World Building: Building Blocks

Last time I gave an introduction to this series of articles and explained what I am hoping to achieve with them. Hopefully that got you excited about creating your own world and your ready to start the next step. Today I will be talking about laying the foundations of your game area to give yourself a good starting point.

Know what you want

In my last article I said the first thing that should be done when creating your world is to talk to your players. This way you can come up with the type of game you all want to play and will have fun with. This conversation should give you a good idea of the type of world you're going to be creating.

The approach I mentioned last time was to create a specific gaming area within a larger world. This means that you could use an existing world for your game, but your game area would be unique to you. The first thing you should do is define your area by writing a short list of characteristics, these could be both themes that are shared with the larger world and completely unique aspects which exist just in that area.

Here is an example from my Shadowrun game:

Area characteristics:

• Corporate controlled Dystopia
• Cyber-fantasy
• Mystery
• Character Driven

These are pretty common characteristics of Shadowrun, maybe even fairly generic but that is fine. Here you just want to create a short list that you can refer back to, so you can make sure everything you write fits into your world.

Next you should find some images/music/literature/anything else that fits your characteristics to give you inspiration.  This will help you visualise your world better and give you something to base your descriptions on. Here are some of the images I collected:

http://fogsmoviereviews.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/screenshot-lrg-171.png

http://files.myopera.com/CyberSpace89/albums/849004/Soft%20Wallpapers%20N-32%20(4).jpg

http://static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/623952-bigthumbnail.jpg

http://www.elfwood.com/art/s/h/shadow_alchemist//cyber-eye760815.jpg

http://fantasyartdesign.com/3dgallery/a-digital/3D-images/desktopAndreas-langnickel/3d-surreal-fantasy-cyber.jpg

http://www.boorp.com/sfondi_gratis_desktop_pc/sfondi_gratis/sfondi_fantasy_draghi_fate/catturata_cyberfantasy_80.jpg

http://static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/454367-bigthumbnail.jpg

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/254/e/7/Cyber_fantasy_by_shonensan.jpg

http://syndicate.lubie.org/downloads/swars_pictures/cyberpunk_wallpaper-199803_hq.jpg

http://chanarchive.org/content/29_wg/4416836/1319656046734.jpg

http://utunlimited.beyondunreal.com/wp-content/gallery/sun-kralls-and-cyber-kralls-by-mactom27/krelgarsh-sun-kralls-cyber-kralls-by-mactom27.jpg

http://www.tikitumble.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/blue-cyber-dragon-500x312.jpg

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/248/8/f/cyber_punk_fantasy_by_hardcolico-d490hm5.jpg

All of that should help you keep your game area consistent. Next you should write a brief description of your area. Here is an example:

The city of Eborac is built upon the ruins of York, the city was originally burnt to the ground when the Archbishop attempted to leave the Church of England to form his own perversion of Christianity which believed The Awakening was a gift from god and that ordinary humans had been judged unworthy and must be killed.

Very little is remaining of the original city, after the 'cleansing' the Kasumi and Cord Corporations bought up the land and built new Headquarters, hoping to create a new financial hub in the north. In just 10 years Eborac had grown to three times the size of the original city and both Corporations had become major powers in England.

The city was built out from the Corporate District , or 'The Corps'. This has created a city literally separated by class, with the rich and powerful living and working in 'The Corps', the middle classes live around it in 'The Gardens'. It got this name because this is where all the crops are grown and farming is done, as well as most of the cities industry. Everyone else lives in 'The Ring' the outer limits of the city. The Corps and The Garden are both surrounded by walls, separated from each other but more importantly separated from the people living outside those walls.

Those living in 'The Ring' are mostly held in contempt by the upper classes but are tolerated because of the many uses that can be found of having a poor desperate populace. 'The Ring' surrounds the inner city, sprawling out for miles from the outer walls of 'The Garden'. With very little law enforcement, crime is very high and gangs have divided up the whole area.

The inner City is mostly inhabited by Humans, with Meta-Humans and Awakened looked upon with suspicion, but 'The Ring' is full of every race imaginable, but that doesn't mean they are accepted.

This should act as an overview for you to expand upon later. From this description we know that the City is dominated by the Kasumi and Cord Corporations and that the poor live in slums outside the city with the agriculture and industry in-between. Later we will expand upon each of these facts and bring the city to life, but that should be enough to keep you busy for now.

Next time I will be looking at creating a map which can be used to allow the players to roam freely around the city but let you keep control and know exactly what's ahead of them. 

<<< Previous - World Building: Baby Steps

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