Well, Calls to Adventure -- Tales of Silvertide Volume 1 is out, released on 1FEB2025. At 279 pages, it was quite an endeavor, and is available at Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/46yrn6mh as both a paperback (print on demand), and as an e-book. If anyone would like an autographed copy, please contact me through here or from matt.thompson.authorATgmail.com
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Basic Mapping for Budding World Designers
I’ve
been creating fantasy world for over 35 years, and I have made EVERY mistake
that can be made… many have been made repeatedly... and, I hope I have learned from the pain I caused myself.
This entry is dedicated to help those who are interested know just how easy it
CAN be... if you LET it be easy.
I
started with a Google map of a town in the middle of almost nowhere… Republic,
Missouri. (https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1196114,-93.4711027,14.08z) I start with a new name... and welcome you all to Morlic (twisting the actual
name around, "Mo" from the state abbreviation, "Lic" from "Republic," and throw in an "R" in the middle to make the name roll off your tongue)!
I
then get a screen shot of the map version of the town, and decide which
direction the local port is, and which direction the next major town is in –
PURELY to orient the map in a different manner. Arbitrarily, I decided that
Wassarfount (liberally twisted from HORRID German and imagination, it means,
"Springfield". Pan out a bit on the map linky above… Springfield is
just to the east of Republic), is to the north and the port is to the south -
so I will rotate the map 90 degrees to the left, like this – all done to make
it less identifiable to those that may know Republic.
Then,
using a simple drawing program (Paint, GIMP, Photoshop, whatever), I create a
simple line drawing of the town, with roads, river, walls (if any) and
land-borders (if any), like this.
Then
I white out everything other than what I drew, like this.
My
last step in mapping is to add some major landmarks and a legend... like this.
Now,
I have an entire village - with a keep, one major temple (complete with
cemetery across the river), two market places (arbitrarily, the one to the
north has more food, the one to the south has more wares/goods), a wizard's
tower, and a place for herd animals to be stored and auctioned. The village
would be surrounded by farmers’ fields. Since I said that the major port in the
area is to the south, we know that the river flows from top to bottom on the
map, and Wassarfount is upriver. PLEASE keep in mind that the pics are drawn in at VERY low quality - totally crap quality - because this is for quick development!!
Now
all I need to do is to populate the place with the various people that are sure
to be met/known. Note that their names are twisted variations of the actors
that portray the characters. You can do the same thing with relatives, teachers
and others... just twist the names enough to make them unrecognizable.
1.
Ruler: Easton Shine – Fighter/warrior, old, speaks in a raspy, throaty voice
that sounds VERY menacing when he wants it to - and it's still menacing when he doesn't want it to be. White hair, very slender (he's
Clint Eastwood!!).
2.
High Priest: Rickala Alman – Cleric/Priest (duh!), speaks VERY condescendingly
and seems aloof. Black, greasy hair and wears long robes (Professor Snape).
He's got ONE acolyte (named Wenham Dav) that has tonsured hair and seems
forever bumbling (priest/monk from Van Helsing). (all these guys need is a
deity, and the temple is done!)
3.
Smith: Duncan Clarke - A HUGE man, bronzed by the heat of the forges. Speaks
very slowly and it's obvious that he has little formal education. Will NEVER
take action to harm another. Makes armor better than weapons (John Coffey from
The Green Mile).
4.
General Merchant: Siyra'ah Billay - Middle-aged man, long hair and "soul
patch" beard. He seems simple but has a big heart. Always wants to
entertain visitors with a song about lost love. He'll never be rich because he
just can't take advantage of people like rich merchants do. Has very pretty
daughter of marriageable age (Billy Ray Cyrus - from Hannah Montana).
5.
Wizard: Rappala Sint - Red haired wizard that looks WAY too young for the
title. He's capable but his successes seem almost "accidental".
Speaks of a beautiful goddess of a sorcerer that he wants to marry one day...
if he can work up the courage to tell her his feelings. (Ron Weasley from Harry
Potter).
6.
Captain of the Guard: Davis Orusa - Older man with reddish blond hair. Speaks
haltingly as if he's searching for exactly the right words. Continuously plays
with his helmet visor (Horatio from CSI:Miami).
This
has taken me just over 30 minutes - and that includes finding the map, and
typing all this up... I could do it in less than 20 minutes without writing
this out – and could have been done in about 10 minutes had I printed the map, traced
it with markers, and then scanned it instead of using GiMP/Paint.
Keep
on playing!!
Monday, September 4, 2017
World Building - Basics: Small fish/Large pond!
Background
Info
After reading lots of threads and
several different boards about how to establish a campaign world (or just a
campaign!), I thought I'd wax poetic here about my methodologies that have
developed over the years.
I went on forever about how I do the
big background stuff in my first entry, so here's more of a nitty-gritty view.
My world works... that is as clear
as I can get it. There are kingdoms that are foundering and failing, to either
just disappear or be absorbed into another nation, and there are kingdoms that
are doing everything right and are thriving as centers of commerce and
knowledge.
The question is - WHY??
Simple - it's the rulers! I
personally know every king and queen. Don't get all excity (It’s a word! Look
it up.) and think that I've lost my marbles (they are in a small bag next to my
computer monitor!!) – I don't know the characters, I know the PEOPLE!!!
King Eustain of Elbac can be described as if he is sitting right in front of
me... because he used to. Mr. Eustis Kempter was my sixth grade science teacher
in my home-town. He's heavyset and has nearly no chin and most of his hair has
escaped (but he obviously fights to keep the last of it – his comb-over is the
stuff of LEGEND!), he was one of the quickest people to I've ever known to
holler and shut kids up, but he laughs quickly as well. As a King, he is much
the same – quick to anger but quick to smile and take mercy.
ALL of my big movers and shakers are
of the same cloth – I met them or knew them some time during my life. Some are
former PC's and NPC's from campaigns that I've run – and it's kind of funny,
but I think that I know them better than the people I knew in REAL life!
The Kingdoms in my world that are
failing will leave a history around to eventually be discovered by adventurers,
whether those Kingdom sinks into swamps or are overthrown by rivals.
I've gone in and done calendars for
my world – and I know that one fief over here will fail in 22 years after the
present leader dies and has no heirs. I know that that one Kingdom over here
will suddenly become a world power when they find a huge vein of gold and
platinum in seven years time. That's all long-range planning, and most established
GMs do that stuff.
The short range stuff has more of an
impact on the PC's.
Do your PC's become movers and
shakers in the world, or does it go on without consideration of them? In my
world, it's a mix.
When I start a new campaign, I ask
the players, "Okay, your character is nearing the end of his/her days and
is sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of Ye Olde Adventurers’ Home.
A small child approaches and asks, ‘Who are you? Are you famous? What did you
do in your life?'" It's up to the player to answer.
Oh, sure, some default to, "I
was famous/rich/powerful," and those are the easy ones for which to GM.
Some are the campaign movers, though... they're the ones that say, "I slew
the great Dragon of Antioch" or "I became the King of Saltania."
I then start coming up with a
campaign for the ones that gave me concrete dreams of greatness. I merge
storylines for slaying the Antioch dragon and becoming King of Saltania into
one campaign. I map out milestones for both story arcs and begin to flesh it
out in my mind.
Then I go back to the calendars that
I have. I know that the party should be in Smallsville in late Octember or
Septober and my calendar says that Smallsville will be attacked by Orcs late in
that year and the townsfolk will all be slain or enslaved. Whether the party is
there or not, the attack will happen – if they are gone, they'll hear about it –
but if they are there, they may change the outcome of the battle or slaughter.
This is what makes them movers and
shakers in my world. When the party hears that there was an attempt on King
Andar last week, they know that there is a much larger world than what
surrounds them.
It's just something else to keep those
pesky players interested!
Thursday, February 25, 2016
The Play's The Thing!
I've changed my gaming style several
times since I began playing D&D in late 1980, with the original edition
(lower case, as it wasn't an "official" title!!). Those six stupid, little
books changed my life. I have been told that my first character was a Dwarven
Fighter, but I don't remember... it was all a haze...
It began earlier that year when I
began my life at college. I quickly found a couple of friends and began doing
what all college students did when the drinking age was 18... drinking copious
amounts of alcohol, and looking for women of loose morals (not necessarily in
that order!!). I began pledging a fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and one of
these friends began pledging a rival frat, Sigma Tau Epsilon. Of course, as you
may expect, for the next month, we kind of lost touch.
And then the magical day came!
I went to breakfast one day in early
October and there sat my friend, looking like something the cat had puked up. I
sat next to him and asked if the Sig Tau's had started "Hell Week"
already – and he just shook his head in the negative, in a daze. I asked what
he had done the night before, and if she had been cute, and he related the most
amazing story to me on that cool, fall day.
"We were traveling in the
forest and these wolves attacked. I've never been so scared in my life! I
pulled my battle axe out and started hacking at them, but they were too fast! I
got bit twice, but they weren't solid bites, so they didn't do that much
damage. The whole group was hacking and slashing and it seemed like we were
going to lose, but the damned things started going down. I killed two of them,
myself! And about a half-hour ago I had just finished skinning one of the
wolves and stood up, and I saw this huge, white wolf that breathed frost – even
though it wasn't cold enough for it. The damned thing was watching us from on
top of the ridge. We had to break and I came straight here..."
It wasn't so much the fantastical
story he had told, but his EYES. The expression on his face was one that showed
that he wasn't just telling a story, he was reliving it! In an awed
voice, I asked him what woods he was in and what he had done with the pelt
(keep in mind that this was extreme northern Wisconsin, so woods, wolves, and
pelts were commonplace).
He just looked at me and said,
"We were in the Sig Tau [Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity] house."
That night, I broke all fraternal
bounds and entered this mystical Sig Tau house and played my first session of
D&D. Needless to say, I was hooked.
In retrospect, those first
characters were pretty sad. None had names, and since the Monk class was
hardest for which to qualify in the original system, we all figured that it was
the best, so we all rolled up Monks every chance we got, and that was several
times a night, as PC mortality was legend. We would have entire parties of
Monks, one opening doors, two with bows covering the doors, and one or two more
to dash in and engage whatever horrific monsters the early books allowed. Essentially,
we could have made Xerox copies of our character sheets and nobody would have
known, outside of differing amounts of treasure that we had collected.
It was only two weeks later that I
began my career as a GM, running a campaign based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs, John
Carter from Mars series. I am being very generous when I say that it
sucked, but such is the life of a new GM. I still played heavily back then at
the same time, and each day was nearly the same.
Fridays would start at about 4:00 in
the afternoon – and we'd game until 5:30, dash to the university dining hall,
then dash back to continue until 11:50. Then we'd sprint down to the local 7/11
to get OJ and those little, white, powdered donuts before the store closed (no
it wasn't 24 hours!!). Then we would game until 3-4:00 in the morning before
crashing in the dorms wherever we happened to be playing. Someone would wake up
about 8:00 a.m. and we would start again, playing all day Saturday, then all
day Sunday. Monday through Thursday were alternating between playing until 1 or
2:00, or drinking and looking for girls. We usually did better playing, so
there weren't many drunken girl-hunts. Oh, yeah, the Play's the Thing!
Is there any doubt as to why I got a
1.11 GPA that semester?
Anyway, it took about three years
before my gaming philosophy began to evolve. I was stocking a newly drawn
dungeon with monsters out of the tables in the back of the Great Tome of
Creatures, and it suddenly dawned on me that it didn't make any sense. Why are
a horde of hobgoblins in a room right next to a small crew of goblins?
According to the descriptions in the Monster Manual, hobgobs ENSLAVED
gobs... so why didn't these do that? With no good answer, I did exactly that.
I left college after that first year
(you know that agreement some parents make with their kids, get good grades and
we'll pay for college? Well, mine kept their side of the bargain!), and had
enlisted in the Army. Just a year after that, I got caught in a RIF (reduction
in force, read: downsizing), and was sent home. I spent a year cooking at a Louisiana
prison system (now THERE are some stories I could tell!) before I eventually
made my way back to the same college I’d originally attended (University of
Wisconsin at Superior).
With the new philosophy, I had my
very first acknowledged TPK. Sure, it used to happen all the time, what, with encounter
tables saying 10-100 gnolls at a time? It happened ALL the time!! But it had
never happened to a group like this before... or at least one of MY groups. The
players were aghast! "What the hell was that?? The bad guys were
working TOGETHER!!!" Well, like many times before, they all took
five minutes to roll up new Xerox-worthy characters, and they were off again -
but this time they were cautious.
Cautious and victorious! *cue crowd
cheering*
Shortly after that, I began to think
the same way about my characters. Why were they all carbon copies? Why not any
variation? Were all PC's just Conans and Grey Mousers and Gandalfs? Why not a
short, fat wizard that hated pointy hats? Why not a giant that was also a
thief? Why not a Les Nessman-style fighter? (for those not in the know, imagine
a tiny weakling that is scared of stuff more powerful than cotton balls)
That was the last major shift. From
there, I just kept thinking about the game itself – and always asking,
"Why". When drawing a map of a continent, I would wonder why I wanted
a cliff right there... and a river over there... it drove me to distraction!
But I think it helped.
I began researching geology, and
from there I planned an entire planet for my campaign world. I know its
elemental makeup, I know the directions that the various continental plates are
moving – and how fast – and I know where the civilizations are located. I know
where the ruins are – and who lived there before... and before them – and I
know what is there to find for loot.
Why do I do it? The HUGE majority of
crap I've designed and planned will never be known by my players... so WHY??
The PLAY'S the Thing!
You know the feeling when you watch
a good movie or read a good book, you get pulled in, and you forget that there
is a REALITY out there? Suddenly a baby howls or you have to pee, and you snap
back to this realm... and it almost hurts, and you can't wait to get back to
that alternate world... That is what I call "playing"!
When a new person rolls up a
character for my campaign world, it will make sense. There won't be moments of
disbelief as to why there is a river flowing in one direction here, and a
quarter mile away a river flowing in the other direction... There won't be
moments of confusion as the player asks, "Why," something is
happening... at least why something didn't make sense in a gaming sense. If
they have to stop and ask, it will be a plot device... just like REALITY.
When a person wants to become a part
of my campaign world, they become a mover and a shaker in my realm. They may
avert a great war... or they may start one. I have calendars set up for things
to happen – that, unless foiled by the characters, WILL happen. They may never
know – until hearing it from a town crier – or they may be part of it. Why? Why
do I do this?
It's all about the playing. The
Play's the Thing!
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