1. Thus suggests MoonHunter: The March: When we build our game environments, we know all the details (hows, whys, whens). Then the campaign starts; history stops. Unless it revolves around the player characters, in most games, nothing else happens. A reminder, CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT. The rest of the world is "in play", as well as the characters. GMs: The players may or may not have an impact on the march of history. If they want to, let them influence events.
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2. Thus suggests MoonHunter: The March: History is made every day. Events that occur today will affect tomorrow. Apply this idea to your game. Treat your world as it is "under construction". It's never finished. This keeps your mind open to possibilities. Keep recording history in the game environment's time line. Apply "events" in places where the characters are not. The world does not have to revolve around the characters, but it does need to move around them.
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3. Thus suggests MoonHunter: The March: Change is the only constant. The game world does not have to revolve around the characters, but it does need to move around them. Events should occur when and where the players are not. When applying history and change to your world, keep track of the results.
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4. Thus suggests MoonHunter: The March: Sometimes an idea is more important or powerful than an army. When a new idea (a technique, a new technological thing, a new spell, a new weapon or armor, a new way to make more things faster, a new application, or an idea (paper money, the corporation, the internet)) occurs in a place, determine what factors will help it spread (or stop it). These are such things as how fast the change will be accepted (how useful is it and who supports it), how far change spreads (based on communication), and lastly what barriers prevent such changes. Change doesn't always occur easily. Cultural elements may stop things from evolving. However, change happens or something occurs to suppress the change.
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5. Thus suggests MoonHunter: The March: History moves forward. Don't have things happen too fast, or no one will know what is happening (unless future shock or chaos is a theme for the game). Don't try and alter events to fit particular goals. You can easily destroy the proper pace of change in your campaign. The flow of history is a tool for the GM, not the dominant element.
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6. Thus suggests MoonHunter: The March: To control the flow of history in their campaigns, some GMs create a list of "future events" and "innovations" that they want to see in the campaign. By thinking of the things you want to happen in the future, and their results, the GM can be totally prepared for the event, even if the players are not. The GM applies the events / innovation when it seems to fit the story.
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7. Thus suggests MoonHunter: The March: When creating a world, you should always create two timelines of history that stop at "now"- the current game year. The first is the world's true history. The second is the acknowledged history, or the history everyone on the world (and the characters) know. There will be overlap between these two timelines. If you are having a long term campaign, you should create two more timelines, extending the "history" into the future. Events on these possible timelines are applied as appropriate to the campaign. This gives you a feel for where the campaign is going. By seeing what is no longer appropriate, you know the effect of your player's actions.
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8. Thus suggests MoonHunter: The March: As a GM, you can use "history" as a guide for how things will proceed on your world. How I love history. Then again, I love a good drink, but I don't approve of drunk driving. While basing events on actual history is a good idea (they come pretested), it is not always applicable. Many historical events occurred because of a random element or some thing that did not occur in your world. It is too easy to toss something into the game world and say "it happened that way in history." The "history excuse", copying an event and throwing it into your game environment (or worse, looking up a historical event like ones in your world to justify their existence) ignores the whys and hows of history. Remember those classes you took? History is whys and hows mixed with whens. Why should your game world's history be any different. History is great for research, but it's a lousy excuse. Use history to understand, but make sure you understand first.
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9. Thus suggests MoonHunter: A ruler and some tape: When creating a world, it is often best to create it to a steady state several hundred years in the past. Take the world from there, evolving it as you would a game you are playing in. That way when your player characters arrive a few hundred years later, they feel the world is in motion, that there is life beyond their "patch". GMs, see the March for more on this idea.