From: "Tim Martin" <tf_martn@bellsouth.net>
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 23:59:17 -0500
Subject: Re: Creating a gameworld


Cerberus AOD wrote in message <39727e9d.5352216@news.matnet.com>...
>...lurking was getting boring. can't wait until Aug 11...
>
>-Encyclopdia Britannica http://www.britannica.com (get some real maps and
info.
>Not to mention some of the best real-world history stuff anywhere)
>-the Bible (any version really)
>-imagination
>-time, time, and more time.
>-a friend or two to catch mistakes and give misc. input.
>
>There are several very good campaign worlds on the web, but unfortunately I
>cannot help there, as I lost the bookmarks when I formatted a few weeks
ago.
>


Basically, just research history and geography on the web. If you know
history even just a little, you might want to decide if some or all of your
campaign setting is similar to what existed on earth, and then research
that. Is your setting Viking? Roman? Egyptian? Anglo-Saxon? Renaissance?
Phoenician? Paleolithic? Japanese? Aztec? Lots of resources on these eras
and many more on the web. Your local library, particularly a college or
university library, or your bookstore, are excellent as well.

You would probably do well to ask yourself a few basic questions, and
answering them will develop your campaign world:
--How do people make a living on my world?
--What are the principal crops and industries of this world?
--How well do people live on this world in terms of wealth, peace, disease,
food?
--Who do the people worship?
--What role do the gods play on this world, how active are they?
--Who are the main nations on this world, and what are their goals?
--Which nations oppose each other, and why?
--What are the largest cities on this world, and why are they are large?
--Are there nomadic peoples, and if so, how to they interact with settled
people?
--What sentient races exist, including demihuman and humanoid, and how do
they interact with humanity?
--What sort of terrain and climatic features do I have, and how did they get
to be that way?
--How do humans and intelligent races dwell with the climate and terrain
features of my world?
--What sorts of monsters live on this world, and what do they eat (and what
eats them?)
--What sorts of mundane animals live on this world? What of vegetation?
--What kind of governments exist on my world? Monarchies, democracies,
feudal systems, dicatorships?
--Do ruins exist on my world?
--If ruins do exist, who built them, when were they built, and why are they
ruins?
--How powerful is magic on my world, and who can use it?
--How are adventurers viewed?
--What role do undead play on this world? Or faeire? Genie races?
Elementals? Demons and devils? lycanthropes? dragons? giants? treants?
lizard men? undersea races?
--Does the world have an Underdark, how extensive is it, what lives there,
and what do the surface races know and do of it?
--Are their undiscovered lands on this world, and why are they unknown?
--Has this world had contact with other worlds and planes? If so, how much
or how little, and what efffects has this had?

You get the idea. Just try to have things make sense. You might want to look
up the CIA factbook on a paticular real world country, and do a fantasy
equivalent for it for the nation you will be using the most.

Tim