I usually run homebrew campaigns and can easily remember or look for past details of my worlds, but I'm starting a campaign in a published setting soon, and find it VERY hard to remember almost any lore about it as I plan the campaign (and keeping it accurate to the written lore is important to me and especially to one of the players, who loves this setting).
How do you go about running games in published settings and making sure you're getting everything right?
Make a Google doc filled with information taken from reliable sources and make it easy to find the info so you just refer back to that mid session.
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In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
Contrary to what it "feels like", lore in a setting is really not the thing that brings its presence to the game, its more specifically the culture of the game worlds occupants (how do people act towards the players) and the visuals (what does the world look like).
What you want to do is embellish the most prominent cultural and visual elements.
Take Ravenloft for example. The people are suspicious, unfriendly, stand-offish and act sketchy and secretively, while the atmosphere is dark, gloomy, and depressing, its a dark fantasy with a dark age and grim feel. These are the things that make Ravenloft what it is to the players, all of the history and lore, that's really just back drop and most of it will have very little if any impact on the a game session. Weaving the lore into the plot is one way to get lore into the game, but generally, you want to avoid lore dumps. Present the world, not the lore.
How do you go about running games in published settings and making sure you're getting everything right?
I admit I don't use published settings, but I think the most important thing is to not worry about getting everything right. Are your players experienced with the setting? If not, they probably won't notice.
Even if they are, it's your world as soon as the game starts. Stay away from esoteric lore, use your own NPC over the canon ones, and brush up on the stuff you are using in the current session, and you'll be fine. If your players start arguing with you about what's canon, hold your ground. (If you really think that's going to be a problem, don't run in the world. Or establish session one that you're breaking with canon. Kill off Elminster.)
Using a published setting means it comes with it's own history, pantheon, map of cities and natural landscape, organizations and power groups, notable NPCs etc. I just read it and check it back when i must cross-reference information and if need be, keept notes about some stuff pertaining to the world that will be relevant in my campaign.
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I usually run homebrew campaigns and can easily remember or look for past details of my worlds, but I'm starting a campaign in a published setting soon, and find it VERY hard to remember almost any lore about it as I plan the campaign (and keeping it accurate to the written lore is important to me and especially to one of the players, who loves this setting).
How do you go about running games in published settings and making sure you're getting everything right?
:)
Make a Google doc filled with information taken from reliable sources and make it easy to find the info so you just refer back to that mid session.
In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
Look to see if there is a Wiki site devoted to that setting or create your own using a note app such as Obsidian or OneNote.
Contrary to what it "feels like", lore in a setting is really not the thing that brings its presence to the game, its more specifically the culture of the game worlds occupants (how do people act towards the players) and the visuals (what does the world look like).
What you want to do is embellish the most prominent cultural and visual elements.
Take Ravenloft for example. The people are suspicious, unfriendly, stand-offish and act sketchy and secretively, while the atmosphere is dark, gloomy, and depressing, its a dark fantasy with a dark age and grim feel. These are the things that make Ravenloft what it is to the players, all of the history and lore, that's really just back drop and most of it will have very little if any impact on the a game session. Weaving the lore into the plot is one way to get lore into the game, but generally, you want to avoid lore dumps. Present the world, not the lore.
I admit I don't use published settings, but I think the most important thing is to not worry about getting everything right. Are your players experienced with the setting? If not, they probably won't notice.
Even if they are, it's your world as soon as the game starts. Stay away from esoteric lore, use your own NPC over the canon ones, and brush up on the stuff you are using in the current session, and you'll be fine. If your players start arguing with you about what's canon, hold your ground. (If you really think that's going to be a problem, don't run in the world. Or establish session one that you're breaking with canon. Kill off Elminster.)
Using a published setting means it comes with it's own history, pantheon, map of cities and natural landscape, organizations and power groups, notable NPCs etc. I just read it and check it back when i must cross-reference information and if need be, keept notes about some stuff pertaining to the world that will be relevant in my campaign.