One of the aspects of game development I have had some experience with through years of tabletop gaming is world-building. As any good dungeon master can tell you, coming up with engaging content is a lot of work, but it’s also very rewarding. It may be easier to take a module or scenario that someone else has written and adapt it to your campaign but it can feel clunky and leave you scrambling to answer the inevitable context related questions your players will come up with. I believe world-building is a crucial skill that is used in creating immersive environments in both tabletop games and video games. One of my goals is to someday take the experience I have from running hundreds of Dungeons and Dragons sessions and building my own world, and apply it while developing an MMO. Let me share with you some of the basics acquired from around the web and my own experiences and introduce the realm of world-building.
The first thing I like to start with is a map. There needs to be a physical world with some geography including mountains, forests, rivers, oceans and cities. The climate and ecosystems for each area should be considered. If it doesn’t make sense from a basic scientific perspective, for example rivers should run downhill from mountains to larger rivers and eventually to lakes and oceans, you will have to know why. If the basics like gravity and common sense are ignored, this can be ok, just be ready to explain the fantasy aspects in detail. Once you have the basics on a piece of paper or some mapping software, like Campaign Cartographer, you can pick a spot to start your adventures.
Before getting into your story, think about the theme and genre.Is this going to be a horror, sci-fi, fantasy or all of the above type of world? Consider the technology level. Are they only a bow and arrow society? Crossbows? Guns? As you write more of the story of your world consider the history and lore and the various societies and factions that affect the scenario. Historical myths and legends that directly affect the cultural evolution of the people of your realm create more engagement from your players. Remember that the players are paying attention to see if any of this is pertinent to how they complete their quests and get their loot, so include details that are interesting and relevant, but not too long winded. Create places of interest like dungeons, castles and ruins. Have unique back stories, cunning creatures and interesting characters (NPCs) related to each one.
Think about the different societies and factions that will affect your story and the relevant gameplay. What are their beliefs, motivations, customs and political structure? In my opinion it is easier to start in a small town and work your way out. You can work to flesh out each faction week to week as the characters are introduced to them instead of doing all the work up front. You may even decide to create certain specific groups and ideals based on the needs of your players or to incite more drama between players and NPCs. Ask yourself the questions a player might ask upon entering your world. Think about the economy of your starting area and the resources that are available. What do people do for a living and what do they eat? What kind of travel is available and who do they trade with? How do the people pay for stuff, standard copper silver and gold, or something more interesting like glowing mana-infused gems?
Taking your story to a video game requires all of your aspects to be much more fleshed out. Your map will be more detailed, thought needs to go into how characters will navigate through different biomes. You will need to have actual building designs representing particular cultural architecture. All of the narratives and subplots must be complete and ready to go in quest format, pre-written NPC conversations and lorebooks that can be found within the game world. Having a well organized setting from years of tabletop gaming can help you avoid a lot of the pitfalls of an incoherent story and have the added benefit of ready-made quests and player engagement.
Let’s dive more into creating a culture for your world. Start with creating the prominent races and setting up their interactions. Each one should have at least a basic cultural description and history. The culture should organically develop from the setting and backstory and include languages, customs, social norms, religions and political system. Figure out who is in charge, how they got there and who opposes them. Is this a Kingdom with nobility? Maybe the government is controlled by merchants or guilds or there is a council that decides everything with competition for seats. What motivates the populace? How do they earn their income? What is the education level like? Is there a class system where the rich few have the power and peasants toil away for a few coppers a day? Culture also includes things like celebrations, holidays and traditional games or sports. Finally bring out the drama. Who are the political rivals? What neighboring countries are thinking about invading? What monsters lurk in the dark fringes of civilization?
A large part of where culture comes from is a society’s history and lore. A well developed backstory including all of the critical elements will greatly enhance the playability of a game, whether it is a tabletop or a video game. This backstory should provide context and depth to your world by detailing myths, legends, historical events and influential figures like heroes and villains. These items can provide the foundation for current conflicts and plotlines within the game.
Start with how the world was created,for example was it formed by gods, some cosmic event like the big bang, or was it constructed like the Death Star or Ringworld? What are the significant events or time periods in world history? Can it be broken down into ages or eras? Sections of time can be defined by conflict, renaissance, decline, the fall of empires, natural disasters or cataclysms. Maybe a new species invaded the planet from space or emerged from the depths and forever changed the course of civilization. Don’t be afraid to get into the details of the past with major civilizations, describe how they rose to power, or how they may have declined. Explain the major beliefs and traditions and customs and how and why they may have changed over time. Develop the legendary heroes and villains of the ages and why they are remembered and feared. Definitely highlight the major conflicts, including who was allied with or backstabbed by who.
Myths and legends can define a culture. Make sure the subject of these tales are larger than life and exciting. The adventures of these legendary figures shook the world and became exaggerated over the centuries, immortalized in literature and song. For more depth and mystery continue to develop smaller tales and legends that vary from region to region. Think of the Loch ness monster, bigfoot or the Blair witch. Introduce this lore during gameplay and try to make it relevant to the current story or lead into upcoming stories. Add intrigue by leaving some of the mysteries unexplained. Leave some story arcs open ended for updates and expansions.
Always strive for internal consistency. Make sure your lore with respect to magic or technology is compatible with the existing game mechanics. Ensure historical accuracy within your story. You don’t want to have a treasure trove of full plate armor ten thousand years old when the bronze age was only three thousand years ago. Create a reference document for all of your world’s history, culture, and myths. Try to make common knowledge accessible. In tabletop games you can provide the players with guides for their use. In video games the lore tends to be more spread out through conversation with NPCs and the reading of lorebooks, but you can certainly have online lore encyclopedias.
For most fantasy storylines the systems of magic are the defining shape of the gameplay and major motivator of the narrative. Creating a consistent and logical form of magic should be a top priority for any fantasy world developer. Decide where the magic comes from and what form it takes. Is it a natural force? Is it based on faith? Is it internal or external? Also consider if magic should be something everyone can learn or just for an elite few. The magic needs to have limitations like taking time, willpower, mana and or physical resources.
Having dabbled in the development of magic systems I can attest that this is one of the more demanding aspects of world building. There are a huge number of variables to consider before you can even look at balance. How many schools of magic will you allow? Having just elemental magic is relatively easy, but what about necromancy, illusion, healing or summoning? Should the system be customizable or static? Consider how much number crunching you are willing to do in a tabletop game. In a video game timing is everything with casting time, cooldowns and good old resource management. Finally decide how magic will influence the balance of power and overall culture of your world.
If you decide to go with technology or a mix of technology and magic, many of the same considerations apply. You need to define the level of technology, how available it is and how it is used. Is this technology developed or found? What is the effect on the culture? What are the ethical and societal impacts? If you have both then rules will need to be in place for how they react together. Does magic hex technology, or is full on magitech available? Again make sure you have good records for consistency and narrative alignment. No matter which system is used, playtesting will be an integral part of the process to ensure a system that flows and is in balance.
Define the basics of your economy by establishing currency for all of the different factions. Decide what kind of economy you have, for example is it a feudal gold based system or a modern digital (credit-based) economy. This can get complex very fast so I recommend starting very general and getting more detailed as needed. Identify the key resources of your world, including minerals, metals, food, magic and technology. Decide how scarce your resources are and where each particular one comes from. Have a basic idea of the trade system including routes and import/export dynamics. In an MMO trade will most likely involve an auction house or player to player trades.
Decide how much you want the players to influence the economy. Players can have an effect through quests and missions for different traders and merchants. They can also affect the economy through the gathering of resources and crafting. Integrating the economy through gameplay will promote player engagement, especially in MMOs. Remember to take into account how events like war, natural disasters or even a large festival can affect supply and demand. These scenarios can create easy story hooks to get the players involved, like the standard “stop the bandits from stealing our stuff” story starter hook.
So, I had thought that I could put all of this world building advice into one post, but the more I write, the more stuff I think of. We’ll call this a good first post and I will add more in the future. In the meantime, remember to always run quality assurance and control on your world. Make sure to maintain balance. Magic and the economy can get out of control really fast when players discover all the loopholes you missed or through monumental and unexpected effort they crash your economy or become invincible. The idea is that your game stays fun for everybody.
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