A Wider World

One of the things that the "Star Wars" original trilogy and the "Lord of the Rings" films do very well is that they give a sense that there's a whole wider world out there. Star Wars, in particular, actually has very few locations - the backwaters of Tattooine, the Death Star, Alderaan, and Yavin - but it gives the impression of a much wider canvas.

The primary way in which this is achieved is simply by referencing those other places and events: "I'm a member of the Imperial Senate...", "if there's a bright centre to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from...", "Dantooine. They're on Dantooine."

Likewise, the "Lord of the Rings" films mention locations that aren't ever shown, and also make reference to thousands of years of carefully worked out history. Of course, they had the big advantage that Tolkien had meticulously worked out thousands of years of history (mostly because his passion was "The Silmarillion", rather than "Lord of the Rings").

What does that mean for RPGs?

Well, it's actually pretty straightfoward - during those early adventures, when the players are being introduced to the world, you're not going to have much opportunity to show them the larger world in which they are adventuring. After all, that would very quickly be overwhelming. And it's highly unlikely that the players will have read the setting guide (which is a very mixed blessing anyway), so you're very likely their only real conduit for setting information.

But what you can do, and probably should do, is seed little bits of setting information here and there. Make reference to them being on the road from one place to another, and name both places. Even if you don't introduce the local ruler, have someone mention him by name. Say something about local festivals and quirks (food is very good for this), and perhaps then contrast that with what the PCs are used to.

As noted, it's important not to overwhelm the players with a huge info dump, not least because all of this is less interesting than most DMs think it is. A little goes a long way! And, as with adding salt to a meal, bear in mind that it's always easy to add more, but it's really hard to take it out again!