A method for condensed worldbuilding

 

An important part of playing role-playing games is a shared understanding of the fictional world. A common assumption is that the game master knows everything there is to know about the world, and the players know some subset of this. Of course, what the players know, and what their characters know might not always fully overlap, which can cause issues in the game. What happens when my diplomat character wants to talk about the different empires he has visited in his travels, but I, the player have forgotten, or worse, haven't been told about them?

A common way of countering this problem is shared worldbuilding on the fly, having the GM share their power of "just making something up" with the players. However, this may not always be a satisfactory solution. Sometimes it is just nice to have a shared foundation to build on from the start, not having to nail it together while we are actually in the middle of some other encounter. Having a pre-existing idea of the world can also help inspire characters and play. If you know what the major factions and locations are, you can better plan around that.

Another often used solution to this is a big setting bible. If you are happy to play in someone else's world, it is as simple as buying a big book (actual size may vary) and have everyone read it. That, in theory, puts everyone at the same base level. However, these books, while great, might not focus on the things that end up relevant to your game, and they may take a great deal of effort to read (especially if the information is to be retained). If the GM has their own world they would like to play in, as is often the case, the work of writing this big bible falls on them as well, on top of any other prep they are doing. 

Personally, I am not really a fan of giving my players homework at all - it is fine if they want to think about the game from home, but I don't want to make it mandatory unless everybody is especially keen for some particular text.

The solution I propose, then, is of course a secret third thing (obviously not the only secret third thing, see e.g. the procedure for collaborative setting creation from Joel of Silverarm Press). It leans closer to the trad-ish "DM makes the world" method, but ensures a light enough load that everybody should be okay. 

The first part is a bit of GM prep before the first (or zeroeth) session:

• First, make a map of the terrain according to your favourite method.
• Start by separating the world into 1-3 regions/powers/nations/whatever, according to your fancy.
• Then, place 1-3 major cities in each, for a total of roughly 4-6 cities.

If you want inspiration for drawing the map, roll 4-6 dice onto a sheet of A4/letter paper. Place the cities in the spots where the dice landed, if you want to decide the city type from the roll, note down the result as well. Now, divide the map into regions and connect the cities by roads, rivers or coastlines, or divide them with mountain ranges, deserts, or deep forests.

Now, for each region note down some basic facts as bullet points:

• The ruler(s) - imply the form of government
• The dominant climate
• Diplomatic relations with other regions
• Population density - urban/rural divide
• Majority religion(s)
  

Mark the capital cities (e.g. by underlining their names), then, for each city note down basic facts with bullet points:

• Prosperity
• Main exports
• An important festival/cultural event
• A significant landmark
• An important local character
  

Finally, add a handful of points of interest to the map and give them each a single bullet point if relevant. If you wish, you can add them by rolling dice onto the map as with cities.

Now, for the first (or zeroeth) session, when the player characters are created or introduced, if a PC is from one of the cities, let the player add a bullet point to it with a piece of information of their choice. If a PC is from a village or other rural place, let the player add it to the map and give it 1-2 bullet points of their choice.

If you want inspiration for cities, here is a small table to roll on:

1. Prosperous trading city
2. Mining city plagued by inequality
3. Wealthy textile producing city
4. Crumbling plague-stricken city
5. Famine-stricken fishing city
6. Fast-growing agrarian population centre
   

And here is a similar table for possible points of interest:

1. Ancient tower, possibly abandoned
2. Crystal-growing fields
3. A large hole, leading to the underworld
4. A massive statue of a forgotten monarch
5. A field of flame that never stops burning
6. An ancient tree, its branches reaching for the sky

 

While this method is assuming a continental-scale fantasy game, it should be fairly simple to adapt it to other scales or genres. Rather than nation-sized, the regions could be neighbourhoods of a city, and the "cities" the headquarters of guilds, or the regions could be star sectors and the "cities" planets. The important part is covering the relevant parts of the game world, making it feel "information complete" but still writing down no more than fits on a sheet of paper that can be easily referenced during play.

I am under no illusions that this method I have come up with is original, but at the time of writing, I don't remember any specific sources to cite. However, I hope it is nevertheless useful to anyone reading this, either through actual use, or for sparking thoughts and coming up with your own methods, agreeing or disagreeing with my procedure, or parts of it.