Worldbook Development

[eruditus]

So your making a worldbook and you want it to be useful. You want to it to be a guidebook, a tool for GMs and players alike, of what to expect travelling around and growing up in a particular area.

So then the question is, do you have to contend with the fact that the players will be able to read this? Do you write in secret stuff? If not, where does the GM gather this information? Should there be layouts to important locales? SHould there be stats to critters that you are likely to come across?

And do GMs largely make up their own stuff BECAUSE they know that the players know all the stuff in the guidebook?

thoughts?

[luke]

personally, i'd like to see a fantasy guidebook done like a Lonely Planet or Footprints. Written from the perspective of actual travellers and describing places that people actual go to. This would provide a color depiction of the native country and a wealth of hints applicable to play and suitable for players to read.

Then, in the back of the book, there could be a super-secret GM's chapter indexed to all the hints up front. It could contain stats and numbers and stuff.

You can never really prevent a player from reading published material, but you can make it easier for them NOT to.

The Bad Old Way:
GM: "You head into the Shattered Aft..."
Player 1 to Player 2: "I read this part, the bartender's stats are crap. If he gives us trouble let's take him out and rob the place."

By keeping the setting material plausible, immersive and interesting, without putting in hard numbers, I think this can be avoided.

-abzu