How to World-Build

So You Want to Be A Dungeon Master? Part II:

How to World-Build, or Create Your Own Reality

Sorta like this guy right here! But hopefully, also sorta not.

I want to start this post by making the following assertion: What I'm about to share is not definitive, and I'll never make that claim. It won't work for everyone, but I'm hopeful that it can possibly be a tool or offer some insight to those who are seeking such. All of that is to say that you should do what works for you.

Okay, so! How do I world-build? Well, honestly, it's usually a bit of a slog for me. I do as much of it as I can before the first session so that I'm tweaking as we go rather than creating. I very much come at it from the angle of my profession. As a theatre director, the vast majority of my work is done before the first rehearsal. A lot of it is done before I even hold my auditions, because I need to know the script well enough to cast the show appropriately. By the time I hit the first rehearsal of a play, I've been through the script in detail from start to finish at least 30 times. I've done a lot of spot-checking in addition to that, as well as research into the production history of the show itself. I've also researched the subject matter of the play, as well as looked up every reference made so I can connect it all back to the show. At the end of the process, I've got a pretty thick binder of information, but I've also been through it all so thoroughly that most of it sits in my head.

If that sounds tedious to you, I can promise that it absolutely can be. However, I rarely have to reference that big binder because the majority of the information is locked into my head for the rehearsal process. And that allows me to answer questions quickly and easily as we go through rehearsals. I like to apply all of that to storytelling, because it allows me to roll with the punches much more easily than if I'm creating as we go. To that end, getting back to role-playing, I walk into the first session with a binder full of information.

1. Decide how you want your game to feel. What's the mood like? Write a sentence or two, and then expound on it. The stronger your handle on the mood of your game, the more consistently you will be able to elicit that mood while you're running the game.
2. Choose/create some key locations with which the characters are either familiar or will come into regular contact. Write out some details about these places (who runs them, a couple of regulars the players can find there, what the places look like and how they feel, etc.).
3. Write up anywhere from 20-30 characters, complete with names, appearances, a couple of specific details about each. They don't necessarily need to be fully fleshed out; just fleshed out enough that as situations arise in-game and the characters develop relationships in-game, you can build on the framework you've created for each character. Here's the thing that's always true about player characters (PCs) when it comes to non-player characters (NPCs):
   
   Knowing this, if you only ever flesh out the characters you think are important, you're going to be caught on your back foot when the PCs do what we see in this brilliant meme above. It can become frustrating, and it might lead to one of two undesirable outcomes: storytellers end up railroading their players so their hard work and prep on their NPCs does not go unappreciated and unused, or the storyteller is constantly trying to riff in response to the PCs and the experience feels a little disjointed or two dimensional. If you have a host of NPCs at your command, all of whom have at least a framework without a ton of specifics, you're more flexible. You have a bunch of options at your disposal so they can be deployed quickly and effortlessly, and you also haven't spent an hour writing a backstory for an NPC that the players deftly ignore.
4. I'm big on writing up plot points, and I plot out the narrative in acts and scenes. The acts are usually defined by one "super-objective," which is pursued by the characters through a variety of scenes. For instance, an act may be defined as "The characters must escape from the city in the wake of it being sacked." The scene breakdown for such an act might appear as follows: I - The characters discover a grate that leads to a sewer, II - The characters must get past the blind monsters in the sewer that will happily devour them, III - The characters must escape the bands of marauders that are still entering the city they sacked. By breaking everything down into units this way, the story feels more organized to me, and like less of a slog. I think that often translates into how the players feel while they're playing. Additionally, we want players to get that little hit of dopamine when they accomplish something. If the game just goes on and on (you know: like life), then it's easy to lose track of accomplishments while slogging through. Also, plotting out your stories like this will help determine how to use the locations you've already created, as well as tell you which ones you'll need to leverage for each scene/act.
5. And finally, a tool I learned only recently that I really, really like: ask each player to describe one thing about the place in which they are whenever they arrive. I don't think it works for every location, necessarily, but I really appreciate taking the opportunity to encourage the players to help you world-build. It offers so many benefits! It takes a little bit of pressure off the storyteller to fully complete the three-dimensional world because you're creating it alongside your players. Little moments like these also encourage more investment and submersion in the world from your players because they're helping to tell the story with you. It also gives you details you may not have otherwise considered; these are details that may or may not become foundational to the story you're telling, but the possibility exists, and choices for the storyteller are always good.

Again, this isn't a definitive guide or anything, and for many, it may feel like overkill. Personally, though, I really like this approach; it works for me. I'm really invested in the game before we ever get started, but I'm also more invested in the world as opposed to specifically being invested only in my own story. It helps me stay flexible and remember that I'm supposed to be forging a story alongside my players instead of them just being guest characters in a story that's already pre-determined. In other words, this approach allows me to have less ego while storytelling. That flexibility I mentioned helps me think on my feet when the PCs throw me a curveball and do the unexpected so I'm not either making everything up on the fly (which can sometimes feel a little chaotic, unfocused, and cheap) or taking ten minute breaks for every single unexpected decision so I can reorganize my story. And finally, as the world expands and I incorporate all of that into my binder, I really feel as though I'm creating future stories in that same world rather than re-creating the world each time we reach a new story arc. Basically, this approach generally guarantees that I'm doing more work up front so it pays dividends and makes my job easier later.