which worshipped the Land, and was the only continent-spanning religious organisation (and therefore also wielded some more down-to-earth influence).
Anyway - some notes on how I went about it. |
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Zealot
Seeker
USA
59 Posts |
Posted - 25 May 2009 : 16:01:53
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| Ok I know that alot of people are espousing alot of detail. I personally like to keep some things vague or under developed so that the actions of my players can allow for change. I like the idea that the players help to establish how the world develops. An Example is having the results of an adventure directly effecting the political climate between two nations or cities. I personally loved the Grey Box Forgotten Realms setting because even though it gave so much information, it still had alot of room for DMs to customize the world and allow it to grow to their particular campaign needs. Just my 2 cents. |
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. |
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edappel
Learned Scribe
Brazil
211 Posts |
Posted - 25 May 2009 : 20:52:37
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My god... There's much more information than I expected...
Thanks for everything again... At the near future I'll post some ideas that I had.
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--- Ed Appel
*** I'm a brazilian FR fan. So, feel free to correct my writing mistakes to improve my english. |
Edited by - edappel on 25 May 2009 20:53:10 |
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Zealot
Seeker
USA
59 Posts |
Posted - 26 May 2009 : 02:16:09
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| Oi mate, let me know how everything turns out, it sounds like you have a wealth of info to go on. |
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. |
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What should a new world have?
