

                        Creative Methods

Sometimes, particularly when starting a new world, a town, or a
dungeon, the brain just gets clotted. You have so many ideas, you
just don't know where to begin. Here are some methods which will
hopefully help you take that first step of getting your ideas
down on paper, and they might also help to get the creative
juices flowing when you find yourself running short of ideas.

A. Web it Out

 Start with a name of a place such as a city. Circle it in the
 center of a large piece of paper. Think of some aspects (river,
 sea front, city guard, merchants) and draw lines to new circles
 (wharf district, guard barracks, merchant guild hall). Repeat
 process through several iterations, creating the names of
 important NPCs for each area. Draw lines between NPCs and
 establish relationships. Once the relationships are in place,
 adventure opportunities should become more apparent.

      Some possible relationships between important NPCs:
       1) Owes Favor             6) Revenge-Hatred
       2) Secret Infatuation     7) Spurned Love
       3) Mutual Backscratching  8) Mutual Backstabbing
       4) Mutual Secret          9) Blackmail
       5) Family Relation        10) Family Feud

B. Play the Evolution

 Before the campaign starts, create a few proto-kingdoms
 (basically tribes at the early stages of civilization) and have
 the players each control a separate tribe or a leader thereof.
 Move time quickly, letting the PCs found new cities in order to
 expand their domain, allowing them to explore the map and
 eventually meet each other, and perhaps even allowing them to
 fight wars if they can't control their thirst for power. Throw
 in random events, such as plagues, natural disasters, revolts,
 new inventions, invasions by hordes of monsters, assassinations,
 divine interventions and so forth in order to spice things up.
 After about a thousand game-years of this, collect your notes
 and write up a hopefully comprehensible history of the whole
 ordeal.

      Some Possible Random Events:
   1d8
    1   Divine Intervention
      1d4
       1  Punishment
       2  Information
       3  Quest
       4  Gift
    2   War
      1d4
       1  Against Monsters
       2  Against Bandits
       3  Against Rebels
       4  Against Enemy Nation
    3   Natural Disaster
      1d6
       1  Quake
       2  Tornado
       3  Flood
       4  Meteorite
       5  Fire
       6  Plague/Famine
    4   Magical Discovery/Event
      1d6
       1  New Magical Mineral Discovered
       2  Area Corrupted by Bad Magic
       3  Battle Between two Wizards
       4  Test-tube Invention of a New Race
       5  Magical Artifact Created
       6  Other (make it good)
    5   Major Construction
      2d4
       2  City
       3  Castle/Fortress
       4  University
       5  Library
       6  Cathedral
       7  Mine
       8  Other (possibly magical)
    6   Religious Upheaval
      1d4
       1  Religious Assassination
       2  Religious Coup
       3  Strange Religious Edict
       4  Holy War
    7   Political Upheaval
      1d6
       1  Political Assassination
       2  Military Coup
       3  Strange Political Edict
       4  Riots
       5  Slave Rebellion
       6  Civil War
    8   Heroic Stuff
      1d4
       1  Powerful Monster Slain
       2  Powerful Magic Seized
       3  Evil Ruler Slain
       4  Hero Slain in Great Battle

