D&D General World Building

[Scott Christian]

We've had quite a bit of discussion regarding railroading and story now and other forms of gaming. So, I thought a natural segue would be a question to all the GMs and DMs out there.

 

[payn]

Area or eco system is a natural starting point for me, especially if that considers political intrigue and factions.

 

[Shiroiken]

Is this for a single adventure, or an entire campaign? I always start a campaign based on an area or specific concept. I'll introduce character background and motivation as the game progresses. Otherwise I'd have to wait until after characters are built before I can even start the first adventure.

 

[overgeeked]

Build the place and fill it with obstacles and interesting things to do. Invite the players to interact with or bounce off what’s there.

ETA: Absolutely zero railroading. Whatever story emerges from play is the only story we get. No scripts or pre-planned stories. Only situations and obstacles and villains.

 

[Charlaquin]

I sew together pieces of published ideas. I am, unfortunately, not creative enough to world build totally from scratch. Of course, all creative process is ultimately a recombining of ideas from other sources, so arguably everyone does this - it’s just that the sources may be highly diverse and varied, and most likely they aren’t all conscious influences.

 

[Lyxen]

I sew together pieces of published ideas. I am, unfortunately, not creative enough to world build, totally from scratch. Of course, all creative process is ultimately a recombining of ideas from other sources, so arguably everyone does this - it’s just that the sources may be highly diverse and varied, and most likely they aren’t all conscious influences.

Same for me, it's more lack of time than creativity but the result is the same, it usually ends up a golem stitched from multiple ideas.

 

[Lanefan]

The thread title says "world building" but the poll only covers individual adventure creation - that's a big difference!

For me it's highly variable but the one quasi-constant is that the first thing I do is map the adventure site out. The inspiration can come from a picture, a BBEG idea, a real-world scene or location, or whatever.

 

[Argyle King]

Are you asking specifically about adventures (as in a string of related encounters) or worldbuilding?

While the two are related, I don't see them as the same thing.

 

[Scott Christian]

Are you asking specifically about adventures (as in a string of related encounters) or worldbuilding?

While the two are related, I don't see them as the same thing.

Sorry about that. I initial thought was about building an world, and then as I was writing the question, it seemed it should start smaller. But forgot to change the title. When I went back to edit, there didn't seem to be a way to change the title. My bad. I apologize.

In any case, it can be open ended. I imagine quite a few DM build adventures after they have world built, and also the opposite, they build an adventure and later stick it in their world.

 

[Charlaquin]

Same for me, it's more lack of time than creativity but the result is the same, it usually ends up a golem stitched from multiple ideas.

Yeah, I was being a bit self-depricating with the creativity comment, but time is of course the big factor. I certainly could build a world from scratch, but that’s a lot of time and energy to spend on stuff that mostly won’t be relevant in game play anyway. Borrowing ideas from my favorite existing settings an remixing them in a way I find fun is similarly rewarding for a lot less work.