(cheerful music) - Hey dungeon masters,
how much of your worldbuilding
do your players actually learn and internalize?
I'm talking politics, lore and history, geography, NPCs,
all the stuff you work so hard to create
in order to flesh out the world around them.
I polled over 3,600 DMs on Twitter with this question,
and more than half of you think your players
retain less than 50% of all the lore you create.
Yikes! Now I know this is subjective.
This is based on DM perception, not actual player knowledge.
And I don't think that not memorizing lore
about a fictional world makes for bad players.
It's hard enough to learn that stuff in real life.
But, the point stands that a lot of DMs
feel like their worldbuilding is being wasted,
or worry that their players
aren't truly invested in their world.
If that's you, then I have a great trick to share.
In fact, this trick is so effective at getting players
invested in your world that multiple DMs
actually brought it up in their responses
to that Twitter poll.
The trick? Just let them do it.
(magical twinkling)
(whimsical music) Now, I don't mean
you should let the players create the entire world,
although, honestly, depending on your table,
that could totally work.
I just mean that when the players get to be involved
in the creation of the world, even to a small degree,
there are tons of benefits.
They care more, we naturally feel more emotionally invested
in things that we had a hand in creating.
They retain more, players will find it easier to remember
the details of something that they helped invent.
It creates variety, no matter how creative we are,
we each come to the table with our own interests,
perspectives, and assumptions.
The more people that are involved in the creation
of a world, the more originality and variety that world has.
And, it helps the DM, worldbuilding is time consuming,
and the larger your world, the harder it is
to cover every part of it.
By bringing players into the creation process,
you divide up the workload.
Now, lots of other games have collaborative worldbuilding
built into their structures, games like "Dungeon World"
and "Blades in the Dark" emphasize player participation
in worldbuilding, and there are even games like "Microscope"
or "Kingdom", where the worldbuilding is the game.
But the cool thing about tabletop games
is that the rules are just guidelines.
No matter what you're playing, you can pick out mechanics
and concepts that you like from other games
and use them at your own table.
If the idea of letting your players worldbuild
is making you nervous, I wanna remind you
that you're probably already doing this on some level.
When a player writes their own backstory and creates,
say the character of their mother or names the temple
where they trained as a cleric, that's worldbuilding.
All I'm suggesting is that you take that a little further.
Not sure how to do that, well, that's why I'm here.
So let's go over a few examples.
(air whooshing) (upbeat music)
(air whooshing) Design their hometown.
Most of us know our hometown pretty well.
We have a good idea of which shops are nearby
and where to find them.
We know the climate, the personality of the local community,
the attractions and the dangers.
But, it's hard to give a player
that same level of understanding
for their character's hometown.
That is, unless they create it themselves.
When I created my deep gnome barbarian Penelope,
I told my DM that I wanted her to be a farm girl,
raised in a small agricultural town, but underground.
My DM didn't have anything like that
built into his world yet.
His only existing underground civilization
was a sprawling empire whose capital
was a big metropolitan city.
So, he asked me what I would want an agrarian town
within that empire to look like.
I started with a few descriptive notes
and some illustrative photos, but before I knew it,
I had created a whole community with unique features
and its own economy and local folklore.
To be honest, I surprised myself with how into it I got.
Because I created Penelope's hometown myself,
I not only feel like I know it intimately,
but I also fell in love with it.
When I describe her as homesick,
there's a part of me that actually kind of feels that way.
This option can scale depending on your world,
what your players are interested in,
and how much power you wanna give them.
Some might be game to design an entire kingdom,
while others may feel more comfortable
detailing a small village, a temple or monastery,
or a nomadic clan.
If multiple players are from the same area,
this is a great way to get them collaborating.
Encourage players to think of how this community
interfaces with the world around it.
How often do travelers come through?
How do the people of this town make their living?
What sort of threats do they face, if any?
This kind of ideation can result in a wealth
of story threads that can, not only facilitate
and complicate your own worldbuilding,
but can help tie character relevant locations
into your plot lines,
something that can really help players feel invested.
Design NPCs, lots of DMS already do this
when they allow players to come up with
their characters' parents, siblings, or friends.
But, you can take this to another level
if you do it with intention.
Creating an NPC that they have an existing relationship with
is a great way to deepen the player's
connection to the game.
Maybe each party member is asked to create one
complete living NPC related to their character.
Not just a name, but a description,
a history, and dynamic desires and fears.
This might be a family member, a rival,
a partner, or someone else.
Where did this person come from?
What has happened in their life to lead them
to where they are now,
and what are their goals moving forward?
How does the character feel about the NPC
and how does the NPC feel about the character?
In my experience, related NPCs
can be a bit of a blind spot for player characters.
While some backstories can explain a loner PC,
most people should have somebody that they know,
at least a little, even if it's a teacher or an employer.
Prompting players to think about these relationships
can connect their character to the world,
and give in-game goals and consequences more weight.
Or, to take this in a more lighthearted direction,
let players create shopkeepers, quest givers
and other low stakes NPCs.
If every player creates a shopkeeper NPC,
you've basically filled out a whole town market.
Players might enjoy collaborating
to come up with an NPC, too.
This could lead to some silly characters
but that can be fun.
Your party might never love another NPC as much
as they love their invention of Glorp, the two headed Goblin
stable master who also sells homemade glue.
Create spontaneously, not all player worldbuilding
needs to feel like homework.
Players can also contribute to improvised worldbuilding
off the cuff, this is fairly common,
and at some tables, it might already be the norm.
But, if it's not part of the culture at your table yet,
you can certainly introduce it.
Instead of describing 10 shops,
most of which your players will never visit,
try asking them what kind of shop they're looking for.
A bookstore, sure, describe it.
You can still retain control over things like what items
are in stock, how much they cost,
and how the shopkeeper feels about the party.
But, letting players invent the shop can be a fun way
to bring them into the creation process.
Now, this is a tactic that really requires the DM
to relinquish some control,
but you don't have to give players complete freedom
with these spontaneous inventions either.
I once saw someone on Reddit suggest using rolls
to confirm or deny this kind of off the cuff creation.
Instead of a player rolling a nature check
to see if a plant is poisonous,
they might confidently state, "This plant is poisonous."
Then, they roll nature to determine
whether or not their claim is backed up by real knowledge.
If they roll a three, they have no idea if it's poisonous.
But if they roll a 19, their claim was correct
and this plant is now canonically poisonous,
even if you didn't originally intend it to be.
Session zero, this refers to the time you spend with players
before you actually start playing the game.
It's a great time to set expectations and boundaries
and discuss what you're all looking for from a game.
Some people build characters together during session zero.
Often, the DM uses this time to provide information
on the world where the campaign is going to take place.
But, if you wanna bring players into your worldbuilding,
this can be a great time to do it.
Reading stories online of how other people
do collaborative worldbuilding,
I heard some great descriptions of DMs working with players
to invent countries and histories
and even draw maps together during session zero.
This can look like anything from a round table
brainstorming session to passing a sheet of paper
around the table, each person adding a river or mountain
or city, and naming it in turns.
Since this is all taking place before the game starts,
this can do the double duty of,
not just making worldbuilding easier for you,
but also showing you firsthand what sort of game
your players are interested in.
If you would've designed a grim dark world
torn by war and famine, but your players
seem more interested in creating
charming little agricultural towns and elegant elven cities,
that's useful information.
(air whooshing) These are just a few ideas
for how you can include players in your worldbuilding.
Pretty much anything you come up with as a DM
could include player participation, depending on your table
and what you and your party will enjoy.
But, if you're worried about the negative impact
this might have on your game, I get it.
Meta gaming, breaking immersion, cheating,
letting players into the worldbuilding process
can come with some risks.
No matter if they're inventing shopkeepers
or entire countries, collaborative worldbuilding
will not work without the information
in part two of this video, right after the break.
(air whooshing)
- Oh, how I wish I could go to the D&D game tonight,
(magical music) but that's impossible.
(air whooshing) - Nothing is impossible
when you have a fairy godmother!
Of course you'll go to the D&D game!
- But, Godmother, look at me, I'm so, so-
- Unprepared? You're right.
Your worldbuilding information is so disorganized.
There's no way you could run a game! But I can fix that.
- Is that a pumpkin?
- Not anymore.
Blorbity, bloppity, blorp!
Sorry, it's copyrighted.
(magical twinkling)
- World Anvil? What's that?
- It's a toolkit for writers, game masters,
role players, and worldbuilders of any kind.
It has everything you need to organize
and document your world,
from Wiki style articles to interactive maps
to historical timelines.
Their privacy tools
make it easy to choose what your players can see,
and what's for the DM's eyes only.
- Will it help me run a session?
- Of course it will!
It has built in
dice rollers, support for stat blocks and character sheets,
and even a party quest log
and character journals.
Trust me, this platform was built
by worldbuilders for worldbuilders.
If you need it, World Anvil has it.
- How do I use it?
- Well, you can try it out for free,
but since I'm such a fantastic godmother,
I've also scored you 40% off an annual membership
with the code Ginny.
- That's amazing, thank you, Godmother, thank you.
I'm ready to go to D&D now.
- Oh, you're not gonna change?
(air whooshing) (upbeat music)
- You're probably wondering
how you can invite players to participate
in your worldbuilding without worrying about meta gaming
or breaking their immersion or making them feel like
they're doing homework.
And those are all totally valid questions.
There are three crucial things to understand
if you wanna implement this kind of thing in your game.
Make sure they're into it.
Not every table is going to enjoy this kind of gameplay.
Some players come to D&D so they can immerse themselves
in and explore a fantastical new world,
and going behind the curtain to help create this world
might break their immersion and take away part of
what makes D&D fun for them.
Some players don't have time or interest
in working on their D&D game in between sessions.
And some people might feel put on the spot
if you ask them to create parts of the world
while they're in the middle of gameplay.
Just talk to your table about this.
Maybe they're interested in trying it out
to just see how it feels.
Maybe some of them wanna be involved in this,
but not others, you'll never know if you don't ask.
Every party will have different interest levels
in worldbuilding, it's okay if not everyone at the table
wants to participate or if they wanna do a limited amount
of worldbuilding, or if they only wanna worldbuild
as a group to avoid feeling like there's pressure
on individual players, this should be a conversation.
It'll look different for each player.
Just like all DMs worldbuild differently,
each player will have a different way
of engaging creatively with your world.
Some might prefer sitting down with you
and talking through their ideas,
rather than writing them out.
Some might think more visually, creating Pinterest boards
or drawings or maps to illustrate their ideas.
Their areas of interest will affect what they focus on.
If you ask two players to detail their hometowns,
one might lay out 200 years of political history for a city,
while another might spend most of their time
describing what you'd see if you walked around the area.
Likewise, some players will get really into this
and others won't be happy if they feel like
they've been given a writing assignment.
For players who don't want homework,
they might prefer doing more lightweight
mid-session worldbuilding, while players
who get nervous being put on the spot
might prefer to get to prepare
their worldbuilding ahead of time.
I encourage you to embrace the ways that your players
want to engage with this tactic.
If the whole point of bringing your party
into your worldbuilding is to make them feel invested
and engaged, pushing them into something
that they don't wanna do is counterintuitive.
There's really no way to make this work
if you don't have trust
and good communication with your table.
If you believe that your players are going to use this power
to meta game and cheat, that's a problem
that goes well beyond collaborative worldbuilding.
This style of gameplay is perfect for a party
where everyone comes to the table with the shared goal
of playing a game that's fun for everyone.
That said, even great players with good intentions
can meta game accidentally or can bring things
into your worldbuilding that you don't want to include
in your game, that's why it's super important
that you create clear guidelines
and always retain the right to veto something
that you don't think would be a good fit.
After all, just because you're letting players
get involved with worldbuilding,
doesn't mean you're no longer the DM.
Ultimately, your job is to be the final arbiter of the game
and keep things running smoothly.
This might mean focusing player input
more on flavor than function.
And, remember, your players still wanna be surprised
and discover things, so make sure you don't overdo this.
Don't put your party into a position
where they feel like they already know all the answers,
or where they have to worry about whether or not
they're accidentally meta gaming.
Give your players a taste of worldbuilding
and you might find that it makes them even hungrier
for all the stuff you're putting together behind the scenes.
Then, all that's left is to make sure
that your solo worldbuilding is good enough
to hold their attention once you've gotten it.
For that, you have got to check out my videos
about common worldbuilding mistakes that DMs like you
might not even realize that you're making.