World Building and the Campaign: How Far into the weeds?

So, I have a gaming group and I'm digging the whole DMing thing again.  As I've mentioned, we are running through a heavily modified version of Keep on the Borderlands using OSRIC.  So far, we've explored a bit of the keep and the kobold section of the Caves of Chaos.  I've placed the keep in the requisite human frontier.  The Moinar Marches, as I've mentioned is a politically turbulent place.  Not only are there political minefields to be navigated, but spiritual as well.  For instance, there is the Church of Daegraed, the Lord of the Dawn.  Daegread is the half mortal/half devine son of the Mortal Celestial King Charondros I and Gaehoen the Divine Mother.  Gaehoen herself is the basis of many other religions.  In some, she is the only god (monotheistic) and in others, she is part of a pantheon.  There are splinters off the church, cults, sects, etc.  I want there to be a very tangible feel of political strife (between the Moinar and Stennish peoples and aligned factions) as well as religious uncertainty.  Just because you belong to the Church of Daegraed, it does not mean that your denomination is necessarily the same one practicing in the next town. 

But anyway, I love these kind of fiddly little details.  But I'm not sure how far into the weeds I should go.  My players seem to like to roleplay and peel back the layers of the onion, so I feel that I must flesh this out to some extent.  However, I'm not sure that I have the wherewithall to do a full treatment of every detail and facet (although I'm tempted to delve into that).  So, I'm fighting my natural inclination to obsess over detail and actually making something useful for my players.  It's going to be a fine balancing act for me and I hope to deliver a satisfying experience for my group.  But, I guess only time will tell.

Comments

  1. TreyJanuary 24, 2012 at 5:40 AM

    I would say, if you enjoy it, go for it, but it might be just as fun for you and the player's to "discover" things in play. I like to have a decent amount of macro-detail and some ideas about micro-detail (a city street map, for instance) and let that develop as I go. The City is certain more detail than what I usual do, but that's because it was invented on the blog, and developed there. Even still, I tend to pick bits and pieces of things to detail (at least until Weird Adventures) rather than mapping it out the way I would think someone approaching a concerted attempt at world-building for world-buildings sake would do.

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  2. XyanthonJanuary 24, 2012 at 6:27 AM

    Thanks for the insight Trey. So far, I've done a lot of off the cuff improv which is cool. I've done a lot of world building but I tend to get bogged down in little details and since I'm doing the world building only for myself, it doesn't go anywhere.

    However, I do want to make sure htat all of the off the cuff stuff is captured so that there is an internal consistency. I'd like to ensure that when the players go back to the tavern, the same group of grizzled old men is there, that the tavern is still bearing the same, etc.

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  3. TreyJanuary 24, 2012 at 6:32 PM

    What I do for those things is come up with a list of tavern names and the like before hand, then as they get "placed" I'll make a brief note about the owner or whatever. I tend to come up with lists of name before hand too, so I can make sure I don't repeat one, but also make sure they have a similar sort of linguistic "feel."

    I know what you mean, though. I like world-building for world-buildings sake. Luckly, my heavy constructed language and constructed culture interest was in my 20s. Now I just want it to be able give the illusion of detail and have cool hooks.

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  4. XyanthonJanuary 25, 2012 at 2:01 AM

    Heh, I've toyed with constructed languages and the like. I think Holly Lisle actually puts out some good reference material on how to build a culture or a language and it's pretty streamlined.

    Like you, I think I want to give the illusion of depth and consistency without delving too far into the weeds. I find myself having to pull back sometimes though ;). Perhaps I can get my son to help with those sorts of details. He's young and has much more energy and many more years of geekery ahead of him ;).

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