Ia'Swaa: The Elevator Pitch
#3 of SAVAGE WORLDS: Ia'Swaa
You COULD have a huge background for you campaign setting, sure. But the players won' read it, and it might get in the way of your groove.
If you really want them to get into the world, tell them simple things and let them draw their own conclusions. Then, steadily break or reinforce those ideas. Sometimes the world will actually respond better to the player's imagination than yours, too!
This is where the "Elevator Pitch" comes in. If you had to say it all as fast as possible, how would you do it? Trim all the fat, and let the player fill in the rest for themselves. And most importantly, end it on a cliffhanger! Players don't even notice when you end an information splurge with a cliffhanger, their brains will just take over and start imagining things in the silence.
The setting is unique in that every player character is tiny sized. Though most are fairies, being an intelligent animal is possible as well. The secret of tis world is that on the tiny scale, there is a war going on that is quite seperate from the giant humans.
The Humans of this world are turning away from magic, sequestering their hedge wizards in "academies" in the city where they power giant engines. The few remaining forest wizards are on the run from the government, trying to keep their way of life alive. Using the captive wizards, the goverment of the Twin Cities boil water and make huge steam engines, and use clockwork to transfer power all over their city.
On the small scale, the hundreds of tribes of fairies have a common enemy, the Unseelie Fey, for the first time in an age. Thought to be extinct until recently, the pale, insectile fairies are once again poised to steal the wealth of the world away from the fairies and animals.
The Unseelie Fey are practitioners of dark magic, that they use to control minds, cause pain, and make terrifying illusions. This, combined with their hive attitude of stealing whatever they can and bringing it back to their master, makes them a tough foe to beat. But that's not their only motivation. They also live on the borders of human settlements, and seem determined to keep the fair folk out of the cities.
Life in the Fair Kingdoms is all a matter of perspective- not to mention rank. The greatest magicians and nobles live with sweet wine and more food than they could ever eat, knowing very few cares. The warrior caste, below them, make fine soldiers and artisans. This second caste is also where many adventurers come from, and through conquest of Unseelie Folk, some move up to the noble class.
In the lowest caste of the Fair Kingdoms are the scavengers, fairies that gather food and other resources for the kingdom from sunup to noonday. They have no notion of being in a low rung of society, because the nobles and warriors are seen as heroes, and the giving of resources to them is completely voluntary. The intelligent animals of the kingdom usually start in this rung of society, but move up to being warriors or artisans if they gain renown.
The main adventure, in any case, is interacting with the human world in the background. This matter of scale is satisfying because even normal, everyday things like houses become grand monuments. An abandoned closet of a manor might hide a small army of unseelie fey. A gopher hole may lead to an ancient complex of tombs. A large enough tree might house an entire kingdom.