Nothing wrong with that. That is one of the oldest traditions in the RPG space. But there is often a question that I feel like a lot of folks don't ask before they roll up their sleeves and start building cosmologies, nations, histories, and dynasties.
Simply put, what does your world provide that other worlds don't?
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| It is, surprisingly, not a question a lot of folks ask. |
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Why This World?
A lot of Game Masters reading this probably had the mental equivalent of bringing out charts, maps, and notes, laying out what makes their settings unique and special. However, too often we get attached to our settings because they're ours, when that is really the only unique thing about them; the fact that we made it.
The difficulty that so many of us run into is that when we make a game world, we often design it to be played with a certain game's mechanics in mind, and the trappings of an expected genre. And if you designed a setting to be played with Dungeons and Dragons, or Pathfinder, or any other system, chances are that you molded the flavor and fluff around the bones of those mechanics and expectations so that it would be smooth to play.
That's good world design... but it can also reduce the unique selling point of your world.
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| Why do we want to go here? |
Let's reach for some low-hanging fruit. You're making a setting for Dungeons and Dragons 5E (now that the heat is off, and you aren't going to have WoTC come knocking on your door). You design all the cities, you create a new pantheon of gods, you put plot hooks galore across the countryside, draw up new maps, and everything... but what can people do in your world that they can't do in another world? What have you done to offer a different, unique experience?
I talked about this some time ago in Fantasy Writers, If You're Just Changing Something's Name, Don't Bother, but I feel this lesson is important for Game Masters to consider as well. Because if you're reading a standard high fantasy novel where the elves are called Duranen, and the dwarves are called Thrusken, and the orcs are Raskol, but nothing else has changed, then why are you bothering to give them a new coat of paint? The same thing is true of your fantasy setting for a game. Just because you re-arranged all the existing pieces and present them differently, that isn't a unique selling point that would make people want to play in this setting.
And this goes double if your players could play the exact same campaigns, and the exact same plots, in a world they are already familiar with, instead of trying to learn a completely new setting that doesn't change anything but the surface-level stuff.
Also, while I'm on the subject, consider hopping over to 5 Tips For Creating Fantasy Towns and Cities if you haven't read that article yet. Cities are tough to get right, and I wanted to share what insights I've gleaned from all the ones I've made so far.
Go Deeper, And You'll Make More Interesting Worlds
A lot of what we get caught up in is the surface-level nuance of our world design, but asking what your world does that no other worlds do is often far more important. Not just because it validates all the work you're putting into it (personal opinion), but because it makes players more inclined to come play in your sandbox because you have stuff in there they can't play with in other sandboxes.
As a for-instance, was the elven nation responsible for imperialism and totalitarian dictatorship, only overcome by an alliance of humans, orcs, and dwarves that overthrew their total control? Does your setting have no humans at all? Is your game in a flooded world with only rare spits of land, and legends of floating cities that avoided the Great Downpour? Have you eliminated alignment entirely from a system where it usually plays a major role? Have all the gods been wiped out, leaving the mortals to struggle alone in the darkness without the divine to call on for aid?
Is it some combination of all of those factors?
Whether you want to run a bronze-age game, fantastical steampunk, grimdark pirates on the black seas, or something else entirely, it's important to survey the landscape and see what already exists. Because if you propose the next campaign take place in your setting, and your players ask, "Why should we use that setting instead of Forgotten Realms/Ravenloft/Starjammer/Golarion/etc.?" you'll have an answer for them.
And if it's a good answer, your players may never want to leave that new world.
Speaking of New Settings...
Regular readers know that I've spent the last few years releasing content for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting for both DND 5E and Pathfinder Classic. While it was on hold for a while during the whole OGL situation at the start of this year, I've been working on some new content for it.
As to the unique sales pitch, there's a 32-video playlist all about the setting on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. Consider giving them a watch, subscribing to the channel, and if the setting sounds like fun, giving Sundara a look for yourself!
Cities of Sundara
The setting first began with the Cities of Sundara splats. Self-contained guides to some of the larger and more powerful centers of trade, industry, arms, and magic, these unique locations provide plenty of fodder for character generation and plots. Not only that, but each one comes with unique, mechanical goodies for players and GMs alike to take out for a spin!
- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!
- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and DND 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.
- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.
- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.
- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.
Gods of Sundara
- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.
Species of Sundara
Sundara is filled with creatures that many of us recognize, but I wanted to give greater depth to their cultures, and a wider variety of options. After all, humans always get 15+ ethnicities, languages, and unique histories, while elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, etc. are almost always left with footnotes, or maybe with a handful of offshoots. So, in short, I wanted to give all the fantastical creatures the treatment that humans usually get in our games.
And there is no human book yet. If readers demand to know more, then I may sit down to pen one... but I figured that humans didn't need to be front-and-center in this setting just yet.
- Elves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Elves are one of the most quintessential fantasy creatures... but if you want to see more than just high elves, wood elves, and elves of the sun and moon, then this supplement has you covered!
- Dwarves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The children of the primordial giants who were meant to fill in the details of the world they'd made (or so the myths say) there are as many kinds of dwarves as their are kinds of giants... and possibly more, depending on who is keeping count.
- Orcs of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Supposedly a creation of the elves, none can say for certain exactly how or why orcs have been made. What most agree on is that these creatures are far more than most may think at first glance.
- Halflings of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Little cousins to the dwarves, halflings are tough, clever, and not to be underestimated. From living beneath the hills, to taking up residence in the deep forests, halflings in Sundara come in quite a variety!
- The Blooded (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) [Pathfinder and DND 5E]: When orcs and elves mix their bloodlines with other creatures, the result is one of the Blooded. This inheritance takes many forms, and it can even wait generations before manifesting when the right combination of individuals come together to have a child.
- Gnomes of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Gnomes are strange creatures, found in places where the spirit of the land has coalesced and made children of its own. The sons and daughters of the ancient nymphs, they are the stewards of these places, and they change as often as the weather and the land.
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