2024: The Year of the Gazetteer

Let's not beat around the bush. This blog was designed, at least in part, as a repository for lore on my setting, and while there's undoubtedly been that sort of material posted here, I haven't been doing as much as I would like to.

In no small part, that's due to the fact that I don't really know where to start. Cosmology? The nature of magic? Any particular region? Will any of that even be of use to the people who read my blog? As such, the worldbuilding stuff has taken somewhat of a backburner in favor of my musings on game theory and inspirational material. But I do have a setting I want to put out there. And this place is Tales of the Lunar Lands, after all.

Luckily, I've figured out a solution.

We have a new year right around the corner. And in the interests of putting out more content for my blog, and putting more setting information to paper (pixels?), I declare 2024 as the Year of the Gazetteer.

I've always enjoyed gazetteer materials for RPG settings. They're worldbuilding in its purest form - no story, often no game mechanics, just lots and lots of ideas. There's a reason the Mystara gazetteers are so fondly remembered, and the gazetteers White Wolf put out for Ravenloft back in the 3e era remain the definitive version of that setting for me. Even if you aren't intending on running those settings, you can flip through the pages of a gazetteer and soak in the details, imagining what life in the setting might be like or what stories could be told there. As a worldbuilding nerd, I love that stuff. Some of my favorite Star Wars publications are the Essential Guide series, after all. And I feel like it would be just the sort of format I would want if I was to publish more setting material.

How's this going to work? I'll devote each month in 2024 to a different region of my setting, and my output for the blog for that month will be a gazetteer for that area, with details on the local culture, the points of interest, and relevant factions and personalities. I also intend to put out hex maps of each area, or at least parts thereof, because my setting has gone way too long without one. This way, I have the inspiration I need to post more, and I can get more setting content out into the world in the process.

Regular features like Friday Encounter will still continue, but if possible I'll try to relate the encounters to the themes of the spotlighted region that month (they will, of course, still be usable anywhere, for the sake of utility). I'll still post my thoughts on gaming and DMing, too, but they'll be mixed in with the gazetteer posts.

Finally, I intend for most, if not all, of my gazetteer postings to be useful at the table. I understand that not everyone has much interest in listening to me ramble about my setting. That's okay - I'm not expecting anyone to start playing in it. I merely want to get some of my thoughts out there, and to have a place where it's stored online for easy reference. But whenever possible, I'll try to include dungeons, quests, NPCs, and magic items that might be useful for any DM to borrow, whether they're using the rest of the setting material or not. And of course, I often find myself getting inspired by reading the musings of other DMs - I'd be honored to provide that inspiration for others.

Without further ado, I'd like to announce the schedule for the Year of the Gazetteer:

January: Lescatie - The Holy Kingdom

February: Valossa - Isle of Swords

March: Togarmah - Land of the Golden Peace

April: Ukiah - The Howling Steppe

May: Al-Riyah - Emirate of the Winds

June: The Freikantons - Dominion of the Swordbrothers

July: The Sonderlunding Highlands - The Ancestral Lands

August: The Levic Marches - Seat of the League

September: Golnir - Kingdom Among the Ruins

October: The Crownlands - Heart of the Empire

November: The Green Downs - The Halfling Heartland

December: Tennurhaf - The Sea of Teeth

We'll see you then - and in the meantime, happy gaming!