Thoughts on Fantasy Worldbuilding

I'm hard at work on Countries of Katernia, a system-neutral setting guide that is one of three books coming to Kickstarter in a planned trilogy that also includes a monster tome and an adventure anthology.

The countries in question date all the way back to 2010, when I started developing the world of Qualth and the continent of Katernia for what would become my novels Frostborn, Nightborn, Skyborn, and Once Upon a Unicorn. When I began to publish settings and adventures for roleplaying games, I selected the Scandinavian-inspired setting of Norrøngard, which featured in the first novel, as the setting for the adventures. To date, there have been more than a dozen or so products set in that Norse-flavored land.

Lands of Katernia will mark the first steps taken beyond Norrøngard, with a trilogy of RPG tomes dedicated to the monsters, places, and adventures to be had elsewhere across the continent.

But taking sixteen years and thousands and thousands of notes worth of material jotted down just for my own use and turning that into something interesting, evocative, and gameable that Game Masters can take and bring to their table is challenging, demanding work.

Gone are the days when setting guides could just be dense descriptions of political alliances, detailed histories, and multipage timelines that read like the Book of Leviticus. Modern setting guides need to communicate a setting efficiently with the focus remaining tightly on what is usable at the table.

Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Press has said that a good setting has powder kegs buried throughout, areas that when stepped on could go off and throw a region into turmoil. I would add to that that it needs to have mystery laced into its fiber. If you mention a city or a mountain or a river or a forest, there must be a legend, a rumor, a danger, or a threat lurking there. Often, it's better that it be somewhat nebulous, if not in its nature, than in its intent or solution. Ask a question and leave it up to every individual GM's table to answer it.

It's not enough to say that the town of Hattlebrook sits on a bend in the River Eldron, and that its proximity to the city of Carvestria makes it a prime nexus for both overland and river trade. You need to toss conflict or enigma in. Something for roleplaying gamers to engage with. Perhaps the town's burgomaster has been replaced by a regent after mysterious fey abducted the actual ruler. A curious letter nailed to a tree in the center of town says that if the burgomaster is not found and freed in three years time that the fey will return and abduct the rest of the town. Or perhaps the giant Galgactipus rises from the waters of the bay every year on the same day, demanding seventy-three fresh fishes in tribute, and the green behemoth will destroy a third of the town if it is paid one fish less or one fish more. Unfortunately, this year's catch has been poor, and there are fears that the town will be unable to make the quota when Galgactipus returns.

Right now, I'm taking my notes for some thirty or so separate regions and countries and writing each up as a roughly six page entry. And every paragraph of each of those entries has at least one gameable tidbit to suggest what a group of adventurers might do there.

It's not easy work. Merely republishing the extensive histories I worked out for myself years ago when I was writing novels would be far simpler. But the results, if I can pull it off well, will be a setting guide that is dripping in adventure hooks, powder kegs, and mysteries. I'll never get to see how ninety-nine percent of them will resolve. But I'm hoping you will, and you can tell me if it was worth it.

Because setting guides aren't meant to show off how clever I am. They are meant to provide a springboard to show off how clever you are.