A main stage of worldbuilding we’ve not previously discussed on #worldbuildingMonday is called Plot Mapping. Plot mapping is essentially the exercise is organizing your world’s complex web of history such that its lore is legible and usable throughout the rest of your worldbuilding. Some use pen & papers, others digital software. But the key aspect…
Today’s #worldbuildingMonday post is all about how to cleanse your stories from tropes during the worldbuilding stage. If you’ll consider the following Jurassic Park analogy: your original story, whose genesis is unique to you, is the dinosaur DNA. But during story development, you might find there are times when “strands” of it so to speak…
We hear “open world” all the time these days in video games & RPGs. For today’s #worldbuildingMonday post, we advise on to what degree your world should be open. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” answer of course. Should your story take place in an “open” but expansive city? A huge, multi-layered world? Etc. There are two main…
For today’s #worldbuildingMonday post, we’re discussing how to set the stage for your world in a pre-session. Many downstream issues can be avoided here with some simple expectation setting exercises. Get everyone to the table. Your goal in a pre-session should be to play a one-off story – perhaps a prequel – using the system…
We talked about character death a lot on last week’s #worldbuildingMondaypost. Today’s in some ways will be the opposite: taking the peaceful/diplomatic route to solve conflicts. RPGs have traditionally almost incentivized combat and violence by making those components fun & exciting. They add a wonderful thrill to many stories, justified violence or not. But worldbuilders…
Today’s #worldbuildingMonday post is all about the death of your player characters. When you play role playing game stories, death should always be on the table. Bite a dragon’s tail as a level 1 whelp? You’re probably gonna die. Spit in Al Capone’s face while surrounded by his heavily-armed gang? You’re probably gonna die. But…
Today’s #worldbuildingMonday post is all about battles. In worlds where there is a complex global political order, with many various factions/civilizations/nations/governments, and your players represent one (or even up to all!) of these parties, it can be an incredibly fun & engaging session to have a Risk/Total War-style game to slug it out in a…
Today’s #worldbuildingMonday post centers on the differences in genres when translating them to a role playing game. We all know that Mystery stories differ from Sci Fi which are different than Action Adventure, Spy, Drama, Comedy etc. Of course, they all share some common elements as well but, from a worldbuilding POV, having a strong…
Last week’s Monday worldbuilding post focused on choosing between an adapted and an original world for your RPG. We’ll continue that theme today by zooming into bringing your original world to life via a role playing game. For those folks who have stories come to them naturally, and who love playing RPGs in general, bringing…
We’re kicking off a new Monday series focused around StoryTogether’s POV on Worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is the art of constructing the universe players will live and breathe in as the story unfolds. People, places, plot, color, depth, perspective…all these critical components of a great story start and are molded at the worldbuilding stage. Today’s post centers…