In the past month I have featured a few articles focused on World Building. The first, which you should definitely read before this, involved six things you should know before hand. Much of the advice in this article is directly relate-able to running homebrew campaigns. The two are intimately entwined, as creating one is often the direct result of creating the other. The other articles, which can be found here and here, are really dedicated to one thing: asking questions. From asking questions about what you need in a system to whether you need certain details to what exactly those details imply, asking questions is what helps develop your world.
When it came down to it, I suggested that world building comes down to two approaches when dealing with information. Either you go from very vague to very specific or vice versa. Which one, depends on what you need and what specifics you are talking about. The link is that the more something concerns the players themselves and the storyline being played, the more detailed it needs to be. But where to start with all of this was vague,beginning with a single idea and mostly implied as any specific answer to a question you ask of that idea. So today I want to talk about where to truly begin setting things down into stone from the chaos of your mind.
As the title implies, it all begins with a map.
Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are other approaches, but every time I design a game or a world the first thing that happens is a map. Sometimes it is just within my head for a while, but, more often than not, I start putting pencil to paper. A map is something that has had meaning for humanity for a very long time. It is where we mark everything we find important. From lay of the land and borders to landmarks and resources, maps are both a result of discovery and also a place of exploration. Many people find themselves drawn to maps they have never seen delving in and seeking their secrets.
This is something that you can harness in your campaign, and your drawing skills do not need to be great. A map is a simple object relating things in space for those who read it, and that is all it really needs to do. But drawing the map asks quite a bit out of your world. How close are cities or towns, how many do you include, why? Who are the powers and what are their relations? What kind of resources does the map imply?
I know, I know, we are getting back to the questions. But I think the map sits as a foundation. It creates a visual representation of your world, something for you and players to grasp on to. An anchor, if you will, for the ideas and information that will be built up. If you create a historical event you have somewhere to reference its location, and even directing the event off the confines of a map is significant in its own way.
The best part about maps is that you can make as many as you want or need. Additionally each one can have as much information and granularity as you desire. Personally I suggest a small map centered on a specific area with borders around the edges. Perhaps they are physical or political. It may do to have a portion of the border that says "here be dragons." Maybe it is even a literal message. This frames your campaign and focus within the greater world and creates a line between what needs the most details and what needs the least.
Finally maps don't necessarily need to be in the classical sense. Extend the map you have made into more diverse and metaphorical maps. Make a time line, a political map, an outline of deities, etc. Map out what the area, the world, the cosmos are like with any combination of actual map, flow chart, and outline that works. When you ask the questions I urged you to ask in the previous articles do so as you map and outline. Anchor the answers to different things, everything then becomes anchored back to the map.
Make that initial map your campaign map, or if a new one becomes the campaign map, make it your anchor for world building. Whether you plan on running a campaign or not, you do not want to have to work to relate disparate items. Information will weave itself into a web with one another if you ask the questions you need to and anchor the answers within the confines of the world. The map is your spacial, physical, and observable representation of the world.
An example of why this works, why I find it important, can be in the construction of a city. What is it made out of? How will you describe it? Perhaps it is made of stone. Lots of granite; heavy, solid stone. The more expensive and impressive building are made of marble, very old Rome. This sounds great, but look at the map. Where on earth are they getting that stone? Perhaps you made the map with that in mind and there is a mountain range there, or perhaps you need to note a quarry. Or maybe you just developed why you drew the highway between that city and the dwarven city to the north, and why they are allies. And you may be saying that you could come up with that without a map, but what happens when you do this five, six, seven times. What happens when those answers start contradicting each other?
We live in space. We think about things in terms of location and distance and size. Your players will and your characters will, as well. Harness that by giving yourself the tool to link the way a brain works and the way you're building up the world. Maybe your good enough to picture it or maybe you can draw with the best of them. Either way, after the idea of course, start with a map. It is the perfect anchor for great world building.
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