Wow, wound up being quite a busy week; but, finally a day to rest.
So, you've played an adventure or two and now your play group would like a world a little more concrete. Choosing between use of a predesigned world or creating your own is quite a tough choice. Especially considering that most people get to thinking "how in the world will I ever manage to create that much detail?". I'd say the first thing you should consider is how much time you have to invest in world design. Remember not only would you have to design the world, but also the dungeons, adventures, etc. . . . AND you have to introduce it to your players. All this, preferably, without giving away the secrets of the world in the process.
Currently I am working up a campaign using the Al-Qadim setting. I love the setting, but I don't like how it is located so closely to Faerun. So, I'm going to move the continents a lot farther away. I'm also increasing the size of the Al-Qadim world.
The trick to making a world come alive is how much understanding of it you can get across to the players. Thankfully, Al-Qadim has a couple of books I can get to the players so that they can read up on the society and such. That knowledge of the inner-workings of the world will aid them in creating more believable characters. In turn, that will make the game more exciting for all involved.
Either option you choose has a lot of work associated with it. They both require getting out information to others. The big difference is that one has a lot of reading/researching, the other involves creating the material. The advantage to creating the material is that you know it very well. The advantage to pre-fabricated setting is the cohesion and detail you don't have to worry about.
Both choice work fine if you put the time into it. Don't forget you can also mix and match to your liking.
Happy gaming
No comments:
Post a Comment