Creating a world

[Thorsten]

Hello BR-community,

I'm slowly (very slowly) working on creating my own campaign-world for use in Birthright-games (and other rpg's as I'm fleshing out as much as possible).

I've borrowed some webspace from a good friend, so I can work in blog-form (thus computer-crashes won't destroy me completely... I'm the sort who never gets around to backing up his stuff untill it's too late.)

My campaign blog (soooo under continued revising/editing/writing)

The reason I turn to this community is not as much in search of pats on the back (though that is always appreciated), but more to use you (plural: all of you) for brainstorming.

For example, my current issue (apart from naming 100 provinces) is how you best balance things in such a way, as to get something similar to Birthright:

Currently I have 18 realms ranging from 3-7 provinces each and some npc-thingies.

Temples: How many different temple-regents would suffice for 18 landed? (I've only briefly touched upon such things as gods in my blog, as I still need to write some stuff about the withdrawal: the time when the children of the one god withdraw from the earth and assume god-hood themselves)

And how about guilds (or whatever I end up using in their stead)?

Happy to hear comments and/or thoughts.

- Thorsten

[bbeau22]

You certainly have your plate full. Goodluck.

I always found that hardest part of world building is why and how.

Personally I feel if you flesh out your god history then lands will begin to form. Did the children of the god have children themselves that are the actual residence of the land now? If so, then certain regions are going to be focused on their parent. This wouldn't be much different than patron gods like they do on Birthright.

When the one god made his children did he make them to represent different human emotions or were they different looking? Different races can be said to have been born from their patron god.

I am rambling a bit.

My suggestion is to finish the god back-story. Why they are there and how different races and people came into being. Once you have that down you can begin populating the world according to culture and race.

Also you can use gods to create different land features. Maybe a large canyon like the Grand Canyon could be located where the original one god departed the land (true or not the people believe it.) Huge mountain range with one giant mountain where the children travelled to the heavens and ascend into god hood(true or not doesn't matter).

Have fun with it!

[Thorsten]

Thanks for responding.

I'm more or less set with my gods. I just haven't put the pen to the paper in that regard. I hadn't considered whether they had children themselves... that might explain birthright-blood (I admit to having considered removing that part and medle a bit with RP resembling regular influence/power).

- Thorsten

[Rey]

Hi there.

Working on a new world is always exciting. When it's a simple campaign you can always make things up as you go, but it seems that you're in for a grand world creation.
Names are not important for now, they can be made with some random name generator or if you really like to have fun, use the existing names and change a few letters.

The whole blooded thing in BR is essential for setting. If you throw it out, you'll have to figure out something new, but then perhaps you won't have unique characters, connection to the land, and other things that go with it.

One idea I've been toying with is to create a world that was once whole, but due to the disaster that happened in the "central" part, that world split apart in a few pieces. Few large pieces, making several new continents. Well, it was a big cataclysm.

OK, you still need to make some drastic changes but it's possible. The idea is that this one world had mutual majority of gods. So you can make them like in BR, gone with the disaster, making way for various champions to take their places. All the surviving people in the time of disaster received the divine essence. It may be a kind of magical energy or astral or space or ethereal, they can be called the Divines instead of blooded. The rest is history.

The simplest way would be to copy paste all the current affairs from BR/Cerilia into the new world and you don't have to write a word, just another version how it got to it. After all, the current state is the most important. Change the names and you are ready to go. Now, that would be fairly quick and pretty dirty way of doing it.

But if you like it all original, then say hello to many months of hard work. If you have time, why not?

[Thorsten]

Hey,
Yeah I'm kinda in for the whole ride... some of the stuff I am going to take from the normal setting, but I'd rather try something new if I can.

The thing about blood and such can be circumvented if Blood refers to noble-blood instead of godly ties. At least I think it can... I'm still working on it, and I will probably have to brainstorm a lot to make it work, but I'm positive that I can get something worthwhile out in the end, and still retain the RP-system as we know it.

[bbeau22]

Yes you can certainly replace blood of the gods with noble blood ... but that would assume you are getting rid of blood abilities, which then I would assume you are.

As for balancing issues. When it comes to lands it seems that every country has a border that has something to keep them in check. In Anuire they use Anwsheigh. Between Manslayer, The Spider, and the Gorgan. Throw in the Five Peaks for good measure and you have almost everyone covered.

As a DM, you will have a way to keep people in check if they get too greedy fighting away from their own boarders. Each one of those examples are very constant and almost impossible to remove from their spots.

As for country size and power, make sure that if you create a powerful country that you have another one to keep them in check.

-BB

[Birthright-L]

At 11:53 AM 7/23/2009, Thorsten wrote:

>The thing about blood and such can be circumvented if Blood refers to noble-blood instead of godly ties. At least I think it can... I`m still working on it, and I will probably have to brainstorm a lot to make it work, but I`m positive that I can get something worthwhile out in the end, and still retain the RP-system as we know it.

You might run into some trouble explaining bloodline as the effect of nobility/noble families in a few areas. As bbeau22 notes, blood abilities are a little odd for "ordinary" nobles. Also, you might want to rethink how regency works in relation to the timeline. That is, RP allow regents to complete tasks in an unrealistically fast time, and to guarantee the success of events that, in the absence of magic, would be more than a little dicey....

That said, there are any number of ways to justify the existence of people who have a magical power to rule. They could simply be gifted by the gods, they might be a slightly different race, they could have some common background/ancestor, they might bathe in a particular pool at birth, eat special foods upon their 18th birthday, go through some religious ritual, etc. Some mystical event in the past could have happened like in BR, but the event itself need not be as dramatic as Deismaar. Maybe some wizard accidentally released some power. Maybe a dragon was struck by a bolt of lightening while fighting a Ki-Rin. Maybe a meteor crashed into a temple during an eclipse. Etc.

Maybe more than one of those things led to the creation of different (competing?) groups of people able to rule with a power that is analogous to that of BR`s bloodlines.

Game mechanically, maybe one can create a bloodline with some particular use of skills, feats, class abilities, or whatever else might fit into your setting.

Gary

[Thorsten]

I've thought about the npc-forces who can keep people in check, and have opted for stuff like bandit-lords, unruly nobles and such to do what awnies did to some extent. I'm still working on the finer details, but I should be able to get it to work.

As for the RP, I'm thinking that using it as simple influence might work. Maybe the added RP means that the work-teams recieve some means of incentive to make them work harder (threats towards their families, if you're an evilish dude, promises of various kinds if your inclined otherwise). Maybe the influence simply resembles more effort put into the action by the beauracracy of the lord in question, etc.

- Thorsten