Setting Essentials

I'm a recovering world building addict. If I don't watch myself like a junkie, I spend all my time on the minutiae of history and geography at the expense of giving the players meaningful choices of what to actually do. I remember one particular campaign, heavily cribbed from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where I sent the party on railroaded missions designed to slowly reveal the secret history of this steampunk world I was a little too proud of, as though that were some kind of fucking reward.

These days, I see the value in leaving gaps for you or, better yet, the players to fill in later. One of my major OSR revelations was the mileage you can get out of the "implied setting" - the part of the setting that exists in the choices you give the players through lists and tables. D&D run strictly by the book comes with a strong implied setting. You can bore the players with whatever history and pretense you want, but if you're only using the tables in the books, it's going to feel like the same D&D.

I've been thinking recently about the bare minimum tools I'd want to run a setting that feels fully realized and distinct.

Class, Race, Gear
The key to overcoming my addiction has been to focus on things that most fundamentally affect player choices and actions, and there's nothing more fundamental than character creation. For my current 16th century Balkan horror campaign, the LotFP class and equipment lists were already well-suited. I'm also working on a Mad Max-style setting with four different classes (Basher, Gearhead, Hustler, Preacher) and a completely rewritten gear list.

I Search the Body
It's easy to underestimate the importance of simple things like what people carry around with them. It can go a long way towards teaching the players about the world. Here's the table for the Balkan horror campaign:

d100	Item	d100	Item
1-50	Coins or jewelry worth 5x dice roll in sp	79	Nesting dolls, innermost painted like monster
51-53	Hastily drawn map from one place to another	80	Beautiful old map showing entrances to Voivodja and demihuman enclaves
54-56	Holy symbol or water	81	Coin defaced with the likeness of Veles
57-59	Book on specific monster	82	Hand of glory
60	Vial of a saint’s blood	83	Set of gypsy tarot cards
61	Silver dagger	84	Tickets to see the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
62	Lead-inlaid rapier	85	Fiddle. If played, will summon dancing skeletons
63	Mercury pills	86	Vial of Poison of the Seven Mortal Sins
64	Hunk of salt	87	Icon or relic from a painted monastery
65	Hunk of butter	88	Bottle of homemade plum brandy
66	Vial of elf urine	89	Turkish dates
67	Vial of virgin tears	90	Black animal mask
68	Unicorn horn	91	Human heart, beats faster near danger
69	Piece of cheese	92	Meteorite shard, causes visions
70	Side of salt pork	93	Unusually ornate pocket watch
71	New boots or clothing player wants	94	Signet ring of a local voivod
72	Flask of snake venom	95	Sack of gunpowder
73	Military orders bearing Ottoman seal	96	Instructions for summoning a demon
74	Military orders bearing Slavic  seal	97	Bag of vampire fangs
75	Military orders bearing Latverian seal	98	Baklava
76	Mirror labelled Voivodja	99	Black candle that darkens room when lit
77	Letter from one Voivodjan NPC to another	100	Key to crypt near random landmark
78	Shakespeare’s “The King in Yellow”

Monsters
I'm fully indoctrinated in the camp that advocates unique, custom monsters. Reliance on the Monster Manual can turn a party of adventurers into exterminators if players are familiar enough with the creatures. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but right now I'm going for a specific tone of weird fantasy and horror. I've developed a monster generator to help accomplish that.

Locations
I've become a huge fan of die-drop location tables as an antidote to laboring over maps. The key is to make sure there's something gameable or at least atmospheric about every item on the table. To use these, drop as many dice of every size as you want on the map. The items are located where each die lands. Items with lower numbers on the table will naturally show up more often, so they should be the more common features.

d20	Landmark	Complication
1	Mistbound valley	Traveling gypsies, terrible secret
2	Haunted woods	Remnants of defeated Balkan army
3	Lake with misty island	Battle site
4	Watchtower	Burning farms, refugees
5	Plum orchard	Beast tracks
6	Troubled voivod’s keep	Horse tracks
7	Ottoman camp	Army tracks
8	Rebel camp	Meeting/duelling NPCs
9	Painted monastery	Battle raging
10	Lonely inn	Reward to slay some terrible problem
11	Mad scientist’s tower	Monster hunter(s)
12	Monster’s lair	Corpses hanged at crossroads
13	Wizard’s tower	Pocket plane (evil elves)
14	Ruined keep	Hermit hiding secret
15	Overgrown graveyard	Entrance to Voivodja
16	Shrine to Veles	Voivodjan emissary
17	Bandit hideout	Spy tracking party
18	Forest of impaled corpses	Traveling circus
19	Demihuman enclave	Fertility sacrifice
20	Idyllic village, terrible secret	Volcanic eruption

Random Encounters and NPCs
Now you need to populate that map. Roll d12 to check. For a simple encounter, roll once on the Encounter table. Roll d4 on a road or in settled land, d8 in the woods, and d12 at night. For a dynamic encounter, roll twice on the Encounter table and once on the Dynamic table. Roll d8 if both parties are intelligent or d4 otherwise.

d12	Check	Encounter	Dynamic
1	Simple encounter	Ottomans	Fighting
2	Dynamic encounter	Rebels	Running from
3	Thunderstorm	Gypsies	Hunting/searching for
4	Heavy fog	Bandits	Standing over corpse of
5	Snow	Stag	Talking to
6	Nothing	Boar	Arguing with
7	Nothing	Bear	Haggling with
8	Nothing	Crows	Traveling with
9	Nothing	Bats	-
10	Nothing	Wolves	-
11	Nothing	Spirits	-
12	Nothing	Dwarfs/elves/hobbits	-

And for NPCs:

d20	NPC	Personality	Motivation
1	Hunter	Boisterous	Nationalism
2	Merchant	Bullying	Hedonism
3	Gypsy	Droll	Occult
4	Farmer	Dry	Scorned love
5	Soldier/spy	Generous	Ambition
6	Noble	Arrogant	Sociopath
7	Blacksmith	Paranoid	Vengeance
8	Innkeeper	Snide	Protect family
9	Priest	Severe	Religion
10	Midwife	Impatient	Law and order
11	Guard captain	Suspicious	Fear
12	Mayor	Contemplative	Art
13	Jeweler	Sensitive	Death wish
14	Weaponsmith	Dull	Comfort
15	Distiller	Crafty	Solitude
16	Gang member	Taciturn	Anarchy
17	Philosopher/astronomer	Open	Tradition
18	Artist	Meek	Addiction
19	High priest	Confused	Charity
20	Ruler	Alluring	Wealth

I put together a booklet with all the tables I use for my horror setting, which you can grab here. Use or modify to taste.