Creating a New Campaign

I've been kicking around this project for about a year now and am finally getting it under way, and on the Net.Creating a new, original campaign setting can be a time consuming business but also very rewarding as instead of relying upon the work of others as a guide (if you use a published setting for instance) all the decisions made as to the races, cultures, geography, feel of, and history of the world are entirely your own. For each facet of the world you begin to explore the more questions you must answer and after a while it is almost as though the creation of the world begins to take on an energy of its own. The world of Erehwon is very much work in progress and is still in its infancy but I thought that by detailing how I went about creating the world, even in the bare bones form that that it currently is, might be of help to some othe DMs out there intending to start their own campaign world. If so I hope this helps.

In the Beginning...

I first began to write down ideas for Erehwon (as I eventually called the world- which just happens to also be the name of a famous NZ sheep station which is in the middle of nowhere, hence it's name) about a year ago and I've been slowly adding ideas to it since then. I've been doing plenty of other things too, so this setting has often been on the back burner and it wasn't until February 1999 that I really decided to go ahead with it.

Inspiration for role-playing game campaigns can come from many sources - books, TV, films, the players themselves, an intriguing setting idea or my favourite "what if"- putting together a few ideas and seeing what happens. So it was with Erehwon. I'd been tossing around the idea of creating a new campaign setting for some time. I'd run campaigns in both the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk and had several dabbles at creating my own world in the past, with varying degrees of success. For some time I'd been kicking round the idea of developing something different, something of my own creation. I wanted a world where I could run several different types of campaigns in that would explore different aspects of the world and its cultures. I'd always wanted to try an aquatic campaign, a single race campaign, a desert campaign, an underdark campaign...I had a lot of ideas of campaigns I'd like to run but wanted somewhere new to run them. Thus I decided to create my own world. The idea is to develop it one campaign at a time. But to link each together within a framework so as to give a sense of continuity to the world. Maybe even allow the players to develop family trees and develop a generational campaign where the player characters in the new campaign are sons and daughters of the previous characters. Hmmm now that sounds intriguing but where to start?

The creation of a new campaign setting can be a daunting process. He sheer size of the world and things that need done can intimidate a DM but the idea is to only develop the ideas and areas that you'll need. Start small and work outwards. Gary Gygax in the original Dungeon Masters Guide suggests starting with a village or small settlement and work out from their developing what is needed as you go. This approach has many benefits, not writing things that might not be used by the PCs for instance allows you to focus on areas that they will use immediately. I agree with this approach up to a point but I for one like to know where the location fits into the larger campaign whole. For this reason I prefer developing a bit of world history, outlines for cultures, etc. so that at least I have a rough idea of where the village/town or city fits into the broader scheme of things then develop thefirst adventure ideas. That way I can develop the campaign themes from the very first adventure. You may disagree but that is my way of attacking it. Get down a general framework and add to it over time. also, for this campaign I have the benefit of not having to work out something and start it the next week, it will be several months before I get to run this campaign so it gives me plenty of time to work out some background details.

Another point is that there are many accessories and modules for various game systems that you can modify and incorporate into your own world and this makes the creation of the whole a lot easier. For instaance, I often use parts of Dungeon adventures for campaign ideas, maps, and settings for adventures- usually they have to be modifiedd but sometimes you'll come accross an adventure or setting that you can slip into the campaign with little or no changes at all. Also, work you've previously created for a setting can be rehashed, modified and tidied up and reused. For instance a few years ago I began to work out a bit of backgound information for different player character races- motivations, relations with other races etc, with just a few changes I could use this stuff again.

A bit of advice I read many years aago in a Draagon Magazine and which I still find useful. When creating a new campaign keep a note book of ideas and inspirations for adventures, locations etc. handy. Something you can jot ideas down in and then review at a later date. You need not use all the ideas but it is easier to remember them if you've got them down on paper somewhere.

The origins of Erewhon

I began thinking of starting a new campaign world in April and May 1998. The original idea for Erehwon was of a world dominated by the demi-human and humanoid races. In fact one of my first ideas was a world without humans at all! That would be different, so I put it to the book. What about a dwarf only campaign? Great. I could include a dwarven kingdom and have a campaign set there. What if the dwarves were at war with the races of the Underdark such as the duergar and drow? Constantly battling to survive and expand their territory in the face of incursions of these creatures. Drow had always been one of my favourite opponents for the PCs and the opportunity to include them seemed to good to pass up. What if the PCs were dwarven scouts working for a dwarven king? Then they'd have plenty of reason to explore the Underdark, but could also undertake missions on the surface world... At this point I began flicking through back issues of Dungeon Magazine (r) for adventures to include and came up with a gold mine of adventures that I could adapt to the setting. My thoughts then turned to the longer campaign time frame. How would a band of dwarves handle the G-D-Q series of modules? Now that would make for an interesting conclusion to the campaign. Have all the early adventures leading up to a massive war in the Underdark inspired by the GDQ modules. Hmmmm...Another idea to store away in my notebook.

About this time I read a book on early Canadian history and this too got the thought process going. What if the party members were human colonists arriving on the shores of a brave new world, undiscovered and unexplored? There must be plenty of adventure ideas that would arise there- exploration, planning settlements, dealing with marauding monsters, and other races, not to mention trying to establish crops, and all the trappings of civilisation- now that would make for a great campaign. I jotted all these ideas down in my note book. Perhaps I could link it to the dwarf campaign...but how. What if the original party are dwarves and that eventually the human colonists arrive and the dwarven PCs are sent by the king as emissaries to deal with these new arrivals- interesting. Political adventures began to form in my mind...

As I read the book on Canadian history even more ideas were inspired by the border conflicts between the French and the British... Thoughts of the Last of the Mohicans also began to circulate in my brain at this time. Forts besieged by Indians, skirmishes in the primeval forest... lots of potential there. But add a fantasy slant. What if the Indians were wild wood elves? I'd need two cultures to be competing for this brave new world-or at least two settlements. How about Stormhaven and Irongard? That led to even more ideas as I'd need to develop rival nations for the settlers to come from. Hmmm, write it down but leave the origins undevloped at present. What if the two towns were separated by a forest full of elves- both towns trying to curry favour with the elves in their war with each other... A border war had lots of potential for skirmishes, relief missions to save besieged forts and villages. As well as the crops to gather, supply lines to protect...and of course the elves have their own agenda. a three way conflict? Add it to the list.

So now I had plenty of ideas but still didn't have a map. At this point I began to think of the world in general what type of climatic zones I'd like to include, terrain etc. I'd already decided I wanted the original setting to be in the northern latitudes of the planet where the elements could play an important part in the PCs lives- snow in winter, etc; as well as having plenty of climatic zones- sub-artic tundra, high mountains, plains, forests for the elves, and a rocky fiord filled peninsula for the Drakkar, a viking-like race I'd decided I wanted to include (so much for the no humans). With all these terrain types in mind I drew a very rough draft of the map and noted a few names and places for different races to live.

I also wanted to include other human races, especially in the South. I decided that the north will be the new frontier for the humans, that way I can develop campaigns there and have the actions of the PCs decide how the region develops. But further south I wanted to have some human cultures and kingdoms already established. I have always had a soft spot for the Celts and wanted to have a celtic kingdom somewhere in the south and after a while came up with the Skelts (a poorly disguised rip off race). I also wanted another race, or tribe in the south, a germanic/ saxon influenced people who later migrated into the skeltish lands and dispossessed them, pushing them ever westwards to their current home, an island that I eventually called Sharmra. Thus were the Druthni formed. I could then develop themes based around Arthurian legends of a Skeltish High King and their wars against the invaders. I prefer basing my cultural models of real world cultures because of the wealth of information available in history books etc which you can draw on to add depth to the campaign setting.

Another real world source of campaign material I'd long been wanting to incorporate in a campaign but until now hadn't was the Roman Empire. What if the elves were this world's answer to the Romans, conquering the lands and then imposing their laws over it (the elves in this case would be a bit more lawful than the elves in the monster manuals). Then their civilisation collapses and the surviving elves flee to a new land, some become the wild wood elves mentioned above, maybe others form a new kingdom in the new lands. Maybe a few head over the seas to create an island nation far to the west... Maybe. Add to it the war against evil and maybe the decadence of the civilisation helped the forces of evil to win. Another potential idea to add to the list.

Okay so now I had a general background, map and several campaign ideas, time to get down to the nitty gritty. I made a list of details that I want to develop: climate, geography, cultures, races, gods, history, maps for towns and cities. This is where things can get overwhelming but it is important to only do what you feel is warranted and important. There are plenty of things you could develop but not all them need be done at once.

I had another look at my notebook and began to organise ideas and putting them in order and crossing out ideas that wouldn't work or no longer seemed appropriate. I've a list of things that I want to develop in the campaign but began by working out a brief timeline and history of the world, in very broad terms. I developed a war between the races of good and darkness that I could exploit later in the adventures. All campaigns need a theme so I chose the struggle for good vs evil over the control of the planet as the central theme in this world. A bit hackneyed but it is always a good way to get the PCs out adventuring and the continual struggle between these two forces would keep many a campaign world turning. Maybe the humans arrived during a pause in the war, maybe after a huge battle had been fought and the races involved were rebuilding from the losses suffered. Maybe the forces of darkness won the battle and are on the ascent. Hmmm. Thus was the idea for the Shadowlands thought up. The elven empire collapses and is overrun by the forces of evil. This once proud empire now lies firmly under the control of the forces of evil.

Well I've now got a lot of ideas and a general feel of what I might include in the setting but I'll continue to add ideas and reject ideas as the setting develops. I'm sure that it will have many, many revisions but at least it is underway. Time to begin the task of fleshing out the details.

Craig Courtis

March 1999