"World Building for Fantasy Wargaming." Topic

Anybody here develop their own worlds just for wargaming in? I am considering doing it for use with Rally Round the King, since my gaming is solo. I have seen lots of people do this for RPGs but have not heard of it being done for wargaming. Anybody have any specific advice of things to keep in mind when designing a setting just for wargaming in?

emperor-elector.blogspot.co.uk

I have in the past: I think that without a world (setting), wargaming is pretty abstract and uninteresting (and the source of economic failure for many 'generic' rule sets) (it works for chess and parchisi, however)…
You can take inspiration from and modify the settings of other (commercially developed) war-games (Warhammer, War Machine, etc…)RPGs, books (JRRT, etc…) or movies.
Also, you don't need the level of detail that RPGs require… just some general information but the world at large, who the warring factions are, and why they are fighting. This having been said, one should obviously construct this setting based around the miniatures that you want to use. Finis.

Cool link, food for thought. I had some unpainted splintered light saxons and romano-british laying around that kind of got a spark going in my head. I was thinking of just starting with a map of a single large region and detailing out the basics of a few cultures.

I developed a simple setting for horse & musket battles, although I've used it for medieval battles as well.

link

I really struggle creating worlds, so I tend to 'borrow' someone else's world.

I have a long-running plan for ancient/fantasy/scifi gaming in White Wolf's 'Exalted' game's 'Age of Sorrows', with chinese/romans versus Japanese/fullplate knights.

I'm likely to borrow the Tenra Bansho Zero RPG setting for some of my Japanese gaming. It's an excuse to use mecha, magic, modern firearms, and monsters with samurai!

My Weird War 2 is split between Gear Krieg and Mamoru Oshii's Kerberos Saga.

Oh, and I have another long-running project to build Tagon's Toughs for 15mm scifi games.

In the event you don't know…

Why don't you go with Dux Britanniarum from Too Fat Lardies. It is already set up as a campaign system for the time period covered by your figures.

Here is their new forum:

link

Here is the product description on their website:

link

Oh I was aware of it, interested even I just lack the coin at the moment what with a recent move and what not. I do intend to pick it up at some point though. Here lately though I have just sort of had vauge idea for a setting brewing, and the look of those figures has partly inspired it. Also I have always liked the idea of doing fantasy wargaming in a world of my own devising. Thanks for the heads up though.

My fantasy wargame world: aeyr.blogspot.com
My sci-fi wargame universe: comet-empire.blogspot.com
My SYW Ducal Estate: saxe-huack.blogspot.com
My Modern State: 6mm-prussia.blogspot.com
19th Century Imaginary European Kingdoms along with most of my other stuff: link

Best advice I can give you on creating your own world is to start small and build from there. Have a map, even if it's just another state that you've co-opted, for example the Duchy of Saxe-Huack map is simply a modified Luxembourg. Once again I can't stress the importance of starting small and going from there. It's took me 7 years to set my fantasy campaign off because I wanted too much too fast. Whereas my SYW campaign took off without a hitch.

Cool stuff you have going there. In the past when I have worked on hombrew RPG settings I have done sort of a middle of the road approach where I start with some basic cosmological assumptions and then zoom in to a particular region and focus on it for a while.

If you're interested in world building, then I would definitely recommend that you check out Microscope. In my opinion, it's one of the most creative and effective world building tools you can find, AND it's a game!

If you can get a couple of friends together for a 'gameplay' session, then I think you'll be amazed at what a rich and varied world history you can create.

Mock chronological order.
Defy time and space.
Build worlds and destroy them.

yes, microscope is a nice game. Designed for collaborative play. May be useful as an exercise for a solo player, but I hadn't considered that before. So, i am not sure it is really helpful to the original poster or not.

I used to be into world-building, but I never got around to combining it with wargaming.

Arkansan's question came just as I was starting work on my own campaign world for Rally Round the King.

Initial results are here: link

Neat, looks like it will be fun. I will likely start my project this evening with a basic map and a few outlines. To start with I think I will just outline two cultures and their potential conflicts, I can work out from their.