Setting Creation

[ChapinoMuse]

How do you usally go about creating settings?

Any mythology you enjoy basing it on?

Other historical geogrpahical thing you base it on?

Have you made it up from scratch?

Have you made a setting

[Shawn Conard]

Creating a setting is the easy part. It's filling in the details that's tough.

Base the setting on whatever. I'm personally fond of steampunk, evil magics, corrupt genetic research, and goblins. Not all in the same setting, mind you...

Anyway, choose something you are interested in and make broad sweeping generalizations about the setting. This will generally apply only to a small part of your world, but whatever. That's the part the players will be in.

Next, just fill in details slowly. Keep on doing it. When you add something, think about how it will affect the other elements of the world. I've seen too many worlds where no one bothers to do that. Thus, it's generally better to decide on all the major issues up front. That way, they don't sneak up and bite you later on.


Umm.. what do you mean 'make it up from scratch'? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think that any setting could be seen as a compilation of elements from various movies, books, games, paintings, and so forth.

~Shawn Conard

[leviathan]

I haven't created that many settings but so far. But when coming up with them, my mind kind-of follows this pattern, I think. It really is quite random though.

Magic -> Lore -> everything else.

I have a sort of... love for magic. It's my favorite part of anything. (: Not to say that I don't enjoy everything else about a setting, I just really tend to enjoy magic more. (:

Right now I'm thinking up a campaign about a world where men and women commune with a single goddess with artifacts restored and recycled by 'artificers'. The goddess literally shines on them with these artifacts. It's gonna be neet! I'll come up with details later or as we go.

I really must point out though, that I really like the little things in a campaign. Like, NPCs who's backgrounds intertwine to where they've all effectedeach other indirectly in some way. I like those things. (;

I'm quite interested in as to what methods the rest of you take in making a setting. Whee!

~Lev~

[Patrick Chipman]

Call me a stodgy literary fiend, but when I design a setting, I start first with the underlying thematic aspects -- not just "what will be in this setting," but "why it is in the setting," beyond "that's a cool idea mix." For instance, in Skew Effect, the underlying theme is a satire of the modern world. Ergo, the reason I have a species of religious fanatic lizards is because I want to satirize totalitarian religious extremist groups, such as the oh-so-loved Taliban. ;) (Interestingly, this aspect existed in the game far before the September 11th incident. ;) )

My next step is to define the metaphysical laws of universe, if any, as those will provide me with a basis to write the interpretation rules for the game system. After that, I just fill in the blanks with history and descriptions that highlight the theme. Coherency to the theme and the metaphysical rules are key, at least when I build settings. YMMV, of course. ;)

[ChapinoMuse]

Neat, that's all cool, I'll keep it all in mind.

[Mock]

Originally posted by Patrick Chipman
Call me a stodgy literary fiend...


You are a stodgy literary fiend. Hey, you asked.

I've conceptualized dozens of settings. Only a couple have had full development on any of them, though, so I can tell you what I do up to the decision on pursuing, mothballing, or abandoning a setting concept.

Most of my inspiration comes from innocuous sources--a sentence in a book, a line in a song, that kind of thing. Something spurs my imagination, and it usually centers on the theme of the setting, giving a general feel for the environment. This is the first step.

Second, I try to rough out the role of the character in the new setting--what do they do? how do they fit into society? what is their "job" in the game (Shadowrun, for instance, casts the characters as mercenaries or criminals for hire, in a society that needs that sort of thing. Blue Planet characters are inhabitants of a distant, frontier world.)

Third step for me, generally, is to identify the scale: one city? one country? one world? an entire galaxy? This is generally not as critical to me, and changes as the idea evolves. I also try not to bite off more than I can chew in terms of scale.

Fourth step (the process isn't usually this neat, but this is a general pattern): incorporate the "X factor." Many roleplaying games have a particular unique factor that differentiates them from other games. This is a hard thing to pin down, since the level at which the X factor operates is different from game to game. Some games have an X factor based on technology: artificial intelligence, cybertech, nanotech, genetic engineering. Others base it on geography: intergalactic settings, for instance. Still others have some sort of magical/mystical idea: Feng Shui, for instance, uses the idea of the "battle through time." Mine are usually technological.

All this leads into a rough timeline of events that help to frame the setting. A lot of times, it stops right here, because there's no way to convincingly get where I want to go. I prefer settings that don't leave you saying, "why the hell would that have happened?" and I demand no less from myself. Since a lot of possible things are generally not bloody likely, I end up with a lot of settings that die in the timeline stage.

If the timelining works, I still might drop it if it turns out that the character role evolves into something different and less interesting. I sometimes shelve them because I simply lose interest in the idea that started the process. It's a fun, but frustrating process, in my opinion.

-Mock

[AndyGuest]

Base the setting on whatever. I'm personally fond of steampunk, evil magics, corrupt genetic research, and goblins. Not all in the same setting, mind you...

But putting them together could be so much fun ! Take the GURPs Goblins settings and move it to the late Victorian era.....

[Ben Brown]

Creating settings is one of my favorite pastimes. As Shawn Conard mentioned, the hard part is in the details--things that you wouldn't normally think of but which can make your setting seem real.

I'm working on a setting, parts of which date back ten years, but which I still am working on the details. I mentioned it to some of my friends the other night at supper, and they started me thinking about things I'd never thought before, like how the people dress and wear their hair. It had never seemed really important, but now that I think about it, it's got quite a few ramifications. If everyone wears their hair short, you're not going to have women assassins with sharpened hairpins as weapons. This may come up.

Of course, now I have the really hard part: writing everything down. It's fairly set in my head, but I have to write it down, and when I do that, I also have to give names to things which have just been images so far.

[Ryan Samuelson]

Well for me the process goes like this -

Step #1
Define a genre or style of play I want to cover. High fantasy, low fantasy, hard science fiction, space opera, pulp, etc. This may come about because I have purchased a new game system or got some new rules. If so I look over the rules and decide what style of play the rules and mechanics best emulate.

Example - My Ethereal Spheres campaign world includes aspects of both Space Opera, Steampunk and Pulp.

Step #2
Brainstorm. Pull in all sorts of ideas from literature, movies, artwork, history that I find fun and within the realm of genre or style of play I'm going for.

Example - The films of Hayao Miyazaki, The books of Wells, Burroughs and Verne. The racial divisions from Flash Gordon. Dino Boy in the Valley of the Dinosaurs. The race to develop the first ironclads and other martial and naval technology between 1850 and 1900. Colonialism. Victorian speculative fiction. The 2 world wars. Etc.

Step #3
Develop Races, Archetypes, Classes or other character creation tools.This is usually the easiest step. The game system usually already has examples or guidelines to creating characters. I just modify and tinker with them to come up with the various character types that seem to fit step #2

Example - Early science fiction seems to focus on animal-races - So I created bird-men, lizard men, beast-men. The 19th Century was a time of great colonialism and imperialism so I thought about mirroring the great earth empires - the Romans, the English, the Aztecs, the Muslims, the Chinese etc.

Step #4
Expand on the races and classes. Create the social structures that the classes/archetypes allude to (military, religious, caste, magic). Draw maps define the boundaries of the cultures. Develop technology, spells or equipment warranted by the classes, templates etc.

Example - The various animal races suggested different solar planets, and extra solar systems for insect men, mollusk men etc. The great empire suggested playing with the different forms of government (theocracy, imperial republic, constitutional monarchy). Each empire had different forms of steampunk technology (steam cannons, gunpowder, rockets, lightning guns) and warships.

Step #5
If running out of ideas, shelve the setting for while and come back to now and then to add details and expand on ideas when inspiration strikes.

Example - I watched the movie Titus last night and have some neat ideas for fashion and clothing styles.

Step #6
If I am not running out of ideas or if I want to group start the creative juices, prepare the setting for a campaign. Fill in any holes or information the players will need.

Example - If I was starting up a campaign in this setting, the first thing I would do would be a definite list of character types and have a good idea what Skills, Knacks, Attributes, etc. would go with each type.

Step #7
Base a theme or campaign seed based on the types of characters the players should interest in. Create the conflict based on what the players want to do. Expand the setting to meet the goals of the theme or the factions of the conflict.

Example - Players like military characters create a war-based campaign. Noble, a political campaign. Outsiders, an exploration campaign perhaps. If it's a mix-mash draw on some theme that I would enjoy (Imperialism vs. Nationalism, the pros and cons of Colonialism, etc.)

Step #8
Play the campaign. Make changes to the setting as they arise during game play.

Step #9
Retire the campaign and return back to Step #5.

I usually don't create a setting for a single campaign but reuse my settings over and over again. Most of the time my setting are so vast they allow for wildly different themes. For example the GURPS fantasy setting I created 13 years ago for a generic fantasy campaign was shifted slightly westward and used in a gothic horror fantasy campaign 10 years ago. Shifted slightly southward and used in a political intrigue campaign 6 years ago. And is currently shifted far to the west and being used in an exploration campaign.

[donalfall]

I'm actually just following Mr. Muse around and answering all his questions. I have nothing else to do with my time. );

How do you usally go about creating settings?

As Mock said earlier, settings most often ( for me ) come from some tangential source. Music is pretty common, and staring off into space also does it for me occasionally.

My most common way of creating a setting, tho, is the "Rush Job" - when all the people I know are not all avalable for a game, and so we start a fill in game, usually using some game system we don't normally use, and we make up some wacky setting to fill the few hours.

Sometimes if it appeals to me I then take it away and rebuild it wholesale, with details and tings.

Any mythology you enjoy basing it on?

Greco Roman/Classical Civillisation. Though not so much "enjoy" as "find easiest". Also, I tend to have a lot of "White Goddess" type figures ( Graves etc. )

Other historical geogrpahical thing you base it on?

I like Steppes. I don't know why, I just like them.

donalfall.

[Drew Bergstrom]

I am currently creating a setting for a d20/3E game centering on a Norse/Viking archetype. Here are the steps I took/ am in the process of taking.

***Notice This Article Assumes That You Are Creating A Setting For A Pre-Existing Game System***

1> After deciding what I wanted the setting to be like I compiled everything I could on the subject. In my situation, this meant not only recording what I "knew" going in, it also required a little bit of light research (surfing the web for viking facts, reading a few encyclopedia articles, and watching a few shows on PBS, TLC, or any of the other "thinkin'" channels).

2> Since you (probably) aren't working in a vacuum consider consulting existing gaming resources (in my case I've been cribbing from TSR's HR1 "Vikings" and ICE's "Campaign Classics: Vikings" as well as Avalanche Press' recent "Ragnarok"). You may at first be a bit nervous about plagerism and the like, but the main thing I've noticed is how differently I've selected to approach the material than my predecessors did.

3> Delete those portions of reality which don't appeal to you. Again using myself as an example, I have decided that MY vikings have horns on their helmets (which, historically they didn't). Furthermore, I have decided that "Danegeld" (which are essentially protection monies) doesn't seem properly heroic for my vikings, thus it is a subject that will be downplayed.

4> I created a unifying mythology for my world, which in my case is based upon Norse myth, but which I have gleefully altered to reinforce aall the work I've already done, and to push the campaign in whatever direction I choose to take it. Fiction is another great way to show (not tell) your players how the world works.

5> Map it. In my case this is easy, because I've chosen to place my campaign on an Earth where myths were (are?) reality. Even if you choose to create an entirely fictional world you should consider determining an earthly counterpart and overlaying your setting over it, after all once you have your rivers and mountains (etc.) set you can alter the map however you please.

6> Adapt the game to you setting. Determine which character classes and race exist. Delete those which do not, and (if need be) create those which are needed. For my game I have eliminated most of the standard races and have created and added another. Like wise many character classes have been removed from consideration, though many of those eliminated may well exist elsewhere. Other things which I've had to do the creation of a proper Norse Troll, as well as other entirely new adversaries such as "Grendelspawn" .

7> Thematics. By this point you probably see an overarcing theme to your setting, in my case a very strong "man (representing the natural world) versus the environment (represented by unnatural forces of magic and their ilk)" has emerged. Man is at his best when he relies on the strength of his own arm and the steel which he wields, those who choose to traffic in the arcane often finds themselves corrupted by it, and even those who can withstand the taint upon their very souls often meet bad ends... .

I certainly hope this response doesn't sound tooo self-serving, but I am the only example that I have to draw upon. :)

[ChapinoMuse]

Well, I'm making a setting based on lore on different winds gods, and maybe some other stuff, it's hard to come up with something original, but make it seem well researched.

[Boba Fett]

I am creating a gameworld which may sound boring: it is a low-fantasy world with real world history as influence. For instance, I have reworked the Spanish reconquest wars into one of my campaign realms, and such.
Works great, the players love it.

[Ben Brown]

Originally posted by Boba Fett
I am creating a gameworld which may sound boring: it is a low-fantasy world with real world history as influence. For instance, I have reworked the Spanish reconquest wars into one of my campaign realms, and such.
Works great, the players love it.

Don't know why people would consider that boring. Pretty much all of my campaign ideas are like that (although with a certain amount of swashbuckling cinematics tossed in).

[Flower of December]

Originally posted by ChapinoMuse
Well, I'm making a setting based on lore on different winds gods, and maybe some other stuff, it's hard to come up with something original, but make it seem well researched.

If making a setting is hard then don't. Just create a basic launch point for adventures to begin from and a collection of basic themes and cosmology.

Let the player characters be from anywhere they want in the gameworld. If it's not a part of your creation then it is now. You don't have to worry about character concepts that don't fit the setting but only those that don't fit the theme.

If one player wants a corsair who traded spices to the floating villages in the western open seas in exchange for the secrets to properly prepare the poisonous pufferfish than you've established that is the western part of the setting there is an are of open sea filled with floating villages that have pufferfish but little access to spices.

And you didn't have to do a thing.

[Alka-Seltzer]

Originally posted by AndyGuest


But putting them together could be so much fun ! Take the GURPs Goblins settings and move it to the late Victorian era.....


I have so, so, so so so, always wanted to run a gurps goblin / steam-tech / space campaign. Is it just me or does it seem inevitable that goblins would totally overrun the universe? And wha happens to proles that grow up in the weightlessness of space, or on another planet? Could you train a prole to, say, breathe a chlorine gas atmosphere, or survive in a vacum? And i'ld want to do alot with the representatives of different imerial nations racing to be the first to lay their claim/flag in unexplored worlds and systems and the reaction of other, already established, alien races to the goblin hordes. But it'l probably always be nothing more than a dream. Sigh.:(

[NPC Chapino]

I see you all really like GURPS Goblins, lol.

[Ché Salazar]

When I create a setting, I usually do it to correct a problem I have in a setting or because a weird idea pops into my head. I'm creating the RPG Neptinus to fix the problem that there is little to no cultural diversity in the races of a fantasy game. I'm creating the game Geek's dream after the idea of "what if role-playing books could be used as portals to another world?"

[ChapinoMuse]

I love imagine how it owuld be like to just take different setting or aspect of genres and instead splicing them intoa setting that seem to be beleievable, into something completley offball. Like Sc-Fi Kung Fu games. the Matrix don't count.

[Ian Absentia]

Originally posted by Boba Fett
I am creating a gameworld which may sound boring: it is a low-fantasy world with real world history as influence. For instance, I have reworked the Spanish reconquest wars into one of my campaign realms, and such.
Works great, the players love it. By any chance have you read "The Lions of Al Rassan" by Guy Gavriel Kay? I can't particularly recommend the book, because I never could finish it, but it features a historically-based Moorish Spain fantasy setting. Ironically, the reason I never finished the novel is because the setting was so very close to real world history that I found myself wondering why the author went to such trouble creating a fantasy world when he might as well have set in the real world Moorish Spain. However, as inspiration for your parallel fantasy world, it may prove a valuable resource.

~Ian

[NPC Belac]

ChapinoMuse seems to have the same preference I do.

My favorite setting is the result of me mixing traits from Street Fighter (the genre, martial arts to-knockout combat with an honor code), Final Fantasy (the genre, high powered dramatic combat), various cultures that existed in the real world, and politics (mostly court intrigue and competing warlords type).

Political superhumanly powerful martial artist alien warrior culture that like to fight in small scale combats to KO is a hard genre to pull off believably, but when you get the right mix, it's great. :)

-Belac the Rambler

[EbonDervish]

I tend to make settings based on what's already out there. My game designing is like a compass pointing to the polar opposite of what's popluar. :) Southeast Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe are my favorite regions to take inspiration from.

Other than that, its just whatever I find cool. My only finished RPG, Farmhouse Eden, is like a cross between David Brin's The Postman and Blue Planet. :)

-EbonDervish

[ChapinoMuse]

Taking the movie Water world into play, you seem to have an Affinity for Kevin Costner.

[EbonDervish]

Originally posted by ChapinoMuse
Taking the movie Water world into play, you seem to have an Affinity for Kevin Costner.

Heh. I never thought of it that way. Perhaps I'd better stop pitching it as that. :)

But at any rate, notice I said David Brin's The Postman, not the movie. The book by David Brin is much, much better and has almost nothing in common with the movie, thank god for that. I did like the battle scenes in the film, though. :)

-EbonDervish

[Mithras]

The only real fantasy world I created (semi-created) was patched together from an awfully big mountain of historical precedents. Nothing as quaint as a 'Greek culture' and a 'Phoenician' culture etc, but much better organised and synthesised than that.

No-one could tell where the joins where. So in Malthuria the mountain-kindom of traders descended from shepherds, the parliament chamber was run by a shouting match, with the loudest volume winning the vote - as decided by a couple of slaves who couldn't see the assembly (nicked from classical Sparta!!).

[Kergillian]

Originally posted by Alkzndr

I have so, so, so so so, always wanted to run a gurps goblin / steam-tech / space campaign. Is it just me or does it seem inevitable that goblins would totally overrun the universe? And wha happens to proles that grow up in the weightlessness of space, or on another planet? Could you train a prole to, say, breathe a chlorine gas atmosphere, or survive in a vacum? And i'ld want to do alot with the representatives of different imerial nations racing to be the first to lay their claim/flag in unexplored worlds and systems and the reaction of other, already established, alien races to the goblin hordes. But it'l probably always be nothing more than a dream. Sigh.:(

Actually, I've got a plan for a campaign called Age's End, based on this.

Basically, long ago, in your standard schlock fantasy world, dragons once ruled the planet. However, they became rarified, picky, and went to war with each other. This gave the elves a chance to reach succession. The world became dominated by elves, and peace was reached again. The elves turned inward, embraced art, shunned violence, and lost touch with the world, allowing the mortal humans to rush in, tear down forests, and take over the world.

What's the theme in all this? When it comes to a dominant sentient race, the world has continuously preferred quantity to quality.

Now, human empires stretch across the planet, and they fill with the opportunistic bickering that humans are wont to do. Desperately trying to philosophize more egalitarian social models while simultaneously trying to force everyone to their own will, it takes someone more ruthless, more base, and more quickly populous to take over as the dominant race.

The Age of Humans is drawing to a close. The Age of Goblins is on the rise.

Okay, so it's a crude idea at this stage, but if anyone's interested in this idea, let me know, especially if you'll pay me for a product.

[Forum Administrator]

Originally posted by ChapinoMuse
How do you usally go about creating settings?

You've already gotten a ton of good advice on this, but I thought I'd add my own experiences just to have them out here in the ether.

1. Concept. You should be able to distill your setting down to 1 compound sentence, no more. The fewer words that you have to use, even if you're relying on the conventions established by other creators, is valid. A setting should be:

"Star Wars with Vikings."
"Robots conquer humanity, the valiant few soldier on."
"Fantasy world where all trade is by airship."

This is not the end-all-be-all of the setting; you shouldn't assume that a single-sentence summation is going to do your setting justice. It should be your touchstone, however. There's only so much chop-suey that you can put in a setting (or any sci-fi/fantasy writing). After a point, you're just tossing in every kewl idea you've got.

2. Conflict. Your setting needs a coherent conflict to drive it. Empire v. Rebels. Federation v. Klingons.

Good v. Evil is not an option at this stage; you want to be more specific, and have the conflict tie in with your concept. Star Wars Vikings ... (heh, call it Star Thors :) ) ... It could be the Giants v. Gods. Or maybe The Force v. Odin - the battle of the new against the old.

It's up to you, but the conflict needn't be some thematic, grandiose thing. At least to start with. Campaigns have their own theme - there's no real need for the setting to have a theme of it's very own.

3. Agencies of Power. Another little tip that I've picked up - there should usually be at least one or two, preferably more, agencies or greater organizations that the PCs can join or interact with. The main engine behind the setting then becomes the action of these agencies, which may or may not embody the conflict of the setting, but do depend on it.

Shifting allegiances, politics...it's all about the agencies of power, baby. Just for examples: in the X-Files, the two agencies are Mulder & Scully and the Old Guys Who Rule the World. In a game based on the X-Files, it would most likely be the FBI (or at least the Nice FBI) v. the Grand Conspiracy.

4. Specify a physical locale. Start the game off in a place where at least two of the agencies are present, so that the characters can be introduced to both and decide which one they prefer to work with, or against. They need not join up right away, or even join up period, but they should understand that these organizations are important to your world.

This also can create local strife and set up adventures without necessitating "kid crawls" where you have mysterious strangers offering jobs in bars.

Any mythology you enjoy basing it on?

I'm partial to Vikings, obviously, but the main society on my long-running homebrew is a mix of the Roman empire and Mughal India.

Other historical geogrpahical thing you base it on?

All the bit players you don't usually think of: the Minoans, the Phonecians, the Venetians and Genoans. (Ok, maybe not bit players, but not the Greeks or Egyptians or what have you.)

Have you made it up from scratch?

After I let go of my first setting, which was a melange of FR and Dragonlance, I have prided myself on never once using an elf, dwarf or other "classic" fantasy race. In space games, there aren't wolf-people or Greedos or anyone else.

Yes, I have made it up from scratch.

Have you made a setting

Uh...yes.