Mistakes to avoid & advice for writing setting source books?

[aRealDead1]

Hi all,

I am working on a setting source book. It is mostly just getting all my previous 'this worked' one off and planned adventure stuff while I have GMed in terms of backgrounds and the like into an organized place. I am also planning to share it with others on Roll20 and the like as a free e-book. Specifically is an Earthlike world, close to the 1690s in terms of technology and society, with no elves, dwarfs, or halfling PCs. (Half-ogres and orcs PCs exist though.) It is Lovecraftian influenced, with gothic horror themes, and also a bit of a homage to my experiences playing in the Ravenloft setting over the years.

As I look over lots of the material my play groups have generated over time, and look at bringing it together as a cohesive source book for a setting, I can see it is more an exercise in editing and re-writing, and shaping, than it is making even more content. But as I have never done anything like this, I'd like advice on what are some mistakes to avoid at the start, and advice to keep it all on track to produce something easiest for others to use what works for their own games from it. Plus I'd like to keep it as lean on 'crunch' as I can (for example not using alignment), while also not making the fluff too overbearing or rigid.

[Longman]

Only once bit of advice -

It's a fine line between describing what is unique about your setting, and describing what isn't in it.

In your description you've already mentioned two things you don't have - demi-humans, and alignment.

The challenge there is to describe your setting without dwelling too much on what you don't have

For example, the setting in "Shadows of the Demon Lord" (a new game and setting by Robert Schwalb) doesn't bother to mention that elves and halflings are not available as PCs. It simply lists the races that are available.

It also doesn't say "there is no alignment in this system". It just mention the steps taken to work out a PCs personality and background.

In short - try to avoid explaining your campaign by reference to how it differs from standard Gygaxian medieval DandD, and get to grips with what really does make it special in its own right.

Also - post it here. I like early modern tech levels, and human-only settings, and yours sounds fun.

[aRealDead1]

Thank you for that advice, would have never thought to look at it that way.