About the World of Cartyrion

This is not my first World-building attempt. I have built several worlds - or parts of worlds - as stages for Fantasy Role-playing gaming, but always for my friends and with my only reward being the enjoyment of those friends playing in "my world".

Cartyrion is different. This time, I hope to see some financial rewards as well.

This world is being built with the intention to market it as an RPG Campaign setting. But not just any other Campaign setting; I would like to fill some perceived niches in the RPG market space. The first marketable products will be intended for low-level players, and will be designed to ease new players into the game by introducing a variety of basic rules concepts of gameplay beyond simple "swing at the monster" activity.

The planned ruleset for the World of Cartyrion is being developed off the latest incarnations of the venerable d20 OGL ruleset. Specifically, I will be using the Pathfinder 2^nd Edition rules as a jumping-off point. This ruleset is naturally geared toward the Sword and Sorcery genre typical of most fantasy role-playing games, but there is is a lot of leeway available to explore other genres... it all depends on where my players - and the market - want to go.

Scale

The first part of this world-building effort requires some global-scale planning and thinking. A cosmology for the world, pantheons of deities for the major player races, and a high-level global geography are the first things on the to-do list. But once these are done, the plan is to select a single area: the Frontier Lands, and drill down to it. I need enough of this region to support player backstories, which means identifying key cities and settlements, geographic regions, and a little bit of cultural background for the area.

With these done, one more drill-down will bring me to the small area surrounding the anticipated "home base" of the players for the first few adventures. The Inn that that will form that base, and the cadre of NPCs that support it need to be detailed, as does any nearby area that will be important in future adventures. Several adventures are planned - enough to bring a PC party through at least two levels of advancement.

In the future, other pockets of Cartyrion will be designed and detailed in a similar manner, with different regions designed to support adventures of different difficulty levels. Eventually - given the time and financial support needed - the entire world will be detailed, and a whole host of adventures will await any daring band of adventurers.

Genres, Moods, Themes, and Conflicts

One of the fascinating things about building a whole new world for players to adventure in is that the opportunity to build different parts of the world to support different moods, themes, and conflict categories. In fact, if my goal is to reach the widest possible audience, it will be necessary to do so.

For now the focus is on the Frontier Lands - the first region being developed. This is a hopeful place. The people are, for the most part, free and independent, able to decide their own fates. There are wonders to discover, and magical and fey creatures abound in the remote forests. Of course there will be evil to fight in the classic "sword and sorcery" style. And while the low-level characters this area is being designed to support aren't going to change the world, they will have a definite impact on the region and its residents.

As I move on to other regions, I expect at least subtle changes in mood, theme, and conflict - both to provide variety for players moving into the region and to attact interest from new player groups are looking for something more than a simple "kill the monster, take the loot" experience.