(upbeat music)
- Hello friends, and welcome back to part two
of my list of ten worldbuilding mistakes that DMs make!
If you haven't seen part one,
they don't really need to be watched in order,
but I would suggest that you eventually check out both.
Creating an entire world for a D&D game
is a daunting process,
and I think it's inevitable that you'll make some mistakes
while trying to get everything together!
So I hope you don't see the things on this list
as anything to be embarrassed about.
Instead, I hope they'll give you some new insights
so you can approach your worldbuilding
in a way that's easier for you
and more fun for your players.
Now let's jump right back into it with mistake number six.
(whoosh)
Another common mistake,
and something that's actually touched on
in the DMG's section about Campaign Events,
is designing a world that's very stable and unchanging.
This is the king, here are his lands.
This is the area where the giants live, beware.
These ships have a regular trade route
that goes to these ports in these countries.
But instability generates change, change generates conflict,
and conflict makes for good storytelling.
What if the king vanished on a diplomatic trip?
Everyone is looking for him, and tensions have become high
with the country he was visiting as many suspect foul play.
What if the giants are migrating, bringing waves of attacks?
What if ships have started disappearing on this route
and there are rumors of a giant sea serpent?
You can certainly choose to create a flat, stable world
and then superimpose adventure onto it.
You can have a firm, long-standing monarchy
and a group of giants that live in one spot
and a naval trade route that works as intended,
and also have exciting quests in your world.
But consider that building some instability into your world
will naturally lead to adventure.
When you create these points of instability,
you don't even have to use the resultant conflict
as your main plot.
But if these kinds of changes
are actually happening in your world,
it creates depth and makes everything feel more real.
Plus, it can create a sense of urgency
when your players understand that this world
isn't an unchanging sandbox that they can play in at will,
but a living world that will change around them.
If they choose to ignore the giant migration,
maybe they'll come back to this town later
and find it destroyed and vacant.
If they ignore the rumors of the missing ships,
they might find it more and more difficult
to locate certain items, like healing potions,
as trade shipments go missing.
(whoosh)
Most of us aren't playing D&D
in order to recreate real life.
That's kind of the opposite of what fantasy means!
And while everyone has different levels of interest
in the realism of their fantasy worlds,
if you prioritize realism over what's fun
or what's interesting, you are gonna have a problem.
I think we can all agree that we would rather play a game
that's unrealistic but enjoyable
over the alternative of a game that's very realistic,
but no fun to play.
For example, in my homebrew game,
I spaced a lot of my cities really far apart from each other
because I thought that was the most realistic way
for them to have developed.
But the result of this spacing
was that I functionally trapped my players in one spot
by making travel time-consuming and difficult.
And when my players did want to move,
it was immensely boring, because they couldn't get anywhere
without being on the road for days at a time,
and at the time I had no idea how to handle that.
This especially sucked
because I had some big plans for these other cities,
and wanted my players to go there!
But I had accidentally disincentivized them to travel
by building my world this way.
Now, some people love having long-distance travel
in their games, and that's fine!
But for me and my players,
this wasn't an intentional choice we were making,
this was just me prioritizing what I thought was realistic
over the kind of game we actually wanted to play.
A lot of D&D rules-as-written violate realism
in favor of something that makes gameplay easier,
less complicated, or more fun, like fall damage,
or the types of horrific injuries
that can be cured with a good night's sleep.
Internal consistency is generally more important
than realism:
Your rivers don't have to follow the laws of physics,
your world's biomes don't need to hold up to examination
by an ecologist.
Unless of course, that's fun for you!
If a question comes up that hinges on realism,
your answer will set a precedent,
so be prepared for the precedent you want to set.
You are completely allowed to let your players know
that you're not trying to recreate real life,
and that your ruling stands in your fantasy world
regardless of how things work in the real world.
- (spooky voice) Ginny!
- Oh no, is this a Christmas Carol parody?
I have to be up at 7:00.
- Oh good, so you know I'm from the past.
Remember last year?
When you waited too long to get gifts for your D&D party,
and then just brought cookies, like a total chump?
- That's not gonna happen this year!
It's only...
Oh God, it's December.
- Kobold Press can save you from your past.
They make tons of supplements for fifth edition,
everything from spells to subclasses,
campaign settings to monsters!
- Ginny! I am the-
- No, she's got it, move on.
- Oh, okay.
I'm from the present!
Kobold Press's pocket editions make the perfect gifts:
"Deep Magic", a collection of new spells
and subclasses for every spellcasting class.
Or over 1000 new monsters and foes
between "Tome of Beasts I and II" and the "Creature Codex".
All these in convenient, portable softcover.
Get 15% off your entire order
with the code ginnydecember15off.
- And get a free PDF of "Prepared 2:
A Dozen One-Shot Adventures for 5th Edition".
- Sure, sure.
It's like 3:00 a.m.,
can we get the third ghost out here and wrap this up?
- Ginn-
- No, stop. - It's fine.
- I see a Ginny who placed her order from Kobold Press
this very week,
and received all her gifts in time for the holidays!
(Ginny clapping sarcastically)
- Great job, nice performance.
I'll order in the morning.
- Order now.
The links are in the description.
- We'll leave when you get your confirmation email.
(whoosh)
- This is probably unsurprising to anyone who knows
that I'm basically a self-employed one-woman-show,
but, I'm a pretty type-A person.
I put a lot of pressure on myself
to do something absolutely perfectly,
and if I mess it up,
it's very easy to interpret that as an overall failure.
So when I say this, I say it with love and understanding.
But, you're gonna mess stuff up.
You're gonna have inconsistencies.
You're gonna change your mind about things.
You're gonna accidentally write something in
that spirals totally out of control.
And that is okay!
If you set the expectation for yourself
that you're gonna write a perfectly cohesive, realistic,
functional world and then present it to your players,
fully formed, and it will work flawlessly
for an entire campaign, you are going to be disappointed.
One of the kindest and most useful things
you can do for yourself when building a world
is to allow yourself the space to make those mistakes,
and the space to fix them.
Remember, this is a game that we're playing for fun.
We're not contractually obligated
to stick with whatever decisions we make
in the fictional dungeon game.
Don't be afraid of making changes, admitting to mistakes,
retconning, and talking honestly with your players
about how things are going.
There's a huge difference
between a world making sense in your head,
and a world making sense
when you spread it out on the gaming table
and let a bunch of people stick their fingers in it.
The easiest way to end up with a world that works
and is fun for everyone is to remain flexible,
have realistic expectations, and stay open to change
if it'll improve the game for everyone.
(whoosh)
After my whole section
about how starting small is a mistake,
this one is gonna feel even more egregious.
But this was a mistake that I made
in my first homebrew campaign:
I had all these big, complex, interesting plans
for the larger scale plot,
but completely failed to make sure
that getting there was also interesting.
It's very exciting to imagine your players
slowly working their way through their adventures,
getting to know one another and growing in power,
to finally, climactically battle a great foe and triumph.
But, not to be a downer,
but a lot of D&D games never make it to the end.
And even if they do, it's important to remember
that most of your players' experiences
will be in the moment-to-moment.
They'll be in specific shops or towns
or talking to specific NPCs.
If you focus exclusively on the big picture,
the actual boots-on-the-ground gameplay will suffer for it.
So yes, figure out what major factors
are influencing your world!
And by all means, think about the big bad's dastardly plan.
But don't forget to also imagine yourself
walking around the town
where your players will be learning about this intrigue
and picking up those bread crumbs
that will eventually lead them there.
Who lives here, what do they do all day,
and what's happening here
that's going to be fun and interesting
for your players to engage with?
This is the kind of foundational information
that can be easy to forget if you're too zoomed out.
(whoosh)
Listen, I love a good lore dump,
but even I don't want to have to read ten pages
of single-spaced fantasy history
in order to start playing a game.
These characters are supposed to live in this world,
and if players have to memorize pages and pages
of information in order to understand it,
you're going to end up with some players
who just don't understand it.
Not everyone has the attention span or the learning style
to take in information that way.
Even when you're reading a book,
it's a hallmark of a great writer
when the exposition about the world
can be delivered as part of the story,
instead of as a heavy-handed information-dense prologue.
In D&D, we have so many opportunities
to deliver worldbuilding in a more organic way.
Ideally, your players will learn about the world
as they navigate it, by observing how this information
actually impacts their character and the world around them.
Instead of spending fifteen minutes
describing the entire ecosystem of an area
when players enter it, let them learn the details
as they perform nature or perception checks,
or hunt for food or tracks.
Let NPCs mention the details of the weather
or the local flora and fauna.
That way, players are learning the information
as it becomes relevant or as they ask for it.
I'm not by any means saying don't describe your world,
a little narrative when players enter a new space
or meet a new person can be very immersive!
But these descriptions will have more punch
and more sticking power if you don't overdo it.
You can and should know details about your world
that are not handed to your players on a silver platter.
Ask yourself what information is need-to-know,
and what information will make them curious
and want to learn more.
They'll learn it and internalize it better
if they're receiving it in pieces and in context.
(whoosh)
This last one isn't going to be for everybody.
Some DMs want complete control over their world.
But I want to mention an option
that I think is underutilized,
and that is giving your players some power
over the worldbuilding.
This could take a lot of different forms.
One of the most common ways
that DMs allow players to participate in worldbuilding
is with their characters' hometowns.
In one of my home games, the DM provided a general outline
of how an underground kingdom was laid out,
but I was basically given complete control
over the specific town my character was from.
I ended up writing
a whole little agricultural hamlet for her.
It made me feel very connected to the character's hometown
in a way that I haven't felt with other characters.
Plus, when asked questions about this place in character,
I feel equipped to answer them confidently and in-depth.
It's way easier
to roleplay Penelope's familiarity with her home
when I myself know it inside out.
Letting players take part in the worldbuilding
can help them feel more connected to and more knowledgeable
about the world around them.
Plus, getting more creative brains involved
can give your world depth and variety
that might be harder to achieve alone.
If you haven't tried this before,
consider laying out your large-scale stuff,
but letting players do some select detailing
in areas that are relevant to their characters.
If you're worried about your players' creations
fitting with your themes,
you can always retain veto power over their inventions,
or even work together with them during the creation process.
Ultimately, you are the one who gets to decide
what ends up on the final world map.
Building an entire world is nothing to sneeze at,
and by no means can I give you all the information you need
about how to worldbuild in two YouTube videos!
But hopefully this will help you avoid common pitfalls
and refine your own worldbuilding.
If you want to dive a little deeper
into the worldbuilding rabbit hole,
you definitely need to watch my Domestic D&D video next.
If you want to establish local traditions
like festivals and ceremonies,
or just learn more about how business and land ownership
and homesteading can work in your world,
this one is a fantastic resource.
And if you have specific worldbuilding questions,
feel free to hit me with them in the comments!