D&D 5E What do I tell players about my overly complex political world?

[cmad1977]

Hard thing for us to accept sometimes as DMs is this:
No one cares about the details of our worlds as much as we do.

I'd only give them the super basics.
And remember sometimes to 'kill your babies'. It entirely possible that despite the work you've put into it the players may not be interested in particular parts of the world that you really want to show them. Don't force them.


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[wedgeski]

Start with the assumption that they don't care (which may or may not be true), and then attach their PC's to the background a little bit at a time. Princess to be saved? Maybe one of the PC's recognises the name...she visited their home town once, and seemed a kind sort. Chaffing under the King's rule? Maybe a PC's family lost their titles in a land grab, or maybe a PC's family was a beneficiary of that land grab, and is now resented by his neighbours.

Most players, I would hazard to say, will only be interested in that part of the setting which directly intersects with them, and only show a passing interest to those parts of the setting which involve the rest of the party (although in the latter case, this interest does increase over time). They should never be observers, and you shouldn't ever subject them to swathes of exposition or background, even if you think it's a cool roleplaying encounter. Chances are, they'll be rolling d20's around in their hands and wondering when things will get interesting again.

Otherwise, lowkey13's advice is on the money.

 

[Guest 6801328]

It's a ton of work, but I'd write up different background information for the different players, based on their own backgrounds. The noble would be the most informed, but might be not be aware of some perspectives available to the street urchin ("...the town guards are more willing to take bribes than they used to be...").

Ideally you'd want each of them to have some part of the puzzle, but not the whole picture, so that as they learn more through adventures they're actually psyched to fill in the blanks. "Ah, that's why Barron Geddon has been executing the fishmongers!"

 

[Oofta]

Another harsh truth. You may be the next Tolkien when it comes to world building. You may be the crazy guy on the street corner handing out his manifesto of gibberish. I have no way of knowing.

But it doesn't really matter to a lot most people. People are busy, they go to a game to have some fun with friends (or make some new ones). If they think much about their character or the world those characters inhabit it's probably something along the lines of "What deity can I worship to get the tempest domain?"

So I've been running campaigns off and on in my fantasy world for many, many years. There's a ton of backstory, much of which 90% of my players don't really care about. That's ok. I have a wiki that has an overall timeline, explanation of some of the major factions and characters. If people want to take a look they can, but they don't have to.

When situations come up that I think the character should know that the person they are talking to is probably an imposter because Jon the Holy would never wear blue I just tell them. If it's a little obscure, I may have them roll an appropriate skill check.

So I fill in pieces as needed, but don't really expect anybody to read anything ahead of time. I also try to give only as much information as they need to avoid information overload.

Think about Tolkien. He invented a language, had a huge backstory for his world. How much of that did he really explain in his books? Very little. The story was richer because it was consistent and people's motivations were more complex than just "I need an evil guy".

The last thing to consider is that you are now opening up your work to be an open-source project. People should be encouraged to change their environment by their actions and deeds. Let them smash your carefully planned machinations. Let them fail when the story "needed" them to succeed. Let them succeed when they were "supposed to" fail.

Good luck!

 

[hawkeyefan]

One tool I have found useful is to put a topic on an index card, and then list what would be considered "common knowledge" about that topic for the PCs. Keep this to the bare essentials and leave room for the players to add more of their own notes as they learn more through play.

So for example, going off of your description, I'd do something like

Princess Mary
- Member of the Tudors of the Kingdom of Fantasia
- Granddaughter of King Reginald
- Targeted for abduction by Reynard
- Abduction tied to relations between Fantasia and subjugated nation of Poorville

Then I'd have cards for the King and for the villain and for both kingdoms. Just tidbits in bulleted format. Two pages of typed up history is too dense for players to reference it at the table, and expecting them to commit it to memory is a bad idea. This is something that you've been pondering and tweaking for 30 years....you can't expect the world to spring fully realized in their minds.

Give them little basics that allow them to summarize things, and putting them on index cards allows them to reference during play, and quickly find info they may need, and also to add more info of their own.

 

[Derren]

What do the characters know about politics? Do any of them have a background which would indicate that they have more knowledge than "This is X, he is brother of Y and a lord"? Or in the worst case "He looks like a noble and I have seen this crest before somewhere"?

 

[pdzoch]

I only reveal to the players the political and world information that is necessary for the adventure at hand. Over the course of time and adventures, the world and political picture takes shape for the players. This approach allows me to not overdevelop a campaign world, allows me me much flexibility to change the politics and world information should the campaign start going a different direction, and prevents the players from being overwhelmed by information that is not relevant to the adventure.

Having a campaign bible built ahead of time is greatly useful for the DM to ensure world information released to the players is consistent, but that same bulk of information is not relevant to the players.

 

[Blue]

A couple of things.

First, I would have a broad, concise overview. And since it's history, maybe a "villains and saviors of the land" and what they are doing now. Just everyman knowledge and not even all of that considering the level of detail you are talking about. A few recognizable names and a couple of items max.

After the players create up their characters, give them each a 1 page max "some things YOU know". Try not to have much overlap, but rather have that things will fit together with other player's pages so they can riff off each other if it comes up. Do NOT assume that any of ti will be read or remembered - this is so that characters can get some spotlight time showing off their unique knowledge, and by owning it make it more likely they remember. Also, tailor the length of these to how interested the players will be. Even if a character is in the perfect position to now somethign, if the player isn't the type to pull it out give them just a little bit so it's hard to forget.

Introduce them slowly. I know you want their first adventure to be saving the princess - don't make those sessions too reliant on the info. Introduce a bit, build on it, and repeat it occasionally so it doesn't get forgotten.

If you really want intrigue and think your players are up for investing some time via email, write up some short blurbs for some folks of moderate power who aren't adventurer types but are prominent. Head of the local bread bakers and tavern owners guild, second in command of the beggars or maybe chairman of a church council. Have each player pick one. Each week between session feed them a little bit of "behind the scenes" politics that isn't the party's current focus, asking them how their "mover and shaker" would respond. Use this to engage the players, feed them more info in a way they'll care about because it's immediately useful, and get a chance to repeat names of important folks often and get them to make their own impressions - much better to retain then telling them.

 

[Edwin Suijkerbuijk]

So the question is, how much of the backstory (which even common people in this world would know) can I give to the players without overwhelming them?

Giving to much info during a sesion as you want to keep moving and there is not a lot of time to digest all information.

So you might want to give some information before the camapign starts.
also you can spread out information over your players, so each can have their I know this moment, and each person doesen't have to digest all info you want to give.
If you know the race,class and background of the characters, try writing a half page history mentining thins moast relevent to that race/calss/background combinatin.

say this info is somthing they have in a book they get as bonus equipment, so if a player doesen't pick up on something directly you can remind him they read something about it in the book they have.

 

[Not a Hobbit]

Dear Enworlders:

I thank you all for the advice. I'm beginning to think that perhaps my world which took 30 years to build is about 29 years too late to play in. I could try to make it work. One of the character's was a soldier of that country, so he would know of both the princess and the abductor (a general). A paladin and a cleric would have seen the unrest in the other country. And a rogue would know of the undercurrent of rebellion in both lands.

I think I will present a short (the 5-points card which someone mentioned) info card to each, and then see if it interests them. If they don't want to buy into that, it will be fine and the world will go back in the file. I could run a prepared adventure. I guess I should ask the players what they want, huh?

Thanks again for the help. You guys are really smart.

--Scott


Oh and:

Another harsh truth. You may be the next Tolkien when it comes to world building. You may be the crazy guy on the street corner handing out his manifesto of gibberish. I have no way of knowing.

I'm the crazy guy on the corner who thinks he's Tolkien