RPG Location Backstories--Context in the Larger Physical Setting

Questions about developing a cultural backstory were presented to me. How did I come up with some of the ideas I use in developing my city and other settings I use in my role-playing games (RPGs). What they were looking for ways of going beyond the charts presented in the books they were using, which provide the skeleton of information. They wanted to flesh out their work to provide a setting their players could have more interaction in and with. Our discussion has been more involved than what can be comfortably covered in a single article, so I am breaking it up into separate subtopics.

This is world building, even if it is only on the scale of a city or a town. I am sure everyone reading this understands that. The reason I am saying it is to make sure we are all talking from the same point of view, because this applies when creating for a story, or for an RPG. This is also something to remember when creating because you need to understand how your creation fits into the larger scale. The society, kingdom, city, town, anything, you are developing fits into a larger picture, even when no one else sees what that grander scene is. This helps in maintaining a continuity of what you develop now and allows for easier expansion later.

The location where people settle was selected for a reason. Historically, many locations in our world were selected for a specific reason or a combination of things making it even more desirable. Some examples are where trade routes crossed, where water was available, where salt was available, or some other resource that society considered valuable.  There are also a number of towns that were started because they provided a central location for groups like farmers and ranchers. Still, other locations were developed because of their defensibility or for their religious importance. Each of these are reasons that fit into a greater picture—food, shelter, accessibility, defense, religion. One way to see how this process works, or not, is through reading.

You may have read books, or maps, people created where there were locations that had no reason for being there. Those types of locations make it harder to follow the story. Even with dealing with a fantasy setting, we have a logical part of our thinking that is constantly looking for patterns. When a place is presented that doesn't fit into a pattern we notice something is wrong, even if we don't know what the problem is. You probably have books you enjoy because there are patterns below the story, supporting it, through the world building the author has done. These great authors go a step further in developing places from the past.

People don't continue to congregate in a location if there is no reason to be there. There might be some lone prospector or a gang of desperados living in the ghost town, but there is a reason it became a ghost town. When the desirability of the location is lost, most people move on. On the reverse, as long as the desirability can support more the town develops into something bigger. This process happens naturally in our societies, but as a creator you have options.

When you are building a world from scratch you have the ability to place the locations based on how you design your world. If you want a port city, you can create a location with a good port and probably access to a navigable river. You might have a location based on the resources available to the people who live in a location. Another place might develop where major trade routes cross, giving access to a lot of trade goods and people. Another place is the oasis where the caravans stop. Finding a simple, logical, reason for the location is all that is needed to start a development.

You can also build the geological world and develop up from there. Many years ago our group had a shared world that several different game masters (GMs) took control over our own section. We started with a map with only geological features, there were no listed places of habitation. We each then decided where, in our section of the world, the towns and cities were located, but we did this as a group so there was some understanding of interactions. Many of the places were selected based on what we have discussed that made sense. Some of the reasoning was done in reverse order—there is this place in the middle of the mountains, but why?

You can also use existing maps (topographical ones can work well for this). You can start with a map showing the terrain and add in the places of habitation. By applying the same reasoning as above you can find the places best suited to having someone living there. I ran a series of adventures using a map of Nevada and it wasn't until later in the campaign that players recognized where their characters were.

This same principle can be applied in settings where ruins are a major part of the adventuring (fantasy). The connectivity can be established by having a reason for why the place developed where it did. Then, why it was abandoned. There are plenty of examples around our own world providing examples. You don't have to have anything elaborate, but having something gives a stronger feel to the adventuring area. The reasons might not even seem legitimate to some of the players because they will be dealing with foreign concepts.

Different races are going to hold resources at varying levels of importance. You might not be populating your world with the typical fantasy races, or the slew of races portrayed in some science fiction settings. You might have a world populated by one race, like what we live in. Cultural differences, however, have always affected what populations do. Those differences reflect in where the people settle, and how they live in those areas.

Any location, living or dead, has a reason for why it is or was there. Archeology, anthropology, and other academic fields look for the reasons and how people interact(ed) with the causes to have the societies develop when and where they did.

You can create unique and interesting places around your world. That is one factor making RPGs interesting to play—you are exploring differences you would never be able to do in real life. The links to the players' reality allows for the jump into the characters' reality to happen much easier and helps to avoid some of those confrontations of "that's not right."

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