Your gameworld has a distinct history and vibrant cultures. The forces of history combine to create a variety of effects that govern the way life in your world functions. And a well-developed history can inspire your players and show them that the gameworld is more real than they realize. But developing a sense of your world's history can be a challenge--which details are useful? This guide will show you how to turn an idea for a historical event into a full expression of your world. Read on for the details you'll need to create a meaningful historical event.
In my gameworld, I have developed a few historical events into world-changing things that every person in the world knows about. Most of these events are designed to show how the origin of my society reached the point where standard D&D ideas can be represented. To that end, I developed historical events like the dissolution of kingdoms and the forging of a shared currency, which give my world a form that lends itself to D&D details. But I have also developed unique world events that make my world distinct from other homebrew settings. This guide will revolve around one such event--the Magic War--and show you how to design an event like it.
Let's start with the write-up and move into why these choices serve you in your worldbuilding. You can find the document I've prepared here; I'll be using it as a framework for what we're doing here. The first thing that I think we should address is the brainstorming aspect. When worldbuilding and creating historical events, we want to imagine things that have meaningful effects on everyday life. I am in some ways hesitant to use a war as the example here, because often the result of wars is simply that a border changes or a certain group's access to governmental representation changes. These can be interesting ideas, but what's much more interesting is a world event that affects the culture of the world. I developed the Magic War not so much as a large armed conflict but more of an ideological struggle. That's why the conflict of the Magic War is about what people think magic should be treated as; there are forces which say to keep magic free, forces which say to regulate magic, and forces which want to outlaw magic altogether. I like this conflict because it's really about people's beliefs about fairness and power. I would recommend that you too develop events that are more culturally-oriented, if only because it will have much more interesting effects on your world than a series of battles.
So now we have our main idea--a conflict between people from all walks of life along ideological lines. Then it's time to make a web of the information that will define how the conflict plays out. I started with the names of organizations and individuals who were prominent in the conflict. This gives me the ability to come back to these names when I need someone to do something important; it also lets me start before the conflict with just the ideas of the people who would get involved. Here's my array of important people--note that many are tied to the important organizations, which gives a sense that many broad interests are being served under a single banner:
Combatants: | Pro-Magic | Pro-Regulation | Pro-Abolishment |
Major Forces: | United Academies of Evanoch | High Council of Commerce | Citizens Against Magic |
| The Magic User Alliance | Religious Protection League | Nature Preservation Society |
| Governments of Mishara, Talon Gorge, Vestry | Governments of Finiel, New Dalton, Ringsdale, Torga, Underhar | Unified Artisan Coalition |
Major Players: | Plia Yallo, Magic User Alliance Chief | Murphy Cavedweller, politician | Craig Nerrin, Regent of Such |
| Forrester Ridge, grand sorcerer | Preston Rafter, high priest | Vaughn Plouder, CAM Head |
| Randall Mintner, UAE Dean | Harley Constance, author | Terry Humbert, UAC Representative |
| Torrine Aureli, high cleric | Pauline Foster, HCC Chair | Evelyn Knot, NPS Leader |
| Calies Tasselman, scholar | Lenk Prodd, philosopher | Daniel Thorpe, Chief Editor of New Dalton Herald |
Major Combatants: | Friella Volinea, grand mage | Julian Harp, famed mercenary | General Grant Taggert |
| Laurie Denning, high cleric | Colonel Stephen Holton | Ophelia Dinnir, tracker |
| Felix Pilliu, grand mage | Jackie Dustrider, mercenary | Captain Tossul Vark |
| Lop Friggle Rind Seppa, grand sorcerer | Roger Gillina, high cleric | Sergeant Knox Bulwark |
| Insellor Diesef, mercenary | Private Jop Derritt | Gerald Blademaker, militia leader |
Casualties: | 9,642 | 28,382 | 51,951 |
Total: |
| 79,975 |
|
In addition to the organizations and names (which distinguish between combatants and more diplomatic or ideological players), I included a breakdown of the casualties on each side of the conflict. I figured that magic users have access to more power than the average person who wants magic abolished, and there are generally fewer magic users than otherwise, and ultimately the magic users do win, so I gave them the lowest casualty count. They're followed by Regulation forces, which might have a few magic users but who are more neutral in the conflict and thereby less inclined to be targeted by enemy forces than a diametrically opposed side. Finally, the Abolition forces take the highest casualties, as they are the least able to defend themselves and are the likeliest to be targeted by magic users. Initially, these numbers were just semi-random digits, but having a general idea to start with means that I have a reference point to work with.
The next step is to create an overview of the information included in your event. In my overview, I talk about the formation of the sides of the conflict; one specific politician's suggestion of regulating magic to resolve sore feelings about magic users caused people everywhere to take sides depending on what they believe is right. I also describe the beginning of hostilities and the close of those hostilities with just enough detail that I have a sense of the framework of the event. You'll notice if you're looking at the description of the Magic War that the opening and closing of the war are really just suggestions of a larger idea. I like that because I'm a GM who loves to improvise and leave areas open in my gameworld in order to let players decide the world's fate. If you're a little more inclined to have everything totally spelled out, then develop these ideas in greater detail. But I think that unless you're having your player characters learn intense historical education, you can use the detail level I'm representing--it's what an average living person who didn't serve in the war would know, and that's enough.
Next, I include a short section on the war itself. I indicate that magic users had a specific position in the war; many of their governments advocated for Regulation, and many of their neighbors were advocating for the Abolition of magic. This means that magic users were suddenly turned against their communities; it was fight your neighbors or lose your livelihood, and that gave the magic users a certain edge in the fight; they had more to lose than anyone else, and that edge ultimately turned the tide for the magic users.
The next section in the document is a breakdown of major battles in the war. If you're opting for a more cultural impact than a war, I recommend substituting this section with a list of cultural events and diplomatic actions, or something that similarly serves your event. Such a list might include successful and failed diplomatic missions, public statements, newspaper articles, works of art, governmental measures, or inventions. In the case of the Magic War, though, these events are represented by battles. For each battle, I indicate a date that the battle took place, a location that the battle took place, which forces fought there, and what the casualties looked like. I also include a description of the battle: how it started, who fired the first shot, what actions turned the tide of the battle, and how it ended, as well as impacts of the battle (like changes to the momentum of the involved forces and later battles).
I include in my list a total of five battles. I think that five is a good number to stick with; less than that, and the event seems abbreviated and unrealistic, but more than that, and the event seems unwieldy and includes too many details for the players to really process and appreciate. In the case of the Magic War, the five battles show the general trend of the war over time; the magic users initially pull ahead, the Regulation and Abolition forces deal heavy blows to one another, and the magic users experience a setback. This general trend sets up the magic users as favorites, but the late Indigar Raid hands the magic users a mixture of a draw and defeat. You can imagine how the culture of the world is affected by all of this. Abolition forces see magic users as uncontrollable liabilities who can overpower anyone they choose, and the early battles of the war bear this out. It was only the increasing ruthlessness of the war that led to the Indigar Raid, as people feared a world in which magic users could go unchecked in their powers. Thousands of Regulation and Abolition forces were dying compared to only hundreds of Pro-Magic forces. It was a troubling time for many. And it all sets the stage for the end of the war.
I've also included a section called "Important Events." This, like the overview, is not as detailed as it could be; the idea here is to create a sense of what is going on during the war that isn't a direct battle. This is another place you could lean on the many cultural things that we can consider (successful and failed diplomatic missions, public statements, newspaper articles, works of art, governmental measures, or inventions). In the case of the Magic War, I opted for a few assassination attempts and a public massacre. Initially, there are some botched assassination attempts: the magic users fail at the assassination of two Regulation leaders, and the Regulation forces respond by assassinating a prominent magic user leader. This is early in the war, so it adds to the sense that magic users were fighting everyone around them; the early failure to assassinate rival leaders makes the magic user cause more desperate to get the upper hand. The public massacre is a way to show that the war turned the public consciousness violent enough to attack civilians, and it also shows that the war was loudly opposed by even some who had a stake in the war. Finally, I close this section with the Abolition assassination of an vital Regulation leader; this both removes Regulation momentum and shows that Abolition forces grew more violent and desperate as the war escalated and turned away from their favor.
The final section in this document is about the resolution of the war. I describe the final battle of the war, which the magic users decisively win with the deployment of a powerful spell ("Stop Time" freezes the battlefield, allowing magic user forces to strike at their foes invulnerably). As a result, Regulation and Abolition forces capitulate at a tavern in the nearby city of Talon Gorge, and free use of magic reigns supreme over the land. The treaty signed by Regulation and Abolition forces recognized free magic as the law of the land and dissolved the military forces of all sides involved. So ends the Magic War after nearly a year of slaughter across the countryside, and today, people in my world are still bitterly committed to their cause, but do not speak of it for fear of riling up someone with a different cause.
So I've developed this whole historical event. No what? Well, there are lots of things you can do with an event like this. One fairly obvious implementation would be a campaign that is set during the Magic War. I've developed it as history, but wouldn't all the fighting and diplomacy and other machinations of the war be a fun storyline? I could just put my players in my world 30 years before the present day and let them serve in the army of their choosing. Or I could have a storyline that echoes that event--perhaps there's a faction of Abolition forces who have been quiet for years but are lurking in the darkness, preparing to launch the first attack of a new war. Or it could be more cultural in scope: perhaps the players are involved at a university where debates over the war are still raging. Or we might get even more cultural and start dropping references to the war in common speech--perhaps a wizened old spellcaster has stories about their old days serving for the right to use magic. Or maybe the appeal of Regulation never went away, and some cities and towns are starting again to push for Regulation--what would a spellcasting player character do? These are all just some ideas about how to include the historical event in the gameworld so that it's more than an idea, but an actual reality for the players. You can do all this and more with a well-developed historical event.
So get to it: brainstorm your idea, get the big picture written down, and start to think about how the details can reflect the big picture. You'll find that even the most unassuming idea can become spectacular with the right details in place. And remember that these events should honor your players as much as your own interests--try developing historical events that reflect what your players are interested in by
personalizing your game's content. And most of all, have fun with it. Creating a history for your world should create interest in the gameworld for you, so if you're not having fun, bring it closer to what you really enjoy. Before long, you'll have a sparkling, rich gameworld your players will love.
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