Welcome back to our series on World Building. Check out part 1 if you missed it as that has information relevant to part 2. So now we are on Day 2 of our world building, but before we go too far let's recap Day 1.
Day 1 was about getting started and picking a priority for the world; what would the campaign and world be about? We chose Style, aiming for a feel marrying the 13th Warrior and The Wild Bunch. After choosing our priority, we focused on the scope of the game. Keeping with our influences, we decided to keep things small and intimate. So a basic small kingdom and town, where some interesting people live, but no dense cosmology. Finally we wrote an opening for the campaign that the GM will read to the players.
Now on to Day 2...
With priorities and scope set, with an idea of how the game will kick off, now you can focus on some other important questions. All of which will be answered / informed by the choices on Day 1.
4. Do Others Exist? How Common are They?
While it may seem we are focusing on fantasy world building, that really is not the case. These questions work well for any genre or sub genre. Even LARP worlds. The question of others is a broad one as it could mean any number of things, from gods to aliens to dragons to ghosts. Obviously a lot depends on the setting and genre you picked. In fact, the question of others may very well finalize those decisions. 'Others' often play an important role in the game, if nothing else then adding a firm backdrop to work against. Never forget your Day 1 choices though: how will priority and scope affect the 'Others' question?
Our priority is Style, so how will others fit into that? A temple to the Hill Gods is mentioned so we could choose to have some kind of divine presence. For now "The Hill Gods" will suffice. To offset them we can note down Bog Lords, demi-gods that live in the swamps to the east. They won't play a major role right away, however. Should we have non-humans? I think we can have near humans, beast men who also live in the swamps or other fetid areas. I have always liked Fomorians as a name and we can put it in here. Again though, they won't be making show up yet, in keeping with our narrow scope.
Of course this means humans will carry the burden of protagonist and antagonist in the world. At least in this story.
5. Is there a singular evil?
A corollary to the question of Others: Is one of those Others a total dick? Is there a Venger or Sauron in the fold? Is there one person or tightly related group that provides some kind of high level world ending antagonism? It does not have to be just one person, it can be a group or a group lead by a powerful bad guy (or gal, a female world villain is badly underused). The point is they are on or mostly on the same page.
In our case I am going to say no. The forces of civilization and history will give rise to conflict, not some singular devil or group of devils. That is not to say someone or something could not rise later on, but for now let's just keep it tight and rely on humanity's bad choices for conflict.
6. Does the World Itself Play an Important role?
Is there a giant volcano? Is there something about the world that makes it part of the conflict even if the world itself is not alive? Weather or resources or the length of seasons can cause all sorts of trouble for players. For our world, I am going to choose a Long Summer. Droughts and wild chaotic storms are the norm, often in the same year. Cool temperatures are a rare thing, coming only once every fifteen or eighteen years. There are two growing seasons and harvests, Spring Harvest and Autumn Harvest. Hardy crops are planted mid summer. This will offer the world a lived in feel and a continual low level conflict that affects life. After all, if the swamps are drying up the Fomorians will go looking for water and the Bog Lords may seek to inundate new lands.
So to sum up today, we asked three questions about our world:
Are there others? Yes, but minor ones. Some divine and some near human.
Is there a single bad other? Nope, society will make its own conflicts.
Does the world offer conflict? Yes, the Long Summer is upon the world with no end in sight.
A Note on Genre And System
If these are not a priority, at what point should you choose? A lot depends on your answers to the other questions but I think we will finally answer that on Day 3. So stay tuned...
