JohnnFour
Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Demonplague Author
Borderland Explorer
Got this thoughtful email from RPT GM G.R. in response to a Musing in November titled "Build Your World With This Cool Map":
I think it strikes a nice balance between two schools of thought.
One is that you should never create more than you absolutely have to for the current adventure at hand. Leave blank every place on the map where the adventurers aren't going to go today - don't fill it in. Allow yourself room to create evil empires and forgotten ruins outside those borders at a later point, when it serves the story.
This is in contrast to my own usual worldbuilding compulsion to detail every inch of the planet in all its complexity beforehand - which I know hampers me in several ways.
Firstly, I end up spending way too much time designing stuff no one cares about, which takes away prep time I could spend on designing the next adventure.
Secondly, it locks me in and takes away choices I could make at a later date that might serve the story way better:
I know in my heart that it's better to leave the places the characters DON'T go to, and everything outside the scope of the current adventure as a blank canvas — to be painted in only when the time is ripe.
That lets me brainstorm longer, and lets those developing themes and mysteries and loose ends of my ongoing story percolate up through my subconscious, to age and develop complexity like a fine wine — for breaking out on just the right occasion.
I often can't help myself from overcreating my campaign worlds in advance in Tolkienesque fashion.
But these days, I try harder to restrain myself to just keeping lists of potential names, places, potential plot points and ideas — more modular details that can be inserted at any point, as needed, in a "plug and play" type fashion.
This cuts down on my prep time and gives me more options to hold some stuff in reserve for use at a later date, and it lets me adjust and improve or revise those details on the fly before I've told the players and fixed the particulars permanently.
I responded back to G.R. with these thoughts:
Hi G,
If you have the time and energy, I would encourage your love for creating worlds. Figure out a way to harness that into a GMing style that serves your campaigns and adventures.
Too often GMs struggle to do any prep. Sometimes, sadly, it's because they think they have to prep a certain way and that way does not inspire them.
I agree about leaving blank areas on the map both literally and figuratively.
However, I've seen train wrecks of campaigns because everything is extemporaneous.
If anything, world building does not paint you into corners. It instead sheds the light of discovery into your imagination as puzzle pieces you have at your beck and call for adventure.
The best games offer you multiple ways to create strategies, tactics, and solutions.
When you say, "Damn! I set the ancient ruins hundreds of miles away from the home base where the action is going down" I am inclined to think about how to drop hooks about that place and anticipate the possibilities of a dangerous journey and really cool adventure in a remote and wondrous locale.
Anywho, do what feels right for you and keeps you enthused about GMing.
Cheers,
Johnn
I think it strikes a nice balance between two schools of thought.
One is that you should never create more than you absolutely have to for the current adventure at hand. Leave blank every place on the map where the adventurers aren't going to go today - don't fill it in. Allow yourself room to create evil empires and forgotten ruins outside those borders at a later point, when it serves the story.
This is in contrast to my own usual worldbuilding compulsion to detail every inch of the planet in all its complexity beforehand - which I know hampers me in several ways.
Firstly, I end up spending way too much time designing stuff no one cares about, which takes away prep time I could spend on designing the next adventure.
Secondly, it locks me in and takes away choices I could make at a later date that might serve the story way better:
- Damn! I set the ancient ruins hundreds of miles away from the home base where the action is going down.
- Damn! I put the evil empire in the wrong place!
- Damn! I wrote that monster a backstory, gave him a complex psychology, even a family tree - and a plausible reason for being in that room of the dungeon, But the players just ran in and killed him in like, 30 seconds flat, without trying to talk to him.
I know in my heart that it's better to leave the places the characters DON'T go to, and everything outside the scope of the current adventure as a blank canvas — to be painted in only when the time is ripe.
That lets me brainstorm longer, and lets those developing themes and mysteries and loose ends of my ongoing story percolate up through my subconscious, to age and develop complexity like a fine wine — for breaking out on just the right occasion.
I often can't help myself from overcreating my campaign worlds in advance in Tolkienesque fashion.
But these days, I try harder to restrain myself to just keeping lists of potential names, places, potential plot points and ideas — more modular details that can be inserted at any point, as needed, in a "plug and play" type fashion.
This cuts down on my prep time and gives me more options to hold some stuff in reserve for use at a later date, and it lets me adjust and improve or revise those details on the fly before I've told the players and fixed the particulars permanently.
I responded back to G.R. with these thoughts:
Hi G,
If you have the time and energy, I would encourage your love for creating worlds. Figure out a way to harness that into a GMing style that serves your campaigns and adventures.
Too often GMs struggle to do any prep. Sometimes, sadly, it's because they think they have to prep a certain way and that way does not inspire them.
I agree about leaving blank areas on the map both literally and figuratively.
However, I've seen train wrecks of campaigns because everything is extemporaneous.
If anything, world building does not paint you into corners. It instead sheds the light of discovery into your imagination as puzzle pieces you have at your beck and call for adventure.
The best games offer you multiple ways to create strategies, tactics, and solutions.
When you say, "Damn! I set the ancient ruins hundreds of miles away from the home base where the action is going down" I am inclined to think about how to drop hooks about that place and anticipate the possibilities of a dangerous journey and really cool adventure in a remote and wondrous locale.
Anywho, do what feels right for you and keeps you enthused about GMing.
Cheers,
Johnn