Using the gazetteer template as a setting outline, let’s focus on the Introduction. Sounds boring and blah-blah, but it’s crucial because a good intro sets the hook and gets players interested. While this is the hardest part to get right, it’s also the shortest section, and once you nail it, the rest of the gazetteer practically writes itself.
Outline
Here’s a quick reminder of what to include in the gazetteer’s introduction:
- Setting elevator pitch – the context for everything else; should imply tech level
- Title and Tag – the setting’s name and a one-line description of the action
- Opening Crawl – setting synopsis (like the scrolling text at the beginning of every Star Wars movie)
- Conspectus – thoughts, concepts, and references that evoke the setting and its flavour
- Gazetteer format – describes things in game terms, using as a reference, dropping into an existing setting
This entire section shouldn’t take more than half a page. I know – seems impossible. We’ll take each of these one by one.
Setting Elevator Pitch
The conceit of an elevator pitch is that you find yourself sharing an elevator with your company’s CEO: It’s the perfect chance to tell her about your brilliant idea, but you only have until the elevator reaches her floor. You need to give a 30-second infomercial that shows how your idea solves a problem she thinks is worth solving, piques her interest enough to give it some thought, and engages her curiosity enough to learn more.
For your purposes, the elevator pitch consists of:
- Title – The setting’s name, maybe shocking or even a play on a well-known work
- Tagline – One line that reveals the setting’s core conflict, starting with something familiar but adding something unexpected to make the reader go, “Wait, what?” A thesaurus is your best friend here – look for words that connote how your pitch would look if it were a movie poster.
- Opening Crawl – Think of the scrolling text at the beginning of Flash Gordon serials or (nearly) every Star Wars movie.
The title and tagline are relatively easy – they’re all about implication, so choose words that conjure images of what your setting’s about. Without being reckless, stirring your audiences’ imagination is more important than the words’ literal meaning – make a connection first, make sense later.
The opening crawl requires a bit more crafting. Its purpose here is to provide an in media res start that reveals the setting’s core conflict and brings the audience instantly up to speed. The Star Wars opening crawl is an excellent model: First, it’s short – three paragraphs, four sentences, less than 100 words. Second, the crawl highlights key people, places, and things in ALL CAPS, making it easy for the audience to identify important concepts. Third, it sets the stage perfectly – paragraph one is a light setting synopsis, paragraph two is a high-level view of the core conflict, and paragraph three describes where we’re picking up the story.
Fourth – and this is crucial – the opening crawl does not explain how things got to be the way they are. This is where authors get hung up, but to be absolutely clear, the opening crawl is a very broad, very shallow expository tool. There’s time for deep and narrow background later, after you’ve convinced the reader to keep reading.
Conspectus
The conspectus is a type of abstract that characterizes your setting via a roster of evocative words, phrases, and references to inspirational works. It’s a combination tag cloud and word salad, intended to provoke your readers’ imaginations – it’s the paragraph equivalent of the thousand words a picture is worth. The thoughts and images and emotions that arise become a proxy for narrative description. You can use single words, but phrases and allusions are better, and specific call-outs to art, music, books, and film tend to be best. Evan over at In Places Deep writes the best conspectuses I’ve read.
Gazetteer Format & Approach
Optional administrivia to set the readers’ meta expectations:
- Acknowledge that the gazetteer describes the setting via mechanical elements instead of narrative to give the GM the most latitude for their own game
- Offer a high-level GM view so GMs can add it to their existing setting
- Let the reader know this is a reference book to be used at the table, while encounters are going on (as a guide, think of how you would use it during a game)
Putting it All Together
Here’s how my introduction is shaking out:
Savage Emirate
Into the dark heart of the jungle Isle of Minocra
On the mainland, the Sultana expands her empire, driving relentlessly east, heedless of the cost in warriors, food, gold, and steel. To feed her war machine, the Sultana sends a trusted general, Emir Abd al Hakim, and his small force west to the Isle of Minocra, said by explorers to be rich in plunder. But months go by – no riches are sent and no word is received. Resolute, the Sultana mounts an expedition to learn Hakim’s fate. Unwilling to recall her armies from the east, she puts out the call for adventurers…
Conspectus: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad; Heart of Darkness; mainland “colonists” creating a stockade port city-state; curved blades, intricate kaftans, and coloured turbans; friendly natives; rival cannibal tribe with goblin stats and lobster armour; rival mages awakening sleeping sea djinn; floating pirate city with coral dungeons; wearing the fez as a “modern” alternative to the turban, whose style denotes social class; random fish god; ruins of a “western” civilization; religious fighting order remnant of that civilization; weird tattoos with magic effects; cyclops, giant jungle insects, and flying snakes; roving assassins; mystical garden tended by hive-minded butterfly people; ocean whirlpool; magic lamps whose effects vary by the type of oil burned; robed dervishes; fishbone marshmen languishing in sunken ruins.
Format: The Isle of Minocra is a tropical island beyond the shores of a mainland country with an Arabian flavour. As a reference, this gazetteer describes the setting through game mechanics, stats, and encounter tables, which we hope makes it more useful during play. We also hope it gives GMs more creative freedom to adapt the material to their settings. To that end, please note that Minocra is an amalgamation of rich and various Middle Eastern cultural traditions, and while I have taken care to translate them respectfully into an RPG, it’s possible that I have misinterpreted or overlooked important cultural details–if that is the case, please let me know so I can address my error.
Final Words
The intro takes up the smallest space in the gazetteer, but I’d suggest its role in setting right tone is paramount – this is the context for everything that follows. How do your setting intros look? I’d love to see your examples in the comments.