Just about all of those things listed are important, though I could get along just fine without a sprawling timeline.
Hi everyone. I like immersive campaign worlds, so I’m looking forward to the Auran Empire. Some of my thoughts on this thread have been discussed briefly, but I’ll put my two cents in nonetheless.
Certainly maps, and effective charts and tables are a must in order to provide meaningful balancing tools for the the GM, and can be great reference points for the setting. But to reiterate, as an introduction, what jedo and sean mentioned, the meat of any good context must be present in the narrative so that the reference materials visibly belong to a specific world setting. In other words, they need to be there to make the game work, but cannot (unless you have one hell of a GM) by themselves make the game memorable and fun.
From my perspective the success of any campaign setting lies in a wealth of information gathered through stories–not just lists of information about culture, history, and landscape, but a beefy fiction in which such contexts are implicit. For example, monsters and NPCs (both present and legendary) unique to the Auran Empire would have a present awareness in the minds of the people any PCs would encounter, and for that matter the PCs themselves. When PCs “ask around town,” the presentation of the setting materials can make the difference between “you learn that x=y,” and “Long ago, my great grandfather showed me…” More than just the stand-alone FASA-style writings (which are effective, if sometimes cumbersome), and the Gazetteer Lore that we all know and love, immersion through play in a world setting happens best when the PC already has a cultural stake in the world (whether positive or negative or both) and can tangibly feel the group boundaries that give each NPC and region memorable life. Finally, Auran Empire template backgrounds for PCs might make another fun addition, on which players could embellish.
I would like to see the Auran Empire lean toward a diversity of unique creatures and NPCs with descriptions that position them within a historic timeline and in specific regions of the empire. Stories/songs/lore to accompany monsters could be of particular interest. Landmarks and elements of landscape likewise should not be ignored in the narrative (the difference between simply calling a place “Devil’s Reach” and meeting a NPC who is scared to give you directions, lest ye be possessed). Having all these elements at the fingertips is wonderful both for the GM and the PCs. I can’t remember where I’ve seen it done before, but “player packs” and “GM packs” distributed for the same world setting (more than just the tacit descriptions in character race/classes) might be an interesting way to mix the above listed approaches.
I’d really like to see both, but a heavy amount of background material or narratives isn’t really that useful. Given the options you laid out, here’s what I’d like to see:
- maps with a couple page descriptions of political goings on and cultural features of each kingdoms. I need a list of titles like Exarch, but alittle more. Is the Auran Empire currently a republic with feuding ancient families of senators? Why is it in decline? These sorts of ‘facts’ help make a setting come alive, and ground the PCs somewhere. But this shouldn’t be too long, and I don’t need lots of past events. This provides the background setting and helps me come up with how the PCs will interact with guards, laws, and notables.
- Encounter Tables like judges guild. This makes an area come alive: in one area the PCs have to deal with slavers, bandits, mercenary “Nobles” oppressing the people; in another, elves, giants, and monsters; in a third, Sinbad-creatures, undead and evil sorcerers. Its also immediately useable at my table, and does the ‘work’ for me so I can let the PCs go anywhere without restricting them. Having tables for different parts of certain regions is a huge plus too: one table for major Auran cities, another for Auran rural areas, for instance.
- Cultural information, either tabular or chart style. Things like laws, codes of hospitality, common sayings really helps things come alive. Look at Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, all the sayings about the Houses or common songs from some regions (The Dornishman’s Wife, etc) are awesome additions. Also look at things like Games Workshop stories or setting elements for their Old World or the Imperium, they really make those worlds come alive. Throw this in with the region descriptions. Having some different, cultural equipment or spells could be in this section. This would also include limited “cut scene” stories/fiction, but this is less useful as a game element than the aforementioned. (A cool calendar with an tracking chart/calendar I can use at the game table would be an awesome plus as well).
- A few adventurering areas with maps. Include a borderland or two or three so I can pick from a few possible “immediately go” starting campaign regions. Can be a map with 10 or so pages of descriptions of goings on, dungeon hooks, etc. I’d also like maps of the major unique places with this sort of information: Aura, maybe a Kemeshi city, an Jutland capital, so PCs could go to the Paris, Cairo and Rome of the setting and I don’t have to make it up whole cloth from the region descriptions alone. Having good 24-mile maps of the whole setting would blow my socks off, but at least put in a few “zoomed in” important areas.
Other stuff like detailed dungeons, major artifacts, PC prestige classes don’t help me. That’s easy to create. 25 random encounter tables filled with the proper (monstrous) demographic breakdowns is alot of work and benefits me immediately in game. The same with tidbits like the Canons of the Ammonar church or the Empire’s current troubles with the Sunset Kingdoms, since those will be things I can show to my players to make them experience a ‘living world.’ Thick discussion of the historical events of 200 years ago does not help me in any way.
I’m really excited about this setting, since it’s the first homemade world I’ve been excited about since TSR’s Birthright or MERP’s Middle Earth. I would actually want to ‘experience’ this world alongside my players, so please make it usable for a game, not a future novel series. I have a feeling y’all will given what you’ve written about the setting so far, but I just wanted to emphasis the point.
Sorry about the necro, but I just wanted to give my 2cps on this…
My preference for setting description is:
- Low level details. Ie. a typical street scene: what and who’s there, and what would rise eyebrows and what would pass without comment.
- No prose. Nanofictions are good, though, but anything that would not fit into a tweet is too much unless the writer is /really/ good, and even then I find them to be of limited utility. (If there’s one bit in ACKS that leaves me really cold and almost made me stop reading it, it’s the game fiction inserted into the foreword…)
- Terseness. I much prefer reading an intriguing reference to “Valamar the Sorcerer, previous king of Barre” than a wall of text about him. Don’t be afraid of bullet points: the goal is to make folks like me able to use the stuff with minimum effort, and sometimes bullet points are ideal.
- An area guarenteed not to get any future supplements, so I know that whatever I put there will never conflict with future releases.
Which of the following is most important to you?
Gazeteer maps of playable adventure areas
Cultural information about the world
Encounter charts and sample encounters
How do you prefer your world information conveyed:
A mix of the above
Hello everyone! Things have been quiet on the Auran Empire forum for a while, but it's only because I've been hard at work on material.
Here's an update on what I presently expect to be included in the campaign setting:
- Annals - Timeline and calendar of the Auran Empire region
- Census - The ancestral tribes and current races of the region
- Atlas - 24-mile hex maps of the entire region (4 8x11 maps) with ACKs statistics for the 12 major realms, including military forces, land values, scaled to the duchal level (e.g. borders of empires, kingdoms, principalities, and duchies)
- Mythopedia - Deities of the Empyrean and Chthonic pantheon, cosmology, religious teachings
- Guidebook - Administration, legal code, culture, customs, and language of the Auran Empire
- Bestiary - 24 monsters, including the Children of Nasga, Dire Beastmen, Draugr, Hag, Leyak, Mummy Lord, Sphinx, and Yali
- Apocrypha - Secrets of the campaign world for the Judge's reference, including unique magical items and major NPCs
- Gazetteer - A starting campaign setting on the south-eastern borders of the Empire, adjacent to Old Zahar and the Waste
Progress is slow because it's a large volume of material but I expect that we'll Kickstart it in 2013.
I'd like feedback on whether you prefer one-volume or two-volume presentation for campaign materials; and if two volume do you prefer "Player's Guide/Judge's Guide" or "Background Material/Game Statistics" type splits?
Good to hear!
If you divided the materials into two volumes, would the Player’s Guide be specifically geared towards what characters could reasonably know about the game world, with the Judge’s Guide containing the statistics, mechanics, secrets and so forth?
That would be the idea, more or less. I'm not sure if I like that general approach or not. My default tends to favor a single book.
Sounds great! And yes, a single book would be my preference, but if it had to be split, player/judge would be best.
I like the idea of a single book too, but I hope that it includes the same kind of division between “information players should read” and “information only the judge needs to read”.
Obviously some people, both players and judges, will read the whole book with interest, but I think many players just want to know the information that is relevant to their character. Could that lend itself to an index of races/classes/regional origins, such that any player could quickly look up some background to help with role-playing the template they just rolled?
I, for one, would like to know why my Eunuch Sorcerer has foregone “Restore Life and Limb”, and under what circumstances someone is likely to fall into such a, um, profession. 
I prefer 2 volume sets. However, a volume meant for players would be lost on my groups, as they’ve never taken much effort to delve into rules literature much beyond what they need to know for their character.
So, I think 1 volume with player-oriented excerpts the judge could easily extricate and present to players would work best all around.
This might be way more than what you’re looking to do, but have you considered making it a box set like Greyhawk, with a ‘catalog/players’ and ‘glossography/DM’s’ book and a big map to go along with it?
I would prefer a single volume for the same reason as Beragon.
Me too.
1 volume to make it useful for players. in my experience, players don’t buy or read much campaign stuff.
OK, that was pretty much universal acclaim for 1 volume. Duly noted!
I was just curious as to where the setting stands? When can we expect to see it? Thanks!!
one volume!
it’s GM material 2 volume are not needed unless you are going for more than 700 pages
I have a couple hundred pages drafted, but it's far from edited or complete. We're hoping to Kickstart it this year with a release date in 2014.
I think it would be better to kickstart it soon (leaving a 2014 release date) so we can read it