 In Part I, I discussed the four important aspects that must be present to be successful: concept, scope, time, and goals. These aspects aren't just germaine to designing campaign worlds, but to any successful project, be it writing a poem, building an addition to your house, or passing a driving test. Now let's settling into those topics which are specific to building the campaign world. The first one I'll start with is cosmology, which is the focus of this article.
Cosmology is defined as the study of the Universe. That's great for the real world. However, keep in mind you're the one designing your campaign universe. Therefore, when it comes to campaign settings, cosmology is the design of the universe for your setting. If you're focusing on a kingdom, that's the "universe," so to speak. However, if you're going all out including creation myths, multiple continents, many years of worldly age, pantheons of gods, etc., that, too, is cosmology. Right up front you need to determine the cosmology for your campaign. Are you going to detail the planes of existence, the deities, how the area where the players start fits into the larger universe? This is an important question to ask and it's guided by the scope of your campaign world and the amount of time you have to spend. There isn't a one size fits all here. For instance, the Forgotten Realms setting has a multitude of gods. It has so many gods that a long time Faerun DM like myself sometimes has trouble keeping track of all the minor ones. Sure, it's easy to remember Bane, Torm, Mystra, Helm, and even Lolth, but how about Red Knight and Yutrus? Ok, those of us who remember the orc gods as presented long ago in Dragon and then later in Unearthed Arcana (first edition) remember Yutrus, but I think you get my point. Faerun is very successful with its multitude of gods. Does your campaign setting have to have them? Absolutely not. Case in point: Star Wars. Is there a god? No. There's just the Force. Clerics can wield force-like powers. It's workable if it fits your campaign setting. I've recently played in a campaign where there a few named gods. Players can and have created some of their own. Does that work? Absolutely it does. You've got to find the fit for your particular campaign. If you're really stuck and unsure, grab a copy of Deities and Demigods and pull out the Greek or Norse gods. I've done that in the past. If you can find an old first edition copy, there's even more for you. But Cosmology isn't just about gods and religions. It's about planes and how the PCs' world fits into the larger picture. I'll go back to Faerun. Its cosmology does not match the cosmology in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Nothing wrong with that. And certainly the cosmology of the Ravenloft setting does not lend itself to any kind of plane jumping. Once in the Demiplane of Shadow, you're stuck... unless the Mists release you. Your decisions on the cosmology of your campaign setting should form the foundation of everything else. Therefore, think about this aspect a great deal. Your initial decisions aren't set in stone. However, if you change course with respect to cosmology, you may find yourself redesigning aspects of your campaign setting. I've run into this in my most recent campaign world design. I've changed my creation myth to revolve around four central gods. That changes how the pantheons formed for the various races. This also changes the motivation of some of those races. Therefore, there are some things I'm going to have to go back and redesign. As I said, cosmology can be kept fairly simple. It can even be based upon "reality." A campaign I'm running for my sons involves an alternate earth where magic and magical creatures exist during the time when the great fleets of Europe began to form. The cosmology for that is mostly defined because it's based on history. There need to be some tweaks here and there due to the introduction of magic, but basically it's done for me. Has the cosmology for this world proven to be successful? Thus far, yes, and it has required significantly less work than designing a whole world from scratch. Hopefully I've illustrated why cosmology is an important aspect to the design of a solid campaign world. Consider your setting's cosmology carefully. The more you can stick to as you go through the rest of your world design, the less redesign you'll find yourself doing. And time is always a critical factor when it comes to designing a solid and interesting campaign setting.
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