Recent content by M.W. Simmes

Today we’re going to talk more about money. Last column I discussed some of the quirks of coinage as a unit of weight backed by the commodity metal it’s minted from. This time, I’ll talk about other kinds of money. Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash Representative money is a unit with...

Today I want to talk about a subject that is near and dear to adventurers. Yes, we’re talking about money. Money is a medium for exchanges. It is accepted in payment for goods, services and debts. Different cultures handle money and currency differently, however, and what is accepted as currency...

Today I bring up a topic usually glossed over in worldbuilding for gaming: Literacy. It’s a skill that we take for granted, given that you are reading this column on a website. Literacy wasn’t always historically widespread, however, and a crafty GM can contrive clever situations hinging upon...

Today I discuss establishing a setting's law enforcement and judicial system. Historical sources indicate examples of organized court systems - Aeschylus' Oristeia depicts the foundation of Athenian law and trials, with a jury of 12 citizens, and wise magistrates are a common feature of Chinese...

Today we continue with our apocalyptic theme. I've covered war and pestilence, and this column will be about Death, the great leveller. Everybody dies, except for adventurers, who die but get to come back via the auspices of a friendly or bribable cleric. Death, nevertheless, is still part...

Greetings. Today I'm going to discuss another of the Four Horsemen, War, and how you can work it into world building. PC vs NPC conflict is hard-baked into almost every RPG system, and especially apparent in systems like D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder. Most of these systems focus specifically on...

Today I am going to discuss a destroyer of kings and armies, slayer of nations, stealer of lives and maker of orphans and widows. Yes, we are talking about pestilence. Plagues and diseases have reshaped human history and there is much that we can adapt for worldbuilding purposes. The first...

In my previous two columns I laid out techniques for worldbuilding and applied them to a sample con game setting. In this one I am going to apply the Mindy Method and reverse-engineer an NPC to fit the requirements of a setting. Let’s start. In this column I’m going to use a character...

This reminds me of the infamous Tucker's Kobolds scenario, really.

In my last column I showed you the processes I used for worldbuilding. Now let's see those lessons applied in an example setting. I want to run a con game, a one-shot with pregenerated characters and a wide range of players. To make things easier, I decide outright that the adventuring...

Okay. I love your phrasing. (:

I've discussed topics in worldbuilding, and I hope they're interesting and educational, but today I'm going to discuss the process of worldbuilding, and how I go about it. I usually have an end goal when I worldbuild. It can be anything as grandiose as "I want a story about how human bodies...

I'm quite glad that my woolgathering helps you. (See what I did there.)

Previously I talked about fabric, and where it comes from. In this one I discuss clothing and its applicability to worldbuilding and plot. In stratified societies there were often sumptuary laws enacted to prevent the lower classes from dressing too well. These laws can range from forbidding...

Imagine contemporary life without clothing. No socks to prevent feet from blistering, no pockets for keys, change or the omnipresent smartphone. It is true that naturists do get by fairly well with purses or fanny packs, but such individuals tend to be concentrated in areas with balmier climes...