Does Your Game World Have Holiday Traditions?

 What are the holiday traditions of your game world? Is there one for Winter? Have you considered it?

Holiday traditions aren't really necessary for running a game. You could run a game for years and never once need to set things during a holiday. However, holidays are a big part of cultures. How holidays are celebrated are also a big part. So if you're building a world it can be a good idea to include that - even if just a few here and there - to help sell the world and setting.

Some things to keep in mind.

Hatred vs. Empathy

 I recently finished The Last of Us 2. I found the game to be a lot better than the Last of Us 1, and the story was a surprisingly mature dissection of hatred and othering. At least, that is what I took from it. You can agree or disagree, but to me The Last of Us 2 through both Abby and Ellie (the two main characters) shows us how hatred can take over our lives, cost us all the things we once held sacred, and how - ultimately - empathy is the solution to hate, but also very frequently one of the first victims of hatred. 

Do Mono-Cultured Races Ever Make Sense?

 One of the chief complaints WotC has received about Dungeons & Dragons, especially in recent years, is the monocultural display of races the system gives. Choosing your race in 5e gives you a number of benefits. Some of those benefits are clearly bloodline/genetic related things - like the elves lacking the need to sleep or Dwarves being a short/stout build that is resilient against poisons. Other things though, are very much cultural aspects - such as weapon, tool, skill, and language training.

Exploration Is Not Survival. Survival Mechanics Are Not Exploration Mechanics

If you've read this blog enough, you've seen me bemoan the fact that while D&D 5e claims to have 3 pillars of play, it really only supports one of those pillars - combat - with in depth mechanics. In counter to this argument I've seen several people point out that the DMG does in fact have Exploration mechanics. It is true that in the DMG there are mechanics for being in the wilderness, and there is some information there that is useful for exploration, but the mechanical systems that are present are not exploration mechanics. They are survival mechanics.

I won't sit here and tell you that survival mechanics have no place in an exploration pillar. They very much do. However, exploration and survival are not the same thing, even if they often come up linked arm in arm. At least, in High Fantasy. All it really takes it a look to other genres to see the difference.

The Levers of Power - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

As a disclaimer, this post will not relate anything to the book, or movie, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" as I have not consumed either in any format. I want to, but so far I have not.

As a second disclaimer, like so many of my GM thoughts, this one was inspired by the content of another creator. And this one is another of Matt Colville's "Politics" videos. If you haven't watched the video, you can find it here. However, the video is not necessary for what I want to talk about - though they are related.

Disclaimers done, let's begin.

Chris Sims - World Building Imaginary People

If you're unaware, there is a conversation going on right now in the D&D/Pathfinder space about bio-essential evil. To sum it up, after years and decades of having entire races be evil because that is just the way the race is, Dungeons and Dragons made an official announcement saying that the views of race in Eberron and the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount is more in line with their current view of race. That races like Orcs and Drow deserve to be as culturally nuanced and varied as any other race - especially playable ones - and that they would be making changes in that line for the future.

This sparked a huge conversation with many old guards - and some less than savory people - saying this is a problem because smiting evil, and having clear delineated lines of good and evil, is essential to D&D and that this would ruin the fun. It is not an argument that I particularly truck with. I, in fact, am firmly on the other side. You can have blatant, clear, evil without making entire races of sentient creatures with free will and the ability to make their own choices evil because "that is just how all of them are" with a few notable characters like Drizzt who are "one of the good ones," a "credit to their race," or - what they really mean - the exception that proves the rule (i.e. Except for Drizzt, all Drow are evil.)

However, you don't have to take my word for it. Chris Sims has an article up, expanding on a twitter thread and facebook post where he talks about how having Evil not be a trait of race actually costs us nothing when it comes to clear, evil people we can fight while giving us more interesting and better villains.

The beginning of his argument is thus, and I'll let you read the post for the rest. Click the quote to go to the article:

In a fantasy game, we needn’t treat a whole strain of people as evil any more we need to treat every human as evil. Every elf. Every dwarf. Every halfling. The belief that we do for escapist fun, heroics, or moral lessons is a misguided failure of imagination at best.

Who Can Say No To Who?

In a friend's game recently he made a point while presenting a group of people that they had servants, not slaves. After the session we were discussing the game, and he asked if there was anything he could have done better in presenting the people the PCs met. We talked a bit about his goals, and it sounded like his hope was to present how these people operated quickly so we could get a sense of how they were similar to what we expected, but also different from other groups with a similar background (incredible amounts of wealth, fashion, the 'elite' of society as it were.)

For this I honed in on the servants. Part of this is my own character has a background of being a slave. They know what it is like. Also, from their background, they will notice if servant is just a slightly better compensated slave or actually deemed a full on person with rights, responsibilities, and treated as such. I mentioned this, that seeing more of how the servants were servants would be a very efficient way to show the character of the people we were working with.

Gods & Culture

I had a long conversation with a friend the other day about worldbuilding, the cultures for his world, and the gods. During the conversation I was in the somewhat awkward position of being asked how I approached my own gods/world building and how it worked with the cultures of the world. I say awkward as while I've wrote this blog for 10 years now, I never think of myself as an authority or source someone would go to for information on the bigger tools of GMing and writing. I'm an enthusiast, not a master. Still, the conversation had some points that may be helpful on the larger scale. They helped me at the very least.

Gods Reflect Their Cultures, And Vice Versa
The first thing to remember when making gods and cultures for a fantasy universe is that gods and cultures reflect each other. A culture big on fighting and war will have a lot of warrior gods - look at the original Shinto gods of Japan where even the god of love has warrior  aspects to them, or the Irish and Norse gods for more western examples.

When world building this means you can approach two ways: you can make some gods, and then figure out what culture would come from a place with those gods active in it. OR, you can make a culture and then figure out what types of gods would stem from that culture, or be accepted and nourished by that culture.

Gods Answer Questions
Gods, Religion, and Science all stem from a place of the same desire for humanity. We want to know how to explain things we can't explain. Scientifically I can tell you that a river forms from erosion of water as it  carves through the earth and makes a path for itself through the land. An older river is straighter because water wants to go one way, and over time it will get that wish. A young river has curves as parts of the earth that are harder to carve through will make it easier to go around all the while being worn down by the river.

To a society without  science - or one with active gods - this is where the spirit world and gods take over. Someone made the river. Someone formed it. Someone made that crater. There are stories there. And maybe an individual river wasn't made by a god, but instead by a hero. This river came when the hero dug an irrigation ditch for some grand king, and that is why the land is so fertile and the river comes through in such a  great defensive posture for the city by it.

The Events of History Modify Culture
If it hasn't been clear to you just from shifts in global cultures from a few months of Covid19 pandemic, the events of history will modify cultures. This is how you get from the base culture - what the gods made, or what made the gods - to what you present in your world/game/work.

Wars will slam cultures together, and as they slam together bits of each other will break off and spread through the other. People near borders will see a blending and merging of their opposed cultures as their proximity to each other enables interaction and over time makes them more alike to each other than they are to the people of their kingdom that live 50 or more miles away.

The Details Of Stories Can be Contradictory Depending On Region And View
When it comes to gods and the stories we tell about them, there really is no one set way of doing it. Even modern Christianity has dozens if not hundreds of variants of the bible and the stories in them. And in a fantasy world, traveling 50 miles (or less!) can change the story of what happened with a god depending on how it impacted those people.

This happened in the real world as well. In a Greek Mythology course I took, the teacher pointed out that it was common for researchers to find similar but different stories of gods and heroes around certain exploits all the time. Neither was "right" or "wrong" but just how the story went there.

One of the examples that always stood out the most to me is the story of Actaeon and Artemis. Actaeon was a hunter and a devotee of Artemis. One day he came upon her and her handmaidens bathing. In one version of the story Actaeon immediately backs away and apologizes for his slight. In another version of the story, Actaeon moves in on Artemis and her hand maidens (all of whom are sworn to be virgins) and attempts to force himself on them. In both versions the response from Artemis is to turn Actaeon into a stag and have him ripped to pieces by his own hounds.

So which one of those versions is true? Did Actaeon try to force himself on a goddess and her maidens while they bathed? Or did he back away and apologize? Which version of the story you heard depended on where you heard it and where you grew up. And the same can be true for gods all over. Maybe there is a true event, but the story will still go around and in that you can have different aspects of your god.

How Strong Are The PCs? How Rare Is That Strength Level?

One of the good things I've found to keep in mind when roleplaying NPCs, and when designing my worlds - or setting my expectations for worlds - for games is the answer to the two topic questions. Just how strong are the PCs compared to your random, normal person? What does that look like as the PCs progress mechanically through the system and gain levels/xp/power - or however your system of choice does progression. Just as important as that first question though is how rare that power level actually is in the world.

Storytelling in Campaigns

There are more ways to tell stories in RPGs then just in the direct path of an adventure. Like with videogames, almost everything players interact with can help inform them to more about the world, the NPCs, and even yes the main story or stories you're trying to tell. Today I want to touch briefly on ways to get these small bits of stories across.

Embracing The Fantastical

One of the places where I feel my worlds are lacking, particularly for high fantasy games such as Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinders, is on embracing the fantastical. I've mentioned before that magic is difficult for me. Something about it just doesn't stick in my head, and so I don't pay attention to it or factor it in as much as I should when doing worlds or running games. Which is a major weakpoint for a game world where magic is common enough that the PCs can be expecting to fight magical creatures and people capable of casting magical spells on a regular basis.

Thinking about it practically, embracing the fantastical in a world is a thought exercise. There are a couple questions to think about, and the answers you come up with are ways that the world is likely being effected by that thing. One thing to consider is to ask the questions of the whole group if you have some common themes, or the internet if you go to a forum, because people will apply their answers in different ways - just like the people in your world would.

Tracking Areas of Play

Of late I've been looking for a way to better track what is going on in various areas in my games, and where plot threads the PCs have started are left sitting when they leave the area. After talking to a couple friends one pointed out that spreadsheets are a solid answer for this. I felt like an idiot for a moment, but it really is a good idea. So I set up a simple sheet to use to help me track things for villages, cities, and other areas in my game. Today I want to talk about that.

NPCs First
When building an area I start with the people in the area. I don't need a lot of information, but I do go for the following things: Job, Name, Gender, Race, Relative Age, and Family.

Job comes first because it tells me about the NPC but also tells me about the area. When building a village having a list of the jobs in the area tells you what resources the PCs can call on while there. For larger settlements you don't need to do everyone, but a general list of some stand out NPCs could be a good idea. For Fantasy games you can google "medieval jobs" to find several sites with listings for jobs. Modern games have, well, the real world. Sci Fi will depend on the world you're doing.

Name, gender, race, and relative age are just the physical details for the character. By relative age I mean are they very young, young, adult, middle ages, very old, and so forth. I don't need specific years of age, but a general idea of youthfulness or more aged is a good idea.

Family I only do lightly. In my own games I tend to use a random generator or die roll to determine sexuality (The Kinsey Scale goes from 0-6 with an 8th option for Ace which means a D8 works great here.) Than I determine if the person is married or not, and how many dependents they have. Those don't always get named, but I do list them. Normally this cell will just be a vertical list with like "partner (m/f), son, son, daughter) for the family. If I think the PCs will interact with the family (like for an innkeeper's family) I'll name them and age them, otherwise I can gloss over with something like "the blacksmith's son..."

Locations of Note
Next I make a page for locations of note where I make an entry for any special or noteworthy locations. I'll normally at least leave myself quick notes for the local inn (always a common place people go) but also for any other landmarks. Are there any special statues? Peculiar landmarks? Historical sites? Something useful but not listed as an NPCs job?

With each location I give it a name, assign a key NPC to it (if applicable), and leave room for a description and notes as to why it is special.

I like key locations because you don't need to describe a whole town to communicate the town. But if you give a couple of key identifiers you can make a village stand out. The players don't have to remember which village out of a dozen villages they've passed through by name and time. They can associate things with it like "the village with the giant raven statue" or "the one with the underwater temple from the flood."

Story Lines and Threads
Finally I make a tab for storylines and quests in the area. These aren't all adventures or encounters. Some are just stories going on in the area that the PCs might run into. Ideas I can use for background information, or to prod things along somewhere or otherwise give seeds for ideas.

Each story line gets a name, key npcs, secondary npcs, and then notes for the setup. In particular I still like L5R's "Challenge/Focus/Strike" method for quickly setting up adventurer seeds so I use that - and will break it down in another post. But you can use whatever means you like for your setup.

A notes section also lets me track how far along the PCs are with a thread. That way if they leave and come back I can quickly see what they left dangling - even if it has been months - and figure out what has happened in their absence with that.

Limited Use So Far
So far I've only had limited use with this, but I like it. It is compiling several pages of notes - files on google docs - into one file that I can navigate while running the game to get my information. Less tab swapping makes that better all around. It also gives a singular place to go and update when the PCs do stuff instead of having to update notes all over to take care of it.

I am, however, always looking for better and easier ways to track notes for games. Is there anything you'd add to this? Take away? Or do you have a completely different method all together?

Quick Building a Kingdom

I'm a big fan of using maps, particularly world maps, as an early part of preparing a world for an RPG. If the game comes with a pre-packed setting then it has likely already done all the hard work for you on world building. All you have to do is learn it. However, when custom building a world you have a lot of options on how to approach things. My preference is to do a broad overview so I have a sense of the whole play area, and then to hyper focus on a small section of that world where the game will be starting.

A Tool For Consistent Place Names Across An Area

((I apologize for the late post. I legit thought it was Sunday not Monday due to the MLK holiday. Whoops!))

There are a lot of cool world building tools out there. Between the RPG and writing communities almost every aspect of world building is well covered. Which is how I found this video from "Hello Future Me" on how to name places in your world.

In the video he talks about the three types of names a place will get: named after geographical features, named after a historical event, or named after a person or thing.

Making An Area Primer

When it comes to setting up a new area for a game, I find writing a primer to be particularly helpful. A primer is a brief overview of important topics for the area that can be shared with the players, but is mostly for myself. Because it is shared with players I keep this to publicly known information, or information that is easy to find out. The idea then is something you can reference to make sure you are keeping to your original idea for the area, and that can also intrigue and hint at potential stories for the area.

Helping a PC Feel Bad Ass

I'm going to start this off with a shameless plug. You want your players to feel Badass then you really want to be playing Philgamer's BADASS RPG. He's revising and revamping it for 2019/2020, but it is a game all about feeling Badass and has good insight into how to make badass moments happen as a player or GM.

That being said, let's talk about how you as the GM can help your players to feel like bad asses in your game.

Let's Make A Pantheon!

When it comes to World Building, especially for Fantasy Worlds, it is a good idea to have a pantheon of gods. A pantheon of gods informs so much about the world that I'd even argue it is not the worst place to start. Gods are key in the creation mythos for the world - how the people believe their world started. Gods are representative of the cultures they reign over. Gods are the explanation the people have for natural phenomenon and answer key questions from "why do we die?" to "what happens after we die?" along with less philosophically deep things such as why do all the plants die and the world gets covered in snow for a chunk of the year?

And in Fantasy universes where the gods are often not only real but interacting with the world, they are the ones who will be moving and shaking the foundations of the setting to make things happen. They will battle each other. Ally with each other. Choose heroes and move them across the board. For games like D&D and Pathfinder they will even teach powerful magics and be the power behind the spells and abilities of certain classes.

But how do you make a pantheon?

Worldbuilding: Where Should Your Towns Be?

I found this video while doing some research on some of the more basic things about World Building. In specific I was looking for how far apart towns should be under normal conditions. The answer was surprisingly short - about 10 miles. The video gives more specifics on it.

Building A World From The Ground Up

The other day I had an idea for a world for a potential future campaign. It was focused on my semi-fascination with sunken cities, ships, castles, etc as a location for adventures in movies, comics, videogames, RPGs, and everything else. The idea became persistent to the point it wouldn't let me think about other stuff. And so last night I set out to make the world. Only I had one problem: I know basically nothing about geology, and most of my friends know - especially by comparison - quite a bit. It happens a lot where aspects of maps irk them just because it goes against expectations.

Now I'm a big fan of fantasy being able to break rules from how the real world works. After all, in a Fantasy universe gods, magic, and monsters are all provably real. But it is also nice to have a grounding in at least the basic aspects of our world. If nothing else it pre-emptively solves problems. You don't need to figure out where is dry - and why it is dry - when you know how the winds generally travel in your world. And so working with my friends over the course of about two hours we made the following world, and I figure I will present it step by step so you can see how it went.

Idioms and Sayings

One of the fun nuances of the world is that different regions often have different sayings depending on their culture or history. These little sayings and phrases give insight into the type of people that live there, and in some cases can do a lot to both ground someone in the culture of what is going on in that area, and express differences between two places.