Building a Campaign World: Part Two Mapping
When it comes to building maps for a campaign world, you won’t find any better tools than those at ProFantasy. The price tag is hefty, but the tools there will help you build great looking maps that can be linked together. Of special note are the product bundles which offer some appreciable discounts.
If you want to take advantage of the map making power in the ProFantasy tools but don’t want to invest a lot money take a look at their map catalog. These can provide you the detailed map you want, and with a little clever photoshopping the names and descriptions can be adapted to display whatever you want, leaving the geographic maps in place.
Dundjinni is a great alternative to ProFantasy at only $39.95. Offering one software package, there is some great functionality in Dundjinni that’s lacking from ProFantasy - Dundjinni comes with built in creature stats from many different games, making adventure authoring much simpler. You can find a complete list of features for Dundjinni here.
AutoREALM is a free GNU program designed to map out castles, cities, dungeons and overland views. While AutoREALM lacks some of the features and powers of the more costly alternatives, its a great program to give you some power without spending any money.
Intense control and expert maps can be made with software like Photoshop and Corel Draw, but this is far from my field of expertise. If you are interested in making professional quality maps with this kind of software, I highly recommend this guide, which comes complete with pictures and examples.
RPG Map Share is an online community dedicated to sharing maps of different levels of detail, as other visual aids for games. This is a great place to check for pre-made maps, as well as to upload your own creations for other people to enjoy and use.
If you’re looking for more free options, check out iG-Tools map section. The first section will provide you with several hundred pre-made maps, while the following section provides some online interactive map makers which are labeled as experimental.
Games which take place in modern day Earth can take advantage of tools like Google Maps for not just the overland maps, but the map to be used on the fly during game play. During a d20 zombie game set in modern day New York, we once set up a laptop at the game table which allowed us to look at close ups of New York City and see exactly what our characters saw - buildings, streets, alleys - things which wouldn’t show up on normal topographical maps but are of extreme importance.
In another game I played in, the world bore a striking resemblance to Greyhawk in terms of geography. In fact, the game master had copied the Greyhawk map out of the book, re-labeled everything and adapted it all to his game, and proceeded to use it for a long-term campaign. This worked beautifully for him, issues of similarity between his world and Greyhawk never once cropping up.
Invisible walls are something that have been used in video game maps for years to great effect. The name comes from a literal invisible wall which would be placed in 3D video games to limit the playing field while still making it appear vast and open ended. Invisible walls can be subtle while remaining just as effective.
Grand Theft Auto 3, a game famous and popular for it’s open world nature, brilliantly employs the use of visible walls to limit the area the player moves around in at the beginning of the game. The bridge being out stops any player from advancing too far too quickly, while also relating itself to the game’s story. This is an invisible wall of practicality - a virtual wall that is formed by circumstances to achieve the same effect.
The same thing can be done in your own map making and world building. Long stretches of harsh terrain, beset by either temperature extremes or impassable nature, such as a near endless ocean or a high-altitude mountain range. Storms and other weather events can also be used as excellent invisibles walls.
Invisible walls can also be made out of living creatures. A classic example of this is the beast guarding the bridge, requiring tribute in the form of goods or information before anyone could pass. In Lord of the Rings, Moria was filled with invisible walls in the form of the trolls and orcs as well as the balrog.
Used carefully, invisible walls can limit the movement of players while you continue building the world and prepare the next stage for them.
One final and optional thing to consider when creating maps for your world, and especially when presenting them to players, is that since the maps are most likely being created entirely on a two dimensional surface, which means that there will be some distortion in terms of shape and size.
To gain an idea of how big an effect these distortions can have, they are the reason that on Mercator maps Greenland looks bigger than South America. For a quick overview on map distortions and examples of the different kinds, see this Map Projection Overview.
Do you know of any map tools, tutorials or techniques I didn’t mention here? Share them in the comments!
Building a Campaign World: Part One
The first step in building any campaign world is preparation and evaluation.
Key questions to ask yourself before beginning:
- How much time am I willing to invest?
- How much energy am I willing to invest?
- How much money am I willing to invest?
- What resources do I already have?
- Is there a deadline?
- Who will play in it, and what do they want out of it?
- What am I building the campaign world for?
The first five questions are designed to determine how big a task you are willing to tackle. The sixth question is to establish who you are building the world for, and what they want out the setting. It’s a terrible disappointment to find out that a player is only interested in a sword and sorcery setting or games that involve a lot of intrigue after spending weeks building a setting for a pulp action game.
The last question attempts to determine how big the task in front of you is. If you are a building a campaign world to host a single campaign, then you are able to create a smaller and more linear world for the game to take place in. If, however, you are creating a campaign world to host a number of campaigns, adventures, and characters over a longer time span, then you’re looking at a much more complex task.
When examining what resources you already have, pay particular attention to your existing game materials. Go through your old game supplies and look for software, charts, maps, organizations and NPCs. Make mental or physicals notes of where different materials exist for future reference. For example, if you happen to have the old TSR Core Rules CD for Second Edition DnD, you have two map makers: one that is proprietary and rather simple, as well as the more complex and intricate Campaign Cartographer 2.
Tomorrow, I will discuss building maps for the campaign world.
New Campaign Website
In preparation for my new fantasy campaign, beginning in late April, I decided to build a new campaign website where I could post and load information for the players, as well as get responses from them.
I decided to try something new this time, and installed some basic forums. There are categories for possible campaigns, official game fluff, character creation, and general discussion. After I put up the forums, I typed up a list of 50 possible campaigns they could embark on, and began typing up descriptions for each of them.
So far, it’s working out quite well. The main content of any thread is found in my first post, with later posts being updates about what was edited or updated in the original post - this makes keeping everyone up-to-date very easy.
I’m finding that, so far, using the forums seems to be a lot easier for me and my players, while being equally effective.
Best Game Resources
Some games and books are ideally suited to providing inspiration and ideas for games, even if the game to be played is of an entirely different genre. Here are some of my favorites:
Dark Matter. The Dark Matter campaign is ideally suited towards conspiracy and paranormal games, and provides a lot of space geared towards describing organizations in enough detail to provide a slew of hooks and plot ideas. Each organization is fairly universal and may be exported or converted to other settings with little in the way of problems.
Complete Mafia for d20. The historical information available in this book provides a good history of how criminal organizations work in the real world, and the detailed descriptions of criminal organizations and roles of members will give you a great start on detailing the criminal aspect of any world or setting in your own game.
Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition. Theoretically, any edition of the game will work, but I have far more experience with this version. Anytime a truly “alien” entity or effect is needed, a flip through this book will provide either a great example or great inspiration. The d20 version may provide more direct compatibility with other d20 games.
Rifts, Heroes, GURPs, or any other “universal” point-buy system. While these games aren’t always as universal as we might like, there’s a lot of diversity in those systems, and the books are written to encourage the building of anything - both through mechanics and stirring up ideas.
Planescape. In my mind, Planescape is the most complete Dungeons and Dragons setting in existence. Anytime something in the game happens that involves any plane other than the Prime Material, I consult with Planescape for ideas, rules, and inspiration.
TSR Wizard’s/Priest’s Spell Compendium. Four volumes each, these compilations take spells and descriptions from almost every TSR game, setting, adventure and magazine release for several decades. The spells are updated for balance and use, and provide the widest variety of spells and abilities I’ve seen in any set of DnD products. Alternatively, you can get the wizard or priest spell cards, which contain identical information.
Darwin’s World. Darwin’s World combines elements from numerous genres, providing ample information and inspiration for post-apoc games, mutant games, or high tech games. The affiliates and organizations in the game also provide great templates and can easily be exported to other games or genres. (I still would love to play an X-Men game with Darwin’s organizations.)
What resources do you go to when you need some inspiration?
Starting An Adventure: Part Three
In my last two articles, I discussed gathering the group and preparation time before an adventure. Today, I’ll conclude with getting the players involved.
One of the best games I’ve run, as far as role-playing encounters are concerned, was a game in which the party was returning to a town which happened to be the home town of one of the wizard. The wizard’s father, also a wizard, still lived in town, in a sizable house. Needing both a place to rest and eat as well as information, the party went to visit the wizard’s father, seeking both.
I never told them the encounter was going to be role-playing heavy, but from the moment they entered the house I only spoke as the father or the GM directed actions, describing environments, etc. When the players tried to jump ahead of the father’s questioning and being caught up, he would interrupt them firmly but nicely and continue along with what he wanted to talk about. This forced the players to role-play with him a bit.
This encounter wound up lasting nearly two hours, for the duration of it everyone being in character nearly a hundred percent of the time, simply focusing on dialogue and characterization. There was more character development in that session, and more fun role-playing all squeezed into those two hours than I could have possibly expected before the start of the session. (This encounter also had the added bonus of added impact when the father was later assassinated.)
The lesson I took from this session was that to get players involved, it must be made clear to them, either implicitly or explicitly, that it is in their interest to get involved and participate. As soon as players begin to respond and get involved, it is important to reward that behavior immediately, at least at first, to help cement that it is the proper thing to do and it will make the game more enjoyable for everyone.
Another simple way to get your group involved is to ask them directly what they and their characters want. If you are lucky enough to get usable responses, design the adventure/campaign with these responses in mind. If your players were honest and intelligible, you’ve probably built in an irresistable hook.
How do you get players involved?
Starting An Adventure: Part Two
Yesterday, in response to a question by Streetline in the StumbleUpon roleplaying forums I discussed gathering the group at the start of an adventure. Today, I’ll continue with preparation time.
Most of my campaigns are designed and run in a non-linear fashion so as to give PCs as much freedom as desired in directing the story. As a result, my preparation time is split into two categories: Campaign Preparation, and Adventure Preparation.
Campaign preparation is almost entirely comprised of becoming familiar with the rules, setting, and world that the campaign will be taking place in. Keeping things open-ended and providing the players with a lot of freedom means I need to be at least familiar with everything. While the rules and circumstances don’t need to be memorized, I need to understand them well enough that a quick scan will provide me with everything I need.
The rest of campaign preparation is spent talking to the players, and finding out what kind of campaign they want to play, and what kind of characters they’re likely to play, backgrounds they’re considering for them, and general goals/directions for the characters. This can all change later on, but it puts me on the same wavelength as my players, and helps me make better use of my prep time by focusing it on what will be relevant to the players.
Adventure preparation is what I do before every session. This is where I draw maps, roll up NPCs, prepare stats for creatures they are likely to encounter, and any other preparation that seems necessary for the upcoming session. I also make a point of reviewing any likely points that the players are likely to deviate from what I have prepared, and alternate paths that they are likely to take.
On average, I spend about one hour preparing for every four hours of gaming. This can change depending on how intense the session will be, how much is being recycled from the past, and how divergent the players have been.
I will conclude next time with getting players involved.
Starting An Adventure: Part One
Streetline from StumbleUpon recently posed a great question in the roleplaying forums: How do you start an adventure? How much prep time (if any) goes into your campaigns and plots? How do you get players involved and roleplaying?
I suggest everyone take a look at that thread, if just to read CastorQuinn’s response, which is thorough and thoughtful.
My personal favorite method of gathering PCs together in a group is the idea of a pre-existing relationship or friendship. The “He’s my brother” logic creates the kind of tight bond that is ideal for most adventuring games. Which brings me to the main issue of getting everything started.
In adventuring games, it is ideal to get the game started quickly, with a certain level of trust and cooperation in the group implied, simply for the purposes of getting things done, and making sure the group stays together for the most part, despite various forces driving them in different directions.
In some games, this kind of relationship is the exact opposite of what is desired. The Paranoia RPG, for instance, hopes to create a feeling of strain and distrust between the party members, who are encouraged to keep potentially deadly secrets from eachother, constantly expecting a betrayal.
In story driven games, a cohesive party often isn’t appropriate for the course of the game and the story. The players may not all be on one side, or they may be parts of competing sects/factions within a larger unifying force, such as many of White Wolf’s Vampire games.
One shot adventures are another story all-together. The group is only, supposedly, together for this one adventure or event, so fate or employment become much more acceptible motivations for working together.
Generally, my favored method of getting characters together at the start of a game is to let the players decide. In all but the most linear of games, or those following the patterns of Paranoia, I allow the players to discuss their concepts as much as desired prior to the game. I feed them information on the starting region and what kind of campaign they are going to participate in, and let them figure out how they belong together.
Generally, the players seem to come up with a good idea, which engages their characters quickly and provides background and/or plot hooks for me to use.
Tomorrow, I’ll discuss prep time and getting players involved.
