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Post by The Archivist on Mar 16, 2015 22:45:59 GMT -5
How much worldbuilding do you do in your campaigns? Where do you fall between mapping out the whole planet or just the immediate area you are campaigning in? Do you follow any type of written guideline(s) when world building? What things do you find most useful when doing worldbuilding? How detailed do you get in putting together your world? How many pages of material have you produced in detailing you campaigns world/worlds?
You can select up to three options and if you will comment on your answers. Such as: I used to do, then later on I did and now I do.
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Post by The Archivist on Mar 16, 2015 22:48:45 GMT -5
I used to do the immediate campaign area and only branch out when I have to, and later on I did a little bit to get started and then I just winged it. Now I don't have much time so what worldbuilding? I only wing it.
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Post by Necromancer on Mar 17, 2015 4:08:09 GMT -5
Well, I was more into details and usually wanted to map the entire world when I was younger and had more time. I think I often was overly ambitious, ending up with worlds looking fairly good on paper but when taking a closer look they often weren't substantial enough. Nowadays I try more to focus on the theme of the setting and let that be my guiding light when creating places and creatures. If that means ending up with a mapping of a whole world or just a small part of it doesn't matter that much to me anymore - the important thing (for me) is that the stuff I do include actually feels right and substantial.
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Post by makofan on Mar 24, 2015 9:19:42 GMT -5
I do top down for feel, then zero in on the campaign area and only expand as needed
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monk
Prospector
Posts: 90
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Post by monk on Mar 24, 2015 15:08:57 GMT -5
I always want to do top down whole-planet building, but I get caught up in all the details that I don't understand like climate and geography. Even the building I do always ends up marginally useful at the game table. So I fall back on creating an interesting city and surrounding area with interesting locales (towns, temples, ruins, lairs, etc.). Then I wing it and jot down notes to keep it consistent. For example my players have never been to Muoravia, but they've met Muoravians and heard little details about it for three campaigns. I keep a list of the details to flesh it out if they ever decide to go there.
On a related note, I'm always amazed how far a little planning goes. We've been adventuring about 5 sessions in one undercity complex that I wrote up in a few hours. I continually underestimate how long it'll take them to explore/move through a locale I've created. It's a good problem, though...it means I don't have to plan as much/often as I think.
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Post by Von on Mar 29, 2015 2:16:46 GMT -5
All together now: depends on the game. For something gonzo and lightweight like Fighting Fantasy (which is very much fire and forget and which has a developed world that I already know and like) I do next to nothing; devise a basic scenario and then wing it like a good 'un. For an urban intrigue game (my preferred type) in a setting that's had the top down work done (like the Warhammer World or the WoD Dark Ages) I build an interesting city and some satellite locations. What I mean by that is that I build a web of NPCs with agendas and attitudes, and make sure that those NPCs have some relationship to each of the created PCs, and give a handful of those NPCs a link to another place about which I have enough vague ideas for later development to be fairly swift. Then I just drop players in and have them bond with, take a dislike to and rile up whoever they see fit. I know what the NPCs would do if there were no PCs involved so all I have to do is adapt their plans to player action and emphasise those in whom the players have taken an interest. For Titan I am doing more top-down work than previously, because I'm making up the setting from scratch and ensuring that it is adequately expressed by the rules, and because I will be using it for a variety of games, scales and styles - this is the setting in which I will be likely to play for the rest of my life and if I'm going to invite gamers into my playground I want them to know where the swings are and make sure that they can't crap on the astroturf. This is the most 'designerly' thing I've built and it's slow going, especially since I'm second-guessing myself at every step to check for lazy associations and aspects which are bothersome to my immediate circle of players. It is impossible for me to separate the campaign world from the campaign. The one serves the other and so the process of its design necessarily varies. There are a couple of core principles though. Like monk I have no real head for geography or climate mapping and so I generally use places that actually exist, or are blatantly analogous to such. On Titan I am deliberately digging in my heels - players who insist on me detailing the laws of physics are asking me to do something I don't want to, i.e. give up my fun so they can have theirs. There are seas of cloud between the cities with frozen mushroom forests beneath them BECAUSE I SAY SO, because I think that's fun. Get your pseudoscience out of my mythopoiea.
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Post by Admin Pete on Oct 25, 2016 21:18:41 GMT -5
This has not been looked at for a while and a lot of people have not seen it, so bumping it to the top.
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on Feb 4, 2018 2:20:38 GMT -5
Top Down in the past. I'll be doing a fused setting combining 1e Greyhawk/Blackmoor & 1e FR Box set with reworked Known World. But i'll be creating a Grim Dark fantasy home-brew setting that will have a few top down details unifying things but grow the setting organically throughout the span of the campaigns set within it.
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Post by Robert the Black on Feb 8, 2018 15:29:41 GMT -5
I love me some world-building. Tolkien was a piker and so am I because I have a life. If I could write 40 hours a week and game 40 hours a week starting back when I was 10, I would, but the other people in my life would not, then or now, appreciate that.
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Post by Irish Warrior on Feb 8, 2018 18:12:10 GMT -5
I love me some world-building. Tolkien was a piker and so am I because I have a life. If I could write 40 hours a week and game 40 hours a week starting back when I was 10, I would, but the other people in my life would not, then or now, appreciate that. That would be beautiful, I wish OD&D had been around when I was a child.
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on Feb 9, 2018 2:47:38 GMT -5
I love me some world-building. Tolkien was a piker and so am I because I have a life. If I could write 40 hours a week and game 40 hours a week starting back when I was 10, I would, but the other people in my life would not, then or now, appreciate that. That would be beautiful, I wish OD&D had been around when I was a child. It was but I was a wee lad of 2-4 yo & had yet to learn to read or discover Hobbits - I was 5yo when I saw the TV cartoon movie & 10yo when I saw LotR animated film as a double-feature with Clash of the Titans, I missed the LotR animated film initial release. But buy then I'd been bitten by the Fantasy & Sci-Fi bug hard & there has been no cure. I do wish I had been old enough to play both OD&D & B/X when they were initially released.
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Post by Irish Warrior on Mar 10, 2018 14:55:32 GMT -5
That would be beautiful, I wish OD&D had been around when I was a child. It was but I was a wee lad of 2-4 yo & had yet to learn to read or discover Hobbits - I was 5yo when I saw the TV cartoon movie & 10yo when I saw LotR animated film as a double-feature with Clash of the Titans, I missed the LotR animated film initial release. But buy then I'd been bitten by the Fantasy & Sci-Fi bug hard & there has been no cure. I do wish I had been old enough to play both OD&D & B/X when they were initially released. I wish I had been about 14 when OD&D was released with a parents that had tie-ins to Arneson and Barker, that would have been ideal. Rob was a teen in Gary's game, I wish I could have been a teen in Arneson's game.
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Post by Mighty Darci on Mar 16, 2018 9:48:35 GMT -5
Don't we all!
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Post by Yaleric on Jun 29, 2018 19:27:44 GMT -5
I do top down to the scale of countries and region, after that I focus on the campaign areas.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on Jun 29, 2018 23:42:24 GMT -5
Don't we all! Wasn't that only last year?
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Post by Mighty Darci on Jul 1, 2018 21:50:47 GMT -5
Don't we all! Wasn't that only last year? That's a creative way of trying to get me to tell you my age, but it didn't work.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on Jul 1, 2018 21:54:03 GMT -5
Then it warn't that clever, was it?
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Post by Mighty Darci on Jul 1, 2018 22:41:17 GMT -5
Then it warn't that clever, was it? I was trying to be nice, I didn't want you to feel badly.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on Jul 1, 2018 23:09:28 GMT -5
If it's not life-threatening nor family-threatening, I think I'll ignore anything such as getting my ego bruised.
Though I surely wish I had time and health to run a PbP again.
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Post by True Black Raven on Jul 2, 2018 18:11:19 GMT -5
If it's not life-threatening nor family-threatening, I think I'll ignore anything such as getting my ego bruised. Though I surely wish I had time and health to run a PbP again. We wish you did too! But people are always looking for ideas, you could always start a thread posting ideas as they occur. You have a way of looking at things that is hard to duplicate and you might as well write those ideas down here for us to enjoy.
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Post by ripx187 on Jul 2, 2018 20:59:59 GMT -5
I build what I need to but lean on an Earth-like planet so I can focus on the fun stuff. My players and I explore the realm together.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on Jul 2, 2018 21:58:10 GMT -5
If it's not life-threatening nor family-threatening, I think I'll ignore anything such as getting my ego bruised. Though I surely wish I had time and health to run a PbP again. We wish you did too! But people are always looking for ideas, you could always start a thread posting ideas as they occur. You have a way of looking at things that is hard to duplicate and you might as well write those ideas down here for us to enjoy. The last time I shared too many of my ideas, the entire state of New Jersey went insane and fought Batman.
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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 2, 2018 23:19:34 GMT -5
We wish you did too! But people are always looking for ideas, you could always start a thread posting ideas as they occur. You have a way of looking at things that is hard to duplicate and you might as well write those ideas down here for us to enjoy. The last time I shared too many of my ideas, the entire state of New Jersey went insane and fought Batman. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but New Jersey was insane before you were there. It is all the monsters in the Pine Barrens.
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Post by True Black Raven on Jul 21, 2018 22:10:37 GMT -5
I do Top Down with a focus on the local area. I get pretty in depth on a lot of off camera stuff.
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Post by Warrior Twin Two on Aug 22, 2018 11:01:25 GMT -5
Tolkien was a piker and if we win the lottery and can do this full time we'll prove it.
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Post by Q. F o s t e r on May 3, 2022 11:53:54 GMT -5
"I start with the campaign area and work up from there."
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Post by Snuffy Smith on May 3, 2022 12:44:50 GMT -5
This is my choice
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Post by Ibizan Zamway on May 3, 2022 21:47:14 GMT -5
My world building is on an as needed basis.
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Post by clooney on May 3, 2022 22:28:59 GMT -5
Top down, but focus on the campaign area.
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Post by nobody on Jun 16, 2022 18:39:31 GMT -5
4, 7 and 8. If I did not have to work for a living it would be number one.
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