Worlds Beyond Number and Character First Worldbuilding

Worlds Beyond Number is a new D&D Actual play podcast featuring Brennan lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Erika Ishii and Lou Wilson. There are a lot of incredible things about this series, but one of the most interesting is their worldbuilding. Unlike many home games and actual plays, The world of The Wizard, The Witch and The Wild One is built character first.
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @castlecaster
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/castlecaster
Instagram: / castlecaster
TikTok: / castlecaster

[@Z3DT]

Worlds Beyond Number, in my opinion, is the platinum standard for TTRPG podcasts: An experienced cast that embrace the rules but put story first, dabbling in different systems, with audio engineering that is not just there to edit the things that are said together with effects and music, but that actually enhance the storytelling beyond what just words could do.

[@drewpetre6800]

Not enough people are talking about this show!

[@erinhoppe3783]

I’m so glad you covered Worlds Beyond Number, this is by far my favorite campaign at the moment. I love that the world is built around the PCs. Everything feels so grounded and connected. It also shows how skilled the cast really is at creating compelling characters and rich worlds. Love the video, thank you!

[@BritneyT.]

I was so excited for you to cover this! As an audiophile the sound design is amazing!! I had no doubts about the caliber of the storytelling and already listened to and loved the Children's Adventure.

[@iiiiitsmagreta1240]

The Children's Adventure simultaneously broke and healed my heart 🥺

[@Firegen1]

Building from the characters seems so ideal to me. I love a collaborative atmosphere for storytelling. It also offers such an exciting way to build out areas of the map that might feel a little vague because the NPCs are yet to develop. I dig this

[@kayosiiii]

If you want to GM a campaign with the least amount of upkeep work then this is seriously the way to go. (It's much easier to predict what the players are going to do when you have them tell you what motivations and story arc they are looking for explicitly). I wouldn't call this style character first, It's more genre/feel/mood-board first, create the characters and world in tandem and to some degree in collaboration, not only are the world building decisions taking inspiration from the characters but the characters can take inspiration from world building decisions. You can absolutely do some world building before this step but you should focus on lose conceptual stuff without getting bogged down in specifics and be prepared to drop ideas that don't mesh with anything that at least one player wants to do.

[@Neuroshimi]

This sounds great although some limitations spark creativity. And I would say fit better for more experienced players. Not because new can't have fun but those limitations are great base for newer players to make character they want to play.

[@green_dragon_knight]

Thankyou for covering this awesome new podcast! I think you make a lot of good points about how the characters influence the setting 😊. I also love the sound design of the podcast, it creates amazing atmosphere

[@2rustysporks]

Love the love for WBN! I've been really impressed so far with how invested they've got me in these characters, story, and the WORLDBUILDING of the citadel. Just, *chefskiss*

[@yeyejoijoi]

very excited to hear people's takes on this series. definitely agree with how these characters helped weave such a complex world! It's also unreal how 13 eps in and Erika never gives a direct physical description of her adult character, it just creeps in through her actions and the other characters observations. It reminds me so much of books that only gradually describe the characters. I don't know if this is helpful feedback, but the audio clips from the podcast seemed way too long in the video. I love the show but I ended up skipping over the long excerpts because I didn't want to loose track of your analysis. Maybe shorter clips with a breakdown of what about it illustrates your points would work better? To be fair, I say this having listened to each episode dozens of times, so the added value of your perspective is what is drawing me in to the video (if that makes sense). Anyway I just wanted to give some feedback since your channel is doing nice work and I hope there will be more WBN content (&D20) in the future!! Keep it up!

[@itwasidio1736]

I WOULD say that I might give my retirement savings to get a Wizard, Witch, and Wild One sourcebook but I'd rather not invite any witches listening in to grant that wish.

[@3ndlessL00p]

We have been promised at least the Witch homebrew class will be released on the Patreon 🤩

[@codycarney2311]

I kinda sore on Suvi's interactions when she's in her Citadel mode.

[@tylamcgilverson3923]

So im currently playing in an all dm campaign. I was brought in during thwir third arc which is episode 30ish for them and they asked me to make a character and i did. But in doing so i took the blank mapp they had and the tiny bit of bread crumbs they had. Constructs come from Tetros. Tetros is a far away land that borders a desert. Ok well introduce Isadora Lavandor. The sixth most deadlist person in tetros. She qas born with one arm and her other is a prostetic construct powered by a small geometrical magically charged sphere tbat has a part pf her soul and the planets soul. Break this down. Tetros is deeply connected to the planet which in their cumtur is called Tetros. The Jungles they live in are all apart of one massive tree system called Ygdrill. In order tocombat the ever encroching jungle they inveted a ceremony where some one connects with the planet and shares their soul to create a new form of creation a Geomanci. Another important thing i denoted in my almost 50 page book on tetros is that celestial is the common tongue. Celestial can mean angel or god or something along those lines but i wanted to make sure that the country was deeply deeply rooted to the planet making it the celestial body. So they literally speak the tongue of the earth. Every one has a geomanci and you create your own. Its like an object that can warm its self. Or chill. Or has a flashlight. Its not a familar...yet.. but its also your connection to the planets life stream. The dms talked about their love of final fantasy so i wanted to pull ff6 and ff7 into the fryer and cooked up the geomanci. So if your a wizard you learn spells from your geomanci, sorcerer yep ypur geomanci is a living dna cultur of your past. Monks get their ki from it. And so forth and so on. The object can float around and has a personality but its not living or breathing its just that an object. And this is what sparked thw war. Are geomanci worthy of being more then machines. Well yes they defiently can be complicated creations with a deep understanding of things...or its literly just a cube that floats and chirps when there is gas in a mine. The geomanci core can be put into a chasi and power a humanoid form. But it gets so complicated. And this is just the surface. I also developed the religion the economy the goverment structure. I did this as a player and as a dm. And i do this qith my.plauers back stories too. When given a packet i make a world from it. And its a compliy objective tool. I use it because im good at it. How ever i can not for the life of me be boyhered to read an adventure path. Whats the point when ik i can do it better then wotc.

[@tylamcgilverson3923]

Huge comment so if you read all of it thank you. My phone screen is broke and youtube makes.editing hard Peace and love

[@TK_Brainslug]

I'm not good at the theater of the mind thingy I need visuals at least maps or something.

[@jadaw644]

Completely valid! There's a reason maps exist.