Stop Making These 11 World Building MISTAKES...

hello adventurers and welcome back to the fantasy Forge today we are diving into 11 World building mistakes that you don't even know that you're making the first thing we're going to talk about is ignoring diversity I'm talking about cultural diversity languages now there's this weird cliche that happens in a lot of fantasy stories and that everything becomes sort of medieval England and that's about it but by failing to include this diverse range of cultures that there should be in your world you're missing out on a big part of what makes your world full of depth and and full of richness and beauty and wonder and what's going to make people want to explore think about our own world today and how many different cultures and languages and skin tones and different beliefs and architecture types how many different types of those things that we have in this world alone and we don't even have access to interplanar travel or magic or things like that right yet so just make sure that when you're creating your world if you really want it to feel like it's a full lived-in world think about the different cultures think about the different languages the different architectures and how all of that expands by by creating different groups of people it's going to do your world a huge favor trust me the second thing I'm going to talk about is ignoring environmental impacts if you have a forest in your world that has been completely overrun by some sort of dark entity or maybe an army of spiders or drown how would that affect the ecosystem within that forest and how does that then affect the area surrounding it what if there's a town nearby that Forest that was depending on the wood or the resources inside that Forest to create their trade goods how would all of that trickle down how would that town not being able to access those resources affect not only them but it affect the towns outside their borders and just a few miles away and how would all of that start to really affect the world you also want to think about how having humans or any other race in the area using those resources how the consequences of that activity affect the environment I'm talking about things like deforestation or pollution disrupting the ecosystem all of these things happen in our own world so why would they not happen in a world that has things as powerful as magic or mythical creatures or crazy Wars or powerful artifacts or dark forests all of these things would have extreme environmental impacts and in order for your world to feel real you want to make sure that you're thinking about that and in a lot of ways that's part of what makes World building so fun is thinking of those little nuances so make sure you're doing it now number three one of the biggest mistakes that I see all the time is oversimplifying conflict so many DMS present conflict as simply black and white and that there's clear-cut heroes and clear-cut villains really all that that is doing when you present things in such a black and white manner what you're doing is creating predictable and unengaging storytelling by failing to explore the complexities and nuances of different factions and their motivations you're just creating shallowed conflict Dynamics and it's going to turn your table into a quick hack and slash sort of combat system if that's what you want that's totally fine but if you're here watching this video it's because you're trying to take your world building to the next level and so you really need to think about why your villains are doing the things that they are why are Your Heroes doing the things that they are what would happen to the story if they simply did not do those things by thinking about what motivates every single piece every moving piece in your world you're creating much more Dynamic conflict and conflict is the essence of all storytelling without conflict all we're doing is watching reality TV the fourth mistake that I see happen a lot is neglecting everyday life if you focus solely on Epic quests and these Grand Adventures without considering the every everyday lives of the common folk who inhabit your world you are not creating a fully realized world for your players make sure that you don't overlook the importance of mundane activities such as trade or agriculture or social interactions which adds such a huge level of depth and realism to your world so think about what people are doing in their everyday lives think about what the commoners are doing what they have to go through and try to sprinkle a little bit of that into your storytelling because ultimately by sprinkling a little bit of that into it you're actually helping show off your own players a little bit more by showing them how far above the norm they are and the more you do this and the higher levels they get the more Grand they're going to feel the more heroic the more epic that their story is going to feel compared to everybody else's but it is also in turn going to make your world feel more real and more relatable now the fifth mistake that I see happening all the time is glossing over history if you provide a shallow or generic history that lacks depth then you're going to fail to connect your players to the present World in its conflicts that they are going through now don't neglect to include those significant historical events or those historic figures that shaped the current world or the state of the world that you have in your game right now you are missing an opportunity for intriguing lore I promise you I mean just think about how much has happened in our own world in the last 1 000 years a thousand years ago we were living in the Dark Ages and a thousand years ago not a lot is known about that time there's a lot of history that was lost there's a reason it's called the Dark Ages so think about that and if you are creating a world in which nothing has changed and you're talking about a war that happened 3000 years ago and it's still the exact same world you are not taking into account how history actually works so create a more in-depth history create cultures that shift from one time to another show off how all of these crazy things that happen in your history actually impact the history and creating cultures that are affected by those histories and creating a world that moves and is shaped by the different going-ons you're adding such a deep level of lore to your world and honestly every player loves lore so the more you can sprinkle in that history and think about how it affects everything that's happening to your characters and your players right now that is gonna level up your game 100 times now the sixth mistake that I see happening all the time is having an underdeveloped geography if you're not creating a diverse or believable geography and by that I mean a world you're gonna get a lack of variety you're gonna get Landscapes and regions that'll feel or look the same you're also overlooking the impact that geography has on culture and on trade routes and conflict Dynamics right I remember I took a history class and my teacher showed us how there's a specific region in the Swiss Alps this single mountain range has multiple different languages being spoken in it simply because of the way the mountain divided the various countries you can actually follow the path that the mountain creates and it's sectioned off each of the cultures so much so that each area within this small radius around this mountain range spoke a different language because they had no contact with each other for such a long time simply because there was a mountain range there there and also I'm not a historian and I could be completely wrong about that but I'm pretty sure I remember that correctly so don't come at me but what I'm saying is you want to think about how a mountain range or a river that divides a country or having it an ocean that separates your countries how all of those little things those geographical differences can actually create varying cultures think about how different the Americas were at the same time as Europe was when they discovered each other how those cultures were so completely different only because they had never discovered each other because of a single ocean so throw in a little variety into your geography don't think of it all as flat land think of it as three-dimensional rising and falling Hills mountains valleys Rivers Creeks ponds Lakes all of these things are going to add a huge level of depth and if you take that into account and then think about how those different things affect the cultures that are settled in that area you are going to create a much more realistic world the seventh mistake that I see DM's making all the time is stereotyping races and species if you want your world to stand out and you want it to be something thing that goes beyond what is typical fantasy stop falling into the same stereotypes when you're portraying different races and species what I'm talking about here is the tall golden-haired Elf or the ugly bent over Tusk having Orcs think about how you can inject your own spin on a race or a species or how you can create your own and what you're really doing is you're creating an opportunity for yourself to become memorable to your players and for you to create unique recognizable characters that your players are never going to forget so if you really want to take your world building to new heights I would say just try to think about those stereotypes that you might be falling into and what you can do to just add a little twist now and the eighth mistake that I see happening a lot is not having any consequences to history now we talked about not having enough history or glossing over history but what about the consequences of History I did touch on this a little bit but if you are ignoring the long-term consequences of historical events on societies I'm talking about things like traumatic events or prejudices or power dynamics then you're failing to explore how this historical conflict and the decisions that are made out of those conflicts continue to shape the present world and by doing that all you're doing is limiting the depth and realism to your world how has the fall of the Soviet Union 30 years ago affected the world today you could argue that it's affected it a lot but that was only 30 years ago now imagine the small things that have happened in our history that got us to this point what about the Scientific Revolution or the Dark Ages what about the Reformation what about the end of slavery all of these things affected our world so much and has created such a layer of depth to our own world so you really want to think about how history has impacted Us and how you can mimic that same level of impact in your world and that is going to be such a huge difference when it comes to your storytelling now the ninth mistake that I see happening a lot and this one really gets me is neglecting the impact of Magic on society you guys if there was magic in the world things would be so different you wouldn't need so many of the amenities that we have today if you are playing or dming a high level Magic World then you need to be thinking about how having so much access to Magic is going to affect society how it's going to affect governments how it's going to affect the economy or even daily life if you're not considering that stuff and the implications having access to powerful magic would have on the power dynamics of everyday life you're missing out because having access to powerful magic is going to create power imbalances and it's going to alter the different groups of people that have access to that so think about how having magic would really affect your world and that can be a lot of fun in my own world in maladea Magic has sort of died out and what that has done is created a world that's very similar to ours of course with its own little twists and nuances but the world that used to exist before the eldari or the elves passed away or passed into song or Legend it was very different the world that existed under their reign the technology levels were much higher without giving away too much but think about how having access to powerful magic like that would create much stronger Societies or stronger powers and how you might have multiple governments vying for power because all three of them have access to some of the highest level magic or have learned to harness it the most so consider that when you're dming your next game the 10th mistake that I see happening all the time is failing to explore cultural interactions if you have a culture on this side of the ocean any culture on the other side of the ocean and they Collide you have such an opportunity for Rich storytelling and World building think about when Columbus and the Conquistadors and all of the explorers of the 14th 15th and 16th centuries started going out and seeing the oceans think about how those Powers met and the exchanges that were had how some of them were probably incredibly tense and some of them were very fearful think about how different cultures and different societies will interact with each other because through that you can create such a powerful cultural exchange you can create Fusion between cultures or tension that occurs when diverse groups come into contact with each other right as we've seen in our own world so if you're not exploring cultural interactions enough you are missing out on one of the biggest sources of conflict and tension in your story and the last mistake the biggest mistake that I see happen especially with new dungeon Masters who are doing a Homebrew thing that happened to me you're thinking way too much about history right I talked about not having it enough but what about doing it too much if you're getting lost in the details of this ancient history that you created in your world well you might be working a little too hard how much do you know about what happened a thousand years ago how much do you know about what happened 500 years ago or a hundred years ago you are the commoner in this world right you unless you are some incredibly special person that is listening to this video the chances are you are just an average Joe like everybody else listening to these videos and you need to consider that what you know about history is about as much as somebody in your world might know or less if public education isn't something that you have in your world so don't get lost in the details because you're probably not going to need most of them and if you are focusing excessively on distant historical events that have no relevance to the current campaign then your players are not going to enjoy that as much so think think about how history has affected your world yes but don't think about it too much that you're constantly trying to drop lore instead of focusing on the story that you're creating with your characters and your players so these are 11 mistakes that I see happen all the time with new dungeon Masters and even experienced dungeon Masters so I hope this helped a little bit to get your gears turning and help you create a much more believable world the next time you sit at your table if you think that you have other tips for creating a more vibrant or immersive and engaging world for your players then leave them down in the comments below as always thank you guys so much for watching for John my friends and we'll see you next time adventurers [Music] thank you

Channel: The Fantasy Forge

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Keywords: dungeons and dragons, dnd, d&d, tabletop roleplaying, dice, dm tips, d&d tips, beginner d&d, how to play dungeons and dragons, displacer treats, dungeons and dragons gameplay, gary gygax, dungeon master for beginners, d&d for beginners, tips and tricks, dungeon master tips and tricks, d&d tips and tricks, critical role, dimension 20, nat 20, dnd beyond, roll20, onednd, how to be a dungeon master, how to dm, how to be a dm, how to gm, game master, pathfinder, how to game master

Id: jiAx-l3VW5o

Length: 13min 4sec (784 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2023