On Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is a tricky beast. It takes a lot of time and energy, and I’m here to help you with cutting down on a long, arduous project that is creating one’s own campaign setting.

First, we need to start with a concept or genre. What is interesting about this world/nation? A steampunk zombie apocalypse? Futuristic dragon knights? What makes it unique? What are the influences that shaped the world to be what it is now?

Second, draw on inspiration from other works. Twist other things to fit your own world, whether it be an interesting real-world event or strange fable of an ancient monster that sparks your interest. Use that to help sculpt your world.

Sometimes, however, the real world ain’t gonna cut it. In this case, it would be prudent to closely examine your new and strange creation before you literally set it loose on a new world. Originality is great, and should definitely be encouraged. The beholder race in D&D came from Gary Gygax’s friend, who, according to Gygax, had it come to his head as a zany idea that came from the depths of his skull. When you have a new idea, don’t be scared by it, just run with it and take it new directions, expanding the world of fantasy. Develop your vision, and then use the rules to complement your idea so you can have a direction to conform the rules to fit the new idea.

Another good method of worldbuilding is to spit it out to a friend. Together, y’all can hash out the broad strokes of the setting and develop whole new worlds.

One last tidbit of info to help you out is to to consider the geographical and cultural aspects of your setting. One culture living in the mountains 1,000 miles away from another culture that is a nomadic band of people is going to have a very different flavor to them, as the resources and contingencies these two cultures are going to have to deal with will be for the most part vastly different.

Additionally, don’t feel like you have to be bound to one kind of setting for your entire world. After all, the Chinese had firearms ling before Europe did, so it’s also important to note if your campaign has any nations with defined borders in your world, each one’s individual history with the other, what creates those borders, and the different technology level in each nation. To help with a nation’s flavor, choosing the theme of each nation might help develop the world overall and the nation’s impact on the neighboring kingdoms.  For example, looking at the Mana Wastes in Golarion, we can see that the theme of the nation would be “wild magic post-apocalyptic steampunk wasteland.” That sentence right there speaks volumes as to the setting, flavor, and culture of the people living in that established part of the world based on what we know about the genres and subgenres of wild magic, post apocalypse, and steampunk, respectively.

These are just some tidbits of info and ideas to help you get your game started, and I hope what I’ve posted here will help you more thoroughly examine and refine your world.

God Bless, and keep rollin’ those 20’s!

~Will C.

The Death of a Deity

In D&D, gods are usually active in the world and its lore. They play a particularly important role in the world as PCs become more epic in their power levels and become plane-hopping-get-rich-kill-crap-hobos. Some deities may frown on this, and others may take a direct role in stopping these incompetent upstarts. Unfortunately for that poor fool of a god, he gets himself killed battling the “heroes.” Now there’s a screw loose in your campaign: a god just died, and whatever power he wields just went HAYWIRE.

Evidence of such occurrences can be seen with the Spellplague in the Forgotten Realms, for example. Spellcasting at large was basically worthless and people were going nuts as the Weave unwove itself.

So, in your campaign, it is incredibly important to consider the effects of the death of a deity in your game. What is the fallout that occurs after such a powerful individual dies? One must consider the power vacuum that appears after such an extraordinary event of magnanimous proportions occurs. What happens to that deity’s domain? Does it unravel into chaos, or die right along with the deity? Where does the dead deity go? What happens to his or hers body? Can the deity be restored to life? What do denizens if your world think of the death of one of the beings in their pantheon?

Asking questions about the death of a deity in your game are super important to your setting, and can change an entire world history, as seen in Pathfinder’s Golarion setting with the death of Aroden and its effects on the campaign setting at large. As this is a massive event in your world’s history, it’s also important to consider that it should be considered a world-shaking event as described in the 5e DMG, and should follow the guidelines provided in that section of the book. Ultimately, the entire face of your world and its history should change to reflect the dead entity, and the entire campaign moving forward should be shifted as people adjust to this new and convoluted time in their history.