10 Underrated D&D Worldbuilding Techniques that Work!

[@theDMLair]

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[@gagedarnell7988]

Oddly enough, I’ve never been one to build my world based on the story. I’ve always found that if you fill your world with enough interesting hooks and locations and then drop your players somewhere random they will find a story all on their own.

[@HereComeMrCee-Jay]

This is the way. You need just a bit of structure and a few adventure options to pursue to get started. Then you, your players, and the dice co-create the rest through game play.

[@DShayShaidarol]

Yes, exactly.

[@StupidButCunning]

While this is great advice, I think it's also important to note your mileage may vary with different groups depending on factors such as age and personality. More experienced groups, or groups who are more open to expanding upon the surface level information they are given will thrive in such a world. That being said, newer groups or groups of players who don't want to take the story into their own hands for whatever reason; be it shyness, not understanding the freedom they have over their character, not wanting to step on your toes as DM, etc., will need considerably more structure and direction. Hell, even with experienced groups I'm sure we've all been there when the party hasn't been advancing any story forward, so you are shoving the story hooks and breadcrumbs down your players throats while they remain completely oblivious as to what to do and just wander aimlessly. Sure, sometimes your players might not be interested in these specific tales, but I've found more often than not that when I try talking to them, they were just completely clueless because apparently receiving a vision in a dream that clearly shows a path, location, or person and upon waking they're left with a feeling that it was very real isn't enough to get an idea of what to do next. Edit: Fixed autocorrect typo

[@bridgeburner6859]

Same. I start with a world map, fill in fantastic locations and define regional tensions/relationships based on geography, then construct a campaign that inhabits and incorporates those elements

[@davidmorgan6896]

The GM should not be determining the story; that is what players do. I agree, create a world, but you don't, necessarily, need the whole world at the same level of detail. You might need to understand the morphology in order to determine climate and thus biomes. This informs decisions about societies and trade. I created a world, but only fully detailed a large section. I wanted to offer options for characters and so there had to be plains nomads and desert nomads, stone age hunter/gatherers and bronze-age civilization. Whilst you don't want a plot, you do need to create a world ripe for adventure.

[@GrandOldDwarf]

When worldbuilding, I get started with top-down -- building the basic world map and making the geography real enough to not break immersion, then break off and do details from the bottom up.

[@Johnnyboi1971]

i love using workplace nicknames for my npcs ,such as Daisy "some days hes in and some days he isn't" and Lantern "he's not very bright and has to be carried" Butter knife "not the sharpest tool in the box" and the guy called Keth used to be Keith but he lost an eye.

[@goontubeassos7076]

Lol Good job!

[@EggMortis]

man that is memorable and clever!

[@LordWiseWolf]

My art teacher always told us “steal like an artist” if I see something interesting in a work of fiction or history, I take that, modify it and put it in my world for my players. I also watch anime and movies my players haven’t seen or heard of. That way, they have no idea.

[@xRickAstleyx]

"good artists borrow, great artists steal"

[@nihao20]

My programming teacher always told us:”Better stolen well than poorly self-made”

[@hrbille]

I build both upwards and downwards, it depends on the idea that tricked me to start building, but i love building worlds, I've done it since childhood.

[@Shaso-xv3tw]

For the mapping I prefer what I call the “sandwich method”. I make sure there’s a global map of the land and then I fill out one part of it and expand from there as needed. I’ve tried purely starting with a local map and expanding it as the game went on and I wound up with a nonsensical map that didn’t stand up to realism at all and shattered suspension of disbelief.

[@StinkerTheFirst]

That sounds like a flexible method. I like it.

[@Alresu]

Oh, I really like the "A rumor a day"! It's embarassing how many times I was unprepared when my players just went "We ask around" somewhere completely random!

[@valkyriebait136]

For Social Encounter systems, the Storypath system has a pretty solid set up to look at for ideas!

[@martinzemanek2257]

One more thing, the bottom up approach reduces the amount of unused work and frustration. Same as with startups, it's good to test quickly and reduce stuff, that is not serving their purpose.

[@chrisragner3882]

Rumors absolutely! Yes. Tags. Fungus Foot was a fun halfling NPC that I still remember from the 80’s. Social combat is so much fun! Had one last session and it built great tension! The character wants to kick the rival’s butt! Great for setting up the next session.

[@billmartovich9009]

I tend to start with something that's already solid and made by someone else, but then add my main quest and populate with my characters as NPCs. This removes the "7 days to make Earth" burden, but also frees me up to concentrate on the interactions the players will be having, not deciding how many trees to put on this forest map.

[@ChristopherM.8]

Funny, I've never equated top-down or bottom-up worldbuilding to only being intrinsically linked to the map itself. I always start in the macro, large reality-defining concepts like the world pantheon and the creation of the various races, whereas the reverse would be in starting with the immediate plot or story surrounding the game's first couple of sessions.

[@alexj1989]

Interesting, I usually go from top down to bottom down. I start with the shape of the world and major terrain features, then drop into the campaign area.

[@jacobvanveit3437]

I do the same. I have to “see” the world before I can populate it. Macro to micro. You can’t just start with micro and work to a macro scale without answering the 5 W’s. Who what, where, why and “w”how. It’s not up to the GM to dictate how the players interact with your world. So micro scale building is very railroaded as the bigger questions arnt answered. As a GM iv had to adapt my thinking to concepts rather than the small details of the adventure. Most players will be creative enough to imagine the world around their characters and so the GM just needs to keep that world moving. Getting snagged on a shops item inventory, or a castle layout is missing the point “that at all costs you must keep the flow going!” Flow is vital and, for me at least, thinkining in concepts rather than fine details is essential to keeping things moving smoothly. Always have a backup of funny characters that you witness in movies, books or real life that you can pull from to help populate your world with fun interactions. All to say, macro scale down is the best way I find to create your world, and to do that with concepts/tropes that you know and love as the played will always throw wrenches at the gears of your story.

[@alexj1989]

@@jacobvanveit3437 I don’t think one way is better than another. If you get a world that leads to a good game, you did it right. 40ish years ago I played in an amazing world for about 3-4 years of time. It was only after the campaign that the DM admitted all he designed in advance was the starting village. As we explored further out, he just decided on the fly what was there and added it on. I’m not sure I could pull it off, but he did amazing.

[@jacobvanveit3437]

@@alexj1989 yeah exactly, it sounds like he had a overview already of the world. I do the same thing. I don’t always have a village or a destination already put together. I have to insert it on the fly something that would be suited for the world at the given moment. I would only stipulate that it only works out “alright” so long as you have enough pre-made NPC’s and some maps (I love Pinterest for this) to show your group to give the illusion that you have that destination ready to go. All I do is whenever I think of a fun character, event or experience that you think players would find interesting is to write it down in a journal. Same for any movie or game that has a cool trope or feature you might find entertaining, write down the concept and insert it whenever you’re stuck going off script. It will at least feel familiar and will have the scaffolding that you need to keep the game going. It takes about 5 minutes or less to make notes on it and to throw in some monsters or enemies that you think would suit the concept.

[@srmillard]

I’ve played D&D for a long time and just started DMing again, developing my own home brew world and have watched dozens of videos on this topic. This video was the best. Thank you, you rock 🙏

[@RyuuKageDesu]

I tend to start top down, creating the large map, with wide sweeping strokes. Then, I work from the bottom up. Once I havethe big picture, it's easy for me to focus on the little picture, and grow the world outward.

[@TrickyTrickyFox]

I am using circle approach. You create blank map with just roads, land, kingdoms and water. Several continents or one super continent, depending if you want or don't want naval in your campaign. This gives me overall idea of where something is located. Then i pick a place in that world where adveture will begin. I show my players the map so they can ask me what's where to understand where they want their characters to come from. And then i start building bottom up around the area of adventure as the game goes on

[@rcschmidt668]

Thanks for the tips, Luke! I sometimes add a mystic near the start of the game as well as some gossip to help the party find plot hooks. Also, I imagine walking through maps of towns or other places to make sure that they make sense for distance, placement, etc.

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

Yes I do bottom up No sense building some place they never go Good tips

[@conjurerofcheaptricks]

I am also writing an Eberron campaign. I am starting my characters in Cyre, they will witness the events that make the Mournlands.

[@scharmoo]

This is marvelous! Thanks for sharing these tips. Building up is something I really struggle with as my players often want a map. But I need to remember that I don't necessarily need to make a full WORLD map, and could just make a town, or province and still make it organic. Thanks for these tips, I really appreciate it!

[@mundanestream5524]

I have 1 tip to add, if you forget to build up an area of your world before you started play (like i did) you could a rumor or a story as to why that hasn't be settled. For an example i forgot to build up a part in my swamp before we played. A player had asked why that area was baron and i said that first thing that came to mind. People went it but never came out and now there is an ancient black Dragon and loads of undead in "The Empty Marsh" and i have something for my player's to do when they're powerful enough.

[@Calebgoblin]

Jumping onto the old school Renaissance is tight. I'm so in

[@joepverlaan575]

Your social combat idea sounds very intriguing! Would love to see more content on that.

[@afonsollima]

I loved the one rumour a day tip. It takes a long time between game sessions and I always take a single day to do all the work and the NPC and interactions take most of the time.

[@bridgeburner6859]

Dear algorithm: this comment is for you.

[@ericfromphoenix3566]

Luke, as always appreciate all of your content. Faith, Family and the DM Lair got me through Covid.

[@princesskanuta3495]

same!!

[@matthewkyncl7745]

Very insightful information, and it hardly took any time to watch! A DM friend of mine gave me great advice by telling me to write a few lines of sample dialogue while creating NPCs. That way, you let their words speak to their character.

[@DamienZshadow]

Been trying to worldbuld for a graphic novel I am making, and even though this was focused on D&D game play, I felt a lot of this advice really helped me. Making a rumor a day was brilliant!

[@Ilandria.]

I do a quasi-hybrid of bottom-up and top-down. I like to make my world map, figure out the various realms/domains/kingdoms/etc., the location of the most major populated areas, and a very high level overview of what each part of the world is like. After that though I flesh out the world by starting wherever my adventures/campaigns are and add details to bits of the world as needed. I find having that initial high-level concept of the world layout, places, etc. is extremely important as lots of campaigns are based on or influenced by world events, so having some kind of baseline to improv from is vital.

[@unseensounds]

I am currently designing my first campaign and your videos have been an immense help. Thank you for your great content!

[@shadomain7918]

Good point about the world being driven by people, not geography. This is because stories are driven by change. Change drives conflict, the core of stories. Although geography can change, it's rare. Meanwhile people are born, die, and change the world with their actions

[@jritch0412]

I must be the oddity here bc I definitely love the places at least as much as the people. The second you said "is it Gondor you love, or Aragon" I was like, nah lol the places are great. That's why I draw maps non-stop and when I run a campaign, I'll pick a map that fits the need and flesh it out top down... I guess I'm weird idk 🤷

[@theDMLair]

Everyone has different things they enjoy! 😁

[@nbu8ses43as6fivil]

Hi Luke, comment for the algorithm pal

[@jma3974]

I have been taking a mixed Top-Down and Bottom-Up approach. I have continents, I have major cities, I have some geography of note, I have ethnic and cultural boundaries. But I detail the place the players are at or are heading to. The broad-stroke top-down allows me figure how a region may have changed over time. Figure out the why-something-exists. Everything is nebulous enough that it can be tweaked or adjusted as the story approaches it. I combine this with short narratives that I share with the players. These equate to bard songs and childhood stories their characters have heard, and invite interest to some world lore and potential plot hooks.

[@kirkmcmanus8716]

Great as always thanks for all you do

[@douglaslewandowski2999]

I prefer to do a thorough history for the world which includes a map, but I I then switch to locations that the adventure will take place

[@isabelherrera1927]

Bro I'm starting a campign and this is definitely a big help! Thank you!

[@kidmythicgames]

This is absolutely outstanding! The tips and presentation top notch.

[@playitbyear5312]

And never forget that you forgot something. Players will always poke their nose into something that you never considered. I find that I like to keep some form of voice recorder handy, even just your phone, so as you BS your way through something, you have the ability to listen to yourself and make it cannon.

[@brandonrains5602]

So, I still like top down construction... to a certain degree. Laying out the major geographic features helps me to know what might or might not be in certain direction. I also try to stay one major settlement ahead in any given direction... this helps with the rumors that the PCs are hearing about. It helps me to keep some consistency in my world.

[@blaiseandthebambina]

Comment for the algorithm. Also thank you for this. I’ve never played D&D but a ton of your videos have helped with our game development. 🤠

[@HeikoWiebe]

That was really good advice. Not new, but nice and solid.

[@OlieB]

Oh nice, the map sponsor is amazing. Found them many times before

[@pertynerdy]

Interesting. I’ve always started with a singular inspiration point. Like, a flower with interesting magical properties. I consider how all things are impacted by this flower. Then I take a look at each of those things and build out from each of those points. It kinda feels like a “snowflake” method. Even if I start with a large inspiration point like a planetary body, I build it out like a snowflake.

[@_Crunchy]

During the creation of my current world setting, I started with some ideas on the countries within my continent of focus and arted up a few versions of how the landmass would look. Then picked my favourite, added mountains/ forests/ biomes/ landmarks n stuff. Next was setting some borders and slapping in a bunch of temporary positions for settlements (most of which became permanent). That process (map size depending) is incredibly quick, fleshing out the "story" of the world will always take longer. I already had a notion of each of my country's government styles, which made it easy to write out a sentence or two about all my settlements while keeping them in theme to their leadership. A settlement's basic description can be really anything but should generally be informed by local features. Just come up with something cool about the place, maybe a piece of history or a description of a local practice. Now if you ever have to do something in that place you have a general idea of where to start. Also, you should never expect players to look through this information if you make it public, but if they do look at it, they might read something they like and want to visit the place from that alone. My final suggestion though, is to play in the world. You can bash out the basics I went through above in a week easy, and that gets you to a point where you're ready to start getting your worldbuilding solidified in gameplay.

[@erinwatson1863]

I LOVE the idea of a "social combat" system. I'm looking forward to what you guys come up with!

[@williamozier918]

Here;s my trick: Your world has 3 ages of history. The first age was thousands of years ago when an army of lawful good fought an army of lawful evil, this forms the local ecologies, the religions of the campaign, the major geographic features, magical artifacts, buried legendary monsters, and this age forms the lowest level of your dungeons, and one major ruin. The second age was a thousand years ago, when an allied army of the playable character races fought an army of evil intelligent races and their monsters, this forms the differnt kingdoms, uncommon magical items, your prestige classes, most dungeon levels are from this age, several crumbled castles, one major castle still standing. The third age was a few decades ago and forms the current geo-politics of the land, the common magic items and spells, and your factions, top levels of dungeons and many castles and keeps.

[@Guglielmoparon]

1. I’ve started with creating a timeline of events ranging back billions of years… Obviously a very ambiguous timeline to give me a general framework for later creations. After I reached the recent day the last couple of thousands of years have far more details in the timeline. Ultimately I started creating the world in its recent day with having myths and legends in mind! Also Dwarves and Elves have no conflicts, because I’m sick of that trope 😂 2. Bacon IS Delicious!

[@Andrew.Downing]

The Genesys system does social combat fantastically. They even have a mental HP system that you "attack" during it.

[@CountAdolfo]

Bottom up world building is just fine if you are fine with either removing some player agency or letting players dictate geography to you. Either they HAVE TO come from the town or area where you start the party... OR... they can say where they come from and YOU HAVE TO add that location to your map. Start top down. Give an overview without dumping details. Then localize your campaign area. Flesh that region out but don't limit your players or allow them to dictate the world to you

[@Franimus]

Great advice, and very efficiently presented! Must appreciated!

[@AnotherDuck]

Some of these tips are also good for (fantasy) authors. In particular, create the world and setting based on the story, not the other way around. Your story is the driving point, so that should inform the rest of what you create. This way you don't have to fit in the story into the world you've created, but just change the world depending on what suits the story. Of course, once you do those changes, you keep them, so it's not inconsistent.

[@jennynorton9218]

I'm working on building a new world right now, and this is very helpful (though I already started top down... 😞). I can't wait to see your social combat system! My games tend to run a little bit more exploration/social heavy and I'd love to see a system that makes this as engaging mechanically as physical combat encounters!

[@MAEX25]

There is a rulebook for social encounters in pathfinder 1e that has some good rules. Even if you play another system, you get an idea what could work for you.

[@ShioriWhitefeather]

I'm running my very first ever D&D campaign, it's a game for 1 player, and we play every night. So not a lot of time for planning (I don't know how to plan anyway - I've never done this before). It's forced me into a bottom-up creation format, and even though I feel like everything is chaotic because I can't plan anything in advance, my player is thrilled at the game, and finds that it feels cohesive and like a well-thought out, living world. We used a map generator for the world map, and I'm using a small handful of generators for, say, random shops in a town. The rest of it is literally just pulled out of my ass 😂 But, one thing that seems to be helping this is that, every random ass idea, or backstory, or person I think of, is written down in a *massive* list of notes. So, though I have no idea what's going to happen in 2 towns from here, I know that people in this town are saying that there's a friar in the next town dabbling with magic (random generated rumor), and the person they meet in town has a sister who's there and he is worried and wants to bring her home (playing off of that idea). Once that quest was finished, they went to the previous town, where they ran into a farmer looking for his grandfather who seemed to have wandered off the farm (randomly generated encounter) - which is curiously similar to an old man they met while on the way to this area (randomly generated encounter) who was looking for his uncle's farm, and seemed rather confused and addled. Combining those, the party had previously taken the old man to a town across the border, since they encountered the old man on that side of the border. Now the younger guy, who informed the party that his grandfather isn't always in his right mind, needs to figure out how to get across the border of two warring nations, to find his grandfather on the other side. Unbeknownst to the party, the city they took him to for shelter is currently under Zombie infestation - due to the dead in the area from a nearby battle (remember the nations are at war). So, even though I don't have any real direction in the campaign, because of the sheer amount of notes I keep, I manage to tie things into each other. Whenever they pass through the area next, they'll find out about the zombie outbreak, as refugees seem to be showing up on this side of the border. Why? I haven't figured that out yet. Lich? Just, too many dead? Some kind of magical contagion? Perhaps a set of spells crafted together by one of the countries in an attempt to turn the recent battlefield into a new, more deadly weapon - without sacrificing more soldiers. That last one sounds good, actually. Might use that. Where are my notes...?

[@shadowrodney]

It's funny, in my own design TTRPG system I am also working on a social system that turns social interactions into more of a minigame to enjoy.

[@DeltaDemon1]

A picture is worth a thousand words and a map tells a story. Yes the story is important but the map tells the story, at least partially. In any module, it's the maps that anchor the story. In the FR, one of the best things people remember are the maps. Maps are extremely important to the story.

[@srmillard]

brilliant! thank you, agree with these principles

[@TJBUSMC1973]

Great content as always!

[@MalloonTarka]

_The Burning Wheel_ has a pretty good social combat system. It (like the other systems - chases & combat) works like a more complicated version of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

[@princesskanuta3495]

I love building new worlds!

[@jaakkosippola7191]

I usually need a map that has basic information to get my mind thinking. My mind just wants the information first. None of the places need to be fleshed out or even on the map. If I have lakes, forests, mountains, rivers and some important cities I am happy. after that I start going bottom up.

[@zweieck3623]

I always start with a world map. I know I shouldn't, but I want to know where I am. I will try the approach with fleshing out places a traveler goes to though. Might be what helps me with the bottom up approach.

[@lukas.18249]

Thank you

[@tetu-pareoutdoors9465]

likes your video man, im a new DM and your videos help me a lot ! thanks

[@th3auth0r44]

For my main campaign that is still ongoing i did the map first, borders next, then names of the regions & for each (except the starting one that i drew) i piked images of google or pinterest that would fit, alongside structures, towns, ... The goal was to show my players the map & let them choose where they would go for their adventure, all the while the world is living & moving so the main plots are advenssing without them, they live in it, it's not an mmo where the npcs wait with a ? above their head, in my campaign a peasant could be living his life & suddenly get snatched away by a crow the size of a small truck, or die in a silverware rain storm. When my players go to a new region i would have prepared it while they were in the previous one (adding towns, dungeons, encounters, quests, ...).

[@BigCowProductions]

Ermagerd. Love the idea of the Social Encounter system. May have to get to tier 3 for celebration from 2.

[@waynefletcher4259]

Great video and very informative.

[@xxTerraPrimexx]

Really looking forward to that social combat system. Will it be like the Sword Chronicle system? (it is a d6 system that replaced the Song of Ice and Fire RPG if you haven't heard of it)

[@al2642]

Great video, my man. Best bottom up creation? Tolkien made his world starting from the languages. Can't get more bottom up that that, unless you start from defining the physical laws the atoms in your world interact ahha! You made me wonder about people, though: can't we make a good rpg world campaign in the shadow of the colossus style?

[@MemphiStig]

Thanks! Now I have to work on a Mortal Kombat parody called Social Kombat.

[@BOYAFOYA]

Nice video thank you

[@codyhoney9101]

I have a world map of my world. So far we've only used a couple of islands in it. I really only have an idea of about 4 major cities and a region that's covered by a glacier. 3 are part of my players back stories one is the starting town and one is a major religion hub. Other than that, nothing else on that map is set in stone.

[@fabiolemos1750]

Great work, tks

[@thenoobelf]

How would deities work with this form? Would it be best to have the pantheon fully figured out first? Maybe a mix of top down and bottom up.

[@AnotherDuck]

Yeah, a mix probably. Just figure out how they interact with the world and what place in the cultures they have, then create them as needed. That way you don't need to create a whole pantheon of gods, but when you create new ones you know roughly where they stand in relation to others and the people.

[@johnpayne6175]

One thing I always think about when I am world building is what makes this world different from what is already out there? Like why make a world where some technology has been infused with magic in the world has recently had a huge war. That's eberon.

[@geraldkatz7986]

I often borrow/steal what others DM did. Many, but not tall, places and ideas in my world are experiences I experienced playing other people's games since way back in 2E. I'll change and adapt as I experience more games and create my own ideas, but I know which game I played that led me to create that city, that country, that deity.

[@chrissimpson1183]

Very few dma use social combat ..

[@Bluntville710]

I have a question about the patrion. I want to sign up but if I pay for the $15 a month do I also get the back log of issues of the magazine or only the current ones?

[@LeeJCander]

I homebrew’d my God/Gods first. I love making my own religions as I’m a philosophy & religious studies student with a Masters in Mythology. Makes me feel more like the painter, less like the art history student haha. I then did a bottom-up approach starting with just 2 towns and a city. Then I made a huge map placing those towns and cities. Then I went top down and populated the rest of the world and I continually think of next quest hooks and things that happen/are happening in the world.

[@TheAwsomeKing77]

In my weekly homebrew game I made a very complicated setting (due to both me and my players enjoying such a thing) that being said I definitely followed a good chunk of this advice The dragon city inferna is a city ruled over by a red dragon named inferno like most red dragons is a greedy powerful being however at some point he became obsessed with running the greatest city imaginable so the city is actually a pretty good place to live with a lot of the governmental tasks being performed by kobolds with loyalty to the dragon One last fun detail since the city is run by an ancient dragon they tried to cast magic to eliminate or reduce the dragons environmental altering effect the best they could do is deluding it by stretching it out and now the city and the surrounding countries and sea are a tropical environment

[@Scott-sk1rb]

You forgot the most important secret of world building. Your world must have bacon! You need to figure out how it fits into the world.

[@catvamp100]

Five words for the algorithm

[@Rijuka]

Hey! Does anyone know if the social combat system that he mentioned has been released yet? And if so, where can I find it? In the Lair Magazine, the Lairs & Legends book or somewhere else? And by the way, a very good video which helped me a lot with my worldbuilding.

[@shaokhanwins1037]

Hi Luke! I have been watching your videos since 2019. You're the main reason why I starting dming, your tutorials are why I did better than expected. I want to say thank you so much for being very helpful and entertaining! On the topic of world building, I have finished 5 campaigns in the same world since 2020, and as im typing this, the first session of the 6th and final campaign of this world is about to start in 4 hours. Everything has been building up to this moment. So I figured I just drop by where it all really started and say thank you for making this possible for me in the first place!

[@IvanBarsch]

7:10 Reminds me of NPC DnD where ‘Poligize’ means ‘Relax’.

[@DeltaDemon1]

While people are important, geography has a great importance and is often overlooked. Do we remember Tatooine or Ben Kenobi. Guess what, we remember both equally. Both are equally important. Tatooine is a character just as much as Ben Kenobi. Don't ignore the geography.

[@LordDany]

I use bottom up Easier to improv as well if.needed

[@Andrew.Downing]

How did you do special ebberon races like warforged in Pathfinder? Also why did you decide to do Ebberon instead of Golarion?

[@lilfreaks7967]

I just realized after he said gondor that i based my map off of it and called it gandor and did not realize it😂

[@jjkthebest]

There's not just top down and bottom up world building. Think more creatively! Bi-directional world building! It's way more effective imo than either of the two on their own.

[@EvaneCrow]

i kinda turned the idea upside down on my current project. instead of creating an entire world i hardlimited myself to a pocket dimensional bubble with an area of a few miles of diameter and then timeskipped it like a thousand years. with that i simply created the heart of the city that made up the area of the bubble and then let logic dictate how it'll change. how does a high fantasy culture evolve when their access to external magic is severely limited. what factions would emerge over time and how would they interact with one another. what sacrifices is the population willing to make for survival. personally im not a fan of a purely top-bottom or bottom-top approach. i tend to mix both to an extent creating a natural worldmap first without any location and then start populating the area i wanna experience a story.

[@andrewtomlinson5237]

First question when creating your own world is "WHY?" Nothing to do with Dragons, and events within the campaign... not "Why is X,Y,Z thing happening..." but "Why am I building this world?" Just... why do you want to build a world, and not simply use any of the myriad available already. This should inform your design more than any other factor. (My first world built was in 1982 and I'm still using it. I made it because as kids we couldn't afford to buy things like World of Greyhawk" and all the modules set there. Plus I felt like the Fantasy worlds of fiction were too restrictive and specific for me to set a game within Narnia, Melnibone, Earthsea, Middle Earth, or Nehwon etc... I wanted to pick and choose the conventions I wanted to use.) Second question, and very important, is, "How long do I have to do this before we start using it?" Your approach to "World Building" will absolutely vary depending on how soon you want to start using it. If you have a few months lead time your approach will be very different to how you will work if you need it ready to start next week. Do you intend to continue using it, or are you building for one shorter campaign? Again, this will help you decide what to focus your detailed work on. (When I first started, mine was a map of an island and "You are HERE." I made up the names and locations of the towns and villages as I went, drawing them for the first time when the players saw them. Whenever I got time, I made up names of Gods, NPCs, and kept records of all those notes... During hiatuses between games, I would write background, lore, History, factional alignments, all that good stuff you don't have time to work on during adventure writing, and can mess things up if you ass-pull it and contradict yourself... Now, 40 years later, I know that world inside out. I use that world for pretty much every Fantasy game system I run, including an LRP system we used to run, because I now have so much background and information it rivals any published fantasy game world for level of detail.) Think about the type of game you want to run. Are you going to let them wander freely, investigating wherever they want, or will you be giving them a focused heroic quest? It's far easier to write about places if you know where they will be going, and allows you to go deeper into those areas where you know the campaign will lead. (Mine started as a pure Hex Crawl... if they found something, they explored it. As the land became more populated and they learned more about it, I added things further afield than what they had seen/visited. History and general information.... THEN rumours, "plot hooks" lead ins to campaign adventures.). If you start throwing rumours around about areas you haven't written yet you'll be stuck when they say "Ooh, that sounds cool... We're going to go THERE! RIGHT NOW!!!" (this WILL happen...) Write the content, then come up with the rumour that leads to it. Or do both at the same time. Try to avoid offering plot lines to players if the plot's not there yet. Or be prepared to say, "Over those mountains is a civilization of giants who ride Elder Dragons as mounts! But you won't be going there for a while!" and when they whione that "But I WANT to...." tell them "There's no point... seriously... you'll all die. I know there is a modern trend of having a knee jerk reaction to the very idea of 'forbidding your players from doing something' as being akin to stripping their flesh and rolling them in salt in terms of crimes against role playing, and that their every whiny needy desire must be fulfilled lest you remove their precious "Agency"...but there is also a VERY popular modern trend of campaigns collapsing or fizzling out within the first few sessions. Just saying... that shit might be connected... Another question to ask is, "Do your players enjoy the sort of game where remembering something they learned in a previous session comes back to help them solve a problem?" If your players don't pay much attention, don't make notes, and want to roll some dice to see if they remember things or make connections between two pieces of information... then don't waste your effort on going into too much detail too soon. If they DO enjoy using things they learned further back in time than "last session", then feel free to write complex stories that contain useful information. this will lead to a slower growth of the world as you'll be building in more detail. So bear that in mind... you'll need to find ways to prevent them swanning off across the 14 Oceans every week, checking out another of the 15 continents you drew originally... (I'm lucky that my players are avid note takers, and are able to call back information form months ago, so I can scatter useful information around all over the place. I also play mostly on Roll20 these days, so being able to drop Journal Entries into an esialy accesible folder for them, makes accessing lore much easier.) If you are pushed for time, use an AI Chat Bot to help flesh out the details. Again, this may give some 2 year veteran players or DMs a fit of the vapours, but it's a tool... it's free.. USE IT! Ask ChatGPT to "Tell me a short story about The King of XYZ country..." (where you throw in some general flavour and a few details of the kingdom or whatever...) It will probably be rubbish, but it might give you a couple of fresh ideas to use when the inevitable writers' block kicks in and you have a game tomorrow. Once you are up and running, let it evolve. Don't try and force every corner of the world into a box before you need it. Leave yourself spaces where you can expand, so if you have a great idea for "A society where the best insults are treated as the highest form of intellect!" or something equally weird and interesting you can bring it into the game.

[@LtBob38]

A lot of this depends on the group. My group is mostly outdoorsy types who are huge nerds and no matter who DMs, NPCs are less interesting to people than the surrounding environment. If I don't spend time dealing with what the composition of rocks that the building is carved into everyones going to go away dissapointed. And whenever I play , I'm the same way, I don't much care for the culture of the town or the NPCs vying for attention, as it gets in the way of exploring the world in the game.

[@DeltaDemon1]

I disagree about bottom up. You should build both top down and bottom up at the same time. Otherwise you end up with an incoherent mess.

[@saraphys5555]

1:30 As an Eberron geek... Ummm... If you wanted to flesh out your Eberron world setting, why not get the 3.5 Eberron books? EVERYTHiNG is in those to flesh out the world...and the Players Guide to Eberron is the perfect tool to give to PLAYERS for general World Lore knowledge. Like, for example, everyone in our world knows what lightbulbs are; Everyone in Eberron knows what a Dragonshard is... Everyone in our world knows what an Engineer is; and everyone in Eberron knows what a Magewright is... It even includes side-bar's that you can roll on, that have alittle more detail or esoteric info in a character might have more knowledge in that specific field... Honestly, throw away that dead-weight that is the 5E Eberron book; the 3E & 4E books are so much more useful! 4:27 That mountain range is a Dragon's Wing...well, partly... That swamp is a wound... Eberron's head rests on Argonesson... its 3 miles high. THE WORLD IS LITERALLY A COSMIC CREATOR DRAGON!!! ...oh, also, all Dragon's in Eberron were created by the blood of Siberys falling onto Eberron, so all Dragon's in the setting are either Good or Neutral; except those corrupted by the Overfiend, they're evil...but that can be ANY Dragon! Currently, the biggest threat is a corrupted Evil Golden Dragon! 8:08 Dont forget, all Talenta residents should speak in an Aussie accent... For GOOD aussie accents, I recommend listening to a wide selection of our Australian MP's and PM's (Bob Katter for a northern rural accent; Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull for Metro accents) 8:34 Thats because D&D has generally sucked in Social Encounter territory... If you want Social Encounter games, I recommend Green Ronin Publishing's AGE system, the STUNT table for Social Encounters is amazing; and Monte Cook Games' Cypher System/Numenera D&D (aka Numenera 2), as it has a whole section in Numenera Destiny about social-run games, and skills and encounter builds. I used both to augment my own 5E game, until I decided to stop trying to fix what was broken, and play/run something that worked to begin with... EDIT: Ok, the trick to social encounters too, is NOT to make them simpler, but to make them as robust as combat... thats what both examples above do. Personally, I think GRP's AGE system is phenomenal, as it puts equal focus on Combat, Exploration, Social, and Spells...meaning that no matter which way you run your game, a player's build should never feel like they have nothing to contribute to a situation. I call this the "Interplay Fallout" design. MCG Cypher System instead gives players the option to say what their characters are skilled in, and the balanced options to design their characters... I feel that the 6 Types (classes) from Numenera 2 best maximise this potential, as it balances EVERYONE to be equally Combat, Social, and Exploration contributing characters. A Glaive/Warrior is generally built to fight, but with the Skill options, might decide to take some Might-focused "Engineering" skill, so that they can help the Wright making repairs to the Airship... the Arkay/Speaker is generally a "Face" role, but are built with secondary martial talents, so that they can assist the Warrior. Likewise, a Warrior might take on intimidation skill... there's so many options. D&D, and to an extent, Pathfinder; limit what players can do outside of combat...which is kinda funny, since they're "Roleplaying games".

[@cadenceclearwater4340]

We should raise funds to cure that bacon allergy 😢

[@kevindaniel1337]

My method, steal ideas and mash them together until they are unrecognizable, or at least more like an homage than a copy paste.

[@null_error_valuable]

Hey, why no Alec Guinness as Obi-wan?!

[@dane3038]

I disagree that the world should be tied to plot and should be the driving force behind world building. Epic 5e style globe-spanning "save the world" campaigns were fun the first two times I did it, but now I want to return to the gold and glory motivation. That's why the world I'm building has an unknown origin and the existence of the Gods is sometimes debated. The world is only there to increase immersion for the players by giving them a stable defined world that is consistent and that's all it does. Time is tracked so holidays are consistent and don't just happen as a plot device, the flora and fauna are regine-specific and change with the seasons, If you're taking the Kings road ( two kings ) from the Spine of the Word to GreyHawk City, you probably won't be surprised to meet up with a caravan of wagons exporting Iron. Not just birds in the sky but specific birds depending on region and season. It's goes on and on and I really should be working on or studying it right now. I love your insights and tips and always watch your new videos, sometimes I rewatch and take notes.

[@dane3038]

Ok I just watched the whole thing and We're kind of on the same page. I used to hate the "list of rumors" tip, but I'm really coming around. Here's a new one: try to make the rumors say something about the politics, morals, ethics, up coming holiday etc of the area. Even if the players don't learn anything new ( Player's Moto "if you can't kill it, learn something from it"), It will increase continuity and give the players a fun way to interact.