How much information should I provide for my homebrew country?

[Pepper Maringo]

I'm creating a country for my homebrew campaign setting, and I don't know how much information to provide about it. I don't want my players to be daunted by a massive amount and decide not to play, but I also don't want to provide too little and have them not know enough to make a character. How much is enough? What about the city I plan to start things in? How much detail should I go into there?

[VRMH]

Give them what they need to know to give their characters a proper background.

[yellowdingo]

A Gazetteer.

1. Dungeon Master's Guide
2. Players Guide
3. Map of Nation at standard game scale

Dungeon Masters Guide
Introduction............................................................... ..............
History as the Immortals Know it.........................................
Geography.................................................................. ..............
Communities and Settlements................................................
Society.................................................................... ...................
Races...................................................................... ...................
Social Standing................................................................... ......
Religion................................................................... .................
Societies and Organization.....................................................
Language................................................................... ...............
Currency and Trade................................................................
Governance................................................................. .............
Crime and Punishment...........................................................
Relations with Other Nations................................................
Military................................................................... .................
Monsters................................................................... ..............
Artefacts, Treasures and Hidden Places................................
Adventures................................................................. ..............

Players Guide
History of the Dragon Realms...............................................
Creating Characters................................................................
Special Rules...................................................................... ......

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Check out the player's guides for the Adventure Path line. They are mostly free and have good examples of what is needed for players to help create applicable characters.

Kingmaker PG

And maybe create a few paragraphs similar to what could be found in the Inner Sea World Guide. Or the pathfinderwiki.com

[Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert]

VRMH wrote:

Give them what they need to know to give their characters a proper background.

About how much is that?

[VRMH]

Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert wrote:

About how much is that?

Basic geography & climate, governance and general legal system. That should suffice. Anything else will cost skillpoints.

[Indagare]

Why not have them help you build it? Ask them for backgrounds on their characters and then work that into the world setting.

[st00ji]

yeah i encourage my players to make stuff up while creating their characters. one guy wanted a military background and fleshed out the local army beautifully for me in the process. ranks, army names, numbers, officers etc etc. twas great!

personally i find when im given a sheaf as thick as my wrist it turns a game into homework. i try to stick to a two page summary of a new realm, and fill in details with verbal descriptions as it comes up in game. or write more if someone asks for specific details on something.

[Maxximilius]

Indagare wrote:

Why not have them help you build it? Ask them for backgrounds on their characters and then work that into the world setting.

This.

Provide a minimum of background information as to make the country have "unique" features beyond the others ("elves live on a giant tree-island and are under a kingdom that yet has to find an heir to the throne, they have a lot of "X class" and tend to not have much "X class" ; they dislike/have good relations/are neutral toward "X race") ; then let the players give in their own touch. Reveal more and more with skill checks, characters searching through books, by expanding the characters backgrounds, and through story.

[Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert]

Is this enough?

I'm only covering the eastern provinces for now.

[warren Burgess]

Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert wrote:

Is this enough?

I'm only covering the eastern provinces for now.

Not Bad

[Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert]

warren Burgess wrote:

Kelsey Arwen MacAilbert wrote:

Is this enough?

I'm only covering the eastern provinces for now.

Not Bad

I added a couple extra lines to the People section to cover the population. Here:

"Cromora boasts a population of around 12 million, roughly 6 million of whom live in Vendair, one half million in Gentai, 1 and a half million in Leontiny, and the others in the western provinces."

This is an industrialized steampunk campaign setting, so Cromora is capable of supporting that large a population.