Quick help with a writing project?

DirtyDirtyVagrant

I was debating whether this should go here or in the writer's block, but I settled on here because it's more advisory and less critique (mostly because I don't have anything done to criticize)

I'm having a problem writing the introduction to a campaign setting. It's nothing so subjective as the setting or the events or the world itself...I just don't really know what information I should include. And I was also playing with the idea of writing it from the viewpoint of a major character in the setting (The same way Elminster introduces forgotten realms).

Should I include only the information that the characters would know at first level? Or give them a full overview of the setting?

takyris

Who is this for? Is it just for the players, or is there a wider audience? Have the players bought into the game already, or are you trying to convince them to play it? Have they already got characters, or are they going to be building characters based on what they read in here?

What information would they know at first level? It often depends on how alien and strange the world is.

What you might want, really, is a very short encyclopedia of high-level terms to establish the general concepts and places.

For example (don't let me threadjack), here's something I might do for a game based on the project I'm working on:

Mist: Most of the known world is covered in the mist. Functionally, everyone lives on islands in the mist, mountaintops poking out into the sky. Everyone knows that anyone who goes into the mist dies a horrible choking death, and may, if unlucky, come back as a mistwalker. The mist is home to deadly beasts and the horrifying mistwraiths, both of whom occasionally make their way up from the mist to attack villagers.

Firearms: People use energy-based firearms. There's no ammunition per se. You have a certain number of shots, and then the firing crystal needs to recharge, after which you can fire again. There are no automatic weapons or beam weapons. It's energy versions of rifles and six-shooters, which means that melee weapons are still viable. The country of Onifer doesn't have firearms due to technological restrictions.

Flight: People fly from one island to another on crystal airships. These are human powered.gliders that can seat one, two, or even a dozen people depending on the configuration. Flyers often have cannons, more powerful versions of the same energy weapons people use as firearms. Alikojesar doesn't have flyers. The people of that country ride on dragons instead.

Nystros: The country all of you live in. It's a democracy that includes several dozen small to large islands. It has decent flyers and firearms. Most Nystrans are dark-skinned, although exceptions exist.

Onifer: A warlike country to the west of Nystros. It's much more feudal than Nystros and has sexist elements and a king instead of a congress of speakers. It was recently involved in a war with Nystros that ended with a hotly debated cease-fire. Ferans have better flyers and melee weaponry than Nystrans do, but lack handheld firearms. The Ferans tends to be pale-skinned and blond, although exceptions exist.

Alikojesar: An exotic country to the north of Nystros. The Alikoji are merchants, sages, and healers, at least when they come to Nystros. Nystrans rarely visit Alikojesar, as their flyers cannot make it. The Alikoji have superior handheld firearms and are expert sorcerers relative to Nystrans, but they lack flyers, and must ride dragons instead. The Alikoji are universally very very pale with red hair.

That gives the readers enough of a guideline to get the "Okay, that's what a yokel knows. Now, if I made a sorcerer scholar, how much would he know about mistwraiths and stuff?" And then you can write more detailed stuff from that.

Honestly, just hitting that kind of bald encyclopedic view will get your message across better than a story, I think.

And I would put this in with Writer's Block or Critical Failures, since it's definitely writing advice and definitely about a game.