A Simple Guide to World Building

this video is sponsored by camp fire technology camp fire is an extremely simple program that helps DMS and story writers collect our sporadic thoughts it has a lot of tools made to keep track of some of the more important details as your game progresses such as character relationships or how the game has progressed so far with an easy-to-use timeline I personally love how this thing works it also has a tool you can import maps into and add detailed markers for settlements or dungeons the character tab is another helpful tool to store not only related NPC details but functions as a good reference tab for your player characters backgrounds and personalities it's a great tool I can see myself using to make quick references while playing as opposed to rifling through my actually insane Google Doc system I'd honestly recommend checking it out or whatever new program the devs are working on this year so you've taken up the mantle of a DM the person who creates a world for others to run around in but it can be an overwhelming process when you try to create a world from the ground up as complicated and realistic as a god would to make a world feel real you want to add your own calendars a pantheon of gods several continents packed with main cities and settlements that all surround each other but they can't feel empty they need to be stocked with nobles guards commoners beggars merchants and every person needs to have their own daily lives if you try to make everything before the players even start your games going to be postponed at least a year before session 0 I made this mistake and my main campaign took around 6 years to be playable and I still need to flesh out each session for a solid day for a starting DM you shouldn't feel responsible for making the entire world a real place because honestly no matter how much passion you pour into your world that's only a quarter of the game the world is the place where the story unfolds and the characters are the center of that story so how much did you actually make I've learned it's best to write the basic outlines of the main points then come up with the details while you actually run the game of course there aren't still a lot of basics the first and most important detail is the world itself's creation the canonical beginning how did it come to be was born from an egg was it created by a God or several gods was it an explosion maybe the dream of a mundane creature the world's history can be as wild as you want it to and your universe can be the manifestation of a divine cockroaches thoughts that occur the split-second before it's squished I'll make my own world as an example keeping it simple doesn't make it less unique and I personally like the creationist method so my world will have been created by a belch from a cosmic horror once you have how it all began or as a party or creation process you'll need God's if you watch my video about Pantheon's and existing gods you'll get a template of domains and types of Pantheon's to use but for the sake of the world you need to know how these gods relate to your world did they create it how involved are they in mortal affairs are they even still around do they love and tend to their followers or does their wrath leave permanent scars on the face of the world I'll make two God's which makes categorizing pretty simple umber will be the divine force of decay drama and time this makes her influence greatly tied to war death and the renewal of old life Ignace will be the divine force of potential and fabrication this makes her the lady of birth life and light the gods are personifications of ideals this is perhaps one of the most important details when creating them or when choosing not to have them if you abstain from divine beings your world will still have those ideals and zealous idealists who act similarly to gods next up is life how did it come to be what species dominates the world now it's best to pull from existing media for our own history to answer these questions easily oftentimes humanoids are either created migrated from one place to another or find their own way into existence by adapting from another species I'll make my animals have originally been parasites inside the cosmic creature before it burped and have humanoids be my from the creatures body now that we have the beginning and divinity covered we actually have to create two things at once we need to look at how the map is shaped and how humanoid progress has shaped it a question you have to answer first is whether or not this world is similar to ours most times this isn't something you should spend much time customizing and using simple map generators will give you what you need but if you want to be unique make the terrain whatever you'd like pull inspiration from other planes D&D has to offer such as the FEI wilds colorful forests or the elemental plane of water I personally love earth Berg's so I'll make my world and completely underwater then throw in some giant chunks of Earth hollow them out and keep them from rising to the surface with eldritch chains that go lower than a creature can comprehend make a bunch of planet sized bathysphere another thing you'll need to ride is how present monsters are consider what kind of creatures live in your world and what their relationship is with humanoids are they rare or are they rampant feral or civilized do they threaten humans or do they provide resources that the humans need I'll say that my monsters are very numerous and territorial being the first inhabitants of these spheres they don't take kindly to invasion and each planet has to be tamed before the humans can settle inside of it now humans or humanoids have been in your world for some time and they always have some sort of massive conflict wars are waged throughout history and you can learn a bit more about how war tends to go by watching my other video but as a baseline they form territories and pave ways to new settlements usually each race affects nature differently elves barely leave a mark dwarves mine enough to level mountains and humans build on top of everything I won't give each event dates but I'll say my world's history has been somewhat brief the settlers claimed many of the bathysphere destroyed a few during wars and each known sphere is dominated primarily by a unique race some have still been left untouched one or two abandoned and some rest in legends during this time creatures have spread out their homes and built up several cities if you decide to track exactly how they expand view their top-down expansion somewhat like spilled water humans will start in one area build a central base and then move outward they'll cling to resources and sometimes shift in directions that hold more but they always grow by spreading from that starting point a special detail you need to consider for your universe is the fantastical element of magic magic is what sets these worlds apart from ours and makes them much more enjoyable it's also completely necessary for D&D you can't have the second deal without it a few questions to answer that determine magics place in your world would be the following our mage is more common than not or are they rare and sought-after by Kings his magic practiced openly and on a wide scale or done in distant towers hidden by shadows can you learn magic or can you only cast spells from ancient relics knowing how common and how accepted it is will determine how much your world is shaped by it a world heavy in magic could have magic shops everywhere and teleportation hubs in central cities a world with little to no magic might be brutal and bloody with a rare mage that devastates entire countries for my bubble worlds I'll make magic only accessible through items I'll even throw in some cause for conflict and have the only thing with magical properties be the chains that hold the world's so only a small amount can be harvested at a time or greedy pirates can destroy worlds for a handful of magical blades honestly that's all you need to get started on writing a story or a campaign the world itself has been created and inhabited gods and leaders govern the known realms each point here can be explored in much further detail but any more than the basics won't be necessary when you're playing or telling your story a quick tip for running a game in a world that you built is to stay consistent when you make a rule that binds the way your world functions don't break it have a notebook open during play and when you adlib new lore or when a player affects the state of the world write it down remember NPC names characters actions and write everything down a consistent world is a believable world [Music]

Channel: Runesmith

Views: 446,915

Keywords: Dnd, dungeons and dragons, 5e, 5th edition, tutorial, funny, comedy, tabletop, game, tabletop games, dice, role play, role playing, rpg, easy listening, meme, memes, trending, parody, satire, sketch, sketch comedy, roleplay, series, guide, dungeon master, quick, world, building, paracosm, gods, civilization, war, world building, creative, help, bathysphere, earth, planet, universe

Id: JgHI5f7hbIw

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2019