Worldbuilding: Local Area Design: Example Part 1

As explained in the Local Area Design article’s introduction, the stories you have planned drive decisions when designing the campaign’s local area. I’ve planned a campaign where the characters will join a group of explorers (along the lines of Lewis and Clark) who explore a newly purchased territory. Because the players enjoy a good dungeon crawl, this concept can fit rather well. The characters will explore a short distance of the new territory, find some ruins, tower, etc., dungeon crawl through that, then continue another short distance, find another abandoned fort, ruins, etc, and so on.

Therefore the characters’ home town(s) won’t be a major factor in the campaign. They’ll hear about the opportunity to join the exploration and (maybe with a bit of prodding) meet up with the lead explorers in a town near the frontier. This town will be their base of operations for their first major adventure. After that is complete they’ll move on to the “unexplored” territory.

Part of the background of the campaign is that the characters’ home kingdom borders a country of orcs, kobolds, ogres, etc. led by a ruler over all of these groups. This leader has for some unknown reason (Dungeoncraft rule #2: create a secret) made an agreement with the kingdom’s ruler to sell a large amount of land to the kingdom and to move the tribe out of that region. Therefore the kingdom needs explorers to go out and map this area where few humans (or elves, dwarves, halflings, etc.) have traveled for the past 500 years. (Before that time a large human empire and a small dwarven mountain kingdom ruled the area and they are the sources of the many ruins the characters will encounter.)

With that background out of the way, the character’s home base will be an old town near the border. This town was once much larger (though never a city) but as the ogre/orc/kobold raids came closer to the town and the border with the ogre/orc/kobolds came closer the town became smaller. Since the agreement that will rid the area of the raiders it has swelled in size as a staging ground for groups of explorers and soldiers.

Terrain and Climate

The area’s terrain will be a mix of farmland, forested hills, some forest and some grasslands dominated by a mountain range separating the characters’ country from the new lands to be explored. The mountain range is needed because it is one way to explain why the raiders were not able to overwhelm the characters’ country. The defenders were able to fortify and defend the few mountain passes over the many years of attacks. The town the characters will use as a base of operations was nearest to one of these passes.

The climate will be primarily temperate because there are no plans in the campaign for extreme heat or cold. However the mountains will be cold even in an otherwise temperate area due to the high altitude.

To draw a realistic map, it is easiest (especially nowadays) to simply go to an online mapping website that has satellite imagery (such as Google Maps) and look for an area of the world that has a similar terrain and climate for what you have planned and use that map as a guide. Open an image editing program (the free GIMP is excellent–and the map to the right was created using Hex Map GIMP Brushes) in another window and flip windows as you are drawing. Using this approach ensures that you don’t have two terrain types (say swamp and badlands) together that can’t be together. (Of course if you have a good story to explain the issue go ahead and use the idea, especially in a fantasy world.)

You can also borrow a map from another fantasy world and use that as your map or as a guide for creating a slightly different fantasy world map.

The map to the right borrows the terrain features of southeast Asia, but it has been customized enough that similarities wouldn’t be obvious to a casual viewer.  Note that it is cropped and only shows about 20% of the total map area.

Races and Cultures

Because the area was once ruled by a human empire, humans will be the dominant race of the non-raiders’ country. Because it was a large empire the population is mixed so other races are not rare although most other humanoids are uncommon. Even the dwarven kingdom that was in the area died out due to a clan war so dwarves are just as uncommon as elves, gnomes, halflings, etc.

The characters’ country will be somewhat classic fantasy because that fits the planned stories. But it will also have a bit of a wild west feel to it because the characters’ town/base of operations will be on the frontier. Bandits, saloons, brothels, and untrustworthy (or incompetent) sheriffs will be a part of the setting.

On the other side of the mountain as mentioned before is a number of orcs, ogres, kobolds and similar creatures. These will be very loosely associated because we want many of them to respect the overall leader’s decision to move out of the area, but we want almost as many to ignore the decision and therefore give the heroes some challenges. Also these races aren’t as civilized as the classical fantasy character races (humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc.) Therefore a tribal culture will work best for these groups.

Technology and Communication

As mentioned above, the stories will be based on classic fantasy so the technology level will match those notions. The longbow will be in relatively wide use, but firearms will not exist and gunpowder will be very limited and it will be considered a form of magic. Magic itself will not be common. Commoners (or even most nobles) will not be lighting their houses with objects that have permanent “light” spells cast on them for example. However most large towns will have a magic user or two and cities might have several. A king would certainly be wise to keep a few magic users on staff.

With a very active military (see below), the public communication network is piggy-backed on top of the military’s communication needs.  The military uses a large number of riders to send messages between cities and towns.  They also use carrier pigeons to send message large distances, but these messages are also re-sent a second time using riders to ensure their delivery.  The public can send messages for a small fee by finding a town or city’s military office and giving them the sealed note and paying the fee.  Notes are very inexpensive, but packages are usually so expensive that it is usually better to give a package to a merchant or other traveler going to the package’s destination.

The villages of the area are too small to support any significant banking. But most towns in the area do have the population size and infrastructure to support banking. Interest is paid to those who put sums of money on deposit, although it is often just enough to keep up with inflation. One of the more powerful religions in the area does insure the banks to varying amounts based on the reputation of the bank, but the religion itself does not actually run any banks. If characters wish to keep large amounts of treasure in a village they are probably best advised to leave it at the largest local church and then move it to a bank in a city at their earliest opportunity.

Banks have agreements with each other to honor deposits made to other banks in other cities. If someone wants to withdraw a sum, he presents that bank with a sealed certificate that he was given when he made the deposit. (In addition to being sealed, the bank will include a code word based on the day it was written and the amount of the deposit.) The bank receiving the certificate will check the seal, confirm the code word matches the deposit day and amount and then offer up to a small percentage of the deposit or a few hundred gold pieces, whichever is less. (This amount depends on the person’s reputations and other factors.) Then the bank will communicate with the originating bank to confirm the certificate and offer the full amount when the certificate is authenticated.

Governments, Population Size and Military Issues

The characters’ home country will be a monarchy.  Although the Lewis and Clark expedition (the model of the campaign) was commissioned by the USA government, there were a vast number of explorers commissioned by monarchies in the 1500-1600s.  Since modeling this time period is a better fit for the campaign, a monarchy will be a better choice for the campaign.  It also conveys the classic fantasy themes better than a republic could.

Because we want the setting to be more frontier-like, the area’s population will be slightly on the smaller side.  In the map’s approximate 40×40 square mile area, there will only be one town and several villages.

With a constant threat just across the mountains, the army is large, well-trained and well-paid.  Every able-bodied citizen goes through some military service.  For some, this may just be boot camp.  If someone is not comfortable with further military service that person takes another job in service to the king’s government.  But more than half the population does spend two years in the military.  Therefore not only is the army large, but most of the population has some level of military training.  A city or fort may have 500 to 5000 soldiers.  Towns may have a few hundred soldiers.  In any case, more soldiers are quickly available by calling upon citizens who have recently finished their two year military commitments or my drawing reinforcements from nearby towns, forts and cities.

Next: Settlements, NPCs/Monsters and Fantasy Elements.