Nations, states, countries, some sort of principality or kingdom. It comes by many names, but at the end of the day, it is just a place people live. The cities and villages can vary a lot, or there can be such a strong oppressive boot on the back of the people that there is a sense of uniformity. When it comes to homebrewing, I talk about a lot. Whether it be the campaign, a creative twist to an old setting, or just building it a bit, I do talk about it a lot. Anyway, as I was saying, when it comes to homebrewing for a new setting, to really introduce your players to the world, you only really need one nation fleshed out. The others can come with time. Start simple, how much influence does the central or federal government have in small villages? Do they have any unusual laws that the players can incorporate into their backstories? Are they isolationists? Do they have a mandatory or voluntary military service? These are some simple questions to really kick the thing off.
Now, Roll4 has looked at this topic before, but a different contributor, different style, more of an introduction, a launching point. People tend to think differently, what works well for some, doesn’t work at all for others, so here is the same concept with a different lens. The early work comes off as more of a listicle, a checklist of things to consider, and to expand from. A good starting point if you are going blind, or unsure of what you are looking for, the minute you start filling in one or two of the sections, it really starts branching out, and making it easier to find the information for the next. A listicle like that one is great for fleshing out more and more details or things you missed. Back when I was in high school I had a huge list of things I went over, and I continued to refine how I build countries until this point right now. I still have that huge list, and refer to it occasionally, but I tend to think a softer version with less hard lore works better for me. So, about 10 years of work has gone into the advice I’m about to give, not consciously worked on, but through trial and error, mistakes in GMing, and just correcting it so I don’t have that issue again.
Before we really get rolling, I do want to put as a side-I did google a few different phrases looking around for other people giving advice on how to build nations or countries for tabletop gaming. Honestly found them to be very lackluster, or at the very least unfocused, and it is what made me want to revisit this topic.
So let's go, to start with, at least how I start, ask yourself about the problems that face the country, or regions of the country. It could be arid and hot, limiting the food potential, meaning famines are common. There could be a culture that thrives on the hardiness of those who can live through the tough times, meaning the common folk don’t squander food, they stretch every grain of rice or wheat to the fullest. Mayhaps, the winters are so rough on them that during the inhospitable seasons, such as winter, there is a ritual of forgiveness for families that can’t handle their children, can’t afford to feed them, and give them to the spirits of the land, and the memories of children that aren’t properly honored, results in, let’s just say a rather sad, and dark plot hook.
But the idea of starting from this position is to build flaws inherently into the society, whether it be the honoring of strength, meaning that the strongest is right even when very wrong. “I can drink this poison, so clearly it isn’t poison!” Or it could be that the pursuit of knowledge dwarfs all other values, safety and life included, “What do you mean why? Why did I make a portal to the abyssal plane of unfunny comedians? TO SEE IF I COULD OF COURSE!”
These inherent societal flaws can lead to a lot of plot hooks, lots of quests for your players to be engaged by, or to include in their own character’s backstory. A society that is known for having a corrupt king and corruption all the way down would produce a lot of thieves, don’t you think?
But you get the idea, you can have any kind of flaw, from dormant dragons below all their castles to something small, like the occasional seasonal flooding. The next big thing for me after that is asking how the society copes with, or fixes, the problem. If you have a legion of unwieldy scientists running about doing magical studies that result in possibly altering the very laws of nature, perhaps, there are strike financial burdens on those that harm others, or it encourages isolation by the most strange, or maybe, only mayors are entitled to that level, and part of the planks of their elections are the insane experiments they want to run. “I wanted to vote for Rezog the Reanimated, but, well, the tax break just isn’t worth his promise to bring back all the dead in the city, so I guess I’ll vote Fleming, he only wants to make a super cold that makes you sneeze with super strength.”
It could be a society with might makes right has gladiatorial fights, and puts scholarly pursuits on the back seat. Meaning they have to train their strength of arm, for arms and armor. Selling their nation like mercenaries, and being manipulated by some foreign powerhouse.
After that, I like to ask ‘Who is in charge?’ And make an NPC for that. Does he reflect the traditions, or is he a beacon of changing times? Is he making things better or worse? If he is changing the nation for the better or worse, he can easily be marked for an assassination, and the PCs can be tied up in that political thriller, and that adds more twists and turns, is the assassin from within the nation, or are they a foreign agent?
I won’t dwell too much on that, NPC building could be a fun topic for the future, for now, we will stick to helping create a nation (or whatever you want to call it). One of the next things I consider is reputation, what is the country known for, is it known for its Silver Mines? Well, it is a real shame those Silver Mines are running out, huh? Or, the flip side, it was known for Silver a long long time ago, and is still known as the Kingdom of Silver, Ver, but, those mines have been empty so long, that the name seems almost mocking. Are they known like Sparta was for great warriors? Or maybe Scholars like Athens? A reputation for exploration and establishing occupational garrisons like the England of Old? I also tend to find using comparisons to real world nations helps me get an idea for how I think it should be structured, as well as looking at certain times in history.
Focusing on the nation's reputation can help you plan out some twists and turns, and even get some basic notes on neighboring countries. Keep them short and simple to start with, trade agreements, and things like that. Don’t flesh out a country that may never be visited, or the players don’t care about, have a few interesting tidbits, and offer them a hook or two if they want to go that way, but if they don’t, leave it as a background decoration, like an empty book on a bookshelf, it makes the place look more complete, but it is hiding the truth.
Now, this is the key part of what you should do when building a campaign as well, ask yourself this, is this nation important to my plot? If you are running a sort of free-roam, let the players’ choose their own adventures, it is both yes and no, and you should just keep using their exploration and ideas to build it up. However, if your plot is all about the spirit world, maybe not so much. You can let a lot of the nation building take a back seat unless it has some particular boon or drawback to the plot. Like, say it is a militaristic naturalist country who thinks spirituality is asking for great unrest and thus the party’s exploration into that realm makes them wanted criminals, or perhaps, the king has a spiritual guide, and the party can communicate with him through the abstract and often confusing mind-scape.
I won’t dwell on this one too long, as your campaign is your business and tying the nation into it, and see how that shapes the journey the players must walk is something only you can really know,
So, I only have one more important thing to say about making your nation. Lie. Lie your gosh-dang pants off. Are any of your player’s agricultural experts? How about experts on geography or tectonic plates? Well, if they are, dude, nice skill set, but more than likely, they are not. And that means, even if your geography for your nation is logically unsound, no one will catch your lie. If your farming practices or seasons or a little off, no one will notice. If you act as the expert on these things, not to a condescending degree, but enough to give your player’s confidence that this world and society works, they will believe you. Likewise, mistakes, let them happen, roll with them. If your player suspects something and is building up to the Priest-King of the Holy Kingdom of Eviaries actually lost his faith when his wife died, and has a really solid rationale behind it, lie, say you had it planned from the start. They won’t know! Also, years later when you tell them you just stole that idea you can share a nice laugh.
Anyway, this is more or less my beginner's class on nation-building, a little bit of helpful advice, a bit more focuses on the fluffy lore part of it, rather than the hard facts. If this appeals to you, let me know, and I’ll be sure to do a follow-up, if not, well, I have a lot of other ideas I want to run through.
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