assault Posted April 26, 2006 Report Share Posted April 26, 2006 One for the GMs here: Assume you were going to run a campaign. You don't want to use a published setting, but you are too pressed for time and inspiration to develop something especially clever. What would you do? The most basic setting is, of course, "a dungeon and a nearby village", but that's lame even by my standards! What I was thinking was creating something like a bunch of oasis cities around the intersection of couple of major trade routes. This combines simplicity - there are only "a few places to go", with the potential for significant political intrigue, military conflict, empire-building and all the other good stuff you would want. The map itself wouldn't need to be anything special - basically a few squiggles showing the main roads and rivers, and a few dots marking the cities and other interesting places. Stick in a few hills and other interesting places, and you're good to go. The politics would be easy too. Just describe who rules each city. A couple of them could be subjects or client states of larger empires which are mainly off the edge of the map. You might want to describe a couple of nomadic groups too, but it shouldn't be necessary to go into much detail about them. Who cares about where they graze their flocks in any particular season? You really only need to know about their leadership, military potential and significant religious/magical sites... Anyway, that would be how I would deal with creating a setting in the least possible time. How would you approach it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nevenall Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings I would pass the map around to all the players and have them add the part of the world their character comes from. Some of the very best worlds I've played in came from this method. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings One DM (we were playing AD&D 2nd Edition) drew a map with mountains, a tower, and a few islands. He put a point in the map where we were. Everything else was blank. If we wanted to know what was out there, we'd have to find out ourselves. Of course, he made the map on the fly, so he didn't have time to come up with names. Still, it had just enough detail for the adventure and allowed for room to grow. Too bad it ended up as a one-shot game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matto Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings The oasis idea is good, and can be adapted to island-hopping archipilegos or Italian-style city-states. Anywhere that could adapt to isolated city-states with insular political structures would make world politics much simpler, and militaries smaller and less complicated. I usually go with starting my players in a small border-town or tiny off-shoot island of a larger Empire. Then, as sessions drag out, I complicate things from there. You could also take existing maps and localities and convert them to fantasy. Drag out a map of the U.S. and put major fantasy cities over New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angelos. You could make the plains states a centaur plain and the Rockies an orcish hide-out. You could also do this with state or town maps, maps of Europe or just about anywhere interesting. It might also make for enjoyable farce: ie, stamping a suitable villain over stereotyped areas. I won't give any examples. This is my second post, and I don't know the geography of other people yet. Don't want to upset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eosin Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings I find a map of a large-ish town with some surrounding details (this may be a second map) that seems to be in frontier type of lands. Come up with and discuss player hooks and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icel Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings If I need a quick setting for a game, I mustly use islands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krieghandt Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings Keep on the Borderlands. ignore the lame D&D encounters. After characters are created, figure out which one appears to be there for a "reason". Ask the player why his character is there, and off we go. Krieghandt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CourtFool Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Welcome to the Chateau d'If "You wake up in a small cell with a heavy wooden door and a barred window. Your head aches. You have the clothes on your back, some straw for a bed, a bowl and a bucket." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Desmarais Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings I would pass the map around to all the players and have them add the part of the world their character comes from. Some of the very best worlds I've played in came from this method. You know, I've never done this, but I've thought about it many times. I may have to try it next time I do a fantasy game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings It might also make for enjoyable farce: ie, stamping a suitable villain over stereotyped areas. I won't give any examples. Ooh, you could have a "dark lord" type working out of Redmond . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings My solution is Via. I've provided the world framework; players will be getting XP for filling in the details for me. It's built to be contradictory and kind of sloppy, though, by its very nature. I'll be making the area they're starting in fairly detailed (thanks to Campaign Cartographer), then we'll fill in the rest of the world as needed and as they provide material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulf Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings Sometimes for this I think of some adventures I want to play and the genre. A high fantasy, sword & sorcery ...... Then i create the world, or a low shot background with deitis and demons. Mostly very simple like an panthoen of ten unnamed gods or sth. So, in the game I can figure out names and alignment and the rest, like temples and the feudal system. The region gets a name with some cities. Thats it ! Once I created an adventure in a new region which no one knew. The PCs in a tavern knowing each other (They had to tell me, why did they know each other...). They all came frome the great city in the north. (Sometimes they need a name for it). Then the adventure began. Wulfi, hope thats not too far from the topic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lumbering Ox Posted April 27, 2006 Report Share Posted April 27, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings I've considered doing a single small island caimpaign. One human country of about 30K people, some hinterlands of orc tribes and others either pre exsisting or from a slave rebellian. Not much to map, could flesh out just about anyone important. Could have the country be the last surviving outpost of the mainland overrun by X, which was to far out to be discovered. Thus leaving the possibility of the characters going elsewhere if the desire hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings I like large events occuring nearby to start of a quick setting - wars, plagues, earthquakes etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 Re: Quick and dirty campaign settings My brain works differently from most folks. Just about every situation in which I'm pressed for time, I create an opening scene. For example: "And the next sound you hear is the glass shattering beneath your feet as the green-house ceiling gives way and you plummet downwards towards the massive man-eating plants." "But that hasn't happened yet. As of right now, you find yourselves in line, waiting for the evening meal to be served..." it gives me a direction to go, a series of events to create, and a definate 'conclusion' to my opening while I build the world proper. Y'all are thinking globally. I tend to start off thinking locally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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