We continue our “beginners notes” for world building, answering questions ranging from the gods to magic to transportation and communication.
The next question is who or what dominates the local area? The player characters are likely to operate only in a local area, at first. Whatever/whoever dominates that area may become a major adversary and certainly controls a lot of what happens, or they may be a great help to the characters
How present are the gods?
In a way this is a background question, but it can be very important. For example, in my D&D campaigns over the course of 40+ years or thereabouts a god has never appeared to the player characters. Even the non-human representatives of gods are rare. Human and other clerics are about as representative as it gets. Player characters (or novel characters) are not likely to be able to do much to the gods themselves, nor to their stronger representatives like Archangel equivalents. I know that in some campaigns characters fight gods, but I'd quote the Hulk after he trashed Loki in a movie: “puny god.” Any god worth the name should be far more powerful than adventurers, surely?
Is there a great mystery?
Is there a great mystery going on in the campaign? I'm not a reader of mystery novels, but many people are. Of course it doesn't have to be a murder mystery. Although it could be who murdered the King or the Queen or something like that. You could ask “what happened to the famous adventurer,” where’s he or she gone (we’re looking at you, Luke Skywalker), where is the fabled huge gem, what has been killing the locals, where is the “last Dragon?”
How much does magic influence the world?
This has a lot to do with how the game plays. Consider Tolkien's Middle-earth, where magic is very rare. I wrote an article long ago using Moria as an introductory game for beginners. I had to evaluate Aragorn and Gandalf and so on. Aragorn was a seventh level ranger and Gandalf was an eighth level cleric (could not raise the dead) with a Ring of Warmth/Fire. Some people immediately said “oh my God, they're much more powerful.” No, it's just that in Tolkien's world there's hardly anybody who's really powerful, a seventh level ranger and eighth level cleric really stand out. On the other hand, we have worlds where magic is a substitute for technology and it's quite commonplace. This is a big difference in how those worlds work. I recommend that you read my series of articles about stages of magic.
How common are adventurers?
Are adventurers or heroes as common as professional athletes? Ask yourself how many professional athletes you've met. Are they as common as national congressmen and women (only 550 in 330,000,000 people). Have you ever met any one of those? Or are they as common as police officers? It makes a huge difference: it makes a difference in how people treat adventurers, it makes a difference in how polities/states solve problems. If there are bunches of adventurers around the polities may solve problems by sending adventurers. If there are very few adventures they’ve got to find a different way to solve their problems. (Or, perhaps with a lot of money they can hire the rare adventurers).
Transportation & communication again
We come back to transportation and communication. In Dungeons & Dragons, barring a few magic items, both are slow. You can get a magic carpet or a crystal ball, but most people do not have that possibility. On the other hand in Star Wars communication is instantaneous throughout the galaxy using small devices, which is pretty amazing (though easy to jam), and transportation by spaceship is nearly instantaneous. One calculation is that ships can go 25,000 light years a day. The difference is felt especially in warfare. (I have to interject here that Star Wars warfare is absolute nonsense given the other parameters involved; another topic for a column.)
Campaigns vs. Rules
I’ve talked in terms of campaigns, but this applies to a world-setting that’s incorporated into a set of RPG rules. D&D’s original setting was generic medieval fantasy (Greyhawk). There are games where the setting seems to be more important than the actual rules/mechanisms of the game, yet others where no specific setting is involved.
Write your ideas down on a computer or paper rather than rely on memory. There may also be software that can help you in world building. For example, I ran across a recommendation for software called Granthika, it's for fiction writers to keep track of all their characters and events in their novel or series of novels. It might be useful for serious world builders, but I have no experience with it, so I can't say.
Map drawing software can be general drawing software like CorelDraw or Inkscape, or it can be specific like Profantasy software, and can be free or can be commercial. If you Google search “fantasy map software” you'll find some of the free as well as the commercial.
I’ll leave you with a repeat of my admonition: don't spend so much effort on the setting that you neglect the game or the novel. Get on with what's important, the game not the detailed setting.
These are the questions we were discussing last time:
- What are the players going to DO?
- Who are the main enemies?
- Terrain? (Do you NEED a map?)
- Is there “a war on?”
- Who/what dominates the local area?
- How “present” are the gods?
- Is there a great mystery?
- How much does magic influence the world?
- How common are adventurers?
- What is the speed of communication and transportation?
The next question is who or what dominates the local area? The player characters are likely to operate only in a local area, at first. Whatever/whoever dominates that area may become a major adversary and certainly controls a lot of what happens, or they may be a great help to the characters
How present are the gods?
In a way this is a background question, but it can be very important. For example, in my D&D campaigns over the course of 40+ years or thereabouts a god has never appeared to the player characters. Even the non-human representatives of gods are rare. Human and other clerics are about as representative as it gets. Player characters (or novel characters) are not likely to be able to do much to the gods themselves, nor to their stronger representatives like Archangel equivalents. I know that in some campaigns characters fight gods, but I'd quote the Hulk after he trashed Loki in a movie: “puny god.” Any god worth the name should be far more powerful than adventurers, surely?
Is there a great mystery?
Is there a great mystery going on in the campaign? I'm not a reader of mystery novels, but many people are. Of course it doesn't have to be a murder mystery. Although it could be who murdered the King or the Queen or something like that. You could ask “what happened to the famous adventurer,” where’s he or she gone (we’re looking at you, Luke Skywalker), where is the fabled huge gem, what has been killing the locals, where is the “last Dragon?”
How much does magic influence the world?
This has a lot to do with how the game plays. Consider Tolkien's Middle-earth, where magic is very rare. I wrote an article long ago using Moria as an introductory game for beginners. I had to evaluate Aragorn and Gandalf and so on. Aragorn was a seventh level ranger and Gandalf was an eighth level cleric (could not raise the dead) with a Ring of Warmth/Fire. Some people immediately said “oh my God, they're much more powerful.” No, it's just that in Tolkien's world there's hardly anybody who's really powerful, a seventh level ranger and eighth level cleric really stand out. On the other hand, we have worlds where magic is a substitute for technology and it's quite commonplace. This is a big difference in how those worlds work. I recommend that you read my series of articles about stages of magic.
How common are adventurers?
Are adventurers or heroes as common as professional athletes? Ask yourself how many professional athletes you've met. Are they as common as national congressmen and women (only 550 in 330,000,000 people). Have you ever met any one of those? Or are they as common as police officers? It makes a huge difference: it makes a difference in how people treat adventurers, it makes a difference in how polities/states solve problems. If there are bunches of adventurers around the polities may solve problems by sending adventurers. If there are very few adventures they’ve got to find a different way to solve their problems. (Or, perhaps with a lot of money they can hire the rare adventurers).
Transportation & communication again
We come back to transportation and communication. In Dungeons & Dragons, barring a few magic items, both are slow. You can get a magic carpet or a crystal ball, but most people do not have that possibility. On the other hand in Star Wars communication is instantaneous throughout the galaxy using small devices, which is pretty amazing (though easy to jam), and transportation by spaceship is nearly instantaneous. One calculation is that ships can go 25,000 light years a day. The difference is felt especially in warfare. (I have to interject here that Star Wars warfare is absolute nonsense given the other parameters involved; another topic for a column.)
Campaigns vs. Rules
I’ve talked in terms of campaigns, but this applies to a world-setting that’s incorporated into a set of RPG rules. D&D’s original setting was generic medieval fantasy (Greyhawk). There are games where the setting seems to be more important than the actual rules/mechanisms of the game, yet others where no specific setting is involved.
Write your ideas down on a computer or paper rather than rely on memory. There may also be software that can help you in world building. For example, I ran across a recommendation for software called Granthika, it's for fiction writers to keep track of all their characters and events in their novel or series of novels. It might be useful for serious world builders, but I have no experience with it, so I can't say.
Map drawing software can be general drawing software like CorelDraw or Inkscape, or it can be specific like Profantasy software, and can be free or can be commercial. If you Google search “fantasy map software” you'll find some of the free as well as the commercial.
I’ll leave you with a repeat of my admonition: don't spend so much effort on the setting that you neglect the game or the novel. Get on with what's important, the game not the detailed setting.
I think, for me, where it comes down is I'm rather tired of players playing clerics especially, as just a fighter with some healing powers. Never referencing their faith, never making so much as a nod towards the fact that this is a spiritual character.
