I have decided to make a real effort to make the World of Felltower Gazetteer more useful.
The way I envision the World of Felltower Gazetteer is:
- a series of short, punchy and evocative sentences about a given entry.
- a quick reminder of who/what/where something is. Mostly Who and What.
- a place to put down facts that have come up in play but are orphaned in my notes.
It's not meant to be as detailed as a Wiki entry on the subject. I don't intend for them to be filled with reference links to specific posts. To specific labels, sure, where they are relevant, or to expanded history if that's important. Something more "elevator pitch" than "Traveller Library Data."
Basically, you read it and get a handle on the major places and peoples of Felltower. Or, you realize you forgot what Falcon's Keep is or why Dwarves don't speak Dwarven so you can look it up.
I do not intend to put in PCs, past or present, unless they tie to a location very specifically and add to the lore of that location.
I also do not intend this to be a monster list, or an NPC list, either. So no entries for Lord of Spite or Rangol Grot or Trolls or anything of that sort. This is world-level detail not campaign-level.
So what entries do I need to put in? What do we throw around the table that the gazetteer is missing? I'm happy to take suggestions. It's a tool for my game and my players, but I know blog readers will find it useful, too.
* Why is this place remarkable beyond some name on a map or the hometown of an NPC?
ReplyDelete* Why would the PCs want to visit this place, if it's a possible destination?
* What about this place affects the play of the game?
I'll try to get more of that kind of detail in, while keeping it to 2-3 sentences.
DeleteI'm a little concerned about "Why would the PCs want to visit this place?" details, though. That usually either triggers "Ooooh! Shiney!" reactions or "Peter clearly wants us to go there." Mostly that's not the case - I'd rather they keep dealing with the stuff in front of them and not try to go somewhere else to find new adventure to avoid figuring out what to do with their current issues.
I have a strong bias towards making the areas outside of the immediate sandbox area less interesting adventuring locations than the ones in it.
I always like info on food and drink, makes people seem like people
ReplyDeleteI'll see what I have - I don't think a lot has come up, except silly details about elven rations and dwarven rations. Not a lot of world-building food details.
DeleteThis gazetteer is fine... and it's about what I'd set up for myself. Filled in with info as the info is created, nothing is created until needed (or as the case maybe, your players create it).
ReplyDeleteThat's the approach - I don't make new stuff, just write down old stuff.
DeleteHonestly when I asked for suggestions I meant places and races that I mention a lot in play but forgot to put in. I spotted a few, but it seems like we've had other locations on the "world" that I'm forgetting right now.
Have you looked into World Anvil for this sort of thing? You get a good lot of stuff for free and its excellent for organizing information like this. It might help dave some time and headache when it comes to searching and collecting info.
ReplyDeleteI had not seen it before. I'll take a look. It is probably a lot more tool than the job needs - I don't have a world as much as a list of jokes and location names all stuck together. :)
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