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Post by True Black Raven on Apr 1, 2018 17:15:34 GMT -5
Does your campaign have history? Not just the history that it develops through play, but did it start with history. Did your campaign itself have a history? Oh, I don't mean did you go full Tolkien or Barker and creates thousands of pages of back story for your campaign. But does it have some back story, some existing history? Did it start with it or did you start with a blank slate and develop the back story as you went? I don't mean did you write something up and give it to the players to read, but those ruins, do you the DM know anything about them?
How long they have been there?
Who built it?
Why did they build it?
What was it before it was ruined?
How did it become ruins?
Why did it become ruins?
The players may never know any of this, but do you know it?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2018 19:29:46 GMT -5
Does your campaign have history? Indeed it does! It isn't as detailed as (for example) Tolkien's Silmarillion but there is a definite timeline for which civilizations were where and how long ago.
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Post by captaincrumbcake on Apr 2, 2018 11:01:11 GMT -5
The one I posted here, does. But that's not my personal campaign at the moment. At the moment, I don't have one.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2018 14:48:37 GMT -5
My campaign world history goes back a generation or two, mostly to give some reason to the conflicts and events going on now.
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 2, 2018 20:02:43 GMT -5
Does your campaign have history? Yes, quite a long one. Not just the history that it develops through play, but did it start with history. Did your campaign itself have a history? Oh, I don't mean did you go full Tolkien or Barker and creates thousands of pages of back story for your campaign. But does it have some back story, some existing history? Yes, it has an existing history and if written down it would be a lot of pages. Did it start with it or did you start with a blank slate and develop the back story as you went? I don't mean did you write something up and give it to the players to read, but those ruins, do you the DM know anything about them? It started with it, I was inventing worlds before D&D, all the way back to when I was in grade school in the 60's. I don't give a lot out to the players, just a few quick basics they should know and a little more here and there as we play. But those ruins, not just the ones I have talked about on here, but dozens more as the ref I know a lot about them. How long they have been there? That would be telling, but some for a couple hundred years and others for 10's of thousands of years. That will likely never be told. That will likely never be told either. What was it before it was ruined? All kinds of things from the capital of an lost empire on down to many other things depending on which ruin you are talking about. War, disease, rebellion, magical disaster, curse, you name it. From being destroyed or from being abandoned or from - you get the picture. The players may never know any of this, but do you know it? Yes, absolutely.
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 2, 2018 20:03:21 GMT -5
My campaign world history goes back a generation or two, mostly to give some reason to the conflicts and events going on now. I like this answer a lot, have an exalt.
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Post by Mr Darke on Apr 8, 2018 12:42:43 GMT -5
It has history that goes back a bit to provide explanation for some things. There are a few areas that are detailed out but for the most part it is just generalizations.
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Post by robkuntz on Apr 9, 2018 1:25:21 GMT -5
Certes!! Without a past there cab be no future.
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Post by robertsconley on Apr 11, 2018 8:24:10 GMT -5
Does your campaign have history? Oh definitely, writing fictional histories is an activity I find fun. However when it comes to tabletop roleplaying, I filter it. Not just the history that it develops through play, but did it start with history. Did your campaign itself have a history? It started on an ad-hoc basis using what little there was in the Judges Guild Wilderlands material as a framework. Then in the late 80s when I started redrawing the maps, I rationalized it into the framework I continued to use to this day. That was the point where my setting became it own thing the Majestic Wilderlands. Oh, I don't mean did you go full Tolkien or Barker and creates thousands of pages of back story for your campaign. But does it have some back story, some existing history? Did it start with it or did you start with a blank slate and develop the back story as you went? At first it was a back and forth thing between my own original ideas and what Judges Guild published. But because Judges Guild didn't published much in terms of overall background until very late in the original publishing run it was a mix of their stuff and my own idea. For example my first campaign took place mostly in the Glow-Worm steppes. At the time Judges Guild had little written about it beyond what in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. So I came up with my own. It remained that way because Judges Guild never detailed anything for that region. In contrast both City-States (CSIO and CSWE) had a lot more material but there was a long time where little was published until the later Pegasus. By then I had several campaigns under my belt so only selected portions of the Pegasus articles ever found their way in. The below is the first thing I ever wrote for the Wilderlands. The campaign started in Greyhawk and the PCs found a portal to the Wilderlands and went there to carve out kingdoms. I picked the Glow-Worm Steppes and detailed the initial situation. Blog Post batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/12/from-attic-first-campaign-of-majestic.htmlImages 4.bp.blogspot.com/_mFjy4EWzmtg/Sy12s1GFpmI/AAAAAAAAAsw/c8FiYHZmgBY/s1600-h/Nome1.jpg3.bp.blogspot.com/_mFjy4EWzmtg/Sy12spyVpZI/AAAAAAAAAso/JXreApO22FE/s1600-h/Nome2.jpgI don't mean did you write something up and give it to the players to read Sure at first they were short handwritten writeups. Then in the late 80s with access to word processors I wrote long form articles along with a series of one page updates. The players liked the update way better so I quit handing out the long form articles writing them for myself. Sometimes if the player was that interested and it made sense in-game I would give them a long form article. This is an example of a Long form article. www.batintheattic.com/wilderlands/csland.htmlHowever for past 15 years or so I keep to the length of the individual sections from the supplement. My rule is one letter size page of general and local background and one page of character background. If I can get it shorter I will. , but those ruins, do you the DM know anything about them? Sure and some have multiple eras layered on top of each other. How long they have been there? Who built it? Why did they build it? What was it before it was ruined? How did it become ruins? Why did it become ruins? The players may never know any of this, but do you know it? At this point you can point anywhere on the map of the Wilderlands and I can come up with something that not only has a history but interleaves itself with the multiple cultures past and present.
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Post by Jakob Grimm on Apr 11, 2018 10:44:43 GMT -5
Great map!
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Post by Traveroark on Apr 11, 2018 12:29:51 GMT -5
Yes on all counts.
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Post by xizallian on Apr 15, 2018 17:07:29 GMT -5
Any campaign should have history, finding those things out is part of the fun of it.
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Post by Hexenritter Verlag on Apr 15, 2018 17:09:18 GMT -5
Any campaign should have history, finding those things out is part of the fun of it. That they are, that they are.
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Post by True Black Raven on Apr 15, 2018 19:35:26 GMT -5
Any campaign should have history, finding those things out is part of the fun of it. That they are, that they are. Yeah, I love exploring in the game and in real life too.
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dragondaddy
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Post by dragondaddy on Apr 15, 2018 23:41:09 GMT -5
Yes, all of mine do. Usually very intricate and detailed histories. Since everyone is talking about the Wilderlands, one of my favorite settings, I thought I would upload my map, which is fairly close to Bob Bledsaw's original Wilderlands, although their are some subtle and not so subtle differences.... Some of the major differences in my campaign, North of Valon is the Great Glacier, A Huge Ice Sheet where the Alvar (Ice Elves) live. The people of Tarantis know that in ancient times their empire was called Kelnore. The City-State of the World Emperor currently has an Empress, and the Green Viridians are not dying out. In the extreme South, Demons and Demon spawn are becoming increasingly frequent and dangerous as encounters, because Bob mentioned to me once that all the lands south of the Wilderlands were inhabited by Demons and fell creatures, and that they were planning an invasion of the Wilderlands. There are not as many Kingdoms as Rob has in the Majestic Wilderlands, and most of the peoples in my Wilderlands are related by kin, family, or clan ties. Different racial groups have claimed different areas in my Campaigns.
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Post by True Black Raven on Apr 16, 2018 16:33:14 GMT -5
dragondaddy and robertsconley, aren't these the same map with the details filled in differently? They are quite good, excellent even.
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dragondaddy
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Posts: 120
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Post by dragondaddy on Apr 17, 2018 0:23:13 GMT -5
dragondaddy and robertsconley , aren't these the same map with the details filled in differently? They are quite good, excellent even. Oh, I used Robs Strategic Map for my map, erased things that were an important part of Robs campaigns, and just marked up my map with the differences that were in my campaigns from the official Judges Guild Maps, Differences that were prevalent and used uniquely in my campaigns, ...I would add. The Wilderlands was the first campaign setting ever published, and has a lot of that Original Dungeons & Dragons DNA that made up the earliest edition of Dungeons & Dragons. One of the most important aspects of this was a Do-it-Yourself mentality where the GM would literally create his own campaign setting. Bob told me back in 2004, that he had deliberately designed the Wilderlands with lots of open space so that GM's could add in whatever they wanted for their campaign or gaming group, and well... way back in 77' and 78' I did, as well as in 2003-2004, I also made a map for the Great Glacier lcoated North of Valon. I'll get back to that in a bit, first though, a bit of 0D&D lore for you that up until now, lore that only Bob Bledsaw, Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, the DragonDaddy. Maybe Rob Kuntz, and Rob Conley also being a Sage for the Wilerlands, Mike Mornard, and perhaps Chirine Ba Kal knew about this from the early days of D&D... so they might be able to clarify, or otherwise fill in some details I might be getting wrong here. When the Wilderlands were originally published in 1977, beginning with the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, which detailed the City-State Map, Barbarian Altanis, Tarantis, and Valley of the Ancients, there were no other campaign settings for D&D, and every GM had to make their own campaign setting, ...that was, until Judges Guild came along in 1977 and published the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. Now this campaign setting had a history... So, the backstory is... at one time during 1975-76 after Gary, Dave, and Bob had all met, Bob, Gary, and Dave all played in one D&D campaign together, ...this, of course, was the Original Wilderlands of High Fantasy campaign. Each one, ...of course, ...had to be a great leader in this new campaign setting, ...and as ruler, ...followed Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor example, ...each player became the ruler of a domain. For Dave, one of the domains was the Valley of the Ancients (I'll get back to this, in a bit as well), because it was close to where the Original Blackmoor was located. Bob Bledsaw picked City State of Tarantis, I don't know why, although I suspect he liked Pirates and Naval Fantasy action and wanted to run that to impress Dave. Dave Arneson picked the City-State of the Imperial Overlord, and Gary Gygax picked the City-State of the World Emperor. During the course of this campaign, the vast hosts, or great armies, of Gary marched east, intent on conquering the known world, and Dave joined him, also with his armies from the City-State, and together, they set sail from Modron and crossed the Winedark Seas and besieged Tarantis in an epic battle. (and they played out this siege in a series of minis battles both Naval and Land), and Bob held Tarantis against this extended siege that lasted a couple years in game time, which is why it was the last thing he saw to it to be published before closing down Judges Guild in the 80's. My memory is foggy on this, truly wish I had recorded my interviews with each one of these guys with a tape recorder. Might have been Dave defending Tarantis, and Bob attacking, but I'm pretty sure it was Bob who originally mentioned this to me when we were ganing together back in 04 at Pentacon, and Dave verified the story in my 05 unplanned interview with him. The story is true though, all three of them gamed together in the Wilderlands before it was published as a campaign setting. In 1977 the Wilderlands was published as the first D&D campaign setting, with Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign, i.e. Blackmoor being published by Judges Guild in 1978, and finally Gary published Mystara in 1979 after he figured out there was a really great market for D&D campaign settings, and followed that up with the Greyhawk folio and boxed set in 1980, with that beautiful map from Darlene. Getting back to the Valley of the Ancients. When Dave published his adventure modules with TSR in the 80's some say the City of the Gods, DA-3 was originally located in what is now know as The Valley of the Ancients.
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 17, 2018 6:59:05 GMT -5
Sweet bit of history, I love it when this stuff gets posted.
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Post by True Black Raven on Apr 17, 2018 8:48:15 GMT -5
The Wilderlands was the first campaign setting ever published, and has a lot of that Original Dungeons & Dragons DNA that made up the earliest edition of Dungeons & Dragons. One of the most important aspects of this was a Do-it-Yourself mentality where the GM would literally create his own campaign setting. Bob told me back in 2004, that he had deliberately designed the Wilderlands with lots of open space so that GM's could add in whatever they wanted for their campaign or gaming group, and well... way back in 77' and 78' I did, as well as in 2003-2004, I also made a map for the Great Glacier lcoated North of Valon. I'll get back to that in a bit, first though, a bit of 0D&D lore for you that up until now, lore that only Bob Bledsaw, Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, the DragonDaddy. Maybe Rob Kuntz, and Rob Conley also being a Sage for the Wilerlands, Mike Mornard, and perhaps Chirine Ba Kal knew about this from the early days of D&D... so they might be able to clarify, or otherwise fill in some details I might be getting wrong here. Thanks dragondaddy for all of the info, I wonder what robkuntz, robertsconley, @gronanofsimmerya and @chirinebakal would add to this.
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Post by Colinouchou on Apr 17, 2018 9:24:34 GMT -5
Great thread, and I also would like to hear from more of the old guard.
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Post by robertsconley on Apr 17, 2018 10:27:18 GMT -5
Among the things I plan to do as I work through the release of the revised maps and guidebooks for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy is to put in a PDF of letter size maps that are basically outlines of the coast, mountain regions, and rivers so people can make annotated maps like the above. Something like the below but with no text. Note this image is for the Majestic Wilderlands which has alterations from the original.
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Post by robertsconley on Apr 17, 2018 10:36:21 GMT -5
Well as it turned out I have an example that I posted a couple years back. I will be releasing a higher resolution version within a few weeks.
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Post by mormonyoyoman on Apr 17, 2018 16:40:22 GMT -5
My universe doesn't have history. It has herstory.
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dragondaddy
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Currently Running/Playing 0D&D, 5e D&D, Classic Traveller
Posts: 120
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Post by dragondaddy on Apr 17, 2018 18:18:02 GMT -5
The Wilderlands was the first campaign setting ever published, and has a lot of that Original Dungeons & Dragons DNA that made up the earliest edition of Dungeons & Dragons. One of the most important aspects of this was a Do-it-Yourself mentality where the GM would literally create his own campaign setting. Bob told me back in 2004, that he had deliberately designed the Wilderlands with lots of open space so that GM's could add in whatever they wanted for their campaign or gaming group, and well... way back in 77' and 78' I did, as well as in 2003-2004, I also made a map for the Great Glacier lcoated North of Valon. I'll get back to that in a bit, first though, a bit of 0D&D lore for you that up until now, lore that only Bob Bledsaw, Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, the DragonDaddy. Maybe Rob Kuntz, and Rob Conley also being a Sage for the Wilerlands, Mike Mornard, and perhaps Chirine Ba Kal knew about this from the early days of D&D... so they might be able to clarify, or otherwise fill in some details I might be getting wrong here. Thanks dragondaddy for all of the info, I wonder what robkuntz , robertsconley , @gronanofsimmerya and @chirinebakal would add to this. Actually Bob Jr,, Bob II might know something about this first Wilderlands campaign as well...
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dragondaddy
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Post by dragondaddy on Apr 17, 2018 18:20:03 GMT -5
Among the things I plan to do as I work through the release of the revised maps and guidebooks for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy is to put in a PDF of letter size maps that are basically outlines of the coast, mountain regions, and rivers so people can make annotated maps like the above. That would be sweet. I do believe I'll be picking up the entire remastered Wilderlands series as you republish it, in print form, of course. Love that dead tree stuff, and these days you make truly Legendary maps!
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 17, 2018 19:10:14 GMT -5
Well as it turned out I have an example that I posted a couple years back. I will be releasing a higher resolution version within a few weeks. It occurs to me that you could rotate that 90 degrees left or right and change the scale and have a truly massive world map.
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 2, 2021 10:28:11 GMT -5
Here is a thread that has not seen the light of day for a while. Some great questions in the OP.
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Post by hengest on May 11, 2021 19:56:19 GMT -5
Yes, this really is a good thread. Am glad it got bumped.
My current attempts at worldbuilding are not really a campaign or anything with a history. They are mini-sections of a type of world that I hope could be attractive and playable enough to warrant developing a history for some places. As people in real life have observed, I refuse to work on anything larger than a postage stamp. I don't know whether it's a virtue or a flaw. I just think of it as a limitation.
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Post by hengest on Jan 8, 2022 17:00:24 GMT -5
I'd like to see this develop through play (or through behind-the-scenes DM-fiat, inspired by play).
Like if I have two villages and the principles of a wildnerness area sketched, we can see what the players do and see what else needs to be developed.
The people who have tons of history for their world have full respect from me...but what they do is not something I can do.
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