CASTLE OLDSKULL – Game World Generator – Deluxe Edition is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kent David Kelly. This is an expanded version of the original Game World Generator. The supplement is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
This is a 434 page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $4.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.99 during a sale. Two pages are the front and rear covers, almost three pages are the front matter, slightly over 4 pages are the Table of Contents and four pages are About the Author and Open Game License.
The Description gives an overview of the supplement and explains that it is an expanded version of the original Game World Generator with apparently an extra 90,000 words, making it more than double the size of the original edition.
The Introduction considers how creating a game world may be one of the more difficult exercises for a GM, resulting in many getting an off-the-shelf setting, and gives some of the inspirations behind the supplement.
The Glossary of Major Terms has a variety of terms used provided for reference.
Part One: Twenty-Six Steps into the Dreamlands is the creation of the actual world. The 26 steps are listed at the beginning. First the size of the canvas is decided on; the author provides some suggestions as to size. This size is the number of U.S. letter sheets used to create the game world. This should be drawn on hex paper.
Once the world size is determined, the continents are drawn on it. After the world is drawn, it is then narrowed down to a multi-kingdom heartland surrounding a terrain barrier and which hemisphere it is in is decided. The scale of the world should be determined; the author recommends using 24 mile hexes, the old standard, as this can be divided different ways.
A continental divide is placed on each continent followed by mega-rivers, mountain ranges, major rivers, great lakes, regional divisions, political subdivisions and wilderness. Each region is given a number and given a summary that just has whether it is wilderness or civilised – the author recommends a lot of wilderness as this is where much adventure happens. Consequently, the game world, whilst it might be similar to Middle-Age Europe at a technology level, will have far fewer inhabitants – of the safe variety – and far more places to adventure.
Regions are numbered and then given overviews using a table of what they are and what the primary terrain feature is. The civilised regions are then classified and the final step is to pick one sector that is considered the most interesting and to flesh out some of the regions in that sector, as this is where the campaign will start.
So, although much of the world is described, it is in varying levels of detail. The area where characters will start will be created in the most detail and the further away it gets from the starting area the less detail there will be. Much of the world will simply be the continental outlines. This is so that, rather than attempting to create an entire game world and burning out, starting with what is needed, but with ideas as to how to develop it further.
Part Two: Realm Development starts by defining the starting area; the author recommends a rectangular area roughly the size of a normal piece of paper or roughly a 3×4 ration to aid with number calculations. Next is more map drawing, this time of the starting area and the advantages of hex, graph and blank paper are considered. Scale is recommended to be the old 24 miles per hex, both for ease of division and ease of splitting the hex up. 6 in 1 hex paper is recommended.
The area is drawn, starting with major cities and towns, as well as some smaller settlements, giving settlements different traits, placing major cities and terrain, drawing roads – less than might be expected; the aim is to create more wilderness – filling in terrain, adding danger zones and finally an overview of the realm in the realm detail dossier.
Part Three: A Realm Worthy of Play starts with names then types, which has a list of realms based on size. Realm resources is followed by more detailed breakdowns of resource types. There are some generators for city and town names. Next is predominant human alignment – based on the nine alignment system – and percentages for each other alignment based on the primary one.
The realm’s rulers are then done, with classes and experience levels, as well as the ruler’s residence. The class of a ruler will also have an effect on realm culture and beliefs.
Populations of humans, demi-humans and humanoids are next, with these varying on the locations, and demi-human and humanoid realms and rulers. Lastly there are dragon species and monsters, with suggestions for the types based on the environment.
Part Four: The City State Design Guide is the primary new addition to the supplement. It seems likely that the material on this section was taken from the author’s old supplements on city-state design. This is intended to generate the most important city in the world, from placing it to designing it; the design does not go on a street by street basis, at least to start with. In fact, the author later suggests using existing maps for the city, real or fantasy.
The city starts with an overview, adding denizens, deities worshipped, law and enforcement, factions, secret societies, guilds, places of interest, shops and so forth.
This section appears to be very strongly influenced by the author’s primary city-state of Grimrook. That city is divided into nine sectors, one for each alignment. This is designed using nine pieces of paper, with important features for each section noted down as the steps are progressed through. If the intent is to create a city that isn’t like Grimrook, much of this section will be harder to use.
Part Five: Appendices has types of government, lists of deity groupings including the author’s Tyrrhenian pantheon, factions, magic, different types of terrain, wilderness hazards, campaign events and realm history.
CASTLE OLDSKULL – Game World Generator – Deluxe Edition in Review
The PDF is decently bookmarked with major and minor sections linked and the Table of Contents is to a similar level of detail. Navigation is good for a large supplement. The text maintains a two column format and some minor errors were noticed. There is a variety of public domain and stock art, both colour and black and white. The styles are frequently not that complimentary, but overall presentation is better than it was in earlier supplements.
There are references to a lot of the author’s other supplements; The Pegana Mythos, The Classic Dungeon Design Guide Books I, II and III, 333 Realms of Entropy, Dungeon Delver Enhancer, City State Encounters, D100 NPC Generator, Oldskull Adventure Generator and Monsters & Treasures Level 1. These are not really required to use this supplement, which is fortunate, but may be useful to have.
This is essentially a supplement in two parts. One part is on creating a game world in ever more focused detail as the area covered gets smaller. The second is to create a city, and the world’s most important city at that, a powerful city-state that is the dominant urban area of the world.
Is this worth getting if the Game World Generator is owned? Partially that depends if City State Creator I and II are owned; much of the information in those two supplements has probably been added to this with some more material. Yes, the supplement is still worth getting if all three are already owned, as the information is collected together, edited and reorganised, just perhaps not worth it at full price.
Can a game world, or a city, be created using this supplement? Yes – with caveats. The game world that will be created is definitely an Old School game world, one harking back to the original game. It is therefore best at creating such as that. For someone intending to create a different style of world, the supplement is still useful, but the step-by-step process may not be followed.
Similarly with creating a city. City creation is designed around the concept of creating a powerful city-state, and one of a style similar to the author’s Grimrook. For creating an ordinary city, or a city of a different style to Grimrook, just like with the game world, the step-by-step process is less likely to be followed. Instead, again, useful information can be taken out and used.
Game World Generator – Deluxe Edition can be used to build a certain type of game world and city-state from scratch, but fortunately it has other uses as well. There are quite a lot of resources in here that can be used to develop parts of the game world and cities, albeit not the author’s preferred type. Tastes vary and not everybody wants the same type of creation. Castle Oldskull – Game World Generator – Deluxe Edition is quite a useful toolkit and assemblage of information, especially at a reduced price, and it can be found by clicking here.
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