Exercises in worldbuilding


Advice


I'm currently working on re-vamping my homebrewed setting, in hopes of getting it into a publishable form, and I'm currently having trouble/writer's block with a couple things:

Books referenced: GMG, UCamp

Problem 1: Governmental structure.

Spoiler:
I very much plan on my setting being open to players and DMs taking the pieces apart and doing their own thing with it, but to do that I'll need to figure out what those parts are. I have years worth of games done in this setting, with plenty of history and notes on how certain places work, but I'll need something more codified, like an atlas or gazetteer. To do this, I'm looking to break down the basic structure of laws and noble hierarchies in my setting's kingdoms and nations.

To start, I'll need a rundown of the different kinds of governments I want, and that are supported in the rules. The Gamemastery guide has some stuff on this: Autocracy (one ruler i.e. kingdoms), Council (committee of rulers i.e. a republic), Magical (i.e. this place), Overlord (i.e. The Empire), Secret Syndicate (i.e. conspiracy theories), and some other 3rd party ones that I'm pretty sure are not legally shareable if I ever plan to make money.

Great

But for each of my nations, I'll want a breakdown of how different types of these systems work and how complex of a political system can I get away with, given minimal effort beyond basic structure and some NPCs. Ultimate Campaign seems to only have rules for kingdoms, i.e. kingdom building. Even then, it seems to run much more like a democracy than a kingdom, but then again what do I know? Not much, I've been doing a lot of reading, for which I am always open to suggestions.

For example, my first major city ever written, Highfair, has gone through a lot of writing revisions over the years. It serves as the hub of my original run-of-the-mill kitchen sink setting. For the games I've run in this city, there's always a king, and an heir. Given how big the city(s) is; it has since grown to be several connected metropoli, separated only by their stat blocks to differentiate businesses and districts; but I've never gotten too much farther than that. The nation is a LG one, often with a family tradition of nobles becoming paladins before ascending to the throne. The deities are home brewed, but a Trinity of deities are widely worshiped throughout the entire city/kingdom, and as such all three should probably have some sort of representation within the governmental body. It's also a very famous city for the educational district, with the world's largest arcane school wizard academy, as well as universities, bardic colleges, the works. (It's designed in such a way that any player could seek retraining in this city virtually with any class and find it, fulfilling that need of players.)

Would I just go about filling out the roster for the kingdom building rules with NPCs? Do I create my own sorta rules for this place?

I have two other kingdoms set to be complements to it, one more themed around nature, being farmlands, fields, and forests; and the other being set in the northern mountains, north of which is a winter wasteland that I have yet to flesh out. Would their governments function in the same way?[/url]

Problem 2: NPCs[spoiler] For the narrative of the gm, this part is easy. NPCs are usually at levels appropriate for the PCs to encounter them. But in an open setting like I'm writing, I'll need more structure. For instance, I can determine from a city's stats what the highest level spellcasting available is. This means I know the approximate level(s) of the strongest spellcaster in town. Does that caster set the standard for the other strong NPCs in the game? How about just in that city? Large cities and metropoli get up to 8th level I believe, which means there's at least one 15-16th level casting walking around, and available for hire. How would one determine going about doing these NPCs? I'm also planning on doing crafters who 'optimize' their nonmagical crafting, what level(s) should I make those guys and does that have any effect on how to measure spellcasting services? I.E. does that basically tell me what level the blacksmith(s) should be?

I have no issues with building the NPCs themselves, I'm just trying to figure out what to build.

Problem 3: Variety

Spoiler:
Every nation has to be different, and I'm attempting to have each one done in different ways with respect to race. Without doing too many spoilers or boring details, each of these main core races: human, elf, dwarf, orc; will have their own nations. Humans are a little more widespread and are dominant on the planet. For the sake of simplicity, several of my cities are 'melting pots' which could invariably contain any kind of person from anywhere or with any heritage, this covers the bases for PCs with out of the world ideas. I have learned to leave things open ended, with just enough details to ensure identity. I want to find ways to include each different type of governmental structure, fleshed out with NPCs to represent the important bits of the mechanics of GMing.

To make each place feel different, I'm dividing the classes up into different blocks and having them all predominate one of the nations. By comparing two nations you can kinda get a basic idea of what kinds of adventurers would come from there.

Examples:
Highfair -LG Kingdom
divine classes-> clerics, oracles, warpriests, inquisitors, paladins
martial classes-> fighter, paladin
arcane classes-> wizard, bard, magus, sorcerer

Fohamar -NG Kingdom
divine classes-> druid, hunter, shaman, ranger
martial classes-> shifter, cavalier, ranger
arcane classes-> witch, bard, summoner

Druven -LN Kingdom
divine classes-> [undecided]
martial classes-> slayer, [more]
arcane classes-> [bard]

From there, you can sort of see how I'm trying to give each location a certain identity without having to write a bunch of styles or feats or crazy lore that no one will remember. Of course this is by no means a hard rule on what classes are there or even what can be from there, but is more of a generalization to get a feel for what the NPCs would be like and play like to run as like, an army.

Don't get me started on gods just yet, I have my own pantheon, but I am most likely going to be revising it as well.


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Problem 2. For world building I made a scale for typical level to world status. The idea is that as you do stuff you gain Xp and become more famous/prestigious so you move up in the world. Hence you assign default levels based on their position in their line of work. For example a 1st year carpenter's apprentice would probably be level 1 while the last year carpenter's apprentice would be level 4. Talented individuals will be higher than expected, untalented lower.

Lv1-4 Apprentice- those still learning their field
Lv5-8 Journeyman- typical contributing members of their craft
Lv9-14 Masters- exceptional individuals who have shown great talent. Typically well known locally and others in their field have most likely heard of them
Lv15+ Legends- these are world shaking folks. The elite and most powerful individuals in any given area that everyone knows. Kings, era defining artists, archmages, etc. History will remember them

This approach can be easily adjusted for higher or lower power games by making the level ranges bigger or smaller

I like how your arranging the kingdoms. Not exactly sure what problem 3 is unless you just want kingdom ideas


Dastis said wrote:

Lv1-4 Apprentice- those still learning their field

Lv5-8 Journeyman- typical contributing members of their craft
Lv9-14 Masters- exceptional individuals who have shown great talent. Typically well known locally and others in their field have most likely heard of them
Lv15+ Legends- these are world shaking folks. The elite and most powerful individuals in any given area that everyone knows. Kings, era defining artists, archmages, etc. History will remember them

Expanding on this in my homebrew word the bigger the town the higher level of craftsman you can normally find, however I don't always keep this as a hard and fast rule...there could be a master craftsman in a small village, like a blacksmith that live in a small mining village to be closer to the source of material or a reclusive wizard that likes the peace and quiet of a smaller town.

Also if you put a high level craftsman in an out of the way town it leave it open to be part of the adventure just travelling to get to them if you need too.


Dastis wrote:

Problem 2. For world building I made a scale for typical level to world status. The idea is that as you do stuff you gain Xp and become more famous/prestigious so you move up in the world. Hence you assign default levels based on their position in their line of work. For example a 1st year carpenter's apprentice would probably be level 1 while the last year carpenter's apprentice would be level 4. Talented individuals will be higher than expected, untalented lower.

Lv1-4 Apprentice- those still learning their field
Lv5-8 Journeyman- typical contributing members of their craft
Lv9-14 Masters- exceptional individuals who have shown great talent. Typically well known locally and others in their field have most likely heard of them
Lv15+ Legends- these are world shaking folks. The elite and most powerful individuals in any given area that everyone knows. Kings, era defining artists, archmages, etc. History will remember them

This approach can be easily adjusted for higher or lower power games by making the level ranges bigger or smaller

I like how your arranging the kingdoms. Not exactly sure what problem 3 is unless you just want kingdom ideas

Problem 3 is about making sure they stick out from each other so they don't all seem like the same place.


The Kingdom Building Rules are rules for a group of PCs to run a kingdom. They are not necessarily how all nations need to run, and you certainly don't need your setting to follow them. You are better of looking at history and literature for inspirations for governments then trying to build the nations in your world by following the kingdom building rules.

I wouldn't expect a setting that I was to buy to have every NPC stated out, or even named. If you are just going to follow the standard rules, you don't really to do much. Obviously some NPCs need to be included, to add flavor, but not necessarily to add crunch. The biggest thing is to write the exceptions. "Swamptown is just a small village, but it happens to be the home of Old Meg, an 18th level witch who will provide magical services for any that she deems to be good stewards of the natural world" for example.

I wouldn't want my nations to be different based on class. As a player, if I loved the flavor of your lawful good kingdom, but wanted to play a witch, I would be unhappy if I was forced to be from a different kingdom. A nation (or even a region or town) could be known for something "The town of Greyspire, although relatively average at first glance, produces more Paladins than anywhere else. Why so many in Greyspire feel the call to Paladinhood is a mystery." is pretty cool. Having to be from Camelot if you want to play a Paladin less so.

There are so many ways to make nations unique that don't require any mechanical rules for them. Foods. Modes of Dress. Manners of Speech. Particular customs. Governments. Laws. etc. etc. Human Societies in the real world are incredibly complex and diverse and you want something similar in the different societies in you world, not just a stereotype like all Asians are programmers.

Along those lines, most nations are more than just 'one thing.' Germany is known for its industry, but it also has plenty of farms (as an example). You certainly don't need to build out all every resource used in a kingdom, but while nations may get a reputation as particularly good at one thing or another, internally most are complex systems that provide a lot of their internal needs. Depending on how advanced socially and technically (including magical 'tech') you world is, they may have to be. Importing something like basic food stuffs requires a great deal of organization (not necessarily government) and relatively cheap and efficient means of transport. In the ancient world, a few places like Rome could do it with ships of grain from Egypt, but mostly it wasn't possible. If the staple crop of a region failed, the people starved. While this doesn't have to be true in your setting, if it isn't you should probably know why.


Dave Justus wrote:

The Kingdom Building Rules are rules for a group of PCs to run a kingdom. They are not necessarily how all nations need to run, and you certainly don't need your setting to follow them. You are better of looking at history and literature for inspirations for governments then trying to build the nations in your world by following the kingdom building rules.

I wouldn't expect a setting that I was to buy to have every NPC stated out, or even named. If you are just going to follow the standard rules, you don't really to do much. Obviously some NPCs need to be included, to add flavor, but not necessarily to add crunch. The biggest thing is to write the exceptions. "Swamptown is just a small village, but it happens to be the home of Old Meg, an 18th level witch who will provide magical services for any that she deems to be good stewards of the natural world" for example.

I wouldn't want my nations to be different based on class. As a player, if I loved the flavor of your lawful good kingdom, but wanted to play a witch, I would be unhappy if I was forced to be from a different kingdom. A nation (or even a region or town) could be known for something "The town of Greyspire, although relatively average at first glance, produces more Paladins than anywhere else. Why so many in Greyspire feel the call to Paladinhood is a mystery." is pretty cool. Having to be from Camelot if you want to play a Paladin less so.

There are so many ways to make nations unique that don't require any mechanical rules for them. Foods. Modes of Dress. Manners of Speech. Particular customs. Governments. Laws. etc. etc. Human Societies in the real world are incredibly complex and diverse and you want something similar in the different societies in you world, not just a stereotype like all Asians are programmers.

Along those lines, most nations are more than just 'one thing.' Germany is known for its industry, but it also has plenty of farms (as an example). You certainly don't need to build out all every...

The class 'restrictions' are meant for NPCs, as I've found the melting pot model with open ends (represented by a stat block) facilitates any crazy ideas that as a DM I didn't or couldn't account for.

I want the feel of the different locations to have mechanical themes as well as narrative themes.

With respect to the different types of governments available in the rules, I'm looking more for guidelines on where the stat block should end up in any particular town, being able to apply the same stat blocks with different genders/names juxtaposed to fit the location. What governmental roles need to be filled for the place to seem like a functional city/country at bare minimum for a player to not break immersion? That's the goal here.

The general guide on classes being tied to locations is meant to drive inspiration, rather than inhibit it. If you want to play a monk/ranger/druid raised in Highfair I'll never stop you, you just wouldn't expect to find a bunch more of them in that city.


master_marshmallow wrote:
I'm looking more for guidelines on where the stat block should end up in any particular town, being able to apply the same stat blocks with different genders/names juxtaposed to fit the location. What governmental roles need to be filled for the place to seem like a functional city/country at bare minimum for a player to not break immersion?

I'm not entirely sure what you are meaning here. If it is something like

Government: Limited Monarchy (Parliament)

I can see a stat block working. If it is more like

Ruler: King Joe the Good
High Priest: Father Ted

Then I think that you will be unable to have both stat blocks and variety.

As I mentioned, societies have a lot of different ways of organizing themselves. One of my favorite examples, is Renaissance Venice, the Doge was the head of state, but real power was the Council of Ten (which had 17 members in it, one of whom was the Doge.) The Doge was elected for life, through a byzantine process of selecting some members of the great council be lot, they choose another group to be the next set of electors who are then reduce by lot and choose another set repeat several times with different sizes that are elected and then reduced by lot each time. And there were other institutions and rules for them as well. Wonderfully complex, the longest functioning republic in history, and certainly can't fit into a simple stat block.


Dave Justus wrote:
master_marshmallow wrote:
I'm looking more for guidelines on where the stat block should end up in any particular town, being able to apply the same stat blocks with different genders/names juxtaposed to fit the location. What governmental roles need to be filled for the place to seem like a functional city/country at bare minimum for a player to not break immersion?

I'm not entirely sure what you are meaning here. If it is something like

Government: Limited Monarchy (Parliament)

I can see a stat block working. If it is more like

Ruler: King Joe the Good
High Priest: Father Ted

Then I think that you will be unable to have both stat blocks and variety.

As I mentioned, societies have a lot of different ways of organizing themselves. One of my favorite examples, is Renaissance Venice, the Doge was the head of state, but real power was the Council of Ten (which had 17 members in it, one of whom was the Doge.) The Doge was elected for life, through a byzantine process of selecting some members of the great council be lot, they choose another group to be the next set of electors who are then reduce by lot and choose another set repeat several times with different sizes that are elected and then reduced by lot each time. And there were other institutions and rules for them as well. Wonderfully complex, the longest functioning republic in history, and certainly can't fit into a simple stat block.

More like the first, less like the second.

I'll want a statblock of the leadership roles needed in a particular government's system. Don't necessarily need all those characters stats, but to know whether or not they need to exist in the first place is where I'm starting.

I'd love some advice for more reading on different types of world governments and how their structures work/don't work. Adding flaws to the cities would make them seem more substantial in the game I think.


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master_marshmallow wrote:
I'd love some advice for more reading on different types of world governments and how their structures work/don't work.

Well, that is a study of multiple lifetimes. But Wikipedia isn't a bad place to start. You can look up different European systems through history. Another fun one is the liberum veto of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that allowed any member of the legislature to unilaterally end a session and undo anything that had been done so far in that session. As you might expect, it didn't work well and is widely regarded to be the primary cause commonwealth's downfall. China had its own interesting systems of course, with a huge amount of the power in bureaucratic hands. The Muslim Caliphates dynasties were all quite distinct in how they did things and were organized. You can also look at modern systems. Beyond the obvious of nations, things like club leaderships, unions, corporations and even online communities show different ways that people organize themselves. An Elven Nation organized like Reddit with a few universal rules and different rules for groups, of which an individual could be a member of multiple ones, enforced by 'moderaters' could be fascinating.


That is a good place to start.

Essentially, the rules of the game specify that unless a city has qualities that improve it, I would surmise that any given NPC could be of a level up to the highest level spell caster available in said city per the rules in the stat block.

Most NPCs get to 15th level tops by this standard, exactly high enough for an NPC blacksmith to take Master Craftsman and have the ability to Craft +5 weapons and armor.

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