What are the tools for Home Brewing a World?

[Maggan]

Hi!

With all the talk about home brews and how different rules support or hinder home brewing, I started thinking about the best tools for making your own setting or world. I have for example heard a lot of good comments about A Magical Medieval Society, but are there more resources and tools out there that are top notch for helping to create a fantasy campaign setting (not necessarily D&D or d20)?

My list so far:

1. A Magical Medieval Society
2. Medieval demographics made easy

EDIT: Thanks for the tips so far! I'll add the recommendations to this list:

3. The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles from 500 to 1500
4. Dynasties & Demagogues (Atlas)
5. Crime & Punishment (Atlas)
6. Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin)
7. From Stone to Steel (Monkey God)
8. Dungeoncraft from Dragon (link)
9. Put in a secret in everything you design!
10. www.wikipedia.org
11. maps.google.com
12. images.google.com
13. freeonline graph paper
14. World Builder's Guide from TSR (avaliable as PDF from Paizo or RPGnow)

Fill up the list ...!

/M

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Out of print, but worth seeking out.

 

[Aus_Snow]

• Dynasties & Demagogues (Atlas)
• Crime & Punishment (Atlas)
• Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin)
• From Stone to Steel (Monkey God)

 

[Blue]

The dungeoncraft series from Dragon years ago had a lot about HOW to homebrew a world. The above resources are great for WHAT to put in, but the HOW is also good.

And remember, for every thing you design, put in a secret. It doesn't matter if it comes out in play, or even is related the the campaign you'll be running. Just put in a secret.

Cheers,
=Blue(23)

 

[TerraDave]

www.wikipedia.org
maps.google.com
images.google.com

They might seem obvious....but once you have started to get some ideas, and are looking for things to "borrow", these make things so much easier.

 

[mhensley]

free online graph paper
Dungeoncraft Articles

 

[Psion]

I found TSR's old World Builder's Guide useful in fleshing things out... geography details, history, cultures, etc. There is a mathematical error in their mapping notes, but other than that, I think it's a great product.

It's out of print, but if you can't dig up a print copy, you can find the PDF at Paizo or RPGnow.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I found TSR's old World Builder's Guide useful in fleshing things out... geography details, history, cultures, etc. There is a mathematical error in their mapping notes, but other than that, I think it's a great product.

Definitely. Forgot about that one - I've got quite a bit of mileage from it through the years. A classic.

 

[Ry]

I think a lot of the advice in the resources above is good, but some of it is terrible. Anything that tells you to make a bunch of inert windowdressing is bad advice (i.e. writing a history for a country just so you have it, even when your campaign doesn't really involve that country's history).

You need to make stuff that the PCs interact with. History that fills in dates and events from year 200 to year 300 - that's not going to matter in a campaign, so why write it?

What matters is history that affects the campaign's present. You need history that's wrapped up in things that threaten the PCs now, that make the PCs lives more complicated, that gives the PCs something they can use, or somehow rewards the PCs. Otherwise it had better be short and serve some other purpose, like defining a player character.

 

[Rechan]

What happens if you don't want Medieval European Fantasy? What if you want African, Polynesian, or Arabic fantasy?

Sure, there are campaign settings for that info, but not straight up 'here's how this would be done'.