On writing an RPG sourcebook & setting.
SETTING MATERIAL HAS TO BE ACTIVE, NOT BACKGROUND. Most settings, especially the beloved 2E AD&D settings, are filled with passive, background material. This is the stuff that describes the world but not the stories inside of the world. When making Scavenger, I tried hard as hell to make it so that every single entry either spins off into adventures or adds nuance to adventures while also making story seeds. If you are currently writing a setting or sourcebook, remember that people will be looking to be inspired by it, so try to make it so that everything you write either leads to a story or can be used to add to a story. This is what I refer to as "active."
WRITING WITH YOUR THEMES IN MIND MAKES THE BOOK BETTER. A lot of people are afraid to engage with themes or think that themes are bullshit, but the theme is everything. For Scavenger, the two DOMINANT themes were CLIMATE CHANGE and SURVIVAL. I then took that second theme, SURVIVAL, and broke it open. For example, the Scavenging Peoples (kith/morg/Akarans), as I was designing them, my question was "How did these races evolve to survive this world?" When making the city-states, I asked "How has a city been changed by surviving disasters?" Read the entry for Kanuma in the books, compare that to the entry for Mur or Bataar or Tarnak, and you'll see how breaking open these themes leads to cool evolutions in the world. SURVIVAL also led to refugee ideas, dealing with trauma, fighting for something, and giving things in the world meaning (because soon they could be lost).
SMALL DETAILS REALLY MATTER. Scavenger did not become real to me until I defined the following three things: how people keep track of the days (designing their calendar), how people measure things (hands/blades/dalhams), and how people speak (languages). These three small details give the players levers for describing the world, reinforce the aesthetics of the world, and give them insight into the minds of their characters. For roleplaying games, this is something many settings fail to address, and it’s a shame because this information really sets apart Scavenger as a completely different world.
A BOOK NEEDS TO GIVE ALL PLAYERS, DM INCLUDED, LEVERS TO PULL. Levers aren't just mechanical features, but also ideas, aesthetics, and so on. The small details are a lever. By giving a significant amount of levels for players to optionally pull, your setting becomes gamable. Suddenly it’s clear what adventures should be like, what rewards should be, and what you can do when you sit around the table (or get into a zoom call) and start going at it. It’s also important that these levers be diversified. When running Theros, and reading the Theros book, I'm given a lot of levers, but almost all of them are god-related; very few are related to the peoples of Theros, how they worship, and what they do. This makes Theros a bit difficult to use for every session after the first, as I'm having to make my own levers to use - a shame, cuz Theros is a great setting!
ALWAYS LEAVE A SENSE OF DISCOVERY BEHIND. In a Fantasy roleplaying game, discovery is everything. So, when designing a setting, while you may want to answer everything, always make sure you leave questions behind for a sense of mystery. Use these as additional levers for people; by pulling these mystery levers and answering the questions the mystery prompts, people create their own rendition of your setting, which in turn bonds them a bit more too it and makes it more enjoyable to play in. In Scavenger, I've left a lot of mystery: what happened to the Zenith People, where did the Scren come from, why did the Monolith open, why is the Cataclysm happening, and so on. Some of these I gave clues towards, but never a definite answer. On that note, make sure to include clues too; people enjoy putting them together as they play through the game or read through the book.
A FAINT NARRATIVE LINE THROUGHOUT THE BOOK WILL DO WONDERS. A lot of settings present themselves as a backdrop for your stories and have no narrative thrust throughout them. Look at Forgotten Realms and see that the only "narrative line" or "narrative thrust" is just to go out and adventure. A LITTLE bit of narrative structure in a setting gives people direction, ideas, and gives them concrete places where they can change or deviate. In Scavenger, the narrative line is that you have come to Tarnak, probably from another place, and need to find a patron, who will test you by sending you back out into Akara, and afterward will send you into Torn. Then in Torn, you have yet another testing field that prepares you for a place utterly alien and hostile, which prepares you for a place where you are actively hunted. This narrative line can be deviated from (maybe you arrive in Kanuma, not Tarnak, or maybe you go straight to Torn) only because you can perceive a narrative line is there in the first place. This is yet another lever to be pulled and gives people a crutch to lean on when playing the game.
THINK ABOUT THE LOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF AN IDEA. This is a scary one, but an important one. If you have a thieves' guild ran by children, how does it operate, what does it do, and how has that changed the culture (see: the Tongue & Hand). If most mammals don't exist in your setting, what is it that people rely on? What kinds of pets do they have? What do they eat? By thinking about these logical consequences, you take your idea to the next level, and in turn, deepen the setting instead of expanding it only horizontally. A lot of people say "Well it is Fantasy but why does it matter," and to that I say because you need some kind of logic to give meaning to threat and to give meaning to the story. The impact something has in a narrative is made more real if it impacts everything around it. Follow these impacts a fair distance and suddenly you have something amazingly vivid on your hands - a dream that is unbroken, a fantasy that stands on its own.
Hope this helps someone!
~ Marquis
