What do players need to know about a custom setting before making characters?

[Prosperum]

So I'm making a custom setting and campaign for PF 2e intended for PbP. I've GM'd PF 1e in-person games, and am familiar with the 2e rules, but have never GM'd a PbP game or ran a game with a custom setting before. I've got 4-5 pages of notes and a rough draft of a world map. Before writing more, and possibly falling into the trap of writing about things the players will never see or care about, I decided to come here.

What would you as a player need to know before making characters for a custom setting PbP 2e game?

[DeathQuaker]

This is not a system specific reply.

It depends a lot on the setting.

If you've designed it to be 100% compatible with the core rules (ancestries, classes, etc work as described) you can probably just feed in what people would know about their hometown, etc.

If you either have a lot of custom classes etc or ancestries and races are vastly refluffed, then you should be sure folks know that.

Either way players will benefit from knowing local attitudes about magic, whether it is a high or low magic setting, and a bit about the deities (or cosmology/belief system).

[GMMichael]

Advice: for custom setting:
1. Map wise: detailed within a day to 3 days travel around where they start so 75 miles roughly maybe a hundred miles) and a detailed map of the village or town they start in.

Then less detailed with only major sites and cities beyond that out to the limit of their homeland nation to maybe 300 miles. Then only true major metropolis' and terrain features to maybe 1000 miles. Beyond that only legendary information.

2. Info wise: all the things each character might need to know...religions, temples magic guilds, thieves guilds, underworld (crime) , major guard info, local leaders, movers and shakers of the world...Taylor the info to each character. You can even draft the party to give you 3 contacts each to meld into your game.

3. Use this guidelines...what would you need and appreciate knowing about if you were playing in the campaign.

[Prosperum]

Conversely, how much information is too much information? Players will read a 250-page book by Paizo because they know thousands of other people will read that same book, which can't be said about a home game.

[GMMichael]

The only light I can shed on that one...is ask your players. Some are into it...others aren't. And no different than a few tabletop games...winging answers is always available

[Dancing Wind]

If you've got the time, you can work with each player while they create their character, and make a list of the questions they ask as they're doing so.

Failing that, a good Session Zero with everyone tweaking their characters will also provide you with the precise questions that group of people need to know about the setting.

The more groups you run through that setting, the more details you'll create. That, along with what you want them to know as background, will be your "Introduction To Fantasy Land" in the future.