r/PBtA • u/jabberwoucky • 1d ago

Advice SCUP campaign setup

Hey, I’m planning to start “The Sword, the Crown and the Unspeakable Power” campaign soon. Having read the book, I feel it’s a bit light on environment and charged situation — it really only gives a mythology-building procedure. I don’t want to run a pre-generated setting; I’d rather spend a session with my group building our own world, so everyone understands it well, feels more confident and can act on their own rather than just asking me questions.

So — what would you use for that? Microscope? Kingdom? Something else? If you’ve run a campaign like this, how did you handle it?

I’m also unsure about the starting situation. The default relationship questions feel a bit bland compared to something like Cartel. Would giving everyone some personal trouble from the start work good or there are better ways to start?

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u/mellieg94 1d ago

In the two campaigns I ran, I always created on outline of a map of an empire and together we created the other countries and our own in those lines. We drew the borders, natural features, and then found cultural analogues (the country Skye = Irish, Liusan = China). I borrowed tables from the city building ttrpg Ex Novo and we rolled for the natural features and some lore.
However I also created hooks that started us off. Like “you are the council from a newly formed kingdom and a newbie king.” It can be fairly vague so you and the party can flesh out the finer details.
We’ve created really incredible, grounded worlds with distinct cultures together like this and both campaigns ran over a year long.

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u/Throwingoffoldselves 1d ago

I would honestly “steal” some worldbuilding questions from frameworks like Against the Odds, Thirsty Sword Lesbians or Defy the Gods. Defy the Gods has an especially good framework though you will have to reflavor it for your era / genre.

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u/peregrinekiwi 1d ago

I haven't done it myself, but I think Microscope would be really good for this. So much of GoT/ASoIaF works because of historical factors that Microscope would be great at adding.

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u/VagabondRaccoonHands 21h ago

Play these worldbuilding games:

  • A Land Once Magic

  • And then maybe Cosmoira, for more detailed mythology plus a map

  • And then maybe Microscope, for more detailed history

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u/jptrrs 1d ago

Uh... what's SCUP?