The Ease of Making Your Own Campaign Setting
I wanted to address a misunderstanding I see among people running fantasy roleplaying games. Many people, especially people new to game mastering, have this idea that creating their own world for the games they want to run is difficult. They look at published settings and see countless maps of professional quality, hundreds of pages of information, great art work, etc. Then they go online and see blogs and videos by experienced hands talking about the worlds they created that have sustained years of gaming. I have seen myself the YouTube videos giving advice on creating worlds for fantasy RPGs. They warn the viewer about how much time and dedication is required for “world building.” It’s enough to chase anyone away. I’m here to say it isn’t hard. It isn’t something that only experienced and dedicated people can do. This post will describe the simple steps required to get started with your own fantasy world.
- Devise a name
- Make a map
- Make some gods
- Choose races/classes to include/exclude
- You’re done
Choosing A Name
Give your world a name. It can be a fantastical name like Glorantha (RuneQuest RPG) or more of a title like Forgotten Realms (D&D). It shouldn’t take you long to come up with something you can stand behind. When a world has a name it can start to have an identity. John’s Setting or Jill’s Homebrew World get old fast.
Map
A world needs a map to seem “real” to players. As soon as you start describing your world many players are fishing for images to connect it to and those images will all be different. When you have a map to point to everything is more concrete. This is the step that is most daunting to beginner game masters. People think making a map is impossible because 1) they aren’t an artist or cartographer and 2) any map they make won’t look like the ones in the latest Wizards of the Coast D&D adventure supplement.
Stop hesitating. First, get a proper perspective on RPG maps. Second, be aware of 21st century resources. Your map doesn’t have to look like the work of a professional graphic artist because you aren’t trying to sell a $50 book. To be honest, many gamers don’t like the slick, modern maps from WotC because they look cluttered. The detail distracts from the map’s intended purpose: seeing where stuff is. JRR Tolkien made a splash in the fantasy scene with his map of Middle Earth inside the cover of Lord of the Rings. It was a simple map of black lines on a plain white background. It’s also worth pointing out that the map of Middle Earth had only one coastline, less than 5 forests, a few mountain ranges and a few rivers. It was simple. It worked so well it’s been studied by generations of gamers. TSR’s D&D modules from the late 70s and early 80s had very simple maps and those things were used by countless gamers.
So if you want to put pencil to paper and make your own map you have nothing to fear (it worked for Dyson). Personally, I recommend against it. A map on paper is difficult to extend and difficult to change. I think the digital route is better. There’s lots of software now for making maps for imaginary worlds. Most of them aren’t expensive, several are free and they aren’t hard to use. I use Fractal Terrains 3 by ProFantasy. It generates an entire globe at once. I can export files to Google Earth and see it as a globe I can rotate in realtime. A person can crank out dozens of worlds for players in a science-fiction RPG to explore (or carpet bomb, if you have players like mine). I can export a Fractal Terrains globe to Campaign Cartographer 3 (also by ProFantasy) and make a more detailed map of the region the players are in. There are dozens of software options. Just do a Web search for “map making software”.
Honestly, you don’t even have to make your own. There are many cool maps for worlds, continents and regions online. Just grab one and use Photoshop or some other graphics program to place your own labels over the map to make it your own.
The Gods
Most player groups in fantasy RPGs will have a cleric or similar class. One of the player’s first questions is “Where’s the list of gods I choose from?” You need to have something for the players. Some people get intimidated by the thought of coming up with a complete pantheon of gods. Again, it doesn’t need to be as hard as some people say it is. One god of light and one of darkness is all you need to get rolling. Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition has cleric domains but each domain doesn’t have to be a different god. One god can cover all of them if you want. A campaign world can start simple and add more gods later if you decide you want them. A short list of 3 or 4 gods is fine to start. One or two evil gods is enough to start but keep in mind you don’t need evil gods. The forces of evil in your world who want to rebel against the gods can ally themselves with lesser beings. Demons, elemental forces, The Abyss, etc.
When you come to putting your short list of gods to paper (or screen) get started with a Web search of Greek gods, Norse gods, Egyptian gods and (maybe) Hindu gods. A few minutes of looking at summaries should be enough to start some ideas. It is highly unlikely your players will criticize your world’s god’s. Most players just want a name to jot down on their character sheet and a short description. Any more than that gets boring when they want to start an adventure.
Races & Classes
This step is optional but worth consideration. Now that you’re starting your own world you can look through your game’s list of character races and classes and decide which you want and which you don’t. Modern fantasy roleplaying games are stuffed so full of playable races that a village square can look more like a zoo than a community. This is your chance to tailor your setting more to your liking. If a player really wants a race you’ve excluded, let them make the only one of their kind or just let them take the stat modifications and apply them to another race. Many players making half orc fighters just want the stat modifications. Applying those stats to a human character is enough to make them happy. My fantasy world has northern barbarian tribes that use half orc stats from the D&D books.
Excluding character classes is an option you should consider carefully. If a class just doesn’t work in your world then cut it. However, take your players’ feelings into consideration. If you remove the class they’re really wanting to play that will make it less fun for them.
That’s All, Folks!
That’s what you actually need to start running games in your own fantasy world. Detailed back story, intricate pantheons, fancy maps, etc. just aren’t needed. One thing to keep in mind is many of the things devised for fantasy worlds never show up in play. If you start small you can only invent what you need when you need it. Your world may grow in small pieces as you prep for game sessions with your players or it may never grow larger than what you start with. There’s no need to be intimidated at the thought of breathing life into a fantasy world of your own.
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