Setting the Scene

For the second installment of my guides on being an awesome DM, I will backtrack a bit from my last post and start with the basics of developing your setting.

What is a Setting?

As with other media forms, the setting is the place where everything happens. The scope of your setting can be as small as a single city, or as large as an entire continent. How big it is really isn't important, but if you are new to running any sort of game, you will want to start small.

Homebrew vs Published

The choice between using a homebrewed setting (one you make) versus a published setting (on that's been made for you) is preference, though I would always recommend at least attempting to homebrew a setting, even if it means changing a published setting to serve your own needs.

The reason I say this is because using a homebrewed setting opens great opportunities for stories you never thought you could come up with. Using a published setting often causes new DMs to limit themselves and go only by what's been written. One of the best tools in a DM's kit is being able to say "yes" and improvise, but that's an article for another day.

Top-Down vs Bottom-Up

Two of the most common styles of developing a setting are the top-down approach, and the bottom-up approach. Top-down building is when you start on a large scale, then add detail as you zoom in to a specific spot. Bottom-up is, obviously, the opposite; you start with a small, detailed setting, then slowly zoom out.

For new DMs, I would recommend a hybrid method. Start by shaping the continent, island, or planet of your setting. You don't need a name, just a shape. This gives you realistic bounds to work within, and allows you to pick a spot to zoom in on and detail when you start working on a specific area.

Adding Details

Once you have a shape for your largest boundary, you can add as much detail as you want. I would recommend adding at least the large geographical features: Mountain range, forests, rivers and lakes. Again, you don't need names for these quite yet, though it isn't a bad idea. Generally speaking, the larger something is, the more likely it will end up being referenced in your game ("To get to the capitol city, you must first pass through the Dawnforge Mountains").

Adding cities and settlements is a bit tricker, but you don't need to follow any hard rules, just use common sense: settlements are built and flourish in areas where they get traffic, like along rivers, at crossroads, or along the coast. At this point in building your setting, you should really only worry about 1 or 2 cities closest to the players, and maybe the capitol cities, or metropolitan cities that exist in the area.

Leaving Blank Spots

One of the hardest parts of designing my own setting was learning to leave blank spots on the map. I wanted to be prepared, and so I designed a detailed map with lots of areas filled in (countries, cities, unexplored regions, wilderness, etc). This is a trap that new DMs sometimes fall into for two reasons:

1) It causes burnout. After spending so much time working on the setting, you have little energy to put into running a game.

2) Even more importantly is that by over-planning like this, you run out of room for your characters to explore and grow. Part of the fun of running a game is seeing how the players interact with your world, and how their choices develop the world. Leave lots of blank spots for your players to fill in with their own adventures. When you start adding plot-hooks, you have lots of room to add in any kind of adventure. But again, that'll be an article for another day.

Once you've got your setting down, the hard part is done. All that's left is to get your players together, and start the campaign.

NOTE: If you would like to see my homebrewed setting, Illia, you can find it here.