Let's Talk About RPG Worldbuilding

[ART!]

I try to force myself to stop noodling away creatively and ask myself what aspects of this world are going to do the most for creating the tone we want at the table during play? Basically: work smart, not hard. What's going to give me the most bang for my buck: the "bang" being flavor that's useful to the players in helping them get in the mood and make characters that are natural fits for the tone, and the "buck" being my/our time and effort spent developing things.

Choosing or tweaking a system that will emulate the tone you want is essential, I think, but beyond that, I think imagery is very useful. I'm very visually oriented, so doing that comes naturally to me and is an easy way to get me in the right headspace. People who are less visually-oriented might not be inclined to think that way, but I've found that an evocative image or collection of images does wonders to inspire even those folks.

Similarly, a map or maps rendered in a style that evokes the tone and (sub)genre could be a great thing to hunt down, make, or commission.

A short list of well-known cultural touchstones could also be very useful in letting everyone know how things should feel.

A lot fo that is not technically worldbuilding maybe, but is at least useful in prepping for the actual worldbuilding.

 

[Asisreo]

I start small but not small in terms of world-size. I start small in terms of quantity of details.

The Kingdom is a feudal bureaucracy! Why? Because of something to do with the creators...who cares, really? Well, I do but I leave these open because when I don't have them tied directly to a certain concept, I can use these leftover details to directly relate to the adventure or the PC's.

"Wait, the ancient kingdom creator had a strong draconic bloodline? Hmmm...and they happen to be of the same draconic type as the draconic sorcerer? Hm...interesting. Maybe you should look into that Mr./Ms. Sorcerer! Could have a nice luxurious life as a commoner to noble hero with some groundbreaking political influence. Might even have access to resources useful in the next adventure that you wouldn't have without your new position..."

 

[Nobby-W]

I feel a lot of world builders fall into the trap of making too much mid-level canon, for example, detailed histories or setting notes about cultures. It might feel like fleshing out a world but in practice a lot of that sort of work never really informs actual play, sitting a couple of degrees more abstract than things the players will actually interact with. Often it feels quite sterile to read as well. While it is necessary to have some sort of big picture in mind to hang things off, this gets into diminishing returns pretty quickly, and can even be counterproductive to go down too far.

I think a better approach is to have some sort of big picture to hang the bits together, but then to largely focus on detail that directly affects the adventures - drive the canon off what you need for the adventures. This keeps it (a) useful and likely to be relevant and (b) more likely to feel 'lived in' rather than static and sterile, as it is designed to be used in an adventure. It also lends itself to a show-don't-tell approach to exposition.

Plus, if you drip-feed your setting canon rather than ramming a 200-page tome down players' throats it's more likely to keep them interested and wanting to see more.

 

[Reynard]

While I generally agree that broad strokes and empty spaces work well for many elements of RPG world building, the place where I have trouble is remembering to write down and then go back and shore up whatever nonsense I come up with off the cuff.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

While I generally agree that broad strokes and empty spaces work well for many elements of RPG world building, the place where I have trouble is remembering to write down and then go back and shore up whatever nonsense I come up with off the cuff.

Same here.

I do enjoy world building for its own sake. But I understand a lot of what I write will never impact play. And that's fine; as I said, I'm doing it for it's own sake. Very occasionally I do get a situation where a player starts asking questions about something that I have prepped and I'm able to pull out my wodge of notes and impress them with my preparedness. Those moments feel nice.

 

[MGibster]

I try to force myself to stop noodling away creatively and ask myself what aspects of this world are going to do the most for creating the tone we want at the table during play? Basically: work smart, not hard. What's going to give me the most bang for my buck: the "bang" being flavor that's useful to the players in helping them get in the mood and make characters that are natural fits for the tone, and the "buck" being my/our time and effort spent developing things.

I was working on a D&D world trying to come up with a way for each player to feel more connected to the setting. My brilliant solution was to create an organization of some sort based on character class that the PCs would belong to. i.e. If they were a Fighter Battle Master they were members of the Royal Academy of Arms, Eldritch Knights were part of the University, etc., etc. But it was a lot of work and I wasn't sure if any of my players would have been interested so I decided to direct my efforts elsewhere.

 

[Reynard]

I was working on a D&D world trying to come up with a way for each player to feel more connected to the setting. My brilliant solution was to create an organization of some sort based on character class that the PCs would belong to. i.e. If they were a Fighter Battle Master they were members of the Royal Academy of Arms, Eldritch Knights were part of the University, etc., etc. But it was a lot of work and I wasn't sure if any of my players would have been interested so I decided to direct my efforts elsewhere.

I think that's the kind of thing you can loosely define in your notes -- no more than a sentence or two -- and then keep in your back pocket in case it comes up in play.

 

[MGibster]

I think that's the kind of thing you can loosely define in your notes -- no more than a sentence or two -- and then keep in your back pocket in case it comes up in play.

It is though I decided on a more elegant solution. If I ever run the campaign I'll have the player come up with some organization for their character to belong to. Make those lazy players do some work!

 

[Grendel_Khan]

My current preference is for world-building as PC discovery, meaning the characters aren’t expected to know much or any lore, and the campaign builds the setting’s details over time.

But yeah that can really restrict your choice of setting, since it works better if the general world is a familiar time and place, with other, weirder stuff layered on as you go. So I realize it’s not for everyone.

 

[Yora]

I actually ran into a quite considerable road block, getting hung up on creating more detail on a handful of city states that players aren't supposed to ever actually visit. Their role for the setting is to serve as places where the borderlands communities export their raw resources to and import their specialized goods from, and to serve as a bit of background for foreign agents stirring up trouble on behalf of their far-away lords. Because every time you look around for advice on how to make a setting, it's almost always "start with a continent, divide it into kingdoms, define their governments and relations, and work your way further down."
Unless it's "make one village and one dungeon and then make things up as you go."

What I think I really should be doing is to work out how a typical borderlands settlement looks and its people live for the different major regions of the continent.