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I have a few questions. I will make them simple and basic as I can and see if we need to get more complex as answers come in.
1. How big is your home brew world?
a. File size (not just a map or two but how much material do you have)
b. Actual scale of the area you use (micro v macro)
2. Do you use entirely original material or do you integrate various favorite products?
a. Favorite novel/movie (any medium really)settings, characters, stories that are involved and to what degree if at all?
b. Pre made modules or old modules or your own stories?
3. Do you allow your players to contribute?
a. How much and how specific are contribution?
4. How long have you been developing this world?
bump
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1. Roughly half earth-sized, but that's only because we haven't developed the other hemisphere.
(a) Like, binders full of paper, plus innumerable e-files.
(b) Everything from global-scale maps to continent-scale to province-scale to city-scale to building-scale to room-scale.
2. Mostly original, with other stuff integrated as seamlessly as possible.
(a) A lot of my original adventures draw on one fantasy and one non-fantasy novel for inspiration, and then go from there. I've done Wellman/MacDonald, Vance/MacLean, etc.
(b) See above. I also steal adventures, strip them down, make them setting-specific, and paste them into the ongoing events.
3. YES!
(a) As requested, and as specific as they want to get.
4. Since roughly 1983, but it's had a couple reboots, too.
I have a few questions. I will make them simple and basic as I can and see if we need to get more complex as answers come in.
1. How big is your home brew world?
a. File size (not just a map or two but how much material do you have)
b. Actual scale of the area you use (micro v macro)2. Do you use entirely original material or do you integrate various favorite products?
a. Favorite novel/movie (any medium really)settings, characters, stories that are involved and to what degree if at all?
b. Pre made modules or old modules or your own stories?3. Do you allow your players to contribute?
a. How much and how specific are contribution?4. How long have you been developing this world?
I find your question format somewhat confusing.
1. Depends on how you want to measure it. The material world is a finite flat plane floating in an infinite but empty space. The map is made of 16020 hexes which are 12 mile wide and 95 square miles, so 1 521 900 square miles. So total, maybe about half the size of non-slavic Europe? There's an alternate material plane on the other side, but the edges are covered by an impenetrable ice wall.
a. I have a fairly detailed map of the whole overside, and a detailed hex per hex table for about a third of it in GIS so I can render maps for topography, geopolitics, weather and such on the fly. I have a campaign guide with all the homebrew info that makes up roughly 50 pages I think, including custom character creation rules, the stats and background on the fully rebuilt races, and information on the various nations, all of this is centered on the third of the world the players play on.
b. macro, I guess? I don't sketch out town details and stuff like that. I sketched out a few boats, because the first sessions were mostly naval (the party were oar-rowing slaves that freed themselves from their orcish slave masters when gnomish corsairs did a raid on them). The world is fairly small, so they've already sailed a good portion of it trying to get home (and getting lost along the way), and now that they are on land they'll be escorting a caravan through a good chunk of the largest continent. Though the action will likely end up focusing on an area where many borders meet, it's roughly the size of Jamaica.
2. Entirely original, as much as such a thing is possible. Of course, everyone has their influences, but I don't intentionally rip off anything from anywhere in specific.
a. My setting is low-magic E6. A lot of inspiration from actual history and folk tales, or otherwise anything gritty. The player races are actually descendants from an envoy of the other side (called the netherworld in the setting), and they managed to kick out most of the natives (primals; orcs and gnolls, mostly). So the colonization of the Americas is a huge source of inspiration, I guess.
b. I don't think any pre-made module would fit my setting with all of its funky homebrewed traits. I've never liked using them anyways. I make it all up.
3. I guess
a. As long as it fits with everything else established so far. Most of the players in my group aren't prone to invent all that much anyways. I put a lot of details in my world, but I focus a lot on the macro scale, so anyone wanting to decorate the micro scale is welcomed to do so. I asked my players for backgrounds for their characters and I do my best to try to weave what I got into a bigger picture and to propose additional details to further link what they wrote to other written material.
b. Years. 4, I think? We just started playing it a month ago or so. I'm a busy guy, and I like world building, so I was content to let other friends GM as I worked here and then on building my own setting.
Answering for my current ongoing homebrew campaign:
1) Indistinct. All action has happened in one continent, rest of the world isn't important.
a) A few dozen maps, 100+ pages of notes and references, all digital. Note that this was built gradually over the course of 2.5 years... we started playing with about a 10 page framework and two maps (continent map + first city)
b) Not sure what you're asking for. I have maps at continent scale, town scale, tactical battle-field scale, and combat scale.
2) Original, but obviously inspired by a lot of different sources. I regularly pull things directly from bestiaries and reflavor them though.
a) None directly.
b) Own stories 100%. It'd take more time adapting existing content for the world and story than it takes to prep my own.
3+a) Anything players have included in their backstory finds its way into the world. Generally hometowns, people they know, etc. I work with the players to make sure the places and people are true to their imaginations (within reason). After the places and people are established, I make sure that they show up at some point during the ongoing story (with more or less significance).
4) I'm not a hugely passionate world-builder. I spent maybe 1 month before the campaign started fleshing it out enough to give the players something to latch on to. Everything else has developed over the last 2.5 years of playing.
WOW thats outstanding everyone. It gives me a little idea of whats out there in the home brew world building arena. Keep it up I think its well worth it. Anyone else want to chime in please do.