Where to start, where to start...? There's a good question. When you're free-forming like this, where do you begin? Do you pick a place and go from there? Should you follow something of a pattern, just to get your thoughts organized and make sure you don't skip something important? Do you go with your gut and blaze a trail?
Hell, I don't know. It's my idea and I don't know. I could start with the campaign setting's name, its shape, a few basic assumptions...Whoa! There it is, compadre! Let's start with
A FEW BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
- This world has a commonly-used name, but it's not a proper name like Toril or Krynn or Faern or what-have-you; instead it's something general, like "The World" or "The Land" or "Troll World" or "The Realm". Kind of like the world of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon was called "The Realm".
- There is a pantheon of deities, and they each have sway over certain aspects of the world and the people in it. They govern abstractions (Love, War, Peace, Justice, Luck, etc.) and there aren't that many of them because I don't want to get bogged down with gods for every little thing. People worship them openly and sometmes they appear amongst the people-- avatars, as it were. Their patron is Abe Vigoda.
- Despite the above, this isn't a silly campaign. It ain't straight-laced and super, super serious, either, but it's not a cartoon. The infamous Wand of Castle-Killing is welcome here (and probably exists in some dungeon somewhere), but Transmute Flesh To Cheeseburger is too fourth wall and therefore not happenin'.
- The word has one sun and three moons (again, inspired by the D&D cartoon). No, I'm not making up charts to track the moons' orbits, phases, moods and shopping habits. Screw that.
- Types of cultures, societies and governmentts range from total anarchy to feudalism, as the needs of the story require.
