Rebuilding the Known World

I decided to restart the campaign world, again using a campaign system I found on the Net as a base (of course, by the time I’d finished messing with it, it has ‘evolved’ somewhat). The system is called the Microlite Campaign System. Basically, you design what you need and no more, add to it as you need and as the games are played. Using a hex map, pick a hex and this is the start ( in my case, the town of Kularni). Then, in each of the surrounding hexes, place an encounter of a suitable level to the campaign ( so mine are fairly low-level). I then ran an adventure for Ben C and Joe, to get used to the system and then did some more design work on Kularni (so there were a few NPC’s to meet and places to spend money). I then ran a further adventure (the Ogre Hunt) that Daniel, Ben and John joined in; meanwhile I went back and revised the first adventure, building on some leads they had found. I also (provisionally) located a couple of other places on the map that had been mentioned; these were further away and as of yet I have no idea what lies in between. Map travel is simple; each hex is about 4 hours travel, so two hexes is a normal days travel. Should the PC’s all get horses (or something) I may revise this, but it’ll do for now. Because Ben C and Joe and talked about the first adventure; they all decided to head back there. During that adventure they found a map to another adventure; I now located this on the main map and finalised the design work so that this is now ready to play. Meanwhile, Ben and Joe had expressed an interest to seek out the Tomb of Karian, which is on the Far Isles; so I have now started developing that area. Also, back in Kularni, more work is going on, there is now a more detailed map of the place.
So, the campaign world evolves as the games are played, reacting to meet the needs and wants of the players; rather than the more ‘traditional’ method of creating the world and history, then dumping the players in the middle of it. I do have some idea of how things came to be, but at the moment I’m keeping an open mind.