This question comes from a friend of mine named Conrad, who I sadly haven't gotten the chance to game with in a very long time.
Check out this 31 Days/31 Characters entry for his Mutants and Masterminds character Black Adder.
Question #3 from Conrad Cleophat
The tried and true answer for this type of question is to start small and only build what you need. As your campaign expands and your needs grow you can create more of the world and add details. This is a very sensible approach and it does work.
That's not how I do it though.
I take a sort of painter's approach: Start with a blank canvas, cover it in gesso (primer), and then map out your world in broad strokes of color. Each swatch of color represents something about the milieu: Desert, Industry, Evil, etc. From there you can sketch out some generqal shapes of places, add in people, and layout other components that bring will your world to life.
After all that, you can starting working in the fine details.
I'm a 'big picture' type guy. When I start making a game world from scratch I automatically begin thinking about the whole world and not just the region the PCs are starting in. Since I don't know where the PCs are going to go and/or what they're to do, it behooves me to establish, at least for myself as the GM, areas beyond the location of the adventure. Instead of starting locally and slowly pulling the camera back to reveal a larger world, I create a larger world and then close up on the PCs, what they're getting up to, and where.
Now to be clear, the players don't know this necessarily. To them, it generally appears that the game opens with only the immediate area being of any importance to them. That's fine. I, as the GM, know its bigger but that isn't revealed to them right away. Usually however, someone wants to know what the next town over is called or what country the adventure takes place in and I can tell.them without skipping a beat.
The world appears more 'real' this way, right from the get go.
AD
Barking Alien
I agree. I know it runs counter to the perceived wisdom, but I prefer the "start big, then focus in" approach for the same reason as you: essentially not having to come with names of neighbouring villages, for example, on the fly ("It's... er... Smegville").
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoy world-building (once I've found that initial hook), and then filling in the gaps as random ideas drop into my lap in the following days, weeks, months and years!
Money, food and religion are things that make a world a lot more believable and can provide many details and adventure ideas for your world. At least two of them usually operate at a fairly large scale, so it makes sense to design them in a top-down manner.
ReplyDeleteA very good point Miguel. Those aspects in particular benefit from a big picture view.
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