How did you introduce your custom setting to your players?

threw a brick with a setting document wrapped around it through some windows

>>96009384 (OP)
Tell them to make whatever character you want and then start the campaign with them being magically shunted into your world, Isekai-style. That way they won't have to worry about knowing every little bit of lore that someone who grew up in the setting would know by default, and can slowly take it in as they go. Then next campaign just tell them it takes place in the same setting and they should make characters from that setting, which they should be able to do easily since they've played in it before.

>>96009384 (OP)
I discussed the sort of game that I wanted to run with my group, and then went over the broad strokes of the important setting details that would more or less define character options. I answered any direct questions they had, and then once a certain amount of interest was confirmed I wrote up a bunch of setting details, including notes on the city a breakdown of its important areas, the factions that were in power struggle there, recent history, and a list of important npcs that anyone who lived there would be expected to know about by default at least in passing. This setting codex was then something they had constant access to, and is where we hosted characters sheets so they had a reason to go back to it, which meant that they didn't have to *memorize* all of my autistic setting lore. They could do a quick search to look up "Who the fuck is this guy?" when meeting someone that seemed important.
As the game has gone on, new details and NPCs have been added to account for things that the players have learned and people they have met over the course of their adventure. Just overall making it easier for them to keep the evolving web of the game's movers and shakers straight and also keep track of who they have met before and where they know them from.

"Oh, right, this is the guy who was in charge of that gang whose hideout we burned down. And he was working with this other guy we know."
"Oh, right, this is a reference to that weird metal we've found a couple of things made out of. We still don't know where that comes from yet, we should look into that."

While a lot of work, I think some kind of googledocs of wordanvil is basically required if you want your players to be able to engage with your setting if you care about actual roleplay and its not just a ripoff of something they are already familiar with. You simply cannot expect your players to be able to remember week-to-week the details of the world to the same fidelity as you have in your head.

>>96009462
So you are going for the sort of game that has a set beginning, middle, end point? Not that I don't think that sort of detail wouldn't be good to have in general but what if the setting exists for "We're doing this sort of thing this scenario."?

Also, I don't have Tony Hawk, pro maid art so have a tactical sword maid.

>>96009502
>So you are going for the sort of game that has a set beginning, middle, end point? Not that I don't think that sort of detail wouldn't be good to have in general but what if the setting exists for "We're doing this sort of thing this scenario."?

I mean, I have storylines that I know I want to do, but the game has no premeditated end. There are, to my mind, three different possible general endings of the campaign that the players could arrive at, with a lot of wiggle room about the specific details of how or why they end up there. And there is plenty of room for them to develop a 4th option on their own.
How I run games is largely to define a situation, and then have loosely mapped out what happens if the players do *nothing*. Given time, the world advances without them. They can, and should, change the course of those events through their choices and actions, but its important to know what happens 'by default'.
Assassins are going to attack the fancy ball, their aim is to kill the duke. By default, they won't succeed but they WILL kill the duke's captain of the guard and there are a bunch of other important NPCs that could get caught in the crossfire depending. If the players intervene, they could save the captain of the guard... or they could get the duke killed if they end up pulling the captain out of where he is 'supposed' to be. They don't know what the default outcome is, but I do. Because that makes it easier to improve responses to players stirring the pot if I already know what the important NPCs in the scene want to accomplish if left tot heir own devices.

If the players come up with a more interesting outcome than what I had planned, I'm happy to switch things up. But we don't agree on the outcome before we start playing.

>>96009384 (OP)
for me, it's
>your characters are all amnesiacs
>here are some assumptions you might have that are incorrect
>if you have any sort of outline/archetype/vibe for your dude I'll put stuff around based on his past for you to find and figure out
easiest and highest quality way I've found to get players to buy in to a custom setting (showing rather then telling)

>>96009416
Gross.

>>96009462
>>96009600
This is how the two regular GMs for my group run their campaigns and it works pretty well, or at least well enough that they've been running good campaigns for going on ten years now.

>>96009384 (OP)
Well how I made my custom setting is making a bare bones world and culture and letting each campaign add to the lore. Then just keep on working with it till the lore of the world is as big as official settings.

>>96009384 (OP)
Elevator pitch + Q&A period.

Further details were included in the setting/system document.

>>96009384 (OP)
The medium of song

>>96018580
You're beautiful

10 page short story

I just warn them that OOC setting knowledge will be useless.

>>96009384 (OP)
quickly and without a lot of preamble.

>>96009405
>his setting document wasn't the brick
ngmi

Told them to get their ass over here to play dnd. The rest is up to God.

>>96009384 (OP)
>Guys, wanna try playing in this setting I wrote? It's this and that. I can send you a primer and answer any questions you have.
Truly the most challenging ordeal of my life.

>>96009384 (OP)
I wrote a lore doc, posted it online, didn't expect them to read any of it.
Then I ran sessions and blended the lore into the plotline.

>>96009384 (OP)
"And this is what the females of the available species look like".

Hooked 2/5 of my players right off the bat.

>>96018966
"This is the male lineup"

Caught the remaining 3/5.

>96009384
by asking inane questions about settings on /tg/

>>96018966
Why are they all so flat?
Tits are both good art and a good hook for players. Your cal-art level of hatred for hot bitches is ruining the vibe

>>96019006
DFC is the path to enlightenment

>>96009384 (OP)
5-15 sentence introduction + important tidbits about the immediate area they're in. Other stuff can be explained when it comes up.

>>96009384 (OP)
I write a primer for all my games. Less than a full page explaining exactly what's up, then a list of acceptable/unacceptable character options (depending on which way is shorter). And what's important is to keep it to as few words as humanly possible.

>>96019006
To attack you, personally.

>>96009384 (OP)
DARE YOU ENTER MY MAGICAL REALM!?

>>96009384 (OP)
We play games.

>>96009384 (OP)
The PCs take the role of "fish out of water" foreigners.

>>96009384 (OP)
It's populated with nothing but female anthros who need the seed of human men to survive.

There might be loot.

>>96019006
Your pornsick anon, that's a completely normal breast size for a woman. Not to mention half of them aren't even mammals (Not sure about the Tor'qua)

>>96019006
>Why are they all so flat?
I dunno, it's what the AI generated. I am limited by the technology of my time and the fact that I can't draw for shit. That being said...

- Chalak are nomadic spacers who disdain living on planets and often live in low-gravity environments, so that might affect bust growth
- Dethek aren't even mammals. They feed their young through regurgitation. They should also have 4 arms, 4 eyes, mandibles, and the male's abdomen should have a pair of pincers, but Bing just wasn't having it.
- Elai are human(ish) and have normal human bust size ranges, this one just happens to be small.
- Kyn have smaller breasts than human average, but properly speaking should have 4 of them.
- Tor'qua should probably be a lot fatter than I imagine them since their homeworld is supposed to be glacial, but I just like the tall thin blue elf look.
- Tuxtla are reptile-dinosaur things and, like dethek, feed their young through regurgitation.
- Varjrens are able to consume ordinary human food right from the start. They don't need breasts.

Also the chalak and varjren should have plantigrade legs (like humans) instead of digitigrade, but again, BingAI had its own ideas.

>>96009384 (OP)
Heres a one shot because I'm on a massive Egyptian arc, heres my google document about the basic world lore, and the scenario is you'll be delving into a tomb to find some riches because raiding tombs for big cash is cool.

Turns out it was indeed pretty chill despite me being a shit GM because I stumble on my words and I'm kinda bad at on the spot improv

>>96019963
Based. Even a meagre attempt at biological accuracy is something sorely lacking in race design.

>>96018966
>>96018970
I would not play in a furfag game.

>>96020454
In fairness that's, again, the limitations of the technology available to me. They're not supposed to be so anthro. Chalak are supposed to have longer arms and shorter legs with proportions more like gorillas. Kyn are supposed to have legs with anatomies that look a lot more like what the dethek have here, and a more hunched posture, with ears that sweep back rather than stick out the top of their heads. Tuxtla should look a little more pterodactyl-like, except that their wings are more like bat's anatomically (a thumb and two true fingers, and then three "fingers" that have elongated and have webbing stretching between them like on a bat, except feathered). They walk on all fours as often as just on two legs.

In any event, there needs to be a balance between "genuinely alien" and "has a close enough range of human experience to be playable in 2nd edition AD&D alongside humans". I do have a menagerie of MUCH less humanoid aliens (the hokh, for example; five-legged lithoid spider-creatures), but those are difficult to balance alongside humans.

>>96009384 (OP)
... by running the game for them?
Everything they need to know about the setting will be part of the scenario/campaign. Everything they will feel like asking about will be answered. If things happen in the game, it means they exist in the setting. There is no lore text handled to them ever, because I'm not an autistic worldbuilder taking people hostage to shovel this shit to them.
This really isn't rocket science.

>>96009384 (OP)
I told them we're playing Traveller, and then held their hands through the character creation.