Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why Worldbuilding is Bad
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7400974" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>That the game may never encounter some things that great effort went into creating is a known and accepted risk inherent to worldbuilding. A corollary risk is the situation where the party gets to somewhere new that the DM hasn't really designed; but as it looks like the party's going to stay for a while the DM puts some effort into creating that place, and then the party leave and never go back.</p><p></p><p>For something as small-scale as an inn, this is the way to go.</p><p></p><p>But if what you've designed in detail is a collection of towns and cultures around a big oasis in a desert, and the game never gets to a desert, it's kinda hard to justify just dropping it in somewhere. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>This came up earlier - not sure if in this thread or another - as a "bottom-up" style of worldbuilding; and it can work really well particularly if the campaign is itself intended to be relatively small scale without much save-the-world or travel-the-world sort of content.</p><p></p><p>But if the campaign is intended to eventually take in a larger scale then I posit the world or setting needs to be built to that same scale. Me, I usually start on a regional level (e.g. maybe the size of the west coast of North America from about LA to Juneau and inland to about a Phoenix-Denver-Edmonton line) which is where I educatedly-guess most of the campaign's adventuring will happen. Then I go smaller, figuring out nation-states, major towns, major features, etc., then smaller still in the immediate area where the campaign will start out. I'll also go larger, and fit the region into the greater world on the most rudimentary level along with working out astronomy, calendar, weather patterns, and other big-scale things that affect everyone.</p><p></p><p>So in my example above, if I know the campaign is going to start in Seattle I'd design the Puget Sound area in some detail and place a few adventure sites in it, with the rest of the west coast designed enough so that if the game goes there I've a notion of what they can expect. Also, if nothing else I and the players need to know where various cultures etc. come from - where are the Elven enclaves, where are the Dwarven realms, etc. - and this kinda forces a regional approach. But if they decide to head east of the Rocky Mountains I'll be designing on the fly, as I'll probably only have the vaguest ideas as to what exists out there.</p><p></p><p>Lanefan</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7400974, member: 29398"] That the game may never encounter some things that great effort went into creating is a known and accepted risk inherent to worldbuilding. A corollary risk is the situation where the party gets to somewhere new that the DM hasn't really designed; but as it looks like the party's going to stay for a while the DM puts some effort into creating that place, and then the party leave and never go back. For something as small-scale as an inn, this is the way to go. But if what you've designed in detail is a collection of towns and cultures around a big oasis in a desert, and the game never gets to a desert, it's kinda hard to justify just dropping it in somewhere. :) This came up earlier - not sure if in this thread or another - as a "bottom-up" style of worldbuilding; and it can work really well particularly if the campaign is itself intended to be relatively small scale without much save-the-world or travel-the-world sort of content. But if the campaign is intended to eventually take in a larger scale then I posit the world or setting needs to be built to that same scale. Me, I usually start on a regional level (e.g. maybe the size of the west coast of North America from about LA to Juneau and inland to about a Phoenix-Denver-Edmonton line) which is where I educatedly-guess most of the campaign's adventuring will happen. Then I go smaller, figuring out nation-states, major towns, major features, etc., then smaller still in the immediate area where the campaign will start out. I'll also go larger, and fit the region into the greater world on the most rudimentary level along with working out astronomy, calendar, weather patterns, and other big-scale things that affect everyone. So in my example above, if I know the campaign is going to start in Seattle I'd design the Puget Sound area in some detail and place a few adventure sites in it, with the rest of the west coast designed enough so that if the game goes there I've a notion of what they can expect. Also, if nothing else I and the players need to know where various cultures etc. come from - where are the Elven enclaves, where are the Dwarven realms, etc. - and this kinda forces a regional approach. But if they decide to head east of the Rocky Mountains I'll be designing on the fly, as I'll probably only have the vaguest ideas as to what exists out there. Lanefan [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why Worldbuilding is Bad
Top