Quote:
Originally Posted by GawainBS  I change what I don't like in a setting. Thinking one up takes loads of time and using a set setting has the advantage of players already feeling at home. At least, that's how I experience it. I admire a DM who can come up with a whole setting of himself and keep it intresting. |
Actually I don't create a whole setting. I only make a portion of it and any campaign I ever do has a very simple idea but a complex adventure. Like, for instance, Necromancy is evil thus it's outlawed. This is the logical simple idea, but there are so many ways you can create a completely unique necromancy based campaign.
Maybe even a slightly more complex idea stemming from a similar one, like the campaign I'm doing now. Chaositech is the mutilation of body parts to fuse in machinery very unnaturally. This is similar to necromancy as necromancers mutilate dead bodies for there purposes as well. Chaositech is thus outlawed just as much as necromancy, and now I have a whole new books worth of material to use.
So, once I have the idea, I pick a setting, a desert merchant city that imports and exports to all other cities across the continent. This type of place you could find a lot of things, metal and steel, along with tools and trade, a primo place where Chaositech could exist for say goblin bandits. So, start the campaign with goblin attacks, a cliche but simple start, then expand into chaositech and organizations and such.
Very simple to do really. And as for traveling, maps, and places and stuff, I just take a video game map, blank out the names of cities, and fill in my own stuff for ease of use. I still have a map and a simple setting, but not all that history and exposition to gods and wars that feel too much like homework.