Setting Your Stage: Choosing Your Campaign World

GM: Welcome everyone! I’m really excited to start our new campaign. I’ve been thinking about this for weeks, and I’d love to create a unique world for our campaign together. I was initially thinking a fantasy world, but let’s explore the idea together and see what emerges from our collective imagination.

Quinn: Ooh, fantasy sounds great! I’ve been wanting to play something with swords and magic. Are we talking classic high fantasy with kingdoms and dragons?

River: I love fantasy too, but could we maybe do something with a darker edge? I’ve been reading a lot of gothic literature lately, and there’s something appealing about heroes who have to fight not just external monsters but internal corruption.

GM: That’s interesting, River. What draws you to that darker tone?

River: Well, I think there’s something compelling about stories where victory comes at a cost, where heroes have to make difficult moral choices. Like, what if magic itself is dangerous or corrupting? Or what if the world has been through some terrible catastrophe and people are trying to rebuild while dealing with the lingering darkness?

Robin: Oh, I love that idea! Like a world where magic exists but using it changes you somehow? That could create really interesting internal conflicts for our characters.

Sage: That sounds fascinating. I’m imagining a world where maybe civilization collapsed at some point, and now small communities are trying to survive while ancient evils still lurk in the ruins of the old world. People might need magic to defend themselves, but every time they use it, they risk losing part of their humanity.

GM: These are all excellent ideas! So we’re gravitating toward dark fantasy or gothic horror rather than traditional high fantasy. River, you mentioned magic being dangerous—what does that look like to you?

River: Maybe magic comes from tapping into otherworldly forces that don’t care about human morality. Every spell could require a small sacrifice… not necessarily blood, but maybe memories, emotions, or years from your life. So wizards become increasingly detached and alien as they grow more powerful.

Quinn: That’s both terrifying and cool! But I still want there to be heroic action and adventure. Can we have sword-fighting and dramatic rescues alongside the gothic elements?

GM: Absolutely! Gothic horror doesn’t mean we can’t have exciting action sequences. Think about stories like Van Helsing or Solomon Kane. Plenty of sword fights and dramatic confrontations, but with this underlying current of darkness and moral complexity.

Robin: What if we set this in a world that’s recovering from some kind of magical apocalypse? Like, a hundred years ago, powerful wizards tried to reshape reality and broke something fundamental. Now magic still works, but it’s unpredictable and often tainted by whatever went wrong.

Sage: I love that! And maybe most people are afraid of magic because of what happened, so anyone who uses it is automatically viewed with suspicion. Our characters might be people who’ve been forced to embrace these dangerous powers out of necessity.

GM: Excellent! So we’re looking at a post-apocalyptic fantasy world where magic caused the original catastrophe. Let me ask about technology level, are we talking medieval fantasy, or something different?

Quinn: I’m picturing something like late medieval or early Renaissance. Maybe some communities have managed to preserve or rediscover advanced techniques, while others have regressed to barely surviving.

River: Yeah, and maybe the magical catastrophe destroyed a lot of knowledge, so people are constantly finding ruins of the old civilization with artifacts they don’t fully understand. Some might be useful tools, others could be incredibly dangerous.

Robin: What if different regions have developed in completely different directions? One area might have embraced steam-powered technology to avoid magic entirely, while another has learned to carefully control magical energies despite the risks.

GM: I love the variety that creates! So we might have steam-powered cities that ban magic entirely, rural communities that use folk magic despite the dangers, and wild regions where reality itself is still unstable from the old catastrophe.

Sage: This is giving me chills! What about the power level? I’d love for our characters to become genuinely powerful over time, but I want the world to feel threatening throughout the campaign.

GM: That’s a great question. It sounds like we want Moderate or High Power character progression. You’ll grow into genuinely legendary figures—but I can maintain the threatening atmosphere by scaling up the challenges. As you become more powerful, you’ll face increasingly cosmic threats.

Quinn: Perfect! I’m already imagining my character starting as a simple town guard but eventually becoming someone who can stand against ancient evils.

River: And I’m thinking about playing someone who was forced to learn forbidden magic to save their family, and now has to deal with the consequences while trying to use these dark powers for good.

Robin: What if we’re all from the same region initially? Maybe we’re from one of those communities that’s learned to carefully balance magic and mundane skills?

Sage: I like that idea! We could all have different reasons for leaving home and banding together. Maybe there’s a new threat emerging that’s forcing us to venture into the dangerous wider world.

GM: Excellent! Let me summarize what we’ve created together: We have a dark fantasy world recovering from a magical apocalypse a century ago. Magic still works but it’s dangerous and corrupting, leading to very different regional developments. Some areas ban it entirely and focus on technology, others embrace it despite the risks, and some regions are still chaotic from residual magical effects.

GM: You’ll start as people from a community that’s found some balance between magic and mundane survival, but circumstances are forcing you to venture into the wider, more dangerous world.

River: This sounds amazing! I’m getting so many character ideas.

Quinn: When can we start character creation? I’m already picturing someone with a complicated relationship with both magic and technology.

GM: Let’s move on to character creation, but remember everything we’ve established here is just the beginning. As we play, this world will continue to grow and evolve based on what your characters discover and the choices you make.

The Multiverse system is designed around a fundamental truth: there are unlimited stages for which your story is to unfold. Your campaign setting is a living, breathing world that shapes every aspect of your adventure, from the weapons your heroes wield to the very nature of the challenges they face. Whether you’re exploring the neon-lit streets of a cyberpunk metropolis, navigating the political intrigue of a medieval kingdom, or pioneering the frontier of an alien world, your setting provides the context that transforms dice rolls into memorable moments.

The beauty of Multiverse lies in its adaptability. Rather than locking you into a single genre or time period, the system provides flexible frameworks that can support virtually any type of story you want to tell. A group might spend months exploring a single richly detailed fantasy realm, or they might journey between multiple worlds as dimension-hopping adventurers. Some campaigns focus on the intimate personal stories of characters in small towns, while others span galactic empires and cosmic conflicts. The choice is yours, limited only by your imagination and your group’s shared vision. Together, you create a shared story, and the setting is the first piece of this overall story.

This foundational decision, what world you’ll explore together, shapes everything that follows. It determines which technologies exist, what supernatural forces might be at play, how society is structured, and what kinds of adventures await your characters. More importantly, it establishes the tone and themes that will guide your collaborative storytelling throughout the campaign.

The Wanderer’s Guide to The Multiverse
Looking for some prebuilt settings, or want to better understand the full Multiverse? Visit the The Wanderer’s Guide to The Multiverse for a guide about both traveling the multiverse and some worlds The Wanderer has seen.

The Heart of Setting: Tone and Genre

Before diving into specific details about technology levels or magical systems, the most important question to answer is: What kind of story do you want to tell together? The emotional tone and thematic content of your setting will guide every other decision and create the framework within which your characters’ personal stories will unfold.

High Fantasy and Epic Adventure settings embrace the classic traditions of heroic legends, where noble heroes face cosmic threats and personal growth comes through overcoming seemingly impossible challenges. These worlds feature clear moral distinctions, powerful magic, ancient evils, and the promise that virtue and courage can triumph over any darkness. Characters in high fantasy settings often start as humble individuals who discover their greater destiny, growing into legendary figures whose actions reshape entire kingdoms or worlds.

Dark Fantasy and Gothic Horror explore the shadows between heroism and horror, where victory often comes at terrible cost and heroes must choose between competing moral imperatives. These settings might feature cursed bloodlines, eldritch mysteries, political corruption, and supernatural threats that cannot be defeated through force alone. Characters navigate morally ambiguous situations where the right choice isn’t always clear and survival sometimes requires compromise with dark forces.

Science Fiction and Space Opera transport adventure to the vast canvas of the cosmos, where heroes might explore alien civilizations, navigate complex political alliances between star systems, or struggle against the implications of advanced technology. These settings can range from optimistic visions of humanity’s bright future to dystopian warnings about technology’s potential for oppression. Characters often grapple with questions about what it means to be human in a universe filled with artificial intelligence, genetic modification, and alien cultures.

Urban Fantasy and Modern Mysticism blend supernatural elements with contemporary settings, creating worlds where ancient magic coexists with smartphones and internet connectivity. These settings often feature hidden supernatural communities existing parallel to mundane society, with characters serving as bridges between these worlds or struggling to maintain the boundaries that keep ordinary people safe from supernatural threats.

Cyberpunk and Technological Dystopia explore the intersection of high technology and human alienation, typically set in near-future worlds where mega-corporations wield more power than governments and technology has created new forms of inequality and oppression. Characters in these settings often exist on society’s margins, using their skills and connections to navigate complex urban environments while fighting against systemic corruption or pursuing personal redemption.

Steampunk and Alternate History reimagine historical periods through the lens of alternative technological development, creating worlds where steam-powered automatons might share the stage with Victorian social conventions, or where magical energy sources have accelerated certain aspects of progress while leaving others unchanged. These settings often explore themes of progress versus tradition, social revolution, and the unintended consequences of rapid change.

Post-Apocalyptic Survival examine what happens after civilization collapses, whether through nuclear war, environmental catastrophe, supernatural cataclysm, or other world-ending events. Characters in these settings often focus on rebuilding communities, scavenging resources, and determining what aspects of the old world are worth preserving. These stories frequently explore themes of hope versus despair, the importance of community, and what truly matters when everything else is stripped away.

Technology and Power Levels

Once you’ve established your setting’s emotional tone and thematic focus, you’ll need to consider the practical elements that will shape daily life and adventure possibilities. These decisions directly impact character creation options, available equipment, and the types of challenges characters will face.

Technological Development

The level of technological advancement in your setting determines what tools, weapons, and devices are available to characters, while also shaping the social and economic structures they’ll navigate.

Stone Age and Primitive settings feature characters who rely on natural materials and basic tools, with survival depending on knowledge of the natural world, tribal cooperation, and adaptation to environmental challenges. These settings often emphasize personal relationships, spiritual connections to nature, and the constant struggle to meet basic needs for food, shelter, and protection.

Ancient and Classical civilizations provide the foundation for many fantasy settings, featuring early metalworking, agricultural societies, and the beginnings of complex social hierarchies. Characters might navigate city-states, tribal confederations, or early empires, with trade, warfare, and cultural exchange driving much of the adventure.

Medieval and Renaissance periods offer the classic fantasy backdrop of kingdoms, guilds, and emerging global trade networks. These settings balance feudal social structures with increasing technological sophistication, creating opportunities for characters to serve as knights, merchants, scholars, or artisans in a world where social mobility exists but remains challenging.

Industrial and Steam Age settings explore the dramatic social changes that accompany rapid technological development. Characters might navigate the growing pains of urbanization, labor movements, scientific revolution, and the tension between traditional ways of life and modern efficiency.

Modern and Contemporary worlds provide familiar technological baselines while opening possibilities for hidden supernatural elements or emerging scientific discoveries. Characters have access to global communication, rapid transportation, and advanced medical care, but must also navigate complex social systems and information overload.

Near Future and Cyberpunk environments extrapolate current technological trends into societies dealing with artificial intelligence, genetic modification, advanced computing, and space colonization. These settings often examine the social implications of rapid technological change and the question of whether human nature can adapt to exponentially increasing capabilities.

Far Future and Space Opera settings embrace unlimited technological possibilities, from faster-than-light travel and terraforming to consciousness transfer and reality manipulation. Characters in these worlds often deal with the philosophical implications of transcending traditional human limitations while maintaining their essential humanity.

Supernatural and Magical Forces

The presence and nature of supernatural forces in your setting fundamentally shapes how characters understand and interact with the world around them. This decision impacts not only which abilities are available during character creation, but also the underlying assumptions about how reality functions.

No Magic or Supernatural settings ground adventures in recognizable physical laws and human capabilities. Characters rely entirely on natural talents, learned skills, and technological tools to overcome challenges. This approach often emphasizes realistic problem-solving, social dynamics, and the heroism that emerges from ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances.

Low Magic and Subtle Supernatural worlds feature supernatural elements that exist but remain rare, mysterious, and often hidden from general knowledge. Magic might require extensive study and rare materials, with practitioners keeping their abilities secret from a largely mundane population. These settings create opportunities for characters to gradually discover hidden depths to reality while maintaining a sense of wonder and mystery about supernatural encounters.

Moderate Magic and Open Supernatural settings integrate magical elements into daily life without making them commonplace. Most people know that magic exists and might encounter it occasionally, but it remains the domain of specialists and trained practitioners. Characters can pursue supernatural abilities alongside mundane skills, creating interesting combinations of magical and non-magical approaches to problem-solving.

High Magic and Pervasive Supernatural worlds feature magic as a fundamental force that shapes society, technology, and daily life. Magical practitioners might be common, supernatural creatures could live alongside humans, and the laws of physics might operate differently than in the real world. Characters in these settings often take magic for granted while still finding wonder in its more advanced applications.

Reality-Altering and Cosmic settings embrace unlimited supernatural possibilities, where characters might reshape reality itself or confront forces that exist beyond normal comprehension. These environments support epic storylines where characters growth from humble beginnings to cosmic significance, but require careful handling to maintain meaningful stakes and relatable character development.

Campaign Power Levels and Character Growth

Your setting’s tone and supernatural elements work together with the campaign’s power level to determine how quickly characters develop and how significant their eventual capabilities become. This decision shapes both the mechanical progression system and the narrative arc of character development.

No Powers campaigns remove supernatural abilities entirely, focusing purely on the trait system without ability progression. Characters rely entirely on their natural talents, learned skills, and equipment to overcome challenges. These settings work well for realistic adventures, historical campaigns, or any story where you want to emphasize human achievement and mundane heroism.

Low Power campaigns emphasize gritty realism and hard-earned progress, where characters grow slowly and every advance feels meaningful. These settings work well for survival stories, political intrigue, or realistic adventures where characters remain recognizably human throughout their development. Supernatural abilities, when present, come with significant costs or limitations.

Moderate Power campaigns balance realistic development with opportunities for heroic achievement. Characters grow steadily and can eventually achieve significant capabilities, but they remain grounded in understandable human motivations and limitations. This power level supports most traditional fantasy and modern supernatural settings. This is the most common power level, especially for beginners.

High Power campaigns embrace rapid character development and significant supernatural capabilities. Characters quickly grow beyond normal human limitations and can achieve legendary status within their communities. These settings support epic fantasy, superhero adventures, and space opera campaigns where characters are meant to become larger-than-life figures.

Heroic Power campaigns focus on characters who are destined for cosmic significance. They develop extraordinary capabilities rapidly and eventually transcend normal limitations entirely. These settings work best for campaigns that consciously embrace mythic storytelling, where characters are meant to become gods, cosmic forces, or legendary figures whose actions reshape entire realities.

Rules Options
The Multiverse system is built from modular components that can be mixed and matched to fit your setting’s needs. While most campaigns include all elements at varying levels, you can customize the system by emphasizing or excluding specific components:

• Traits - The foundation of all characters, providing the core skill system for every campaign
• Abilities and Ability Points - Specialized powers that personalize characters; can be limited to passive abilities only or excluded entirely for purely trait-based play
• Bloodlines - Supernatural heritage ranging from subtle blessings to distinct fantasy races; can be purely cosmetic or mechanically significant
• Equipment and Technology - Available tools and weapons that define the setting’s capabilities and aesthetic feel
• Rituals and Artifice - Extended magical or technological processes that allow characters to achieve effects beyond normal abilities; optional for simpler campaigns

Collaborative Setting Creation

While the GM typically takes the lead in establishing campaign settings, the most engaging worlds emerge from collaborative conversations that incorporate everyone’s interests and ideas. Session Zero provides the perfect opportunity for these discussions, allowing the group to build shared investment in the campaign world while ensuring that everyone’s preferences are considered.

Group Worldbuilding Process

Step One: Establish the Foundation
Begin by discussing the broad strokes of genre, tone, and technological level. What kinds of stories excite everyone at the table? Are players drawn to political intrigue, exploration and discovery, supernatural mystery, or epic conflicts? Do they prefer settings that feel familiar and grounded, or are they excited about exploring completely alien environments?

This conversation should focus on creating shared enthusiasm rather than getting bogged down in specific details. The goal is to identify a general direction that excites everyone while leaving room for individual creativity within that framework.

Step Two: Define the Character’s World
Once you’ve agreed on the basic framework, focus on the immediate environment where characters will begin their adventures. This might be a specific city, region, or organization that provides the starting context for character relationships and early adventures.

Encourage each player to contribute elements that connect to their character concept. If someone wants to play a former soldier, what recent conflicts have shaped the political landscape? If another player envisions a scholar character, what institutions of learning exist and what mysteries might they be investigating? These contributions help ensure that every character has natural hooks connecting them to the broader world.

Step Three: Establish Relationships and Connections
Discuss how characters know each other and why they might work together on adventures. These relationships don’t need to be elaborate; characters might be old friends, recent allies brought together by circumstances, or simply individuals whose goals align despite different backgrounds.

The key is establishing enough connection that the group has reason to stay together when challenges arise. Some of the most engaging character relationships emerge from creative tensions; the noble idealist and the pragmatic scoundrel, the traditional warrior and the innovative inventor, the faithful believer and the skeptical investigator.

Step Four: Leave Room for Discovery
Resist the temptation to define everything about the setting during Session Zero. Some of the most memorable world elements emerge naturally during play as characters explore, ask questions, and encounter situations that require improvisation from the GM.

A good collaborative setting creation process establishes enough foundation that everyone feels grounded and connected, while preserving plenty of mystery and possibility for future exploration. The best worlds feel lived-in and authentic because they grow organically from the stories that unfold within them.

Mechanical Implications of Setting Choices

Your setting decisions have direct mechanical impacts on character creation and ongoing gameplay. Understanding these connections helps ensure that your world-building choices support the kinds of adventures you want to experience.

Bloodline Availability

Different settings make different bloodlines available or interpret them in unique ways. A hard science fiction setting might exclude supernatural bloodlines entirely, while a high fantasy world could make them commonplace. Urban fantasy settings often feature bloodlines that manifest subtly, allowing supernatural characters to blend into modern society.

Some settings might reinterpret bloodlines to fit their themes. A cyberpunk world could treat “Draconic” bloodlines as genetic modifications that grant enhanced capabilities, while a post-apocalyptic setting might frame “Cursed” heritage as exposure to mutagenic radiation or otherworldly contamination.

Equipment and Technology

The technological level you establish determines which equipment categories are available to characters. Medieval fantasy settings focus on crafted items, alchemical preparations, and enchanted equipment. Modern campaigns provide access to contemporary tools, vehicles, and communications technology. Far future settings might feature energy weapons, advanced materials, and reality-manipulating devices.

Consider how supernatural elements interact with technology in your setting. Do magical and technological systems work together harmoniously, compete for dominance, or exist in separate spheres? These decisions shape both the equipment characters can access and the types of problems they’ll face.

Ability Manifestations

Character abilities should manifest in ways that fit your setting’s established tone and supernatural assumptions. The same mechanical ability might appear as divine blessing in a religious fantasy setting, genetic mutation in a superhero world, advanced training in a realistic military campaign, or technological augmentation in a cyberpunk environment.

Encourage players to describe their abilities in ways that reinforce the setting’s themes and feel. This collaborative approach to ability manifestation helps maintain consistent tone while allowing for individual creativity and character distinctiveness.

Example Settings

To illustrate how these principles work in practice, here are three example settings that demonstrate different approaches to tone, technology, and supernatural elements:

The Shattered Lands (High Fantasy)

Tone: Epic Adventure with Community Building
Technology: Medieval with Emerging Magical Enhancement
Magic: High Magic, Recently Returned
Power Level: Moderate Power

The world emerges slowly from the Age of Fears, a dark century when terror and despair ruled the land and magic vanished from the world. As communities band together for protection and hope returns to human hearts, the ancient magical forces are awakening once more. City-states have risen from the ashes of fallen empires, each developing its own culture, government, and approach to the returning supernatural energies.

Some city-states embrace the returning magic, training new generations of spellcasters and seeking to recover lost knowledge from before the Age of Fears. Others remain suspicious of supernatural forces, believing they contributed to the ancient catastrophe, and focus on advancing mundane crafts and technologies. Still others try to find balance, integrating magical innovations carefully while maintaining strong foundations in traditional skills.

Characters begin as citizens of these emerging city-states, whether as agents working to expand their community’s influence, explorers seeking to reclaim lost territories, or pioneers attempting to establish new settlements in the slowly healing lands. The setting supports political negotiations between different city-states, exploration of territories abandoned during the Age of Fears, and the rediscovery of ancient magical sites and artifacts.

All supernatural bloodlines are available, with many representing connections to the magical forces that are returning to the world or legacies of those who survived the dark years through supernatural means. Magic is becoming more common but remains somewhat unpredictable as practitioners rediscover techniques lost for generations. Characters can expect to grow in power as they help rebuild civilization and master the returning magical energies.

Neo-Tokyo 2157 (Cyberpunk with Supernatural Elements)

Tone: Urban Fantasy meets Technological Dystopia
Technology: Far Future with Social Regression
Magic: Low Magic, Hidden from Corporate Control
Power Level: Moderate Power

Three mega-corporations control most of Earth through advanced AI systems and genetic modification technology, but ancient spiritual forces have begun awakening in response to humanity’s technological overreach. The old gods and spirits that once protected natural places now manifest through the city’s digital networks, creating glitches in corporate surveillance and opportunities for those who know how to listen.

Characters typically work as freelance operatives navigating between corporate interests, underground resistance movements, and awakening supernatural forces. Adventures might involve corporate espionage enhanced by spirit guides, hacking attempts that require both technological and mystical expertise, or protecting communities from the social disruption caused by rapid technological change.

Supernatural bloodlines manifest subtly and are often misunderstood by corporate medical systems as genetic anomalies. Characters must balance their developing supernatural abilities with the need to avoid corporate detection, while technology provides both powerful tools and potential vulnerabilities. Growth comes through understanding both cutting-edge technology and ancient wisdom, creating unique combinations of mystical and technological capabilities.

The Wasteland Reclamation (Post-Apocalyptic Rebuilding)

Tone: Survival and Community Building
Technology: Pre-Industrial with Scavenged Modern Elements
Magic: Moderate Magic, Recently Awakened
Power Level: Low Power

Forty years after the Great Catastrophe destroyed industrial civilization, scattered communities are beginning to rebuild while dealing with the strange new energies the disaster released into the world. The old technology still works when you can find it and figure out how to maintain it, but most communities have reverted to simpler ways of life based on agriculture, craftsmanship, and trade between settlements.

The Catastrophe didn’t just destroy cities and governments, it awakened something in human consciousness that allows certain individuals to manifest supernatural abilities. These “Touched” individuals are both valued for their capabilities and feared for their unpredictability, creating complex social dynamics around power, responsibility, and community acceptance.

Characters typically serve as scouts, traders, diplomats, or protectors who help communities navigate the challenges of rebuilding civilization while dealing with environmental hazards, resource scarcity, and the social tensions that arise when supernatural abilities upset traditional power structures. Adventures focus on solving practical problems, building relationships between communities, and exploring the slowly healing world to recover useful knowledge and technology.

Making Your Choice

Selecting your campaign setting, whether from existing options or through collaborative creation, is ultimately about choosing the stage where your group’s unique story will unfold. The perfect setting is the one that excites everyone at the table, supports the kinds of adventures you want to experience, and provides enough flexibility for characters to grow and change in meaningful ways.

Trust your instincts and don’t be afraid to experiment. Some of the best campaigns emerge from unexpected combinations of elements or creative reinterpretations of familiar themes. A steampunk fantasy world might feature magical energy powering industrial machinery. A space opera setting could include ancient mystical traditions that survived the transition to galactic civilization. A modern urban campaign might incorporate elements from multiple supernatural traditions as characters discover that reality is far stranger and more wonderful than they imagined.

Remember that your setting can evolve as your campaign progresses. Characters might begin their adventures in a single location or world and later discover opportunities to explore entirely different environments. The Multiverse system is designed to support these transitions, allowing characters to adapt to new circumstances while maintaining their essential identity and relationships.

The most important consideration is creating a foundation that supports memorable storytelling and collaborative fun. Whether you’re exploring the familiar territory of classic fantasy kingdoms or pioneering entirely original worlds that exist only in your shared imagination, the perfect setting is the one where your characters can become the heroes of their own unforgettable legend.

Your adventure begins with a single question: What world do you want to explore together? The answer to that question opens the door to infinite possibilities, limited only by your creativity and your courage to discover what lies beyond the next horizon.

Setting Creation Checklist

Use this checklist to ensure you’ve covered the essential elements of your campaign setting:

Foundation Elements

• Genre and Tone - What kind of story are we telling? (High fantasy, cyberpunk, horror, etc.)
• Technology Level - What tools and devices exist in this world?
• Supernatural Elements - How much magic/supernatural power exists and how does it work?
• Power Level - How quickly will characters advance and how powerful will they become?

World Details

• Starting Location - Where do characters begin their adventures?
• Social Structure - How is society organized? (Kingdoms, corporations, city-states, etc.)
• Major Conflicts - What tensions or threats create adventure opportunities?
• Available Resources - What equipment, knowledge, and allies can characters access?

Character Integration

• Available Bloodlines - Which character heritages fit this setting?
• Ability Manifestations - How do supernatural powers appear and function? This is often a mix and not a single answer.
• Character Connections - How do the PCs know each other and why do they work together?
• Personal Stakes - What draws each character into the larger conflicts and adventures?

Collaborative Elements

• Player Contributions - Has each player added something meaningful to the world?
• Shared Enthusiasm - Is everyone excited about the setting we’ve created?
• Room for Growth - Have we left mysteries and possibilities for future exploration?
• Clear Boundaries - Do we understand what content and themes fit our chosen tone?

Now that you’ve established the stage for your adventures, it’s time to create the heroes who will bring your shared world to life. The character creation process will help you build protagonists whose personal stories interweave with the larger setting, creating opportunities for meaningful adventure and collaborative storytelling. Let the world you’ve chosen guide your character concepts, but don’t be afraid to surprise yourself—sometimes the most memorable heroes emerge from unexpected combinations of background, motivation, and circumstance.