Intro
Well, hello there, my lovelies,
Welcome back to the third part of my series, where I discuss how I go about building a new campaign setting. I am essentially arguing that the most important thing when planning your campaign is creating a sense of immersion. That every time your players come to the table, they feel like your world is alive, and they are excited to be part of it. If they have the buy-in for your game, it will make everything 100 times smoother.
If you want to read the previous posts, you can find them here.
Part 1: Creating Ideas
Part 2: Character Creation
In this post, I will describe two ways of injecting that flavour into your game world via shops and other vendors.
Specialist vendors: who sell products unique to that location.
Item flavour text: A sentence or two that adds context to a product, and helps players expand their mental model of the game world.
Specialist Vendors
Firstly, let's take a look at specialist vendors, and for that, we need to consider the magnificent Bakewell Tart.
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| Banging |
The Bakewell tart is a classic British treat. This shortcrust dessert stuffed with jam and icing is topped with a glazed cherry, making it an absolute banger. And if you have had the privilege of eating one before, you will no doubt agree with me.
Bakewell tarts were invented in the town of Bakewell, in the Peak District of the North of England. The town is something of a tourist spot nowadays, and it is chock full of bakeries selling Bakewell Tarts, because this is its local speciality, the town’s cultural gift to the world.
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| They sell giant Bakewells here. I had one to myself, and I regret nothing. |
So, when you are making vendors think about what makes that town special, and create a niche vendor to reflect that. Human culture is often expressed in fashion, food, the arts, and technology, so specialist vendors selling something of that sort would work well. If you are stuck, here are some potential specialist vendors.
Food and drink
Tobbaconist
Musical instruments
Toy shops
Florist
Spas and beauty salons
Bars, restaurants, and taverns
Book sellers
Art galleries
Curio shops
Tailor’s
Engineering/tinkers
Pro-Tip:
Always give your shops 10, 12, or 20 items. That way, you can use them as an ad hoc loot table!
Flavour Text
Again, we can return to the Souls games for inspiration here. A short piece of flavour text can add depth to your world with very little effort. It will make the player think about how that item fits into your world, and they map it into their mental model, which in turn makes your world feel more alive.
This is how I would add flavour text to the Bakewell Tart.
Bakewell Tart
Created in the Black Horse Inn in the 1820s. This delicious dessert from the town of Bakewell is guaranteed to give you the energy to hike across the beautiful landscape of the Peak District.
Counts as 1 ration.
Examples
Pro-Tip
Not every item needs a purpose. Some can be in the shop as filler, or to add flavour. It is just a reflection of what the vendor would usually sell.
I consistently find that one of the best ways to add flavour to the game is to create an alcohol vendor. So many nations on earth have their own unique drink that reflects local culture. The example below is from my Webrail campaign, and each entry comes with a bit of flavour text.
The next example is a vendor who sold meat and tusks. This was from a settlement found in cold regions, and was inhabited by Viking-like folk.
This last example was for a campaign set in the underground of a post-apocalyptic dwarven kingdom. The vendor is what I considered a typical miner's vendor.
I hope that was helpful. Remember, all it takes to make your world more immersive is just a little bit of flavour here and there, which creates a mental image for your players. Over time, their mental image of your game world becomes more expansive, and their engagement increases.
Next time. Artefacts.
