[WORLDBUILDING] Adding history and richness on the fly, NO PREP!

this is not a book oh no this is much more interesting modular Realms sent me this and look at what happens when you open it up these are magnetic tiles they link together you get stonework you get wooden floor they link together you can put them together however you like you get little wall pieces if you really want to make your dungeons stand out but at the same time not be so irritating that you can't get your Minis on them look at that that's working so nicely to create this dungeon but the magnets are really good buom buom bum here I've got my scene they all on a 5 in Grid doesn't matter which side you are using they they really good quality so I thought I had to share this with you now now uh you can head on over to their website modular realm.com and find all that stuff and just what a cool idea for storing them all in this wonderful book that just goes on your shelf modular Realms check it out you're going to make your world feels so much richer and more vibrant and colorful and full of history with one simple little trick which you can use in your next session hello and welcome to this episode of how to be a great GM how do you make your world feel rich and full of life and history without putting in any effort whatsoever now when we are talking about World building and world history and great deep spaces of time and ancient civilizations how much do you need to know about them zip zero NADA less than nothing the reason for this is because your player characters are never ever going to know all of that information anyway and if they ask for it you can give it to them as they kind of probe and question when someone walks up to you and says so tell me the history of the United States of America you don't go through every single president every single decision ever made by the domestic workers postman's husband's wife's sisters daughters uncles's pet dog you don't go through all of those things no you know no you don't you say well it was founded and there was this bloke who rode across the river and you know there was a thing and they've got a constitution and what specifically do you want to know oh tell me about what happened in 172 well in 1702 there was a particularly cunning assassin who tried to annihilate the current president of the time name lost in history anyway how do we do it how do we just drop this stuff in and why why would we do it again folks I can only ever tell you why you should be doing stuff because I myself have done it and have seen the reaction of my players my players frequently will go you know this world seems so fleshed out and it's so cool and it's so there's so much going on no there isn't there is nothing zip zero here is my world lore for my latest campaign nothing I've just written down the characters names that's it all of this stuff I make up on the fly as I'm going then I jot it down and then I incorporate it and it means I don't have hours of prep time I don't have Panic to try and remember what was the name of the fcking queen that got annihilated or that Rose to Ascension I don't care it's just about making the space feel rich and about giving me something to work with rather than have the universe to create I now know my players are interested in that sort of stuff great I will build Adventures around that that allow them to discover it and for me to discover it at the same time do you see do you see how it's supposed to work anyway I know that folks have a big challenge with just coming up with stuff on the Fly how do you solve this problem my first and initial suggestion is to read boring books or go online and read boring boring Wikipedia Pages look at what history does that is my greatest source of inspiration right now I have a rather dull book sitting next to my bed called the kings and queens of England my goodness to get through this whole book is going to be a bit of app PL but at the same time you read about the successions and the bitterness and the reasons why people triy to kill each other or sabotage each other or do this or do that and the lengths to which these people in history went to and you go I could not I could not have made up this kind of ridiculousness this kind of foolishness this kind of insanity but now now when my players ask me oh how is the king going to ascend I can literally go back and go they're going to get replaced by someone who shouldn't do it who doesn't care about jousting or combat or this or that who actually wants to just bring about economic reform and then get forgotten about by his because they weren't such an amazing king or queen or this or that I anyway so apart from building up your knowledge remember the four tenants of your imagination research is one of the cornerstones of it research of course experience and then um free form Association and then of course finally inspiration but without research that's going to be a challenge for you it's not impossible though and you're going to use these things you're going to use decoration you're going to use color you're going to use size and you're going to use Clues to its origin and then all of that is going to get bundled up into its current use decoration the PCS are wandering through a forest and to make it interesting because you want the pacing to be up you want them to to experience a little bit of something you want to dash it's not just you're walking through the pristine Forest blah blah blah blah blah boring boring boring boring as you walking through the forest you come across this ancient ruin it is it is covered in the most amazing carvings of leaves or at least it was once but now those carvings have over time worn down into beer suggestions Shadows of their once former glory the players might go okay we move on great absolutely fine but there are ruins there that have got these carvings on it and then months later you remember those ruins and the carvings and the players are wandering around and you say a foror tower stands miserably over the swamp leaning precariously at its base you can see that it was once covered in the carvings of leaves but now they are but memories of those original shapes what do the leaves have to do with anything if the players don't ask that question sure move on whatever the tower is empty it's used as currently a hat out for Bandits or for an old shade that lives there and needs some help doesn't matter it did not take 10 seconds of your mind to think up and figure out add in some architecture from a past age but your world now feels like there was this nation that loved this Leaf carving could they have been elves could they have been dyads or something that we don't know about anymore we don't know we don't need to know it just adds some Flavor now if they go further once you've added decoration and it could also be the market that you stand in is an impressively large chamber the ceiling is covered in squares of unusual shapes the geometry doesn't seem right it doesn't match the current architecture outside this is a far older building so the description could be anything it could be subtle it could be in new face it could be intriguing it could be simple it really doesn't matter once you've spoken about the decoration you then talk about color color or any of the senses for that matter but color is something that's really really quick to disc it's really really quick to describe it is an immedate Med impact amongst the ruins that you see just poking out of the ground something red catches your eye you realize that it is the corner of a mosaic long since buried and forgotten if the players uncover the Mosaic it's a mosaic of a dog eating a bunch of grapes from the hands of an impressive Warrior who made it don't know why don't care what was it for don't know not important but the color is there so now it's it's got a little bit more description to it it's a little bit more interesting if they find the Mosaic perhaps underneath the Mosaic there is a skeleton of an old dog that was buried so this is an old tomb of a dog that could be a quest if you want to add it in or perhaps not perhaps the collar of the dog simply has a large Ruby at the bottom or because he's being fed grapes maybe it should be some kind of purple gemstone and that when you hold the purple gemstone you get the sensation of loyalty and happiness that only a happy dog can bring and you also get get the faint scent of wet dog and other Aromas that dogs are famous for making just spitballing throwing it out there once you've added in decoration and you've added in color you can then add in size frequently we think of the Ancients as building on a large scale well yes and no you think of the pyramids and you go well they were the tallest standing you know structure that man had ever built and then we built the um um Eiffel Tower and then we built this and then we built that and then suddenly you've got things like Sky Tree in Tokyo and you're like okay yes so the Ancients built tall stuff the medieval period didn't really build very tall stuff except for those gigantic freaking Cathedrals and now the modern day we build stuff that is so big that you require vehicles to move around it or trains I'm looking at you airports size is something that you can play with a colossal space or the ceiling in this room is only 4 and 1/2t Tall the inkeeper turns to you and says I'm sorry this level made out of stone so it ain't going to crumble or collapse on you it was designed originally by the harling empire about 6 700 year old I'd say you can still find some of their um scratchings on the walls if you look closely just don't stand up too quick and in the middle of the night remember to crawl out yeah huge amount of History Dro there and it's just because the size of the space is unusual and now if the players interested they go oh I want to look for some graffiti hooked hooked hooked hooked hooked and then the the kind of scribblings that you could have mundane stuff like ploppy was here and then ploppy smells like a poo or whatever it could be ridiculous stuff like that but buried in there for the player who's taken their time to have a look maybe there should be a riddle or a code word or something that comes back to use years later you write it down in your book by the way so that you can use it years later but reward the players for it it will means that they will engage more with your space you can engage more with your space your world is becoming much more an amazing place to live in because of this halfling Empire that existed 700 years ago whoa what was that about talk to me about this halfling Empire that sounds interesting okay maybe it's another campaign for another game where you go you know what we're going to explore the halfling Empire don't matter so now you want to leave Clues if there is no one to talk about the history if they're in the middle of a mountain range and they come across this ancient old door that seems as if it's been collapsed in but it's it's got some carvings on it you give some Clues as to the origin it could be a dwarvish word it could be a word written in a language that doesn't exist anymore whatever a clue here or there for the players that are actually actively investigating It's a Wonderful opportunity to get them to really engage to get them have a success and to reward them with a little bit of knowledge and then finally what is its current use so if it's an abandoned ruin ruins are most mostly abandoned on our own Planet when we think of the great empty spaces but they're usually not they're usually occupied by a myriad of things Wildlife make use of them for shelter runaways tramps vagabonds thieves will use them to hide out in this happened a lot it's why a lot of the old castles were torn down as soon as a new Lord came in it didn't want all of these uh spaces being used by his opposition relics of the past have always been co-opted by the modern by the present large chambers that now house a market because it has a roof that doesn't leak the roof was built 4,000 years ago all that kind of stuff the current use often times is not the same as the original use well yes I believe uh there's a mural behind one of the walls somewhere of it looked like demons doing something but we turned it into the library because it's not particularly a warm room but it's not very damp either where is that R oh I think it's behind the books G to H giving it a current use but having clothes to it having something different a color a smell a touch giving it a different size or playing with the idea of size making it decorative in one way or another or being completely plain in a decorated space all of those things contribute to creating a very curious little thing that is just going to make make your world feel richer do it in your next game literally have them come across something a section of wall that looks older slightly out of place with the other walls they might think of it as a secret door or a secret thing that's going on that's absolutely fine make sure they become aware very quickly that it isn't it's just an old wall that's been built onto into around or included as part of the structure that they're in it really is effective I that's it hit that like button if you like the content of this video if it's inspired you to try and add in these kinds of things now just before we finish you're not going to do this every single room the characters walk into you're not going to do this every single Village they walk into never never never do this every single time they move from one city to another this is peppered uh onto your dinner plate of Adventures so here and there a sprinkling a soup song just a little bit here here a little bit there and bingo if you do it every single time players going to go yeah look mate we get it okay there's history anyway you have an amazing an amazing game and until next week happy gaming

Channel: How to be a Great GM

Views: 8,343

Keywords: Campaign, RPG, TTRPG, world building

Id: KfOxSUGPrtE

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2024