"Okay, you go to the
inn."
"Who's
there? What do we see?"
"Uh, you can get some drinks and some entertainment."
"Entertainment?
Not barmaids again!"
"Uh, it's a storyteller."
"What
story is she telling?"
"Uh, the story of some hero or something,...you know, beginning of the
world stuff."
"Great!
Tell the story!"
!?%#@?!
Have you ever been caught flat-footed by your
players expecting more background than you've prepared? Have you heard the
complaint that your world is like a movie set for a western town--when they push
on the building front it falls down because there's nothing behind it? Making a
timeline can prevent this.
Timelines can be used to tell players something
about the world their characters exist in. Preparing a timeline can help the GM
flesh out the culture and give the players some idea of the world, and possible
backgrounds for the PCs themselves. Timelines give a "feel" for the
area and culture. They can also exist in multiple versions: the GM's version can
include all the past, current, and future plots and intrigues, and the player's
versions can be used to give cultural or regional points of view. Admittedly, if
all the players are from one culture they will only receive one point of view.
Even so, the timeline can be used to show cultural bias, accepted modes of
behavior, the impact of religion or magic, and the importance of any other
institutions the GM wish to accentuate. Finally, they are a nice story-telling
touch to add breadth and verisimilitude to the world.
Making timelines can seem daunting at first, but
they are easy enough to start. The beginning of history in any fantasy world is
almost always shrouded in religious symbolism. To start a timeline for a
specific culture, figure out the religion of the area and apply the appropriate
cultural bias. For example, if a culture believes art is the greatest
profession, it's a strong probability that their foremost deity will be some
kind of artist. Perhaps this artist carved the known world out of the primal
slime, or sang the defeat of the chaotic dragon that was preventing the orderly
creation of the world. If the creator of the world is a healer deity, the
fertility of the world may rest solely on the fact that this deity periodically
heals it. Remember, most cultures model their deities on what they believe is a
cultural ideal. Observe how the GM can have deities, a possible quest (to defeat
the evil fighting your deity), and a cultural background already built in with a
creation story.
Say the GM wants all the best warriors to come from
the North. The culture should be very war-like. The GM wants the warriors there
to be egalitarian, with most men tending to be berserkers, which favors the
generally greater strength of men. Women will compensate by being the distance
fighters: missile weapons, strategists, and clever leaders. Furthermore,
expansionism should be seen as a bad thing.
Okay, the lead deities should be aspects of
warriors. The lead god is a female tactician, and the secondary god will be a
male berserker. This means She should do something using His strength to create
the world. Let's say She shot the evil what it with her bow, wounding it enough
that He can slice it up with His sword in a berserker rage. Then She planned
what the world would look like and got Him to hew it out of the evil whatsis'
corpse so people would have a place to live. The deities are not omnipotent, so
some of the evil managed to stay in the world, and regularly comes to light in
the North. She has made the North an unforgiving climate so harsh warriors would
be bred to fight the evil when it rises. Since the evil only rises in the North,
the warriors want to stay where their deities have told them to stay in order to
fight it.
After the creation myth is established, more
current legends and heroes can be filled into the timeline. These legends can
also be used by the GM and player working together to flesh out the PC's
background and motivations. This gives a new PC some context in her relationship
with the world around her. If a legendary quest or cultural imperative exists
already, many players like to work with the GM to place their PCs within this
context. Alternatively, some people like their PCs to be the "odd man
out". However, most cultures believe what they do is not only right, but
the only correct way to do things. Depending on how fanatic a culture is, the
"odd man out" can even be seen as wrong and dangerous.
In the South, there is an artistic, male-dominated
society. Their monotheistic religion says that the world and man are the
artistic masterpieces of the male Deity. Woman was a creation of evil which
cajoled man into disobeying his god. Man's transgressions allowed woman, death,
and decay to become a part of the heavenly cosmos. This has defiled the beauty
of His creation. It is His command that man atone for his weakness by
subjugating woman. Furthermore man must spread His religion to all by showing
the splendor of His world, His greatest creation, in artistic formats. Thus the
South's greatest heroes are painters, architects, sculptors, and other artistic
types of people. Unfortunately, while the South has effectively subjugated women
in their own culture, they are having some trouble convincing the North that the
Northern religion is wrong. There have been three great wars between the North
and the South. Unsurprisingly, the North has won all three. The South is
becoming bitter and turning isolationist economically. However, it feels it must
accomplish its religiously mandated goals. Instead of fighting the next war with
warriors, it will have to fight on another front.
Now the world has a mythical background, two
strongly defined and opposing cultures, and several obvious inherent conflicts.
It doesn't matter if there was really a Big Bang, or if the world is really held
up by four elephants standing on a turtle. What matters to the players is how
their PCs see the world. A creation story, whether mythical or otherwise, gives
a PC a sense of knowing, understanding, and belonging in this world or culture.
Also, players have a wide variety of social stations and motivations with which
to begin character development. Will they play a Northerner or a Southerner?
Will they play a grim, dedicated warrior priest, or a flippant youngster who
doesn't really believe in "the evil"? Will they take up the quest of
finding a way for the South to sneakily triumph over the Northern unbelievers,
or will they play the person who believes the South should be able to defend
itself physically, by training warriors instead of just artists?
One of the nice things about identifying and
describing the heroes and legends that have gone before is they can be used as
inspiration for both the players and the PCs. If one of the great
"traitors" of the South was a woman who wished to change the South's
religion and/or culture, perhaps one of the players will find this interesting
and wish to include it in her character. Making the PC related to this long-dead
person will connect the character with both the background and other people
within the game. Perhaps the Southern One True Church is quietly watching the
members of this particular family for more dangerous ideas. Perhaps it is a
public shame on the family escutcheon which the PC's father wishes to see
erased. Maybe the PC secretly desires to emulate the ideals of this ancestor.
Plots, intrigues, and points of view can also be
delineated by one or more different timelines. The GM may have the driving
forces behind certain cultural trends written down in her timeline, whereas all
the players see are the different cultural reactions to these trends. The
progression of "off-screen" actions, such as a distant war or
assassination, can also be traced this way. Cultural points of view can give
different groups different interpretations of these actions. What one culture
sees as heroic another group may see as blackest villainy. Simple changes in how
the story is told can be used to show this. As an example, a specific event
occurring before the PCs begin playing can be described in several ways:
Pre-PC Date (Northern version) Southerners basely
murder Northern hero/queen, and invade Northern valley. Northerners righteously
object. Justice is done.
Dwarves (newly discovered race; friendly to North)
teach Northerners to build sensible, square, stone, defensible buildings.
The same event is shown from the Southern point of
view. Note how the emphasis on certain events and the descriptive style has
changed:
Pre-PC Date (Southern version) In a gesture of
peace, the Southerners attempt to establish an embassy in some Northern valley.
The obstreperous Northerners violently object; apparently they do not know how
to trade or share. Some unimportant Northern chief is killed in some tedious
provincial political troubles; of course, the Southerners are framed for the
murder. The Northern barbarians will not listen to protestations of innocence.
They also start building monstrously ugly stone buildings all around the country
they've seized. These are hideously painful to the Artistry of the One True God.
The Northern barbarians are too stupid to see the truth. Like children, they
will have to be taught correct behavior.
The writing for the North is shorter and choppier
to signify the almost militant adherence to brevity and conciseness. The writing
for the South is somewhat florid; it shows a slightly pretentious attention to
the artistry of words. Obviously, both sides will depict themselves as right.
The GM, on the other hand, has a different version
altogether--she knows the cause and effect:
Pre-PC Date (Secret GM version) The dwarves (a race
unknown to the Southerners) decide to support the North, as their culture is
closer to dwarven ethical standards, and the South is xenophobic. For religious
reasons, the Southerners enter a Northern valley. Northerners object. The
dwarves conduct an experiment in manipulation of humans by killing a Northern
hero/queen in the valley, and leaving evidence against Southerners at the murder
site. The Northerners blame the Southerners or her murder, and violently repel
all Southerners from the valley.
The dwarves teach the Northerners how to build big,
square, stone, defensible castles so the Northern domains can be defended from
Southern depredations.
One thing to bear in mind while filling in details
on past history is the cyclical nature of history. This can be roughly explained
by pointing out that cultures tend to follow cycles of increasing and decreasing
effects. For example, a militaristic society might wage war to the maximum
capability of its homeland. At some point the supply lines get too long, or
there is some huge setback, or there isn't enough raw materiel and people to
throw into the military machine. At this time the culture will start to become
disenchanted with its former goals. The cycle will start to swing to a less
militant position. Some of these cycles can be conservatism vs. liberalism,
militarism vs. pacifism, religious fanaticism vs. magical fanaticism, or any
other "-isms" you wish to include. Scholars are still arguing over
whether this theory is true or not. However, someone trying to fill in up to
several thousand years of history with interesting cultural trends and
occurrences probably doesn't care. Use cycles to make logical chains of events.
If one culture waged war on another, the loser probably had a bad time of it. In
an agriculturally based economy, destroying the crop will probably cause
hardship, starvation, riots, or even plague. If you lose a lot of your populace,
eventually you will reach the carrying capacity of the land. At this time the
loser may decide to redress old injuries and declare war on its former
conqueror. And so the cycle starts another turn. This type of thing will cause
change in the culture. It doesn't matter if these changes take generations:
people and news moved more slowly in the medieval time period. The GM can do the
same in your fantasy game if you wish. Also, one of your greatest time-savers in
creating a timeline is to use previously existing histories. One of the best is
the history of our world. Reading medieval history is not only fascinating, it
vividly illustrates the old adage about truth being stranger than fiction.
Now the GM has a beginning, and some of the
intervening times. Set this aside for a while, and identify precisely the
"feel" of the current cultures in the game. Figure out what would
cause these cultural generalizations, and put them in the timeline, working
backward from the present. Eventually the GM will have the past and the present
meet, and the timeline will be ready for play.
The desired current feel in the game is one of
impending disaster that only drastic action can prevent. Okay, make sure the
South has been caught at some unforgivably heinous deed, such as casting at the
North immensely powerful, generations-long spells designed to kill women.
Obviously the North is VERY angry with the South, and the South has never been
good at defending itself militarily. The Northern religion of Him is certainly
on the upswing, with more berserkers than ever before. Make sure the PCs have a
good reason to not want the South to be obliterated, as it most assuredly will
be unless something is done immediately. It doesn't matter if the PCs are
Northern or Southern; the game's feeling will be one of impending disaster that
hopefully only their quick thinking can prevent.
There are two basic times to make a timeline.
Obviously, the first possibility is before the campaign begins. This has the
advantage of giving your new and future players somewhere to start in their
quest for an appropriate background for a PC. If a world and its cultures are
delineated ahead of time, there is a framework existing on which to create your
characters. How many times have you heard something along the lines of
"she's kinda like a Viking"? This is a simple example of using a
culture to give a character definition.
The second possibility is to make your timeline up
after the game has begun. This isn't as difficult as it may sound. The one thing
the GM must keep in mind is consistency. Pull together all your notes and
organize the current, PC-affected history of the world. Obviously, the GM have a
"feel" in mind for the game; you've been playing it for a while. Once
you know where you wish to end up, backtrack and figure out what would cause the
game's current set of attitudes. Fill in the current events the PCs know about,
keeping consistency in mind. Then add a few current events they're ignorant of,
and the Gm will got a timeline with gaming suggestions already built in.
A final note on your timeline: you don't have to
fill it in completely. Put in blank spaces: e.g.: "the time of the Great
Plague was a decade of deep fear and unrest. Most of the records of that time
were lost or destroyed." This means the GM can always have the beginning
seeds of some useful game idea you've just thought of come from that time. Most
huge cultural problems have been fermenting for a while. Leave yourself some
slack to "ret-con" history. "Ret-con", or retroactive
continuity, can be a very useful tool in explaining both things the GM
originally forgot, and cool new ideas the GM wish to insert.
This article has been written with Fantasy Hero in
mind, but it can be easily adapted to other genres. Remember, timelines tell
your players about the world and about possible backgrounds for the PCs. For
your beginning, use whatever the current culturally applicable myth is. Today
there are people who believe in the Biblical story of Genesis, as well as people
who believe in the Big Bang. Neither has received the "Deity Stamp of
Approval". Both are systems of belief which help explain not only the
creation of the world, but also our place in it. Both cause people to act in
certain specific ways, and affect the culture of the people holding those
beliefs. Blank spots in the timeline allow really weird things to be found from
the "Imperial Millennium", or a work of "fiction" from
pre-history. For intervening times, heroes and legends can still be used,
they'll simply be more well known, culturally specific, and widely spread.
The lanky gray rabbit busily chewed on a carrot and
leaned against the backside of the industriously digging fat man. His
characteristic "What's up, doc?" was answered by the expected "Shhhh!
Be vewy, vewy quiet! I'm hunting wabbits!" The crowd chuckled
appreciatively. They knew exactly how the story would end, but they still loved
to see the fat man get his comeuppance. They were watching a cultural ideal in
action: never start the fight, but always finish on the winning side.
Finally, use the same techniques delineated before
for current history. Leave blank spots, work backwards from the feel the GM
want, use cycles of events, swipe from our past. Keep in mind, history is
written by the winners. If the GM need to change some point in the timeline,
have an adventure where it is discovered "the Truth" has been covered
up, and the currently accepted version of events is a lie. Above all, have fun.
If it isn't fun, why are you gaming?
Let's try the opening again:
"Okay, you go to the inn."
"Who's
there? What do we see?"
"You can get some drinks and some
entertainment."
"Entertainment?
Barmaids?"
"No, you twit, it's a storyteller!"
"What
story is she telling?"
"It's the story of the great goddess of
wisdom and leadership, and Her consort, the god of emotion and war, and how they
defeated the evil Chimaera of Chaos and created the blessed Northern environs
for us all."
"Great!
Tell the story!"