August Article: World Building Pt. 2 - How the World Works

Welcome back to the second part of our World Building mini-series! This article assumes you read July 2019’s article on World Building: Setting the Stage, however, you will still be able to follow along with this article even if you haven’t read it because these aren’t necessarily meant to be an exact Step-by-Step process for everyone. It is my / our process, but that does not mean it has to be yours. These steps can be taken in any order.

How Does the World Work?

When Dirk or I go to build a world from the ground up, we do prefer to set up the themes of the world and establish a location and setting to portray those things, but those don’t really do justice to the freshly born world. The next thing we try to figure out is: how does the world work? There are some deeper questions that branch off of this singular question, namely: what sets this world apart from others?

The main key points that are filled in for the new world are the following:

These points are in no particular order, because they normally work hand-in-hand in establishing the history of the world as well as helping the players feel like the world is new and different from anything else they have experienced, even though you are probably going to steal mercilessly from writers infinitely more successful than you or I.

I am going to use some examples from current and historical events (namely politics and religion), as well as pop culture, to illustrate some of the points I wish to make. I don’t want you to feel like I am preaching or pushing my beliefs or anyone else’s on you.

Politics

I know, I know, I know… don’t talk politics, ESPECIALLY on the internet. I’m going to do it anyways. Politics and the way the governments of your world work are extremely important to helping define the unique reality you are trying to create and demonstrate to your players. They determine the ebb and flow of power and culture, as well as the drama and limitations of the present and future.

Little bit of a history lesson here, coming from someone who is definitely not a historian, professor, or academic, so please correct me if I’m wrong. There is an enormous amount of structures of government that would be useful for building your world. I am going to lay a few out here with a very mild description. If you are interested further in specific forms of government institutions and political processes, I do recommend you use this list as a launching point for your research. I am going to list ‘The Big 3.’

The main questions to be answered when creating the political and power structures of your world are:

In our own world, the United States of America likes to portray itself as a Democracy, in which the power rests with the people to elect their representatives, and it’s greatest opponents: Russia and China, as Oligarchies, in which the power of the nation rests in the hands of a ruling class of people. Political standpoints aside, let’s live in this fantasy world for a second. The USA stands diametrically opposed to their Russian and Chinese counterparts for a couple of reasons, many of which are ideological by nature. Both sides see each other differently, often with hostility, and play these differences out in the world with how they interact with smaller, less powerful nations.

When building the politics and governments of your world, I recommend leaving alignment out of it. Most countries in the modern world would fall in the Neutral categories of morality placement with very few sitting in the Good or Evil sides of things. The individuals running the government may be evil or good, but that does not mean the government as a whole reflects this.

The last question asked above is about “factions.” Every group of individuals is going to break into smaller faction, each subconsciously choosing their own sub leaders, whether formally or informally. I recommend coming up with a couple factions within the government that have their own motives. I like to break things up into three types of factions:

It is incredibly important to keep in mind, that every faction might have anywhere from a grain to a mountain of truth in their belief structure but choose to blame the other factions for the current system’s downfalls. Not to mention, each faction exists on a spectrum, with there being multiple sub-factions within each faction that each take on a different perspective.

Religion

Staying in the controversial realms of thought, let’s talk religion. Religion has shaped the entire fabric of the world and the progression of mankind since the dawn of time. It has lead directly into creating the basis of morality in entire hemispheres of the world as well as the power structures that rule them. Religion is very commonly the foundation on which laws and government are built.

Religion very much has a place in the ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons, even if you do not agree with its place in the world and the future thereof. Entire classes are built upon the idea of faith as an empowering force that grants power, whether from a deity, from nature, or from conviction and force of will.

When Dirk creates a world to be played in, he normally comes up with the power structures and governments that are in it, and then the religions that founded them. Some are atheist, some are monotheistic, some are pagans, he has a habit of interjecting a faction of fanatical cultists worshipping some kind of Cthulhu-Monster in every single one of his worlds. Here are some questions that he normally will ask himself to help shape the religions of his world:

The last question is very similar to one asked in the Politics section. It asks for opposition. It is a fact that opposition creates drama. I will come back to this later.

Religion and politics work hand in hand and function similarly. Many of the same factions will exist within each religion, each operating as their own ecosystem of thought and motives. In our own world, I would like to call out a major religion to use as an example: Christianity. Most Christians adhere to a similar basis of core values, but are split into countless factions of belief, some of which entirely divergent to the point where others of the same religion question whether or not they even belong in the same belief structure as their own. I’d imagine you could take a good look at any major religion and see similar situations

Magic

The way that magic works in the world is extremely important in determining the power structures and religions that shape it. This is simply because magic is the catch-all phrase attached to mystical powers that reshape the fabric of reality. This is the divine power granted from the gods, the fury of mother nature, the conviction of pious paladins, the ancestry of dragons, demons, and angels, deals with otherworldly beings, and a lifetime of obsessive studying and practice.

It would not be out of the question for the ruling class of an Oligarchy ruled nation to be a group of extremely powerful wizards and spellcasters. It’s not that hard to believe that the ruling figure of a democratic nation of warriors to be one that is vehemently opposed or outright hateful of magic to the point of doing everything they can to suppress it.

Some of the best ways to create more interesting worlds is to figure out how exactly the magic works. Is this the Wheel of Time setting where you are tampering with a literal and metaphorical fabric of reality, or is this the Mistborn series where much of the magic of the world is determined by metal and alloys. Personally, I love the idea of having multiple different sources of magic that interact and overlap with one another.

Here are a couple of recommendations on how to identify and implement magic in your world in an interesting way, yes… presented as questions… sue me.

Magic is an interesting part of a world because it literally is a power available to shape reality. As such, it can and should be made a centerpiece in politics as well as religion. An Oligarchy of Wizards that run a country where most forms of religion are banned is a very compelling and interesting portion of the world that would make it function very differently than our own.

Technology

Technology is very much a centerpiece in historical drama, or at least the tool used by one nation to dominate another. Technology is very similar to magic, in that it is embedded in the fabric of civilization and, by its nature, creates competition between nations and factions that often turn violent.

It is very commonly held that the ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons is set in the middle ages with swords, crossbows, and horses. My belief, however, is that technology in a world that contains magic will most likely find ways to combine the two. The level in which this is done is entirely up to you.

Now, magic and technology do not have to be joined together in harmony. It is entirely possible that magic and technology can be diametrically opposed as different sciences, much like religion and technology frequently come into conflict and opposition to each other. The question that is often asked by those pursuing one or the other is: where is the line where we say “we have gone too far”?

Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you identify what role technology plays in your world, hint: they are very similar to the questions to ask about magic.

Hopefully, these questions should prompt your writing juices to help you come up with some interesting ideas with how technology fits into your world.

The Planes of Existence

The final topic to discuss: The Planes of Existence. I wanted to reserve this topic for last because of how involved it can be. All of the other main concepts of world building: politics, religion, magic, and technology all inevitably feed directly into the question: how does the cosmos / planes of existence work?

In D&D, there is a fairly established set of rules on how the Planes work and interact with each other. Personally, I love it and don’t mess with it too much because of how amazingly well done it is. However, whenever there is another campaign setting released by Wizards of the Coast or another company, one of the new concepts brought up is almost always how the planes exist.

There are some patterns I have noticed in the different worlds and existences created by professional companies that I try to implement in my own work.

Yeah, those are a lot of places. Many worlds that I have seen will combine some of these planes into singular ones that are ruled by a deity. D&D has a habit of having a bunch of “weird” places like the Shadowfell and the Feywild. All are acceptable and are useful for creating an interesting world full of mystery.

Alternatively, you can follow the more Christian structure of doing things:

How about the Nine Realms of Norse Mythology?

I know Dirk is very fond of the Plane of Dreams and always finds a way to interject his Plane into every. single. game that he runs. He does so very well and is very proud of it, so I can’t really fault him.

Here are some questions I recommend asking yourself as you are creating the cosmos for your world, in addition to figuring out where the “places” are, as listed above:

Conclusion

My hope is that you have found something of use, in some part of this article, that can be used to help build your world to be a more interesting and inspiring place to bring joy and excitement to a game you and I love. I know that these things help me, and I am confident they can help you. As always, please feel free to join us on discord to talk about all things nerdy. If you like our work and want to support the Critical Game Mastery crew, then you are welcome to join us on Patreon to get a behind-the-scenes scoop on how we do things, as well as some deep cuts on what our plans are for the future and what to expect.

Thank you for reading,

Otamhs

Critical Game Mastery

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