CREATING SETTING LOCATIONS
Fundamentally, a setting frames the locations where story scenes or encounters take place.
Many different location scales may surround these individual story scene or encounter locations and organize or link them together into a wider and wider setting world.
◢ Creating Star Maps showing relationships of star systems and polities to each other.
◢ Creating Star System Maps showing relationships of stars, planets, and moons within a star system.
◢ Creating Night Sky Maps showing what the night sky looks like to the Adventurers.
◢ Creating Planet Maps showing relationships of oceans, land, resources, and settlements for an entire world
◢ Creating Wilderness Maps showing undeveloped areas yet to be explored.
◢ Creating Battle Maps tracking obstacles, combatants, and their actions within a conflict scene.
Location Names
Explorers, pioneers, or initial survey teams may name locations and features as they explore or simply assign placeholder names such as catalogue IDs with numbers.
Once an expedition arrives for a more in-depth exploration - a surveyor gets to pick names, or the name of the surveyors themselves may get used.
Outposts may have individual names (such as Fort Frostvale, Advance Base Eagle's Claw, or Protein Farm 23) but the early location names usually do not change until someone settles the area.
Settlers or colonizers may change the location names of their new home when they open relations with neighbores or formally apply to be recognized as new political area such as a colony.
Some locations might simply use the names of the first surveyors to map the areas which never get changed for historical reasons or to honor that person.
Corporations may choose themed or name brand type names for Corporate owned or managed locations.
Additional Setting Location Resources
Roleplaying Tips #0170 - Creating A Sci-Fi Setting With Depth
Roleplaying Tips #0197 - Tips On Designing General Sci-Fi Locations
Roleplaying Tips #0220 - 7 Tips for Roleplaying Encounter Locations
Roleplaying Tips #0586 - Eight Tips For Using Real-World Locations In Your Games
Roleplaying Tips #1069 - Celebrate Your Encounter Locations This Way