Game Master Guidance: Using a Preexisting Setting

While one of the major appeals of roleplaying games is the creative freedom they offer, most of the prominent systems rely on preexisting settings. The most notable RPGs, specifically Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, and World of Darkness have built up elaborate backgrounds over their decades of releases. Some even have alternate settings and time periods in addition to the normal ones. Licensed RPGs, adapted from TV shows, movies, and more, have also been a mainstay for some time now. A new GM will find themselves surrounded by preexisting settings. Before committing to them or making your own, it’s important to consider how your choice will aid your story in some ways but limit it in others.

A preexisting setting, even a particularly loose one, will always have certain constraints. They carry a specific tone, atmosphere, and set of rules. By not making your own setting, you’ll have to adhere to certain expectations. This does somewhat depend on how well acquainted your players are with it. But even if they’re completely ignorant, the background might not be able to handle the revisions you make to it. Certain things might just stop making sense and each major change will be accompanied by countless others.
It can leave an awkward feeling, regardless of whether or not the players can actually recognize the problems. When you take on a setting, you’ll have to adhere to its standards. Or at the very least, figure out how to navigate your way around them without leaving too much of a mess.

Some settings are easier to mess around with than others. Settings written specifically for RPGs are made to be flexible. Its writers have given it enough room for the GM and players to tell the stories they want to. The most extreme examples are those from wargames, namely Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000, which are primarily meant to be backdrops for the factions’ wars and not for traditionally structured stories. Barring those with metaplots (a regrettable trend, to be discussed in a later article), tabletop game settings are designed with the player and GM’s input in mind.

But even this much creative freedom can have its downsides. A GM may need a prewritten setting so they can concern themselves with their own stories, or even just rely on the structure they offer. Those meant for tabletop games can often be too broad or vague, defeating the point of using it in the first place. Additionally, this type of setting still have a distinct atmosphere or specific limitations that, if ignored, can invalidate other aspects, just like those of more conventional mediums. Going back to Warhammer 40K, the setting is built around the idea that space travel is capricious if not lethal and trying to bypass that will make other parts of it confusing. Even tabletop game settings can cause problems for a GM.

However, settings from more traditional media are even more difficult. Barring specific circumstances, they were written to accommodate their own story. The author didn’t write it for the prospective GM looking to explore it alongside the players. The GM might just not be able to find their place in the author’s grand plan, without making major revisions. Additionally, if the players know the work, they’ll expect you to mimic it in some way. That’s assuming they even know or like the piece of media it was adapted from. Failing to capture the essence of your chosen setting might impact the players’ enjoyment of the campaign.

There are still advantages for a GM using a preexisting setting for his campaign. Coming up with a convincing story is hard enough before having to write the world it takes place in. If you can work within a preexisting setting, whatever difficulty that will cause will save you from even more hardship in the long run. This is especially true if you run a “sandbox” type campaign and give your players opportunities to explore the world. Additionally, if you can capture the feeling of the setting, it will add to the players’ immersion. A preexisting setting gives you and the players a chance to leave a mark on their favorite works and fictional worlds. Despite all these advantages, weigh your options. And always remember that in an RPG, the GM is the only one who defines the setting at the end of the day. You just have to consider how your choices will impact the campaign.